Possessive Noun Phrases

In this chapter, we are going to cover possessive noun phrases that let you say things like, "Your sister", "My arm" or "That's ours". We've already seen a few of them in earlier chapters, but now I'm going to walk you through the details.

Specifically, I'm gonna go over:

• Inalienable possession
• Alienable possession
• The possessive pronoun, ta

Possessive noun phrases

In Bambara, and Manding in general, possessive noun phrases—sentences like "my leg" and "your car"—can be divided into two categories: inalienable and alienable.

The distinction hinges on whether the thing that is possessed (that is, "my leg" or "your car") is considered as something that inherently belongs to the possessor ("me" or "you") or whether it's a transient relationship.

In English, we don't have any special way of marking this dynamic. As such, the best way to understand the distinction is to jump into it!

Inalienable possession

You've definitely already encountered inalienable possessives in the course of greetings. For instance, you may have heard something like I muso dun? ('And your wife?') or I cɛ dun? ('And your husband?'). If we remove the noun phrase from its sentence, we'd have something like:

I muso
you + wife

'Your wife'

In this and other inalienable possessive noun phrases, we simply place one noun (the possessor) before another noun (the person or thing that is possessed). For example:

N kun
I + head

'My head'

The same principle applies if we use a person's name:

Adama bolo
Adama + hand

'Adama's hand'

Notice how there's no need to change the form of either one of the nouns like in English (I –> my; Adama –> Adama's).

These examples fill the two most prominent categories of nouns that are considered inalienable:

• body parts
• family relationships

There are other words for which we use inalienable possessive constructions, but there isn't always a hard and fast rule. You'll need to learn them on your own by listening, reading and speaking with people!

Alienable

If a noun isn't inalienable then it's alienable. In this case, possessive phrases follow the same structure, but with one additional word: ka.

For instance:

An ka du
We + POSS + courtyard

'Our courtyard'

The word ka in itself then doesn't refer to anything specific; instead it serves as a grammatical means of marking the relationship of possession as one of "alienability" or transience. I've marked it as "POSS" in the example above.

Just like with inalienables, this same structure is also used with proper names:

Aminata ka wari
Aminata + POSS + money

Aminata's money

(NOTE: Even if it is spelled and pronounced the same, this ka is completely distinct from that which you may have heard in qualitative verb constructions like Kini ka di ['Rice is tasty'].)

Alienable constructions are generally used for anything that one can "own" or possess, but also get rid of or change such as a piece of clothing, a new bicycle or a house, for instance.

Once again though, you'll definitely notice that usage may vary a bit for some people and places. Don't be surprised if you hear someone say something like N ka muso ('My wife')—it may be a regional quirk or it may be a subtle comment on someone's relationship!

Possessive Pronoun Phrases

Now that we know how to form possessive noun phrases, we can easily shorten them by using their "pronominal" form. (Like in English, if someone asked "Is this your book?" and you responded, "Yes, it's mine").

Let's imagine an exchange in Bambara. You and your friend are both studying Bambara and you jealously guard your individual copies of a textbook. Your friend sees one on your desk and asks:

– I ka kitabu don?
– 'Is this your book?'

And you respond:

– Ɔwɔ, n ta don!
– Yes, it's mine!''

The possessive pronoun therefore in Bambara is ta and it replaces both the possessed noun and (if it is there) the possessive marker ka.

So in the case of an inalienable construction, things would change like this:

N den → N ta
'My child' –> 'Mine'

And in the case of an alienable construction, they would change like this:

Musa ka nɛgɛso → Musa ta
'Musa's bike' –> 'Musa's'

Such possessive pronominal noun phrases can of course be used in proper sentences like this about you and your friend fighting over a textbook as outlined above.

Summary

Ayiwa! Here's what we covered:

• Possessive noun phrases are alienable or inalienable

• Inalienable possessives are formed as follows:

POSSESSOR + POSSESSED THING

They generally, but exclusively are used for:

• family members
• body parts

• Alienable possessives are formed as follows:

POSSESSOR + ka + POSSESSED THING

They are generally used for anything that isn't a family member or body part, but there are exceptions that you just need to learn by heart.

• The possessive pronoun ta is used to express the equivalent of "mine", "yours", "hers" and things like "Adama's" or "Sara's" in English.