Telefɔni

The instrumental suffix -lan

In the video, we heard the following:

Téléphone ye baarakɛnan ye

"A telephone is a tool"

Lit. "A telephone is a work-do-er"

This is an example of the instrumental suffix -lan (which can also take the form -nan as it does in our example; normally this happens when the suffix attaches to word that was nasalized or whose last consonant was a nasal, but there is some free variation depending on the person and region).

It allows you to create or "derive" an instrumental noun from a verb or a verbal construction.

The verbal construction in our example for instance is ka baara kɛ "to do work". By adding -lan to it, we create a noun baarakɛlan that can be contextually be translated as "tool" (that is, "the thing that does work").

Some common examples of this suffix in use would be words like the following:

sigilan

"chair; seat"

Lit. "sit-er"

(NOTE: English does not have a single suffix that fills this role. The suffix "-er" occasionally does so in words like "mixer" [a thing for mixing stuff], but "-er" also functions as agentive suffix "talker" [a person that talks a lot].)

Or:

dalan

"bed"

Lit. "lay.down-er"

(NOTE: This word is often pronounced [dlan] despite its etymology.)

There are other ones that are common, but in general, its a "productive" suffix. This means that it can fruitfully be used on basically any verb to make new words.

Postverbal Adverbs

In the video, we heard the following:

À nafa ka bon ka tɛmɛ kojugu!

"It is way super useful!"

Roughly "Its benefit is big way excessively!"

Let's simplify the sentence a bit:

À nafa ka bon kojugu!

"Its benefit is excessively large!"

In this sentence, we have a good example of an adverb, which you have surely seen before: kojugu.

Let's take this occurrence as an opportunity to step back and look at adverbs in a more wholistic way.

More specifically, let's look at postverbal adverbs (sometimes simply called "adverbs" for simplicity's sake), which are typical and which are you already familiar with to some degree.

(Later down the road, you will learn about the less frequent preverbal adverbs.)

With ko-

The easiest postverbal adverbs to recognize start with ko- (Lit. "affair"):

• kosɛbɛ = seriously (Lit. "affair-serious")

  This word is often used in a way that is similar to "really" in English in sentences. For instance, À ka ɲi kosɛbɛ "It's really good".

• kojugu = excessively (Lit. "affair-mean") This word often lines up with "too" or "too much" in English; for instance, À ka timi kojugu "It is too sweet". But its meaning is also inverted from something that is excessive to just something that is intensified; for instance, O ka ɲi kojugu "That's so good!"

• koɲuman = well (Lit. "affair-good")

  This word lines up with "well" or "properly" in English. It is used less frequently than the other two, but it often lines up well with the idea of "right" or "correctly" in phrases like À fɔ koɲuman! "Say it right!"

• kokura = again (Lit. "affair-new")

  This one is relatively straightforward. It basically means "again" or "once again" depending on the context. Like this: À ye kitabu minɛ kokura "He grabbed the book once again".

Adverbial phrases

In some cases there are turns of phrase that act like adverbs. For instance:

• fo ka tɛmɛ = Lit. "until to pass"

  This one shows up in the video:

  … à nafa kɔni ka bon ne ma fo ka tɛmɛ.

  Lit. "… its benefit in any case is big for me until passing"

  "Its usefulness is exceedingly huge for me"

  (NOTE: Interestingly, there is an archaic use of "passing" to mean "to a surpassing degree", which lines up with this usage of fo ka tɛmɛ and ka tɛmɛ below.)

• ka tɛmɛ

  Same as the previous item but without fo. For instance:

  Telephone ka ɲi ka tɛmɛ

  "Phone is good passing"

  "Phones are **extremely ** good"

• ka ɲɛ [ka ɲa] = Lit. "to be.good"

  Often used to express something close to "well". For instance:

  À ye n dɛmɛ ka ɲɛ

  "He helped me well"

Adverbs of space and time

[NOTE: This section is not done, but I am including it here for reference purposes and future edits.]

We will cover these in a later chapter, but space words (yan "here", yen "there") and time words (sisan "now", sini "tomorrow") are traditionally categorized as adverbs as well (though they are often used as nouns as well).

Adverbs of manner

[NOTE: This section is not done, but I am including it here for reference purposes and future edits.]

You have seen many of these before, but the words below are traditonally categorized as adverbs of manner (though they may also be used as nouns [or even come from nouns originally]).

• tan = like this; so
• ten = like that
• fewu = totally; not at all
• dɔɔnin = a little (bit)
• gansan = for no reason
• fu = in vain

Expressive

These adverbs are special. They are words whose sounds represent an idea.

It's a little bit like the case of onomatopoeia in English where the sounds of words imitate actual sounds (e.g., "buzz", "bang", "tick-tock").

The difference is that expressive adverbs can represent any sensory experience (e.g., warmth, cold, darkness, colors, fear, freshness, etc).

(NOTE: Across languages, linguists often call such words "ideophones" [Lit. "idea-sound"].)

Let me give you an example so you can see what I mean:

À jalen don ka! It dried it.is totally

"It is all dried up!"

Note that the word ka does not mean "all". It is the expressive adverb that represents the idea of dryness and therefore intensifies the meaning that is already behind the verb ka ja ("to dry").

You could of course make the same sentence with a normal adverb:

À jalen don kosɛbɛ!

"It's really dried up!"

The difference is one of style as opposed to one of meaning. Expressive adverbs are often considered to be the sign of someone having a way with words.

The other thing is that you couldn't use ka in situations or with words where dryness is not at play. They are inherently evocative of a particular sensation or dynamic, so they often must be used with particular nouns or verbs that match them meaning-wise.

Expressive adverbs generally appear at the end of a sentence. (But they can)

In general, you don't need to learn expressive adjectives in an explicit way because you can understand them contextually. But here's a bit more information about them and some examples.

They can fruitfully be divided into two groups:

• Intensifiers
• Action Describers

Here are some intensifiers and the verbs that they typically pair with:

• yɔkɔkɔ "laugh-ily" ( ka yɛlɛ "to laugh")

  À yɛlɛla yɔkɔkɔ

  "He laughed loudly"

• bɔrɔtɔ "rip-ily" ( ka fara "to rip")

  Fini farala bɔrɔtɔtɔ!

  "The cloth ripped loudly!"

• tɔn "cold-ly" (ka suma "to cool")

  Ji sumana tɔn!

  "The water is very cold!"

And here are some action describers:

• yayiiyayiiyayii "in a joyous hurry"

  U taara yayiiyayiiyayii ka jigin Masala

  "They went merrily and descended upon Masala"

• biribiri "with hurried steps"

  Suruku bolila biribiri

  "The hyena ran hurriedly"

  tetewu "without a word"

  À ma kuma tetewu

  "She didn't speak at all"