miya-english-hausa dictionary - UCLA Department of Linguistics

MIYA-ENGLISH-HAUSA 

DICTIONARY 

[Draft version, 2010; corrections and comments welcome] 

Russell G. Schuh 

with 

Vaziya Ciroma Tilde Miya 

UCLA Department of Linguistics 

2010

About the Dictionary 1 

The basis of this dictionary is a vocabulary which R.G. Schuh assembled together 

with Vaziya Ciroma Tilde Miya in 1982-83. Other speakers contributed words. In 

particular, I thank Yakubu Sarkin Miya for a detailed history of Miya that he narrated. 

The data was all entered into a FileMaker Pro database, from which is was exported to an 

MS Word file for editing and converted to PDF. In order to make this version available 

with any more delay or procrastination, it has undergone very little proof-reading. Most 

grammatical formatives have been entered, but no personal pronouns are entered in the 

dictionary. All pronouns can be found in the Appendices. In a future edition, entries will 

be much more thoroughly exemplified from texts and from examples in Schuh (1998). 

Every entry has a Miya head word, indication of grammatical category, indication of 

underlying tone pattern, and English and Hausa glosses. Every verb has an entry for 

verbal noun, and all nouns for which plural forms were collected have their plurals 

entered. Many entries have grammatical information and/or examples of use. 

Noun entries 

Gender: Miya has grammatical gender, shown by pronoun agreement, demonstrative 

agreement, and agreement on adjectives. The gender of all nouns is given as n.m. or n.f. 

for masculine and feminine respectively. A few nouns are basic plurals, as shown by 

their agreement patterns. These are marked n.pl. 

Number: Every noun for which a plural was provided has a plural entry. 

Tone: The tone pattern is provided for every noun. See below for a sketch of the 

Miya tonal system and the tone marking in this dictionary. 

Verb entries 

Verb class: Every verbal entry lists the verb class, with the tone subclasses for each 

class in parentheses. The Appendix presents the entire verbal system, showing diagnostic 

patterns for all classes in all Tenses/Aspects/Moods (TAMs). The basic classes are those 

that the late Johannes Lukas originated in his work on Bole, but generally speaking, the 

same classification can apply to Miya. The headword of verbal entries is the form the 

verb would take in the Completive. The classes are as follows: 

A1: CVC or CVC” 

A2: all other verbs with more than one consonant and ending in no vowel or ” 

B: CVCa 

C: C” (Miya has only one Class C verb, namely b” ‘come’—other Chadic languages 

have several such verbs) 

D: Ca 

V.bor.: Miya has borrowed verbs, especially from Hausa, that do not fit any of the 

regular verb classes. There are marked V.bor. The way that borrowed verbs should 

be classified needs more study. 

1 I conducted this research when I was a Visiting Professor in the Department of African and Nigerian 

languages at Ahmadu Bello University. The research was supported in part by a grant from the Wenner- 

Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. 

ii

Verbal tones: Each verb class has several tonal subclasses. Classes A1, A2, B have 

classes L, HH, and HL. Class D has L and H. These classes undergo distinct tonal 

alternations in various contexts. Unlike non-verbs, the tone classes do not necessarily 

indicate citation tones because of many contextual tonal alternations special to verbs. See 

below for an explanation of tone marking, and see Schuh (1998) for details of verbal 

tones. 

Verbal nouns: Every verbal entry includes one or more verbal nouns. Verbal nouns, 

like all other nouns, have grammatical gender. This is marked as “(m)” or “(f)” for 

verbal nouns where gender was checked. I did not check gender on verbal nouns left 

unmarked for gender. 

Other categories 

Categories and entries for categories of word and morpheme classes other than nouns 

and verbs should be relatively self-explanatory. See the list of abbreviations below for 

the meanings of the category labels. 

Definitions 

Entries have definitions in both English and Hausa. Every word has one or more 

English definitions. These definitions are as complete as possible, given current data. 

More study of texts may bring out additional meanings and/or functions. Some entries 

lack a Hausa definition. These are cases where neither Vaziya nor I could readily find a 

good Hausa equivalent. Rather than make something up, I felt it was better to leave the 

Hausa blank. 

Examples 

There are examples of usage, idioms, and special grammatical properties for many 

entries. These could, and should be expanded by drawing more examples of usage from 

texts and from example sentences in Schuh (1998). This would be a long term project, 

however, so the dictionary is produced as is for the time being. 

Alphabetical order 

The first letter of the alphabet is taken to be ’ (glottal stop), the second letter is ”. The 

only vowel that can begin a word is a. There is a contrast between ’a and a at the 

beginning of a word. As far as I know, there is no phonetic difference between ’a and a, 

but the difference shows up in context and in morphology. A word beginning in /’a/ is 

always pronounced with an initial [a], whereas initial /a/ disappears under some 

circumstances and is lengthened under others (see Schuh (1998) for details). Words 

beginning in [”] and [i] all begin in underlying /í”/ and /’i/ respetively (no words begin in 

initial [u]). Following these two letters, ordering is the normal Roman alphabetical 

ordering, with the “hooked” letters ordered after their non-hooked counterparts. Sounds 

represented by digraphs, such as ts, tl, sh, are treated as the sequence of letters for 

purposes of alphabetization. 

iii

í g (including gh) p 

” h r 

a i s (including sh) 

b j t (including tl and ts) 

k u 

c l v 

d (including dl and dz) m (including mb) w 

n (including nd, ndz, ng, nz) y 

e o z (including zh) 

f 

Tone system and tone marking 

Miya has what is called a “terraced level” tone system (a term that I believe was 

coined by the late Wm. E. Welmers). In such a system, there are three contrasting tones: 

high (H), low (L), and downstepped high. Downstepped high is a step down in pitch after 

a H that does not drop as low as a L. This is not called “mid” (M) tone for at least two 

reasons. First, in a language with a true M, it is possible to drop from a H to either a M 

or a L AND to rise from a L to either a M or a H, i.e. going up or down in pitch from 

syllable to syllable is symmetrical. In a terraced level system, it is possible to drop from 

H to downstepped H or to L, but rising in pitch from a L, there is only one possibility, 

which is to rise to a pitch that is lower than a preceding H (i.e. a downstepped H). 

Moreover, once one has dropped from a H to a downstepped H, one cannot then rise back 

to the level of a preceding H (i.e. the downstepped H is now the “new” H). Second, in a 

language with a true H, M, L distinction, one can only go up or down on these three 

pitches. In a terraced level system, since a downstepped H sets a new pitch level for H, 

one can again downstep from that H. In fact, there is no limit in principle in how many 

downteps may follow one after the other, and it is quite easy to construct utterances that 

downstep four or five times. 

The description of the tone system adopted in Schuh (1998) and used in this 

dictionary has three possible lexical specifications for tone: 

L = low tone; domains marked for L bear L pitch in all contexts 

H = (downstepped) H; in sequence HH, the second H is downstepped from the first. 

Strangely, /H/ at the beginning of a phrase is pronounced on a low pitch and is 

indistinguishable from /L/, but the difference shows up when the /H/ vs. /L/ come 

after anything—the /L/ stays [L], the /H/ become downstepped [H]. 2 

T = “toneless”; ironically, a T domain is pronounced on a H tone at the beginning of a 

phrase, but when following anything, it has no distinct tonal identity, but rather 

copies the preceding tone. 

The following table may help in understanding this system: 

2 A possible explanation for pronouncing phrase-initial /H/ on low pitch is that “H” always represents 

downstepped H. At the beginning of a phrase it does’t following anything to be downstepped from, so it 

gets the “ultimate downstep”, namely all the way to L. 

iv

Citation tone 

(Lexical tone) 

‘Nile monitor’ gz”m (L) 

[ _ _ ] 

‘castrated goat‘ m” (H) 

[ _ _ ] 

‘jackal’ lh” (T) 

[ – – ] 

Following high pitch 

ákyar ‘back (of …)’ 

kyar gz”m 

[ – – _ _ ] 

kyar m” 

[ – – – – ] 

kyar lh” 

[ – – – – ] 

v 

Following low pitch 

vna ‘mouth (of …)’ 

vna guz”m 

[ _ _ _ _ ] 

vna m” 

[ _ _ – – ] 

vna lh” 

[ _ _ _ _ ] 

Lexical tone indications: Every entry is followed by its lexical tones in parentheses, 

as in the second column from the left in the table above. Note that although the words 

have two syllables each, there is only one tone marking. Miya very strictly follows what 

linguists call (for better or worse), the OBLIGATORY CONTOUR PRINCIPLE (OCP). This 

principle says that a single tone is associated with the entire domain that bears the same 

pitch. 3 In the table above the domains for the tones of the respective citation forms are 

two syllables, but it is possible for a single tone to be associated with fewer or more 

syllables, e.g. the monosyllabic word ’íy (T) ‘dog’ and the trisyllabic word lábadi (T) 

‘basket’, like lh” (T) ‘jackal’, are marked simply as T (“toneless”) because in contexts 

like those above, they would continue the preceding tone throughout. Paralleling the 

single tone indication in parentheses, head words are tone marked only on the first 

syllable or when there is a change in pitch. Tone marking uses the standard diacritics for 

African languages: grave accent (à) = L tone, acute accent (á) = H tone. Only the first 

syllable of a domain is marked for tone; a new tone mark indicates a change in pitch. 

Here are some examples of entries with more than one tone: 

gwágúm (TH) [ – –] ‘dove’: initial T syllable has high pitch, H is downstepped 

g˙r (TL) [ – _ ] ‘kola’: initial T syllable has high pitch, L has low pitch 

ttelw (TH) [ – – –] ‘corstalk flute’ 

srth” (TH) [ – – –] ‘lake’ 

bl”nky (TL) [ – – _ ] ‘hyena’ 

tkusm (THL) [ – – – _] ‘hedgehog’ 

vìyayúw (HH) [ _ _ – ] ‘fireplace’: initial H syllable has low pitch, second H raised 

Note that no words other than those that have low pitch throughout, e.g. gz”m (L) 

‘Nile monitor’, begin with L. All words like vìyayúw (HH) ‘fireplace’ that are cited with 

initial low pitch and rise later in the word, begin on lexical H tone (cf. nákn víyayúw 

[ – – – – _ ] ‘this fireplace’ with downstepped H on víya- following H). There are also 

no lexical HL words, which is understandable. Initial /H/ would be cited on low pitch, 

and the L would also be on low pitch. A putative “HL” word would thus be cited with 

low pitch throughout and thus be indistinguishable from simple L and H words! 

TONES ARE NOT MARKED ON HEADWORDS OF VERBAL ENTRIES SINCE VERBAL TONES 

ARE DETERMINED BY CONTEXT. THERE IS NO “CITATION” TONE. 

3 The OCP was first formulated in William R. Leben (1973), Suprasegmental Phonology, PhD dissertation, 

MIT (distributed by Indiana University Linguistics Club). “Contour” in this context means “change in 

pitch”. For there to be a change in tone there must be a change in pitch. Otherwise, obligatorily, there is a 

single tone.

SPECIAL TERMS IN ENGLISH DEFINITIONS 

Cultural differences make it impossible to find satisfactory English equivalents for a 

number of common items found in northern Nigerian cultures and African cultures in 

general. This is particularly true of food terms, but also of certain items of material and 

political culture. Rather that use English terms that would not convey appropriate 

connotations, this dictionary uses Hausa words to express a number of concepts that 

come up frequently in definitions. The following terms will be found in English 

definitions: 

Hausa word Explanation of meaning 

tuwo staple food made from guinea corn or maize flour, rice, or 

other starch base, cooked to a stiff consistency 

miya a “sauce” or “stew”, usually with a vegetable base, such as 

okra, sorrel, baobab, tomatoes, etc. and often with meat or 

fish, served accompanying tuwo 

kunu a “gruel” of finely ground flour, cooked to a relatively thin 

consistency, usually with a flavoring such as tamarind or 

lime juice 

fura millet flour, cooked and formed into balls that are broken 

up and mixed into a liquid, preferably cultured milk, but 

sometimes water 

faifai a round tray woven from grass, often with designs woven 

in by using different colors of grass; multi-functional, used 

as a pot or bowl cover, a mat on which to place small 

object, a tool for separating bran from flour, and, 

sometimes decorated with cowries or coins, as decoration 

in room 

zana a mat made from interwoven heavy grass, used as a fence, 

granary liner, and other functions 

ABBREVIATIONS 

adj. adjective 

adj.participle paticiple usable as an adjective, e.g. “broken (pot)” 

adv. adverb 

adv.loc. locative adverb, such as “outside”, “there”) 

adv.man. manner adverb, such as “with difficulty”, “thus” 

adv.time time adverb, such as “today”, “last year” 

aux. auxiliary particle indicating verb tense and the like 

clitic a form added at the beginning or end of a word 

conj. conjunction, such as “and”, “if”, “until” 

det. determiner, including esp. articles and demonstratives 

vi

det.def. definite determiner, such as “the” 

det.dem. demonstrative, such as “this”, “those” 

det.indef. indefinite determiner, such as “a”, “some” 

f. feminine 

existential word meaning “there’s...”, “there’s no...” 

gen.linker particle meaning “of”, as in “ear of a sheep” 

id. ideophone-a large class of words that emphasize actions or qualities 

id.adj. ideophonic adjective-ideophone-like words than can modify nouns 

idiom an expression whose meaning is not predictable from its parts 

interjection all types of exclamations, expressions, greetings, etc. 

interr. interrogative word, such as “who?”, “how?” 

interr.adv. interrogative adverb, such as “how?”, “when?” 

interr.det. interrogative determiner, such as “which...?” 

interr.pro. interrogative pronoun, such as “who?” 

m. masculine 

n. noun 

n.mass mass noun, such as “water”, “millet” 

num.card. cardinal number, such as “five”, “six” 

num.ord. ordinal number, such as “fifth”, “sixth” 

part. particle, added to reinforce meaning, such as Hausa dai, ma 

pl. plural 

plac. pluractional verb indicating multiple action, such as Hausa firfita 

prep. preposition 

presentative word meaning “here’s...” when offering something 

pro. pronoun 

pro.1 pl. first person plural pronoun, “we, us” 

pro.1 sg. first person singular pronoun, “I, me” 

pro.2 pl. second person plural pronoun, “you” 

pro.2 sg.f. second person feminine pronoun, “you” (to a female) 

pro.2 sg.m. second person masculine pronoun, “you” (to a male) 

pro.3 pl. third person plural pronoun, “they, them” 

pro.3 sg.f. third person feminine pronoun, “she, her” 

pro.3 sg.m. third person masculine noun, “he, him” 

quant. quantifier, such as “all”, “a few” 

quant.univ. universal quantifier, such a “everything”, “whoever” 

stat. stative derive from verb, such as “seated” 

v.A1 class A1 verb (CVC or CVC roots) 

v.A2 class A2 verb (roots roots ending in Ø or longer than CVC-) 

v.B class B verb (verbs ending in -a) 

v.C class C verb (C verb—there is only one such verb in Miya) 

v.D class D verb (Ca verbs) 

v.ext. verbal extension, showing action done this direction, etc. 

v.irreg. irregular verb, verb not fitting one of the regular classes 

vii

REFERENCE 

Schuh, Russell G. 1998. A Grammar of Miya. University of California Pulbications in 

Linguistics, Volume 130. Berkeley and Los Angeles: UC Press. 

viii

CONTENTS 

About the Dictionary i 

SPECIAL TERMS IN ENGLISH DEFINITIONS vi 

Abbreviations vi 

REFERENCE viii 

CONTENTS ix 

MIYA-ENGLISH-HAUSA DICTIONARY 1 

APPENDICES 

APPENDIX I: PRONOUNS 51 

APPENDIX II: VERB CLASSES 54 

ix

MIYA-ENGLISH-HAUSA 

DICTIONARY 

í 

íf = ín (LHL) prep. (imposes low tone on noun complement) 1. with (comitative) 

ex j nga-y yr íf ty they spoke in (ther native) language with him. 2. and 

(conjoining nouns) ex j tluws íf ín tuws íf wutlmy nuwas” then he arose 

with his wife and his children | da (mutum) 

í”fa (HH) v. B (v.n. fak) peel, shell (peanuts) | bxare 

í”ma (HH) v. B (v.n. íman (m), ímak (m)) cut off guinea corn heads | yanke kan hatsi 

ín = íf (LHL) prep. (imposes low tone on noun complement) 1. with (comitative) 

ex ín mn/fwy/mc/ty/nj/my/hn/tln with me/you (m)/you (f)/him/her/us/you 

(pl)/them; ”m cm ín my he did work with us. 2. and (conjoining nouns) ex d 

”hntln wr íf wciya he and so-and-so have been married (one has tied them 

marrieage with so-and-so (f)); d” zatla kak”r í”n azurfa t k”nza she put on her 

shoes and silver rings | da (mutum) 

ís” (T) n.f. locust beans used for kalwa | orawa, kalwa 

í”s” (HL) v. A1 (v.n. íshshi (m), ísk”) be sated, have enought to eat | oshi 

í”say (HL) v. A2 feed ex mn ís v”rk”nz I fed her child | osar da, ciyar da 

íía (T) n interjection no | aía 

íadz”ma (L) v. A2 (v.n. ídzadzam (m)) grunt, groan, moan | nisa 

ífuw (T) n.f. (pl. cw, cwaww) goat | akwiya 

ím (T) n.f. (pl. tvam) woman, wife | mace, mata 

íns (bor) v.A2 bor (v.n. ínsk”) answer ex mn íans sw tsyak” tuwsay I answered 

his question | amsa 

íar (HL) v. A1 (v.n. írk”) 1. put (away), place. 2. set a time. 3. cherish, consider 

special | ajiye; yanke (lokaci); kee 

írw (TLH) n.?, adv.loc. north | arewa 

ír‰ (T) n.f. loan (of thing to be returned) ex tsan arawa duwak” tuws” he lent me his 

horse | aro 

íts” (H) n.m. shame, embarrassment ex d”ky s tsay she was embarrassed | kunya 

íyaba (L) n.f. banana (Musa sapientum) ex íyaba gyrya plantain | ayaba 

ízhr (LHL) n.?, adv.time early afternoon | azahar 

ízr (TLH) n.? beam | azara 

íic” (HL) v. A1 (v.n. íck” (f)) sneeze ex íc icw he sneezed | yi atishawa 

íji (T) n.m. (pl. íjajw) mortar | turmi 

íman (T) n.m. cutting heads off guinea corn | yankan kan hatsi 

ír (H) n.m. (pl. írarw) Nile perch (Lates niloticus) | ariya 

íshashi (T) n.m. being full after eating, being replete | oshi 

ítli (T) n.m. (pl. ítlatlw) coughing | tari 

íitli (HL) v. A1 (v.n. ítli (m), ítlk”) cough ex íitl íitlw he coughed | yi tari 

íy (T) n.m. (pl. íyw) (f. ty) dog | kare 

1

Miya-English-Hausa Dictionary 2 

íiy (L) v. A1 (v.n. íyak”) be able | iya 

íy Ö = Ö (H) rel.loc. 1. the place that …, where … ex íy gaf k íiy bwn where 

you go is where I go. 2. (with nominalized purpose phrase) in order to ex Mngila bat 

suw íiy nd”mk” Mangila went out to have a look around | inda . 

íyly (LHL?) n.? family | iyali 

íyka (H) det.loc. 1. there ex tk”m íiyk! go over there!. 2. (in íyk) there upon ex t˘, 

íyk Mazang myt say well, thereupon Mazanga died | can 

íyk”n (H) det.loc. here ex wshashanf” mn jiykn buwhiyf yk”na? how many 

year has it been since you came here? | nan 

íykwa = ykwa (T) interr.loc.adv. where? ex fy baf ykwa? where are you going?; f 

ts”gaku íykwa? where did you sit?; t˘, fy f b”kw íykw? well, you where have 

you come from? | ina? 

See ’a- at the beginning of the dictionary for words with initial a- not found here. 

A 

a- (T) prefix (lengthened when not post-pausal) 1. prefix vowel with no meaning, found 

on many root words and derivatives such as verbal nouns. 2. see ía- for words where 

the a is a root vowel. 3. prefix on ordinal numbers ex n(a) tsra the second one; 

tsruws” the seond of them (“his seond”). 4. prefix forming a locative adverbial form 

ex by nMngil water of Mangila hill (cf. by na Mngila ‘Mangila’s water’); 

tlwiy ntsk”n wild animal, animal of the bush (cf. tsk”n ‘the bush’) | 

(L) aspect perfective auxiliary with 3rd person subjects ex b”s” sy s/he washed | 

(LL) prep. 1. with (instrument) ex m cm giti he did work with an axe. 2. as, 

with respect to (marker of objective complement) ex dawun Kasy íam he sought 

Kasay as a wife | da (+ kayan aiki), don 

(LL) prep. marker of a postverbal subject ex t”nz” mr Ndwya (= Ndwya a 

t”nz” mr) Nduya planted millet; kw zratln Ksham k, buwatln d” b 

tsgatln when Kasham calls them they will come and sit down; tbrma ba kn(a) 

vrk” the mat that the boy bought | 

(L) aspect imperfective auxiliary ex fy zara w? who will you call?; mkuws” kd 

t tsyw he spent three days digging it (he “dayed” three he was digging) | na 

= w (L) interr. ( is by far the most frequent; see n for focussed subject equational 

questons) sentence final question marker of any type of question (yes/no, constituent) 

ex f tlak suw nd-a? Good morning! (standard greeting meaning, “Have you 

arisen?”); w zratln-? who called them? | 

(HL) prep. from (locative or temporal) ex m b‰k”m íykw? where have you come 

from?; tsuway hr bahy zhr from morning all the way until the late afternoon | 

daga 

= d (H irreg) aspect (see alsod) perfective auxiliary used when subject is focused ex 

w zrawa? who called?i; Ksham zraw t is Kasham who called (cf. Kshm zr 

sy ‘Kasham called’); my zraw it is we who called | ne/ce 

(H irreg) aspect conditional future auxiliary ex A: Dw, ìWy-y.î B: ì, n- by 

uwy.î A says, “Jump down.”, B (responds) “But I’ll get a fracture.” |


brbr (THL) n.f. red-eyed or speckled pigeon (Columba guinea) | hazbiya 

b”s” (HH) n.f. bathing | wanka 

btak” (TH) n.f. disused farm | saura 

bkak”m (TH) n.m. palm of hand | tafin hannu 

bkats”my (THH) n.m. sole of foot | tafin sawu 

bngu (TL) n.m. (pl. bngwngww) lizard (Agama agama) | adangare 

bru (TL) n.?, adv.loc. area in Miya where dancing is done | unguwar Miya 

bya (LH) conj. after (+ clause, phrase) ex bya miy ty sw dmy, j my y 

after we chopped down the tree, we split (the wood); bya s”nw f”rf” d íar 

tlay after eight days, they brew beer | bayan (+ jimla) 

by (TH) n.m. (pl. byayw) water | ruwa 

by g”rnna (TH TH) n.m. gum Arabic | aro 

by ghns” (TH L) n.m. rain | ruwan sama 

by py (TH H) n.m. milk | madara, nono 

by tw (TH H) n.m. arrowhead | ruwan kibiya 

c” (TH) n.m., adv.loc. underneath ex n t c” the last | arkashi(n) 

cm (TH) n.m. 1. work ex mn m cm = mn n scamay I worked. 2. (in 

kfiy(a) cam) sending ex kfiy(a) cam send (it) to him | aiki; aike 

car (T) n.f. tick | kaska 

cc (TL) n.f. a type of wild grain, fonio (Digitaria exilis) | acca 

cw (TH) n.f. caring for, taking care of a newborn by an older woman | reno 

dama = dma (HL) prep., conj. for the purpose of, for the sake of, in order to, because 

ex my tb”natl dama nj” m bsazaw we abused her because she doesn’t bathe; 

my n niykin dma ghns we did this for the sake of God; dama mn = dma 

m”n for my sake | domin, don, saboda 

damb” (T) n.f. traditional shaving of women’s head, leaving round patch of hair on top | 

irin kitso 

dr (LH) prep. from, originating from, via ex tln dr Mya they are from Miya; 

hn dr ykwa? where are you from? | daga, ta 

dzhi (TH) n.f. poison | dafi 

dingil (T) n.f., adv.loc. a pond in Miya | tabkin Miya 

dlmdlm (THL) n.m. (pl. dlndlmmw) mud dauber wasp | zanzaro 

dkuna (TH) n.? place (of) ex Ksham bt(a) dkunwun Kasham came to me (to 

my place); mn b˘wn (a)dkun Jl I have come from Jala (from Jala’s place) | 

wurin 

dwdw (THL) n.m. sugar ants | sha zumami 

ng” (TH) n.f. (pl. ngangw) talking, speech | magana 

dznar (TL) n.m. bedbugs | kuin cizo 

dyam (T) n.m. fancy dress or behavior | mai, gaye 

fay (T) n.f. zorilla (Ictonyx libyca) | bodari 

fyyauw (TH) n.f. whistling ex fay sfiyyaway à fay sfiyyaúway | fito 

g”danglw (LHL?) n.f. millipede | adandoniya 

gzh”, gzhi (TH) n.f. (pl. gzhazhw) hair ex g”zh” [sic] t ghm hair on the 

head; gzh” t tuwatw hair on the body | gashi 

gzh” tt shm/dndi (TH T) n.m. pubic hair (hair on penis/vulva) | zaza 

gzha wutli zham (TH T TH) n.m. feathers | gashin tsuntsu 

gíay (TH) n.m. left, left hand ex mbuwun tgíay my left thigh | hagu 

gdara (TL) n.m. red-headed male lizard (Agama agama) | jan gada, adangare 

ghuw (TH) n.m. (pl. ghuwww) disused farm | saura


gam (T) n.f. (pl. gamamw) jaw, chin | muamui, haa 

gam (T) n.f. desert date (Balanites aegyptiaca) | aduwa 

gar (T) n.f. Ruppell's griffon (Gyps rueppellii) | mikiya 

gruw (TL) n.m., adv.loc. Bauchi ex gruw raw r Mya a zh”k” Bauchi is larger 

than Miya | Bauci 

gidderun (TL) n.m. dung beetle | buzuzu 

gn t”myr (TH TL) n.? face | fuska 

gtuw (TL) n.?, adv.loc. the southern rock of Miya town | dutsen Miya 

gwgw (LH?) n.m., n.f. duck | agwagwa 

gwm (TH) n.f. locust | fara 

gwarzhiwt” (HH) n.m. growing up | girma 

gyr (TH) n.m. (pl. gyrarw) hole ex gyr tar squirrel hole | rami 

gyr tn (TH H) n.m. nostril | kafar hanci 

gyr vy (TH H) n.m. crack between buttocks | uwawu 

kt”rw (THL) n.f. scorpion | kunama 

km (TH) n.m., adv.loc. at home, home ex kmh Kasham at Kasham’s house; t 

buws km he will go home; by dzm km they took beans home | a gida, gida 

kan˘ (TL) n.?, adv.loc. Kano | Kano 

ky ghm (THL H) pro.reflex. base for emphatic reflexive pronouns ex my 

buwma ky ghmws” we will come ourselves | kan wani 

kyt” (TH) n.f. difficulty | wuya, wahala 

kr (TH) n.f. theft | sata 

kitlrti (THL) n.m. fear | tsoro 

kf” (TH) n.f. forging, smithing | ira 

kl (TH) n.f. clearing bush | sassabe 

kur (T) n.f. shea nut (Vitellaria paradoxa) | kaanya 

kw (TH) n.f. (pl. kwaww) fire ex vn akw flame; mb”sh kuw she 

extinguished the fire | wuta 

kwal (T) n.f. (pl. kwlalw) hut where rituals are performed | kurmi 

kwary (TL) n.m. bog (where sugar cane is planted) | kwari, fadama 

kwaykway (TH) n.m. shin | sha raa 

kyar (T) n.m. back; behind ex mn kyar Kasham I am behind Kasham | baya 

kyar k”mn (T TH) n.m. back of hand | bayan hannu 

kyar py (T H) n.m. nipple of breast | kan nono 

kyar ts”my (T TH) n.f. top of foot | bayan afa 

kyar wr (T H) n.m. nape of neck | baya wuya 

l”bs” (TL) n.f. (pl. l”bssw) onion (Allium cepa) | albasa 

l”pn (TL) n.f. cloud; sky | gajimare, sama 

lg” (TH) n.m. indentation below sternum | wurin ciki 

laly = rts” (TH) n.? Acacia sieberiana | farar aya 

lw see luw | a dubi luw 

m”sm (TL) n.f. dream | mafarki 

m” (TH) n.f. dew | raa 

mk” (TH) n.m. metal band worn around thumb for drawing bowstring | awanya 

mngla (TL) n.?, adv.loc. the northern monolith of Miya town | dutsen Miya 

marn (TH) n.m. side of body, ribs | ugu, haarari 

my (TH) n.f. cry of a dodo ex mya Dlramb” cry of the Dlerabu dodo | kukan dodo 

mbg”d” (TH) n.f. crawling ex vrk” g”na tmbg”d” the child is crawling; ”n 

smbag”day he crawled | rarrafe


mbn (TH) n.f. goodness, niceness, beauty | kyau 

mbahn (THL) n.f. small frog | burduddugi 

mblmt (THLH) n.m. miserliness | rowa 

mbyíala (TL) n.f. skink (Mabuya perottetii and other skink spp.) | kulbxa 

mray (TH) n.m. running | gudu 

mr (THL) n.f. (pl. mryaw) woven belt used to hold on leaves used as skirt | 

datsi 

mishngay (TH) n.f. earthworm | tana 

m (TH) n.f. tiger nuts (Cyperus esculentus) | aya 

mkwa (TH) adv.time, n.? dry season, work away from home during the dry season | 

rani, cin rani 

nany (TH) n.f. algae | gansakuka 

nd”lkay (TL) n.f. burr grass (Cenchrus biflorus, C. Ciliari) | arangiya 

nd”rkwna (TL) n.f. whirlwind | guguwa 

nd” (TH) n.f. conjunctivitis | jan ido 

ndaly (TL) n.f. red-flowered silk cotton tree (Bombax buonopozense and other B. 

species) | gurjiya 

ndzhi (TH) n.f. (pl. ndzhazhw) hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius); hippo 

hide whip | dorina, bulala 

ndw = dw (TL) conj. 1. introduces direct quotations ex kw yarda ka, d” b”laya 

anduw, ìM”n g luwf”.î if she is in agreement, she says to him, “I too love you.”. 2. 

introduces indirect speech other than indirect questions ex kw nga nduw s 

bwtl”n s”b” yky kaÖ when one says that the war-makers are coming…; mlv 

nduw mn zuwwun the sarki said that I should enter. 3. (preceding a proper name or 

a designation) called, named ex gwn ka a zraza nduw gwl that (type of) locust, 

one calls it gwal | cewa, wai 

ngna (TH) n.pl. one’s one, possession belonging to one ex ngna niywan my own 

thing(s); ngna t”makw nywn my own sheep; ngna kn nuwun my own house 

| mallaka 

ngr (TH) n.f. (pl. ngrarw) leg | afa 

ngrc” (THL) n.m. black ants | tururuwa 

ngn (TL) adv.loc. someplace, anyplace ex my m bm nginw we didn’t go 

anywhere | wani wuri 

nginniy (TL) n.f. (pl. anginniyyw) spider | gizo-gizo 

ngunm (TH) n.f. type of bee with makes honey inside a tube | rekuwa 

nguw (T) n.f. quarter of town ex nguw tma = nguw hma our quarter; nguw ta 

malvw = nguw h malvw the chief’s quarter | unguwa 

ngz” (TH) n.m. beard | gemu 

ngwazr (TL) n.f. trap | tarko 

ngwiy ghnaw (T) n.pl. twins ex ngwiy dzh” a male twin; ngwiy dzku a female 

twin | tagwaye 

ningi (T) n.?, adv.loc. Ningi | Ningi 

nyh (THL) n.m. medicine, remedy | magani 

p”snd (TLH) n.f. gecko, possibly house gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus) | tsaka 

pank (TLH) n.f. embers | garwashin wuta 

par (T) n.f. (pl. pararw) horn | aho 

py [py] (TH) n.m. (pl. pyayw) breast, milk ex py ím woman’s breast; kyar 

py nipple; biy piy mile | nono 

pyatlm (TH) n.f. hip, lower abdomen | ugu


rdl” = rdl” (TH) n.f. writing | rubutu 

rh” (TH) n.f. bowstring | tsirkiya 

rai (T) n.m. fart ex byara raai he farted | tusa 

rs” (TH) n.m. sorrel, roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) | yakuwa 

rts” = laly (TH) n.m. Acacia sieberiana | farar aya 

r‰ (T) n.f. begging, beseeching | roo 

rw (TH) n.m. type of tall grass (not as tall as tsaure) used for basket weaving | iri 

ruwy (TH) n.f. custard apple (Annona senegalensis) | gwandar daji 

ryw [ryw] (TH) n.f. pus | mugunya 

sk (TLH) n.?, adv.loc. open area east of Miya where dancing and other recreation 

takes place | unguwar Miya 

sr (TH) n.m. 1. circumcision ex sarwn my peer. 2. (with possessive) peer | kaciya, 

tsara 

srsar (TH) n.pl. peers | tsararraki 

shin (TL) n.m. house at farm ex bat sshnay he went to the farmhouse | gidan 

gona 

shiwyuw (TH) n.f. 1. sweat. 2. hot weather | zuffa, gumi 

shiy (HH) adv.time formerly, olden times ex sb” ni shy people of the past | da 

shwashw (THH) n.f. (pl. shwashwaww) star | tauraro 

t (LH) prep., aspect (as an auxiliary, can take either a deveral noun or a gerund) 1. on, 

on top of ex my bay t y we take it onto a rock outcropping; py ka njt y the 

pond was on the rock outcropping. 2. about, concerning ex j buwatl”n t msyy 

ba shgabanc then they came concerning the dispute over the leadership. 3. mound of, 

heap of ex j fr nayk t smay n Mngil they began by looking at the mound 

of trash of Mangila. 4. impefective auxiliary (progressive or habitual, but not future) ex 

mn t zhrar” ~ mn t zra zarw I am calling; tln dt mkantln wnk 

they were dwelling thus; d ”ma wsn wut at d˘na gwalf” they spent a year 

seeking (new) leadership; mn dt cm na Cir˘ma I was doing the work of Ciroma | 

(1, 2) kan; (3) na 

t”lm (TL) n.f. water lily (Nymphaea lotus) | bado 

t”ly (TL) n.m. tree squirrel | kuregen bisa 

tm (TH) n.f. song | waa 

t”r (LL) n.m. (used only with a possessive pronoun) carelessness ex ts”rwn tr 

nuws” he stopped me on purpose | ganganci 

t”rry (TL) n.m. biting ant | cirnaka 

tí” (TH) n.f. chameleon (Chamaeleo africanus) | hawainiya 

tí” (TH) n.f. odor (good or bad) | wari, anshi 

tk” (LH) n.f. argument, dispute ex ”m tk” they argued | faa, musu 

takwam (T) n.f. cupping with horn ex kiy takwam he was cupped | yi kxaho 

tar (T) n.m. (pl. tararw) ground squirrel (Xerus erythropus) | kurege 

tikwrma (TL) n.f. stone partridge (Ptilopachus petrosus) | kazar dutse 

tm (TH) n.m. (pl. tmamw) nose | hanci 

tm by (TH H) n.f. spring (of water) | idon ruwa 

tvi (TH) n.m. walking, traveling ex bat tvi he traveled | tafiya 

tiwy (TL) n.m. (pl. tiwyyw) fly (insect) | uda 

ty [ty] (TH) n.f. (pl. tyayw) eye | ido 

ty (TH) n.f. (f. of íy) female dog, bitch ex tk”n ty this dog | karya 

tyaty [ty—ty] (THH) n.f. kidney | oda


tiyr (TL) n.? place of … ex tiyrwn my place, where I am; tiyrza her place, where 

she is | wajen ., wurin . 

tlaky (TH) n.f. (pl. tlakyayw) crab | aguwa 

tlakwam (T) n.f. (pl. tlakwamamw) spear | mashi 

tlar (T) n.?, prep. between (cannot be used with human complements) ex mn tlra 

zkiy I am between the rocks | tsakani(n) 

tlara mb” (T L) n.? crotch | hantsa, tsakanin cinya 

tlatluw (T) n.m. armpit | hamata 

tlyi (TH) n.f. (pl. tlyyaw) farming, weeding, cultivating | noma 

tlyw [tlyw] (TH) n.f. (pl. tlywaww) tribal markins, etching, tracing | shasshawa, 

zane 

ts”f (THH) n.m. broom | tsintsiya 

tstsaly (THL) n.f. 1. cauri, cowrie, taxes. 2. (usually in tstsaly m km) taxes | 

wuri, haraji 

tsaf” (T) n.m. middle, between, among ex t tsafa km he is in the middle of the house; 

t tsafa Ndwy í”n Ksham he is between Nduya and Kasham | tsakiya, tsakani(n) 

tsaku (T) n.f. Fulani camp | ruga 

tsm (TL) n.?, adv.loc. area in Miya where wrestling is done | unguwar Miya 

tsw (TH) n.m. (pl. tswaww) egg | wai 

tsuw bb” (TH L) n.? testicles | gwaiwa, golo 

tku (THH) n.f. toad | kwadxo 

tkusm (HHL) n.f. (pl. tkusmmw) hedgehog (Atelerix albiventris) | bushiya 

tw (TH) n.f. (locative form of twatw) on one’s body ex twwn on my body; j 

m shkarw d tltln wtl”my d p tuwtln they spent several year and 

their children were growing and increasing their numbers (pouring onto their bodies) | a 

jiki 

tw (TH) adv. again, still, more ex ngtw say it again; d jy d tsiyak pay t 

Mangla tw then they again dug out more of the pond on Mangila | har yanzu 

tsíay (TH) n.m. right hand, right side ex tsíayuwun on my right; mbuwun 

ttyíay my right thigh | dama 

vkiy (TL) n.f. (pl. vkiyyw) thorn | aya 

vviy (TL) n.m. (pl. vviyyw) mosquito | sauro 

vo (T) n.f. mistletoe (Loranthaceae spp. and Tapinanthaceae spp.) | kauci 

vwavw (THH) n.f. intestines, guts | hanji 

vwn (TL) n.f. slipperyness | santsii 

vyi (TH) n.m. (pl. vyaw) buttocks, anus | uwawu, tsuliya 

war (T) n.m. (pl. wrarw) marsh | fadama 

ws” (TH) n.m. (pl. ws”sw) grass | ciyawa 

wy (TH) n.f. jujube (Ziziphus mauritiana or Z. abyssinica) | magarya, kurna 

whi [whi] (TH) n.f. load, tools, implements | kaya 

wra k”mn (TH TH) n.? wrist | wuyan hannu 

wra ts”my (TH TH) n.? ankle | idon sawu 

w (TH) n.m. courtyard inside compound | tsakar gida 

wm (TH) n.m. (pl. wmamw) cheek | kunci 

y (H) aux. (See sw (Ö -y); -y alone is used mainly in the imperative, hortative, and 

subjunctive) totality marker with TAM’s other than perfective and imperfective ex 

b˘kway! goout! (m.s. imperative); t m”ts zhky he should sell the donkey; d kiya 

tvay d kiya v”riyy she began walking and she began crying |


ay suffix transitizer of intransitive bases, causitivizer ex bay (< ba ‘go’) take, carry; 

daway (< daw ‘get down, stay as guest’) unload; put up (guest); ts”ray (< ts”r ‘come 

to a stop’) stop, bring to a stop | da 

yerti (TL) n.m. old age | girma, tsufa 

zk (TLH) n.m. maternal uncle (younger or older) ex zkwf” your uncle | kawu 

zly (TL) n.f. (pl. zliyyw) thread | zare 

zham (T) n.m. ground hornbill (Bucorvus abyssinicus) | burtu 

zhpiy (TL) n.f. tears ex zhpiywun my tears | hawaye 

zhpiy (TL) n.f. striped sand snake | irin maciji 

zwazhw (THH) n.f. musk shrew (Crocidura spp.) | jaa 

zwry in ny zwry (TLHL) n.? relatives, clan members | zuriya, zumai 

B 

b” (HL) v. C (v.n. bwk” (f)) (form used in verbal TAMs; buw used in nominal TAMs; 

, m.sg. imper. tku, f.sg. imper. tkam, pl. imper. twka) come | zo 

bdlang” = blang” (L) n.m. gutta percha tree (Ficus platyphylla) | gamji 

bdly” (TL) n.m. nettle tree (Celtis integrifolia) | zuwo 

b” (H) n.f. (pl. baw) 1. navel, lower abdomen ex ahn ts”tsly b”aza 

she attached cowries to her front. 2. before, in front of | cibiya; gaba(n) 

baksh (LHL) n.m. gourd plant (Lagenaria siceraria) | duma 

b”l (HH) v. A1 (v.n. blak) pop out, appear suddenly | ullo 

b”la (HH) v. B (v.n. blak) say, tell ex b”la wk” he told a lie; b”lan lbr he told 

me the news | faa 

bl”nky (TL) n.m. (pl. bl”nkyyw) baboon (Papio anubis) | gwaggon biri 

blang” = bdlang” (L) n.m. gutta percha tree (Ficus platyphylla) | gamji 

bn (TL) adv.time 1. yesterday ex bn nk day before yesterday; tr na bn last 

month. 2. time period preceding current one | jiya 

bngna (TH) n.m. type of drum with large bottom and narrow top | azariya 

b”r (L) v. A1 (v.n. brak”) help; save ex mn bryc I helped him with work | taimaka; 

ceta 

br”m (L) n.m. remainder ex br”ntln the rest of them; br”nn the rest of you; 

br”mm the rest of us; br”m mr the rest of the money | saura 

brb”tl” (L) n.m. (pl. brb”tltlw) tortoise | kunkuru 

b”r” (L) v. A2 (v.n. brak”) hang | rataya 

briy (L) n.f. the trees Piliostigma reticulatum & P. thonningii | kargo 

b”rmay (bor) v.A2 bor (v.n. bmyak) cave in ex ryj nuwun brmy sy my well 

caved in | bxurme 

b”s” (L) v. A1 (v.n. bs” (f), bsak”) wash; bathe ex mn bs”sw kb”tuwny I 

washed my gown; mn b”suwans I bathed | wanke, yi wanka 

bsaka gn t”myr (L H TL) n.? washing superficially | wankin ido 

b”ta (HH) v. B (v.n. btak (f)) 1. untie, release. 2. shoot, throw | kwance, saka; harba, 

jefa 

b”ts” (L) v. A1 (v.n. btsak” (m)) spit | tofa


bzakwy (HH) n.f. five string harp--resonator is held against stomach as instrument is 

plucked | molo 

b”zay (HH) v. A2 (v.n. bzayak) finish; be finished ex mn bzay sy I have finished it; 

cm bzayt say the work is finished | gama, are 

ba Ö (k) (L) conj. (post-clausal k only with affirmative clauses) if it were the case 

(counterfactual conditional conjunction) ex ba b”tln ka, kiyy sawhihi ttlnay If 

they had come, they would have taken their stuff away; f ba b”ruwwam mw, d 

mn mbiy ma cn nuwnuw if you had not helped me, I would not have finished my 

work | daa 

b- + possessor (T) n.m. (form used with possessor; citation form bh”) father ex bwun 

my father; bf” your (m.s.) father; bma our father; b Vziya Vaziya’s father | uban . 

b (H) pro.rel.m. ( sba) (f. m) 1. one who owns, ex b km householder; b mr rich 

person. 2. one who does ex b yw madman; sm ba kalak” good-for-nothing; hm 

b tw food (thing for eating) | mai 

ba (L) v. D (v.n. bhiy (f)) pick up, remove, pull out ex bhiy by scooping up water | 

auka, cire, fitar 

ba (H) v. D (v.n. bhy (f)) (m.sg. imper. tku, f.sg. imper. tk”m, pl. imper. tka , 1st pl. 

imper. tmy) go ex bat 

mray he ran off | tafi, je 

bb” (L) n.m. (pl. bbbw) scrotum + testicles | gwaiwa 

bab”la (HH) v. B2 (v.n. bb”lak) say (several times) ex bab”la bb”law they spoke 

repeatedly | faffadxa 

bad” (L) v. A1 (v.n. bdak”) lick | lasa 

bday (L) n.f. (pl. bdayyw) large basket | kwando 

b dvin (H L) n.m. fool | wawa 

b gb” (H L) n.m., n.f. (pl. sba gb”) (f. m gb”) enemy | maiyi 

bh” (T) n.m. (citation form; b- used with possessors) father; paternal uncle (older or 

younger) | uba, kawu (na wajen uba) 

bh”n (L) num. -teen, units in numbers above twenty ex bh”n wut eleven; di tsr 

bah”n wut twenty-one | sha (goma sha .), da . 

bh”n vtl” (L L) num.card. fifteen | sha biyar 

bh”n f” (L H) num.card. fourteen | sha huu 

bh” frf” (L LH) num.card. eighteen | sha takwas 

bh”n kd (L HL) num.card. thirteen | sha uku 

bh”n kcya (L HL) num.card. nineteen | sha tara 

bh” mh (L HL) num.card. sixteen | sha shida 

bh”n mtsr (L HL) num.card. seventeen | sha bakwai 

bh”n tsr (L H) num.card. twelve | sha biyu 

bh”n wut (L LH) num.card. eleven | sha aya 

bhy (TH) prep. to, up to, toward, as far as (verbal noun of ‘go’, used when 

directionality is away or neutral--cf. bwk”) ex di kiya g‰r‰ tre í”n gyama ango 

bahiy adukuna Mai Unguwa theycarry kolas together with the groom to the place of 

the Ward Head; wtl”my s”ba wshasham kiyat wshashan dritin bh”n vtl” 

bhy bh”n mtsr children whose ages range from 10 to 15; bahiy camaza up until 

the night; hr bahy zhr up until mid-afternoon | zuwa 

b jlr (H H) n.m. (pl. sba dlr) hunter | mafarauci 

b kr (H H) n.m. (pl. sba kr) thief | arawo 

b kitlrti (H THL) n.m. fearful person | matsoraci 

bk‰ dzh” (H) n.m. (pl. bk‰) (f. bk‰ dzku) guest, visitor, stranger | bao 

b kf” (H H) n.m. (pl. sba kf”) blacksmith | maeri


bkwal (H) n.m. (pl. bkwallw) bag | buhu 

bndz”h” (L) n.m. (pl. wtl” bazan) young man | saurayi 

b ndzhiy (H L) n.m. poor person | matsiyaci 

bng” (H) n.f. (pl. bangngw) drum held sideways and beat at both ends | dogon kia 

bngwar (L) n.f. (pl. bngwarrw) quiver (for arrows) | kwari 

b nws” (H H) n.m. ripe ex zw b nws” ripe corn; hm b d ntln = kt” sb d 

ntln ripe things | nunanne 

bnza (T) adj.? worthless ex sm ba banza worthless person | banza 

b raws (H THH) n.m. (f. ma raw ) wet ex zw b raw wet grain; kb” m 

raz wet gown; kb”bw ma raw wet gowns | jiae 

braku (L) n.f. Acacia nilotica | bagaruwa 

brbaj dzh” (TH) n.m. (pl. brbaj) (f. brbaj dzku) Fulani person | Bafillatani 

brg‰ (LH) n.f. blanket | bargo 

bs” (H) n.f. loan (of any kind—money, thing) ex mn t sw bs” zuwy I took a loan 

of grain | aro, rance, bashi 

bt” (H) n.m. haze | hazo 

b tahy (H TH) n.m. (f. m tahy) sharp (blade) ex gti b tahy sharp axe; sr”m m 

tahy sharp knife | mai kaifi 

btl” (H) n.m. karaya gum tree (Sterculia setigera) | kukuki 

b tlyi [b tlyi] (T H) n.m. (pl. sba tlyi) farmer | manomi 

b ts”fw (H TH) n.m. (pl. sb ts”fw) (f. m tsafw) dry ex zw b ts”fw dry grain; 

gts”r b ts”fw dried mucouse; kb” m tsafw dry gown; kt”tw sb ts”fw dry 

things | busasshe 

baw (L) v. A1 (v.n. bwak”) 1. go out. 2. sprout | fita; tsiro 

b wnaw (H L) n.m. (f. m wnw) full ex ndwul b wnaw full pot; tlrky m 

wnw full calabash | cikakke 

baway (HH) v. A2 (v.n. bwayak) take out, remove | fitar 

bay (HL) v. A1 (v.n. byk”) (sg. imper. ty, pl. imper. tyy, 1st pl. imper. tyiym) 1. 

take, transport, convey ex by swih Kanwy he took the load to Kano. 2. reach | 

kai; isa 

b yw (H H) n.m. (pl. sba yw) (f. m yw) mad person | mahaukaci 

bzaniy (L) n.f. (pl. wtl” tvm) young woman not yet of marriageable age | yarinya, 

budurwa 

bzara (T) adv.time, n.? hottest part of dry season | 

blebel (L) n.m. uvula | beli 

bnti (L) n.m. (pl. bnttyw) loincloth ex ghma benti loincloth belt | bante 

br muuw (T T) n.f. sand boa | maciji (iri) 

bder (L) n.f. (pl. bderrw) viper (Atheris chloroechis) | kububuwa 

bndim-bndim (H H) n.m. ratel, honey badger (Mellivora capensis) | damagere, dage 

by (H irreg) part. (= jy) particle of uncertain meaning inserted following TAM 

auxiliaries in negative subjunctive and all nominal TAMs except focused subject 

perfective ex tt lkaw mn t by tsya kytuw he is afraid lest I give him trouble; 

j buws d by marws then he went and found him; t g by zraf” he will call 

you; kw biy ts ngn ka, d dzaratl”n sb” when one has given the name, the 

people disperse | sai 

biy (?) v.A1 (?) make noise | yi ara 

bfuw (LH) n.? bag | buhu 

bug” (HL) v. A1 (v.n. bgk”) be drunk ex bugt sy he is drunk | bugu


buw (HL) v. A1 (v.n. buwk” (f)) (form used in nominal TAMs; b” used in nominal 

TAMs; , m.sg. imper. tku, f.sg. imper. tkam, pl. imper. twka) come ex y buwm 

let’s come | zo 

bwk” (THH) prep. to, up to, until (verbal noun of ‘come’, used when directionality is 

understood as being toward the speaker--cf. bhy) ex triyhy na My jiyka, 

frkooz íf srkn miyza hr buwk” c‰nk” triyhìy na Míyà jiyka, fárkoozà 

’f sàrkúnà miyza hár buwák” cnàk” | zuwa 

buway (HHL) v. A2 (v.n. bwyak”) bring | kawo 

buwsa (bor) v.B2 bor (v.n. bwsk) blow ex bwsk” ta rwn blowing of the wind | 

busa 

byra (L) v. B2 (v.n. byrak”) (with rai as object) fart ex byra raai he farted | 

yi tusa 

bytlyama (L) n.m. (used adjectivally, m. bytlyamana, f. bytlyamaya, pl. 

byatlayamaniy) unripe, green ex gwym bytlyamana unripe yam; bytlyamaya = 

bytlyama pym unripe pumpkin; kt” byatlayamaniy = bytlyana kt” unripe 

things | anye 

 

”ga (HH) v. B (v.n. gak) kneel; squat | durusa, tsuguna 

”nt” (HH) v. A2 (v.n. ntak) reduce | rage 

a (L) v. D (v.n. hiy) 1. (tr., intr.) break (pot) ex mn sw ndwuly I broke the 

pot; ndwul at say the pot broke. 2. split wood ex mn sw ghuwy I split 

wood. 3. slap ex mn ys wumuw sy I slapped him. 4. swim ex wtl”m t 

yiy by the children are swimming | fasa, fashe; faskare; mara; yi iyo 

dam (L) n.f. bamboo (Oxytenanthera abyssinica) | gora 

hy (TH) n.f. firewood | faskare 

hiya ghm (T H) n.f. headache ex ghamwun jt uwwn my head aches (my 

head is breaking to me) | ciwon kai 

aku (HL) v. A1 (v.n. kwk”) hop ex t”ku t akw akww the toad is hopping | 

yi tsalle 

k-k (TL) id. indicates hopping | amsa amo 

al (HH) v. A1 (v.n. lak) 1. break (rope) (transitive or intransitive); ex mn lsw 

zhwy I broke the rope; zhw lt sy the rope broke. 2. chop ex mn lsw 

ghuwy I chopped wood | tsinke; sara 

m (T) n.? (used in ghma am) termite hill | suri 

nanshi (L?) n.f. woman’s name | sunan mace 

ndaliya (L) adj. naked ex vrk” ndaliya naked boy; wn andaliya naked girl; 

wtl”my ndaliya naked children | tsirara 

iy (HL) v. A1 (v.n. yk”) stab, pierce; be stabbed. be pierced ex mn iysw ggay 

I pierced the zana-mat; ytsy it is pierced | huda, soka 

yat (TL) n.f. woman’s name | sunan mace 

wy (TH) n.m. francolin (Francolinus spp.) | makwarwa 

uwy” (HL) v. A2 (v.n. wyk”) (tr., intr.) break (stick) ex mn wysuw 

kwmbaly I broke the stick; kwmbal uwytsy the stick broke | karya, karye


yaiya (HL) v. B2 (v.n. yiyk”) (plac. of iy) pierce many, dig many | huhhuda 

yiy [iy] (T) n.f. (pl. iyayw) diarrhea | zawo 

C 

c” (T) n.m., prep.loc. underneath, bottom, base of ex c”” zkiy underneath the stone | 

gindi(n), arashi(n) 

caga (HH) v. B (v.n. cgk) precede ex cagns bwk” he came before me | riga 

cam (T) n.m (bound form of cnh) heart ex cnwn my heart; cnws” his heart | 

zuciya 

cam (HH) v.A1 (v.n. cmak”, cmak) 1. like, love ex mn cntl cmaw I love her; 

ghns” can sw m bm cmuw Allah wanted it such that we didn’t finish the work. 

2. want | so 

cmak” (H) n.f, love | soyayya 

cmza (TH) adv.time at night ex ”matln kr camza one did a theft at night | da 

dare 

cmz” (TH) n.m. night, darkness ex cmz” n sy = ”n s cmaz” night has 

fallen | dare 

cngu (H) n.m. (pl. cngwngww) billygoat | bunsuru 

cngu (TH) n.f. (pl. cngwngww) Abdim’s stork, rainbird (Ciconia abdimii) | 

shamuwa 

cnh (TH) n.m. (pl. cnhhw) (free form; bound form cam) heart ex nk”n cnh this 

heart | zuciya 

capay (bor) v.A2 bor (v.n. cpyak”) catch in the air ex mn cpay sy I caught it | cafe 

cratuwa (L) n.f. type of eye disease that discolors lens of eye and can cause blindness | 

cs” (L) quant. much, many ex ghruwi csniy many cattle; mr csna a lot of 

money; tsp”r cs = tsp”r csya a lot of urine | da yawa 

ct” (L) n.m. red pepper (Capsicum annuum, C. frutescens) | barkono 

ciga (L) v.B sit (palatalized version of ts”ga?) ex d cig ghmatsy he burst out 

laughing | zauna 

cld” (TH) n.f. red-billed hornbill (Tockus erythrorhynchus) | cilakowa mai jan baki 

cr (L?) n.m. chewstick tree (Anogeissus leiocarpus) | marke 

crandm (TL) n.m. boil on buttocks | maruru 

c˘nk, c‰nk”n (HHL?) adv.time now | yanzu 

cw (H) n.pl. (pl. of ífuw) goats ex nykin cw these goats | awaki 

cwcuw (L) adj. warm ex by cwcuwna warm water; kt” cwcwniy warm things; 

tyatl” j cwcuw ‘the kunu is warm | dxumi 

cuwr” (bor) v.A2 bor (v.n. cwrk”) knead ex mn cwr say I kneaded it | cura


D 

d (L) part., aspect 1. particle of unclear function occurring with third person subjects, 

directly preverbal ex frk‰ triyhy na My, sb” tsr d fr bwhyatln the 

beginning of the history of Miya, two men were the first to come. 2. third person 

perfective auxiliary in relative clauses ex sm b d tsyws Ksham the person that 

Kasham asked. 3. particle of unclear function occurring with any subject in 

imperfective and verbless sentences ex tlw m”n d gyamuws” he want me to be his 

friend; mn d m mydzhw I am not a Miya person; t d t”fa ní he was hunting 

duikers; nywy rnma d” gy there are some others like us | 

d = (H irreg) aspect perfective auxiliary used when subject is focused ex w d 

zrawa? who called?; Ksham d zraw it was Kasham who called; my d zraw it 

was wee who called | ne/ce 

d”ba (L) v.B (v.n. dbak”) dye, paint black | rina 

db” (T) n.f. open area, field, arena | fili, dandali 

dbak‰ dz”h” (L) n.m. (pl. dbak‰) (f. dbak‰ dzku) blind person | makaho 

d””n (HH) v.A2 (v.n. dyn, d”nk”) transplant | dasa 

d”da (L) v.B (v.n. ddyadi, ddak”) fall | fai 

dd (TL) n.m. (pl. no plural) in-law ex ddwn my father-in-law | suruki 

d”kay (HH) v.A2 (v.n. dkayk”) hear, feel | ji 

dm (L?) n.f. (pl. dmamw) tree | bishiya 

dmb”r (H) n.m. (pl. dmb”rrw) baobab tree (Adansonia digitata) | kuka 

dna (L) adv.loc., n.m. sky, above ex wtl”zam tltln dna the birds flew up; tln 

dn ghma zkiy they are above the rock | sama, sama da 

dndaly (TL) n.f. spiny plum (Ximenia americana) | tsada 

dng (HL) v.bor. keep doing | dinga 

dp” (H) n.f. (pl. dpapw) termite | gara 

d”r (L) v.A1 (v.n. dr, drak”) grind ex d”r zuw gam she ground sorghum | nia 

dr (L) n.f. grinding | nia 

dram (H) n.f. ebony tree (Diospyros mespiliformis) | kanya 

d”r” (HH) v.A2 (v.n. drk” (f)) press down on | danna 

dritim (T) num. ten ex sb” d”ritim ten people | goma 

d”rrup (?) id. indicates swallowing | amsa amo 

da (L) v.D (v.n. dhiy) 1. topple, fall over, fall on ex mn d t k”nz I grabbed her 

hand; dzwk” dat” sy the dry season has set in. 2. collapse ex ln tuwun datla sy 

my hut collapsed. 3. set (sun) ex mku datla sy the sun set | fai, rushe 

da (L) v.D (v.n. dhiy) be a follower of ex mn dah I am your adherent | bi (Wane) 

dab” (L) v.A1 (v.n. dbak”) scold | tsawata 

dbaja (L) adv.time this year | bana 

dbak” ta ghns (L T L) n.f. thunder | cida 

Dbiya (L?) n.m. man’s name | sunan mutum 

d”san (L) adj. blunt, dull ex sr”m da”sanya dull knift; kt” da”sanniy blunt 

things | dasashe 

ddm (TH) n.f. “inch worm”, a type of caterpillar that moves by bunching itself up then 

expanding | 

Ddima (HH) n.f. woman’s name | sunan mace


da” (HH) v.A1 (v.n. dak (f)) increase, keep on doing | daa 

da”ha (L) v.B2 (v.n. d”hak”) winnow with a faifai | tankae 

da”m (HH) v.A2 (v.n. d”mak (m)) 1. fix, repair. 2. to have ever done, to have never 

done | gyara; taa yi 

dga = dg (L) conj. when (+ cohesive clause in perfective narrative, with verb in 

participle form) ex t˘ dga myw Tashy, ywwa, d sk pyak Bgaw hr 

ynzu Well, when Tashay died, yes, they again installed Bugaw another time; dg 

s”ntl”n tsr, d sw bhyu rnjbyay when a couple of days had passed, they 

went fishing | da (+ SUKA) 

dguriy (L) n.f. (pl. dguriyyw) sheep or goat that has not given birth | kazganya 

dgwa” (L) n.f. (pl. dgwaw) clay used for making pots or building | yumu 

dk”man (L) n.m. (pl. dk”mannw) bottle gourd | buta 

dlyly (HHL) n.? reason | dalili 

dma = dama (HL) prep., conj. (dama is far more frequent; seems = sb˘d) for the 

purpose of, for the sake of, in order to, because (see dama for examples) ex mn íar 

biy mku dama ma cwcuw I put the water in the sun so that it would become 

warm | domin, don, saboda 

dng” (T) n.f. (pl. dngangw) large pot for water or for cooking beer | randa 

dng”s” (L) n.m. (pl. dng”ssw) warthog (Phacocherus aethiopicus) | mugun dawa, 

gadu 

dngu (T) n.f. (pl. dngwangww) Cape hare (Lepus capensis), rabbit | zomo 

Dniya (L?) n.m. man’s name | sunan mutum 

Dns (HH) n.m. man’s name | sunan mutum 

dr (LH) prep. see dr | 

drh” (L) n.m. (pl. drhhw) road, way; means | hanya 

dtsa (bor) v.B2 bor (v.n. btsk”) chop up in to pieces | datsa 

daw (d‰) (L) v.A1 (v.n. dwak”) 1. get down, descend; . 2. fall (rain) | sauka; fai (ruwa) 

dwan (L) n.pl. (pl. of ys”, vki) siblings, brothers and/or sisters, close relatives of the 

same generation ex dwanza her siblings | íyanuwa 

daway (HH) v.A2 (v.n. dwayak) 1. (tr.) lodge. 2. unload ex daway sw zwy he 

unloaded the grain | saukar da, sauke 

dawun = d‰na (L) v.A2 (v.n. d˘nak”) 1. look for ex dawunya sy = d‰naya sy I 

looked for him. 2. try, seek to do. 3. court (woman) | nema; yi kxokxari 

day (L) v.A1 place, put | sa, ajiye 

dyday (T) adv.man. correct ex nkin kt” suw dyday that thing is exact | daidai 

dyn (HH) n.m. transplanted plant, transplantation | dashe 

drwtli (HH) n.m. (pl. dwtlyatlyw) leopard (Panthera pardus) | damisa 

di (T) num. tens (used to form ‘tens’ from 20-90) ex di tsr 20; di f”rf” bh”n 

mtsr 87 | gomiya 

di (H) n.m. (pl. daw) boundary | iyaka 

di f” (H L) num.card. forty | arbaíin 

di f”rf” (H HH) eighty | tamanin 

di kdi (H L) num.card. thirty | talatin 

di kciya (H L) num.card. ninety | casaíin 

di mha (H L) num.card. sixty | sittin 

di mts”r (H L) num.card. seventy | sabaíin 

di tsr (H L) num.card. twenty | ashirin 

di vtl” (H L) num.card. fifty | hamsin 

ddyadi (L) n.m. falling | fauwa


dndi (H) n.m. (pl. dndyandn) vagina, female genitalia | duri 

dng” (T) n.f. (pl. dngangw) ledge inside house used as bed | dinga 

dvin (L) n.f. foolishness, foolish behavior | wauta 

dy”m (T) n.f. hammer | guduma 

dyy (TH) n.f. hyrax, coney (Procavia capensis) | rema 

dyts” (L) n.f. (pl. dytstsw) a grain, kernel | waya, tsaba 

dytsaty (L H) n.f. eyeball | kxwayar ido 

dl”dl”r (L) v.A2 (v.n. dldl”rak” (f)) tremble ex t st dldl”ry he is trembling | yi 

karkarwa 

dlnt (TH) n.m., n.f. (pl. dlnttw) lion (Panthera leo) | zaki 

dlrky (TH) n.f. (pl. dlrkw) chicken, hen | kaza 

dldl”r (L) n.f. dum palm, dum fronds (Hyphaene thebaica) | goruba, kaba 

dlng”r (L) n.m. (pl. dlng”rrw) animal ex dlng”r nkm domestic animal; dlng”r 

ntsk”n wild animal | dabba 

dlr (T) n.f. (pl. dalrarw) bed | gado 

dlr (H) n.m. hunting ex mn n dlr I hunted | farauta 

dlramb” [dlramb”] (L) n.m. (pl. dlrambmbw) masquerader, dodo ex dlramb” 

b glaw “feathered dodo” | dodo 

dlramb [dlramb] (LH) n.f. (pl. dlrmbmbw) masquerader, tamatar dodo | 

tamatar dodo 

dlwar (L) n.m. anger, departure by angry wife ex atl sdlwary she (wife) angrily 

left her husband’s house | fushi, yaji 

d˙l (HL) conj. it is necessary, have to (requires subjunctive clause) ex d˙l f bwaf 

py you must come quickly | dole 

d‰na = dawun (L) v.A2 (v.n. d˘nak”) 1. look for ex dawunya sy = d‰naya sy I 

looked for him. 2. court (woman). 3. try, seek to do | nema; yi oari 

d˘y (HH) n.f. cassava (Manihot esculenta) | rogo 

dubu (T) num. thousand ex dbu wut 1000 | dubu 

dgwagum (L) n.m. (pl. dgwagummw) log | gungume 

dw = ndw (L) conj. 1. introduces direct quotations ex j tsyza duw, ìM b‰k”m 

íykw?î he asked her, “Where have you come from?”; Q: Duw, ìNa tiy m?î A: 

Duw, ìMiy tiy naí”.î Q: He asked, “What did your kill?” A: They answered, “We 

killed a duiker.”. 2. introduces indirect speech other than indirect questions ex d 

”ngatln dw dabaja s v zwy he says to them that this year he will perform the 

sorghum festival. 3. (preceding a proper name or a designation) called, named ex wya 

kacmba wn dw L [there is] a certain ugly girl called Labe | cewa, wai 

dwak” (L) n.m., n.f. (pl. dwakkw) horse ex dwak” dzh” stallion; dwak” dzaku 

mare | doki 

dwm (TH) n.m. stirring stick | muciya 

Dzgay (HH) n.f. woman’s name | sunan mace 

dzh” (H) adj.m. (pl. ghnaw) (f. dzku) male (used to show masculine gender with 

lexically gender neutral roots) | namiji 

dza (L) v.D (v.n. dzhiy) sweep away, push away (water, sweepings, etc.) | ture, share 

dzb”n gts”r (HH L) n.m. type of green snake which climbs | maciji (iri) 

dzb”rku (HH) n.f. (pl. dzb”rkwakww) guinea fowl (Numida meleagris) | zabo 

dza” (HH) v.A1 (v.n. dzak) overturn | kife 

dzf” (H) n.pl. (pl. of jfana) males, husbands ex dzf” niytln your husbands | maza


dzku (L) adj.f. (pl. ghnaw) (f. of dzh”) female (used to show feminine gender with 

lexically gender neutral roots) ex dwak” dzaku mare; my dzaku Miya woman’; 

ngwiy dzku a female twin | tamata 

dzakwu (L) v.A1 (v.n. dzkwak”) begin | fara 

dzm (H) n.m. (pl. dzmamw) cowpeas, beans (Vigna sinensis) | wake 

dzar (L) v.A1 (v.n. dzrak” (f)) milk ex mn t dzr p I am milking | tatsa (nono) 

dzar (HH) v.A1 (v.n. dzrak (f)) disperse, scatter ex sb” dzaraya sy = sb” dzartln 

say the people scattered | watse 

dzaray (LH) v.A2 (v.n. dzrayak) distribute, share out, separate ex mn dzrayatln 

say I shared (it) out to them | raba, rarraba 

dzatl” (HL) v.A1 (v.n. dztlk”) kick | shura 

dzya (T) part. emphasizes imperative or other statment | mana 

dzwk” (L) n.m. (pl. dzwkkw) kapok tree (Ceiba pentandra) | rimi 

 

(H) part. (never phrase initial) moreover, as a continuation of the preceding (usually 

has no clear English translation) ex mi buway was” miy lumbuws” ndemeyi kwapa 

a s”nata kidi miy b ” we bring grass and cover it (fermenting grain) completely 

until it spends three days, and we uncover it again; wataw ta s”nuws” kidi kfin miy 

s ” that is it goes three days before then drink it | kuma 

”h”n (HL) v.A2 (v.n. yhyahyn (m), h”nk”) tie, attach; hobble | aure 

”m (HH) v.A1 (v.n. mak) 1. do; (intr.) be possible; (intr) be in effect, turn to; spend 

time (doing). 2. (intr.) be possible ex ”muws gm it’s possible. 3. (intr.) be in 

effect, turn to; spend time (doing) | yi 

mak wn (LH L) n.? playing | wasa 

”nga (HH) v.B (v.n. ng” (f), ngak) say, tell, talk, speak a language | ce, faa, 

gaya 

”var (HH) v.A2 (v.n. varak) faint, pass out ex ”vart say he fainted | suma 

a (L) v.D (v.n. hiy) defecate (with w” as object) | yi kashi 

a”ngaya (HH) v.B2 (v.n. ”ngangw, ”ngyak) talk over, discuss | tattauna 

h” [‰, ] (T) adv.loc, prep. in, inside ex tln ah” [] they are inside; tln 

h”z [z] they are inside it; zy h” [] go in! | ciki(n) 

ah” (HL) v.A1 (v.n. hk”) taste | taa 

ah”na (HL) v.A2 (v.n. h”nk”) put on girdles for dancing, etc. ex mn hnwan 

sy I girded myself | dxamara 

am (HL) v.A1 (v.n. mk”) 1. arrive; ex mn an s” Myay I have arrived at Miya. 2. 

be equal to | kai 

ml (HH) n.m. man’s name | sunan mutum 

mbar (LHL?) n.? belt, girdle | amara 

ngo (T) n.m. type of locust | fara (iri) 

riy (L) num. hundred ex riy wut 100; riy ë”n wt” 101; riy tsr 200 | ari 

y (H) n.m. (pl. yayw) mountain, rock | dutse 

(?) v.? ?short form of ”m | 

fw (TH) n.m. lower back | unumi


iy (HL) v.A1 (v.n. yk” (f)) follow ex y t”makw niywas” he followed his sheep; 

mn yws Nayr vtl” he owes me five Naira | bi 

iy (HH) v.A1 (v.n. yak) cook; be cooked ex iy sw sp”ny she cooked tuwo’; 

sp”n iyt sy the tuwo cooked | dafa, dafu 

rr (HH) n.m. grey heron (Ardea cinerea) | zalbxe 

yhyahyn (TL) n.m. tying, attachment | auri 

ymyam (THH) adj. bitter ex g‰r yamyamna bitter kola; kwm 

ymyamya bitter mahogany | aci 

E 

Ö = íy Ö (H) rel.loc. 1. the place that …, where … ex mn d˘na tsw s”natln 

dzb”rku I looked for eggs where the guinea fowls slept; batln kuw by they 

went in order to draw water. 2. (with nominalized purpose phrase) in order to ex 

k˙wnk buws tvi nuws” everybody was going out for his stroll. 3. (in dg-) 

when, upon having done ex dg mn zratln, d buwtln d” by tsgatlny 

when I called them, they came and sat down. 4. (in j-) the, subsequently ex bya my 

ty sw dmy, j my ay after we had chopped down the tree, then we split (the 

wood) | inda . 

e see a- (palatalized nouns beginning in “a”) | 

m (T L) interr.adv. why?, what for? ex Q: f bukw m? - A: rma tlwiy Q: why 

did you come? - A: in order to eat meat | don me? 

wuty (TH) adv.man. 1. at one place ex m hasuw ghmm wty let’s join 

ourselves in one place. 2. together ex tln d ndwuti n bngwar they were 

together with their arrow quivers; yr nm wtyw we don’t speak the same 

language | tare 

wya (TH) adv.time some day, one day, a certain time ex sw kwp wya see you 

later (only until another day); j d ír mku wya ka d btln tyr Mngla 

d jy ma hyra they they would fix a day (a day some day) and they would go and 

chat at Manglia’s place | wata rana 

y (TH) det.loc. the place in question, there ex d p ghmatln y they join forces 

there (they join their heads at the place in question) | wurin, wajen 

yn + complement (TH) det.loc. (complement is a noun or an inalienable pronoun) the 

place of (noun) ex j buws yn by they went to the (place of the) water; d p nd 

ynwas” wut they would pour (it) in just his one place | wurin, wajen 

f” (L) num. four ex sb” f four people | hudxu 

ff” (TH) num. eight ex sb” frf” eight people | takwas 

fak” (HL) v.A1 (v.n. fkk”) rub, wipe on, paint | shafa 

F


fp” (H) n.m. foam, froth | kumfa 

fra (bor) v.B2 bor (v.n. frk”) 1. happen ex m frtln? what happened?. 2. start, 

begin ex mn fr sy I started | faru; fara 

fwfaw (THH) adj. light (in weight) ex sm fawfawna lightweight person; zkiy 

fawfawya lightweight stone; kt” fawfawni lightweight things | mara nauyi 

fay (L) v.A1 (v.n. fyak”) blow ex fay sw pary he blew the horn | busa 

fy (H) n.f. (pl. fyayw) flour | gari 

fn (L?) n.f. beehive | amya 

G 

g- … + imperfective aux. (in complementary distribution with gm, q.v.: g- is used only 

with imperfective aux , gàm elsewhere; mutually exclusive with súw (… -áy), q.v., 

with which it seem to have functional similarities) 1. (aspect marker always used in 

conjuction with imperfective aux ) functions as a logical operator particularly, though 

not exclusively, associated with yes/no questions and concessive conditionals; as an 

imperfective, it is associated with future and habitual, but not progressive senses ex t 

g- zaraza wa? will he call her? (cf. corresponding statement t s-zrazay he will 

call her); tn g- tluws” piy Kasham, t g- ma ban kwna ín my even if 

Kasham is leaving in a hurry, he will take his leave of us; (non-verbal sentence) f g- 

mr wa? do you have any money?; Ndwya g- mr = Ndwya s- mr Nduya has 

money. 2. (with locative y) exists, there is ex mm wiy d gy, ngnuws” jy 

Gwrama but there is another one, his name is Gwarama | 

gdlamby (HH?) n.? bark (of tree) ex gdlamby dmb”r baobab bark | awo 

gdlaniy (L) n.f. (pl. gdlaniyyw) woven tray used to serve tuwo (made of rw) | 

faifai 

ganzakway (L) n.m., n.f. (pl. ganzakwayyw) spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) | 

kura 

gga” (L) n.f. (pl. ggaw) zana mat | zana 

ggal (H) n.m. jujube (Ziziphus mauritiana or Z. abyssinica) | magarya 

ggaw (H) n.m. bug, insect | waro 

g”la (L) v.B (v.n. glak” (m)) roast, grill ex mn gla tlw I grilled meat; tlwi g”lata 

sy the meat became grilled | gasa 

g”m (L) v.A1 (v.n. gmak”) join, meet ex my gm darh” we met on the road | haa, 

gama 

g”may (HH) v.A2 (v.n. g”mayak) intercept | tare 

g”r (L) v.A1 (v.n. grak”) show, point out | nuna 

g”ra (L) v.B (v.n. grak”) move aisde, get out of the way ex mn gratln say I got out 

of their way | gusa, ba wani wuri 

grnna (TH) n.m. Acacia senegal or A. dudgeoni, a source of gum Arabic | akwara, 

arara 

grdaku (L) n.f. lower legs of cow | gana 

g”s” (L) v.A1 (v.n. gsak”) 1. accept, take thing offered ex mn gs” sw lbshy 

nuwnay I received my salary. 2. take away from ex g”san swihi tuwnay he took my 

things away from me. 3. answer | kara; wace; amsa


g”t” (L) v.A1 (v.n. gtak”) open | bue 

gtak” ta ghns (L T L) n.? lightening | waliya 

g”tla (L) v.B (v.n. gtlak” (m)) belch ex g”tla sy he belched | yi gyatsa 

ga (L) v.D (v.n. ghiy) lie in wait for | sana 

g- (L) aux. (in gn, gy) introduces first person hortatives, let me…, let’s… ex gn 

buwn let me go; gy bm let’s go | in, mu 

g (L) aux. g- + imperfective auxiliary ; see g- | 

gbs (TL) adv.loc. east | gabas 

g”n (L) adj. a little ex tsan mr g”n he gave me a little money; mn sbiy g” 

I’ll drink a little water | kadxan 

g”n (L) quant. a little ex tsan mr g”n he gave me a little money; mn sbiy 

g” I’ll drink a little water | kaan 

g”na (L) adj. (pl. gy‰n) (f. gyiya) small, short ex vrk” gna small boy’; 

kwmbal ga”na short stick’; wn gyiya small girl; wtl”m gy‰n small 

children | arami, gajere 

gday (T) n.f. (pl. gdayayw) machete; sword | adda, takobi 

gd˘ (TL) n.? inheritance | gado 

gag”s” (L) v.A2 (plac. of g”s”) 1. accept. 2. take away from. 3. answer | kara;wace; 

amsa 

ghuw (H) n.m. (pl. ghuwww) stalks | kara 

gjal dzh” (T) n.m. (pl. gjal ghnaw) (f. gjal dzku) short (person) | gajere 

gjay (bor) v.A2 bor (v.n. gjyak) inherit ex mn gj ghrf‰ dz”h” nuwun I 

inherited from my father; mn gjya sw I inherited from him | gada 

gjiy (LHL) n.m. tiredness, fatigue | gajiya 

glak”y (L) n.m. collar bone | ashin wuya 

glaw (H) n.? (used in dlramb” glaw) feathered dodo | dodon fikafikai 

gliy (L) n.f. (pl. gliyyw) huge calabash | masaki 

glw dzh” (LH?) n.m. (pl. glw ghnaw) (f. glw dzku) slave | bawa 

gm = gn (L?) aux. (in complementary distribution with g, q.v.: g- is used only with 

imperfective aux , gàm elsewhere; mutually exclusive with súw (… -áy), q.v., with 

which it seem to have functional similarities) 1. (following a verb in TAMs other than 

imperfective) seems to imply inclusion as part of a set; particularly frequent in yes/no 

questions and concessive conditionals ex zraza gam (conditional future) he will call 

her; mn ta mar gm m‰t m ghraza, mn glw even if I get an old car, I want it. 

2. (with ‘know’ and perhaps other verbs) seems to have function equivalent to sw (Ö 

-y) ex mn snya gam = mn snya s-y I know him; mn sn gan sm b buws I 

know the man who came. 3. in addition to, including (cf. meaning #1 of ) ex wy gan 

wnka others, too, are like that; j tluws í”f ín tuws íf wtl”my nywas” gan 

ty then he arose with his wife and his children as well as him(self) | ko, har da 

Gmar (TL) n.m. man’s name | sunan mutum 

gn = gm (L?) part. (see gm for examples) even, also (seegm for discussion) | ko, har 

da 

gnd” (H) n.f. (pl. gndandw) thick hide of a cow, elephant, etc. ex gnd” ywun 

elephant hide | fata mai kauri 

gng” (L) n.m. (pl. gngngw) pink-backed pelican (Pelecanus rufescens) | kwasakwasa 

gng”h”n (TH) n.f. praying mantis | oi-oi 

gngan grna (L H) n.m. large drum held on knees | babban kia 

gngam (L) n.m. (pl. gngammw) drum | ganga


gngangam ga”na (L L) n.m. large drum held over shoulder | aramin kia 

gnya (L) n.m. communal labor | gayya 

gra (H) n.? important (person) ex gra b sn gàra bá sn | babba 

grab” (L) n.m. (pl. grabbw) ribs [Skinner ‘chest’] | haarari 

grna (H) adj. (pl. gyruwni [gruwni]) (f. gyrya) big, important ex mbrgu grna 

big ram; tmku gyrya big ewe; tmakw gyruwni big sheep (pl) | babba 

Gsa (L?) n.f. woman’s name | sunan mace 

gskwt” (LHH) n.? truth | gaskiya 

gatl”gatl” (?) id. ideophone | amsa amo 

gay (HH) v.A1 (v.n. gyak) wait for ex mn gytl say I waited for her | jira 

gzam (H) n.f. (pl. gzammw) cat | kyanwa, mage 

gy = jyy (TH) existential there is (see g-) ex tln gywa? are they there?; m b”l 

m gynghm you didn’t say where you are | akwai 

| 

ghd” (H) n.f. (pl. ghdadw) fish | kifi 

gh”dza (HH) v.B (v.n. ghdzak) 1. (tr., intr.) turn, roll, look back ex gh”dza sw 

ndwuly he turned the pot; gh”dzat say he turned around; ghdzak bng” 

performing rituals, beginning a festival. 2. become ex saboda d” gh”dzatl”n wutl” 

bazam in order that they become young men (referring to boys being circumcized) | 

juya, waiwaya; zama 

gh”ma (HH) v.B (v.n. ghmak (m)) climb, mount ex gh”mat s ghama dwaky he 

mounted the horse | hau 

gh”may (HH) v.A2 (v.n. ghmayak) lift up, raise | hawar, tayar 

gh”na (L) v.B (v.n. ghnak” (f)) change into, metamorphose ex gh”n ganzakway 

he turned into a hyena | rikia 

ghnak” ta ghns (LLL L HL) n.f. storm (transformation of the sky/god) | hadiri 

ghnaw (L) adj.pl. pluralizer used with some humans and animals which show gender 

with dz@h@ and dzaku, q.v. ex ngwiy ghnaw twins; gmb” ghnaw Roan 

antelopes; gjal ghnaw short people | jamíi 

ghns” (L) n.m. god; rain; sky ex d‰s ghns” it rained; ghns” jt dwaw it is 

raining | Allah, ruwan sama, sama 

gh”nts” (L) v.A2 (v.n. ghmats” (m), ghntsak”) laugh ex mn ghnts” sy I laughed | 

yi dariya 

ghrs” (H) n.m. cane rat, grasscutter, cutting grass (Thryonomys swinderianus) | gyazbi 

ghruw (L) n.f. (pl. ghruwiy) cow ex wna ghrw, wtl” ghrwiy calf, calves | 

saniya 

ghrwan (L) n.f. aardvark (Orycteropus afer) | dabgi 

ghuw (H) n.m. (pl. ghuwww) wood | itace 

ghj (TL) interr.adv.time when? ex nyn ghj? when will he see you? | yaushe? 

ghjky (TLH) quant.univ. (only as the head of a generic clause; see k‰ghaj) 

whenever …, anytime that … ex t nm gam ghjky, d t”rmy whenever he saw 

us, he would greet us | koyaushe . 

ghm (H) n.f. (pl. ghmamw) 1. head; on; -self; (with linked genitive) peer, age mate; 

(with tool) handle ex kiya wyh ghamtl”n they took the load on their head. 2. (with 

tool as possessor) handle ex ghma gti axe handle. 3. on ex tln ghma zkiy they 

are on the rock | kai; kan; ota 

ghm (H) n.f. (pl. ghmamw) 1. (with direct genitive) self ex my nay ghmma we 

saw ourselves. 2. (with linked genitive) peer, age mate ex ghm tuwun/ghn tza ‘my 

peer/her peer | kai;tsara, saía


ghma Ö (H) n.m, n.f. handle of …, attachment for … | ota, maauri 

ghma am (H T) n.f. termite hill | suri 

ghma y (H H) n.m. rock outcropping | kan pa, pa 

ghma srm (H L) n.? knifepoint | tsinin wua 

ghma shm (H H) n.m. penis head | kan bura 

ghmats” (L) n.m. laughter | dariya 

ghma vuwshi = vwshi (H L) n.m. (pl. vwshshw) rubbish heap | juji 

ghan (L) v.A1 (v.n. ghnak” (m)) 1. build. 2. mould (pot). 3. weave | gina, sakxa 

ghn ta- (H T) n.f. peer, age mate ex ghn tuwun my peer; ghn tza her peer | tsara, 

saía 

ghar (L) v.A1 (v.n. yerti (m), ghrak”) grow old | tsufa 

ghrahaw dz”h” (H) n.m. (pl. ghrahaw) (f. ghrahaw dzku) 1. old person. 2. parent | 

tsoho; mahaifi 

ghrnw (HH) n.m. dodon buzu (the main dodo of the Kvr festival) | dodon buzu 

gti (H) n.m. (pl. gtayw) axe | gatari 

Gtuw (TL) n.m. man’s name; one of the founders of Miya | sunan mutum 

gy (H?) n.m, n.f. (in gy + tool) worn out tool ex gya tlp worn out hoe; gya gti worn 

out axe; gya srm worn out knife; gyaza it’s worn out | dumbun kaya 

g‰day (bor) v.bor. (v.n. g‰dyak) thank ex mn g˘d sw thank you | gode 

g‰r (TL) n.m. kola nuts | goro 

gudz” (L) v.A1 (v.n. gdzak”) 1. measure, weigh ex mn gdz” sw zwy I weighed 

the sorghum. 2. point at, take aim at; threaten | nuna, auna 

gmb” dzh” (T) n.m. (pl. gmb” ghnaw) (f. gmb” dzku) roan antelope 

(Hippotragus equinus) | gwamki 

gmb” (H) n.m. (pl. gmbambw) large round gourd | gora 

gmbul (L) n.f. belly | tumbi 

gts”r (L) n.m. (pl. gts”rrw) mucous; cold (the illness) | majina, mura 

guw (L) v.A1 (with verbal noun) just do, do abruptly ex gw nd bh/bhy‰n / gw 

nd bh just go (m/f, pl); mn gw th I just ate (it) | yi kawai 

gz”m (L) n.m. (pl. gz”mmw) Nile monitor (Varanus niloticus) | guza 

gwa (L) v.D (v.n. gwhiy) spend a long time, last | jima, dae 

gw”sam (L) adj. thick (in size) ex gh” gwa”sanna thick wood; ttsiy gwa”sanya 

thick tendon; sb” gwa”sanni thick people | kauri 

gwgm (TH) n.m. (pl. gwgmamw) dove (Streptopelia spp.) | kurciya 

gwgwas” (L) n.m. (pl. gwgwassw) elbow | gwiwar hannu 

gwl (H) n.m. type of locust | fara (iri) 

gwlf” (L) n.f. chieftainship, kingship | sarauta 

gwnagwn (HH) n.m. (pl. gwnagwnamamw) stink ant | gwano 

gwngwan (L) n.m. gate, doorway | ofa 

gwr dz”h” (L) n.m. (pl. gwr gh”naw) (f. gwr dzku) bachelor, divorced man; 

divorced person | gwauro, tuzuru 

gwarza (HH) v.A2 (v.n. gwarzhiwt” (m), gwrdzak) grow up, grow | girma 

gwatl” (L) v.A1 (v.n. gwtlak”) give a sideways blow, butt ex gwatl”tla sy he 

knocked her aside | mangara, tunkwiya 

gwym (TH) n.m. (pl. gwymamw) yam (Dioscorea spp.) | doya 

gy” (L) quant. a little, a few ex mr gna = mr gy” a little money; ghruwi 

gyni = ghruwi gy” a few cattle | kaan 

gy”-gya” (L) quant. a little | kaan-kaan


gyiya (L) adj.f. (pl. gy‰n) (f. of g”na) small, short ex wn gyiya small girl | 

arama, gajeriya 

gy‰n (L) adj.pl. (pl. of g”na) small, short ex wtl”m gy‰n small children | 

anana, gajeru 

gyagiya (L) v.B2 (v.n. gygiyak” (f)) learn, teach, imitate | koya, koyar, kwaikwaya 

gym (L?) n.m., n.f. (pl. gymamw) friend ex gymwun my friend; gyma Vaziya 

Vaziya’s friend | aboki 

gyruwni [gruwni] (H) adj.pl. (pl. of grna) big, important ex tmakw gyruwni big 

sheep (pl.) | babba 

gyrya (H) adj.f. (pl. gyruwni [gruwni]) (f. of grna) big, important ex tmku 

gyrya big ewe | babba 

H 

hmay (L) adj. empty ex ndwul hmyna empty pot; tsdy h”myya empty alleyway; 

kt” hmyni empty things | fanko 

h”r (HL) v.A1 (v.n. hrk”) prevent | hana 

h”ra (L) v.B (v.n. hrak”) grind with water ex h”ra zuw gam she ground sorghum | 

nia 

h (T) n.? 1. (always with complement) place of; to, toward ex by m hmw there’s 

no water where we are; t buws ha niy bh” he goes to his family. 2. (with some 

locational nouns used as locative adverbial) of, that of ex my zama kan h Kasham 

we entered Kasham’s compound (cf. mn nay km Ksham ‘we saw Kasham’s 

compound’, where ‘compound’ is not adverbial) | wurin; zuwa; -n/-r (wuri-n .) 

híar (H) nlml ( híarrw) fat (on meat) | kitse 

hm b r”mak” (T H T) n.? food (that must be chewed, e.g. meat, peanuts) | abinci 

hcww (TH) n.m. early morning ex ta m ham b ta hacwwu they didn’t eat i 

nthe early morning | safe, sassafe, asuba 

hal (L) v.A1 (v.n. hlak”) protect, defend, guard, screen off ex mn hl sw knwany I 

protected/screened off my house | tsare, kare 

hm ba Ö (T) n.pl. 1. thing for…, thing that…, ingredient for… ex nkin ham b taw 

this food; hm ba frtln he thing that happened. 2. matter, affair | abin (da); shaíani, 

alíamari 

ham (HL) v.A1 (v.n. hmk”) yawn ex h hamw he yawned | yi hamma 

hm b rf” (T H H) n.? ingredients for miya | kayan miya 

hm b sw (T H H) n.? something to drink (kunu, beer, etc.) | abin sha 

hm b tw (T H H) n.pl. food (of people only--cf. thy) | abinci 

hr (T) prep., conj. (indicates a time or an an activity continues up to a specified time, 

extent, or end point; compare kwfa = kwpa, which indicate an elapse of time or 

hiatus after which a time or activity commences) 1. until, up until (sometimes 

redundantly combined with bhy) ex hr bahy zhr up until mid-afternoon; nj g 

p dzf” hr vtl” she will attract as many as five suitors; kw p t dm ka hr d 

r”tlzy when they (locusts( pour onto the tree, they even knock it over. 2. (hr ynz 

< Hausa, hr c˘nkn) moreover, in addition to that ex d sk pyak Bgaw hr 

ynz they again put Bugaw back on the throne; har cokan” wiy g”gau jiyyi ba na


zaruws ng”nuws” jiy dad”m gyaa-gyaa in addition there is a certain insect that 

one calls its name as tiny dadim | har 

hwiya mku (T H) adv.time next year | bai 

Hwun (T) n.m. man’s name | sunan mutum 

hay (HL) v.A1 (v.n. hyk”) answer | amsa 

hv”n (HH?) adv.time last year | bara 

hiya (L) v.B (v.n. hyak” (f), hyk” (f)) dislike ex mn hytla sy I dislike her; nj 

kw d hiya hy jif” nza ynn she disliked her husband a lot | i 

h˘ (L) interjection yes | i 

i- see íi- | 

I 

J 

j- Ö part., cop., aspect contracted form ofjy before vowel | ne/ce 

j (H) part. (form of jy when contracted with a vowel and sometimes an alternate of jy 

in other contexts) 1. (introduces non-verbal predicate) be ex kma vwagwahi ta 

My j” mtsr moreover the town of Miya is (divided into) seven (quarters); wtaw 

dwky t knn j nd k”n sm wut that is the wealth of your household is in the 

hands of one person. 2. (with aux in ‘have’ and locative sentences) shows question or 

focus of subject ex Q: w j- dwak” tsr? - A: mn j- dwak” tsr Q: who has 

two horses? - A: I have two horsss; Q; w j-lma? - A: ysuwan j-lm Q: who is in 

the hut? - A: my younger brother is in the hut | 

jrk (TH) n.m. (pl. jrkww) patas monkey (Erythrocebus patas) | biri 

j (H) aux. see j, jy | 

Jl (TL) n.m. man’s name | sunan mutum 

jng”r (L) n.m. black kite (Milvus migrans) | shirwa 

j (H irreg) conj., part. (possibly a contraction of jy or j with , i.e. “it was there”) then 

(connective in perfective discourse) ex íiyk j tatray. J ngay s”n 

nGtuw, Ö J gray bwuws” s”n nMngil. J tsiyws anduwÖ 

Thereupon they greeted each other. The man from Giruwa said to him, … The man 

from Mangila showed him where he came from. He asked him … | sai 

jfana (H) n.m. (pl. dzf”) male; husband ex jfa nza her husband; jf” n„„m your 

husband | namiji; miji 

jfana tw (L H) n.? type of broad-headed arrow | fasa 

jhj (LHL?) adv.time time of… | lokacin. 

jmin (LH?) n.f. ostrich (Struthio camelus) | jimina 

jy (H irreg) part., cop., aspect (becomes j- before vowel) 1. (= by)particle of uncertain 

meaning inserted following TAM auxiliaries in negative subjunctive and all nominal


TAMs except focused subject perfective ex wy ta jiy bws tsgaya ts”pr 

camzw let no one go to unrinate at night; L d” bz d jy bla sb” ny 

kntl”n Labe went and told the people living in the house; tk”may m jy mka 

noom go and doin your living. 2. focused subject marker in non-verbal and 

imperfective sentences ex Q: w jy zruwsa? - A: mn jy zruws” Q: who will call 

him? - A: I will call him.; Q: w jy malv, Ndwya k˙ R˘ya? - A: R˘ya jy malv, 

d m Ndwyaw A: who was chief, Nduya or Roya? - A: ROOYA was chief, not 

Nduya. 3. introduces a proper name as a predicate ex t˘ dam ngnuws” jy Gtw 

well as is known his name was Gituwa | ne/ce 

jyy = gy (TH) existential there is ex jiy mar wy wuriy, mdzay jyey he found 

a certain place, and there was land there | akwai 

jyk (TL) n.m., n.f. grandchild ex jyk nuwun/tuwun my grandson/-daughter | jika 

jka = jkn (LH) cop. …it is (equivalent to Hausa kenan, giving a sense of finality to 

what precedes) ex wtaw b km jyka that is, it is he who is the householder; 

dwnya wan jykn wa? so that’s how the world is, is it? | ke nan 

jykn, jyk (LH) existential (contraction of jy or j with íykn, íyk ‘there’) …it is 

(equivalent to Hausa kenan, giving a sense of finality to what precedes) ex wtaw b 

km jyka that is, it is he who is the householder; dwnya wan jykn wa? so that’s 

how the world is, is it? | kenan 

K 

k”a (HH) v.B (v.n. kk) scoop up, scoop out (non-liquid) | iba 

kk (TL) n.f. (f. of dd) female in-law | surukuwa 

k”la (HH) v.B (v.n. klak (f)) sweep ex mn kla sw kny I swept my house | share 

km (T) n.m. (pl. kmamw) hand ex kmn my hand | hannu 

k”may (HH) v.A2 (v.n. kmayak) (tr., intr.) spoil, become spoiled ex k”may 

swihitnay he spoiled my things; whi k”mytln say my things spoiled | ata, aci 

km g”na (T L) n.m. little finger ex kmn g”na my little finger | an yatsa 

kn, kn (L T) det. (has low tone in deictic clauses, toneless (copies preceding tone) 

elsewhere) 1. topic marker when the topic is understood in a proximal sense (compare 

k, definition #2) ex nak”n biy k”n, a kamta miy buwma ndyan miy jiy daa 

bahiy tu as for this water, we should all go and dredge out (the pond) some more; t‰ 

n”na k”n nj” ma s biy ”huw well now indeed she will not drink water out of it. 2. 

(clause final in presentative sentences with a proximal sense, compare k, definition 

42) here is… ex ny g˘r˙ kn here are some kolas; n kaf”ma b wn kn 

dkunf” here is it, the girl’s father has sent us to you. 3. formative suffixed to give 

proximal sense to a number of deictic bases (compare k, definition #5) ex nk”n, 

tk”n, nyk”n this (m), this (f), these; wnk”n thus; wdwnya wan jykn wa? so 

that’s how the world is, is it? | nan 

k”n (HL) v.A1 (v.n. knk” (f)) count | irga 

k”na (L) v.B (v.n. knak” (f)) 1. buy. 2. marry ex mn knatla sy I married her | saya; 

aura 

k”ra (L) v.B (v.n. kr (f), krak”) steal ex k”ra mr he stole money; ”m akr he 

stole | sata


kr” (L) n.m. thirst | ishirwa 

k”rm = k”r”m (L) v.A2 (v.n. krmak” (f)) 1. scoop up, collect and remove. 2. take up an 

activity ex krmaka gngam krmaka gngam | kwashe 

ktlh” (TH) n.m. tilapia, cichlid perch (Tilapia spp.) | karfasa 

kv”k” (L) n.f. (pl. kv”kkw) Bosc’s or savannah monitor (Varanus exanthematicus) | 

damo 

kv”n (L) n.f. (pl. kv”nnw) buffalo (Syncerus caffer) | auna (Syncerus caffer) 

k, k (H irreg) det. (has rather irregular tonal behavior) 1. the, the one in question 

(marks a noun as being previously introduced or implied in a discourse, esp. when 

topicalized) ex sb” tsr ka tln j t mwsyy ghama ba fr buwak the two 

men (in question) were disputing about who was the first to come; nka sn ka t jy 

ba t” da sr kmas” as for that man, it is he who is the one who is in charge of the 

celebration. 2. topic marker when the topic is understood in a neutral or distal sense 

(compare kn, definition #1) ex wiy l‰kaciy ka a r”ma r”ma bahiy kidi sometimes 

[the locusts] will eat [the crops] up to three [times[. 3. clause final formative in 

conditional clauses and optionally in ‘before’ clauses ex jfana kw nya wn gyiya 

k, t tn s luwza k, d ”ngatls nduw, Ö a man, if he sees a young girl and if 

he loves her, then he says to her…; kf”n tshiy yuw k, nata sy before the 

breaking of the dawn, it will have fermented. 4. (clause final in presentative sentences 

with a distal sense, compare kn, definition #2) there is… ex ny ywunnw yka k 

there are some elephants over there; ny hm b marwn k here’s what happened to 

me. 5. formative suffixed to give distal sense to a number of deictic bases (compare 

kn, definition #3) ex nka, tka, nyka that (m), that (f), those; wnka thus; Ndwya 

jiyka Nduya is who it is | -n/-r, idan 

kÖk (H) conj. if, when (for some speakers =kw Ö k, see for explanation of 

function) ex k g r”dza ka, miy m”na b”saw when the afternoon comes, we wash it 

again | 

kb” (H) n.f. (pl. kbabw) man’s gown | riga 

kcmba (TL) adj. ugly ex wya kacmba wn an ugly girl | mugu 

ka” (HL) v.A1 (v.n. kk”) shake ex ka suw dk”manay he shook the bottle 

gourd | rau da 

kaf” (L) v.A1 (v.n. kfak”) 1. send (a person), ex mn kfiya dkna malm I send him 

to the (place of the) chief. 2. (in ~ cm) send a message ex ba wun ka d” kaf can 

didiwas” the girl’s father sends (a message) to his son-in-law | aika 

kf” (H) n.m. scar | tabo 

kf”n (L) prep., conj. (requires subjunctive with verbal clause) before ex kf”n f by 

tsgafa lm, mn klaf k”lw before you sit down in the hut, I will sweep it for 

your; wya íam kf”n myza, nj kn dzf” vtl” a woman, before she dies, might 

marry five men; kf”n wy l‰kci d” m”na íra wiy t after awhile (before a certain 

time) they yet again brew beer | kafin 

kk (HH?) n.m., n.f. (pl. no plural) grandparent | kaka 

kk”ns (HH) n.m. puff adder (Bitis arietans) | kasa 

kk”r (L) n.f. (pl. kk”rrw) shoe | takalmi 

kk”tlriy (TL) id. clattering | 

kl (T) id. indicates striking ex Anguna d” gudza gudza tukus”m duw kal! nji 

Anguna took aim on the hedgehog the bam with her | amsa amo 

kal (HH) v.A1 (v.n. klak) cut through, across ex my kl atsk”n we cut through the 

bush | ratse


klak” (T) n.f. useless, worthless ex sm b kalak” useless person; ím m kalak” 

useless woman | banza 

klakl (HH) n.m. potsherd | tsingaro 

klp” (T) n.m. strength ex sm b kalp” strong man; ím m kalp” strong woman; sb” 

sba kalp” strong people; sm b kw kalp” weak person | arfi 

km (H) n.m., adv.loc (pl. kmamw) 1. compound; house, home. 2. hometown | gida; 

garin. 

kam (HL) v.A1 (v.n. kmk”) pull, pull off, pull away | ja, janye 

km (L) part. as for (topic marker) ex Mmmn duw t km, t ”ma awr L 

Mamma said that as for him, he would marry Labe | kam 

kmt (LHL) v.A2 be fitting ex kamt d” bway mir Kshm Kasham should 

bring money | kamata 

knd- = k- (TL) quant.univ. (compounded with an interrogative adejctive) every … ex 

knd wna km every house; knd wayya gh”ruw every cow; knd wn b 

shimk every householder | ko Ö 

kn srn (H L) n.? sheath | gidan wua 

kp (T) id. all | 

kraf” (L) n.f. (pl. kraffw) palm fronds | kaba 

krakara (L) adj. tall, long ex sm krkarana tall man; ín krakaraya tall woman; 

sb” krkarani tall people | dogo 

krtuw (L) n.m. reading, studying | karatu 

krf (TL) n.?, adv.time o’clock | arfe (na agogo) 

krmaya (L) n.m. dodo covered with leaves to waist, wearing loincloth | dodo (iri) 

krwa dzku (TL H) n.f. prostitute | karuwa 

kas” (HL) v.A1 (v.n. ksk”) sing | rera wa 

Ksay (HH) n.f. woman’s name | sunan mace 

Ksham (T) n.m. man’s name | sunan mutum 

ksuw (L) n.m. (pl. ksuwww) market ex mn buwn ksw I’m going to the 

market | kasuwa 

ktam (L) n.f. (pl. ktammw) ring | zobe 

ktl (T) id. indicates giving a blow ex d gudza gdza sh‰sh‰ d tiywsy katl! he took 

aim at the rooster and struck him katl! | amsa amo 

Kvr (TH) n.f. the principal Miya festival | bikin kavura 

kaw (L) v.A1 (v.n. kwak” (f)) fry in oil ex nj s kwa k˘syay she will fry bean 

cakes; tlwi b kwaw fried meat | soya, toya 

ky dzh” (H) n.m. (pl. ky gh”naw) (f. ky dzku) orphan | maraya 

ky (T) n.f. (pl. kyayw) fighting | faa 

kay (L) v.A1 (v.n. kyak” (f)) fan (verb) ex ”m ky fifayi she did fanning with a 

faifai | yi fifita 

kay (HL) v.A1 (v.n. ky (f), kyk” (f)) fight | yi faa 

kyrkyar (HHHL) adv.loc behind ex pk”wun kyarkyar my triceps; tln 

kyrkyar they are behind | bayan 

kyw (TH) n.m. (pl. kywaww) hornet | rina 

kdi (H) n.m. (pl. kdyadyw) giant rat (Cricetomys gambianus) | gafiya 

ki (H) n.m. (pl. kaw) clay bowl (used as food bowl in former times) | kasko 

kdi (L) num. three ex sb” kd three people | uku 

kn (H) n.f. (pl. knanw) co-wife ex knaza her co-wife; kn„„m your co-wife; 

knan‰z her co-wives | kishiya 

krr (THL) n.m. twigs, kindling ex krr d”m twigs, kindling | irare


krjiy (L) n.m. chest ex krjiywan my chest | irji 

ky (T) n.f. 1. (tr.) tending animals, ex mn n kiy I tended (animals). 2. grazing, 

feeding, foraging ex cw t kiy the goats are grazing | kiwo 

kiy (L) v.A1 (v.n. kyak” (f)) 1. take, pick up, carry ex mn ky swiyhay I picked up the 

load. 2. begin, set to | auka; fara 

kiy (HL) v.A1 (v.n. kyk” (f)) 1. bite ex íy kiywn sy the dog bit me. 2. bark (of dog) | 

ciza; yi haushi 

kyim (L) n.m. (pl. kyimmm) crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) | kada 

k˙ (H) conj., quant.univ. 1. or ex s”naw kidi ko f”” three or four days. 2. (compounded 

with an interrogative word = knd-) every …, any … ex k˙wnky everyone, 

anyone; k˙ghjky all the time, anytime (see k˙- compounds for other examples) | ko 

k‰ghaj = k‰ghajky (TL) quant.univ. (see ghjky for use as head of a generic 

clause) always, whevever, anytime ex nym k˙ghjky he saw us all the time | 

koyaushe 

k‰mky = k‰mnky (TLHL) quant.univ. (see mky for use as head of a generic 

clause) whatever, anything, everything ex mn t k˙mky I ate everything; wan 

knws k˙mnky he filled his house with everything | kome, komenene 

k‰wyy Ö (ky) (TLH) quant.univ. f. (f. of k‰wna Ö (ky); see wyy Ö (ky) 

for head of generic clause) every …, whichever … ex k‰wyya gh”ruw = k‰wyya 

gh”ruwky every cow | kowane . 

k‰wyyky (TLHL) quant.univ. f. (f. of k‰wnky; see wyy Ö (ky) for head of 

generic clause) whoever, anyone ex k˙wyyky nj ya dzm everyone (f) will cook 

beans | kowa, kowanene 

k‰wna Ö (ky) (TLH) quant.univ. m. (f. k‰wyy Ö (ky); see wyna Ö ky for 

head of generic clauses) every …, whichever … ex k‰wn km = k‰wn kmky 

every house | kowane . 

k‰wnky (TLHL) quant.univ. m. (f. k‰wyyky; see for head of a generic clause) 

whoever, anyone, everyone ex k˙wnky b”t say everyone came; Ksham g zara 

k˙wnky Kasham will call everyone | kowa, kowanene 

k‰ykw = k‰ykwky (TLH) quant.univ. (see ykwky for use as head of a generic 

clause) everywhere, anywhere, wherever ex my nay k‰ykw we looked everywhere | 

koíina 

kciya (L) num. nine ex sb” kcya nine people | tara 

kd (TL) adv.loc. south ex gbr ms˘ kd íf Mangla southeast of Mangila | 

kudu 

k” (H) n.m. the tree (Gardenia erubescens) | gaue 

kufa (HH) v.B (v.n. kf” (f), kfak) forge ex kufa sw tlpy he forged a hoe | 

kxera 

kf” (T) n.f. potash | kanwa 

kukwa (HH) v.B (v.n. kkwak (f)) sharpen (by pounding) ex kukwa tlp he 

sharpened the hoe | koa 

kukwa (HH) v.B (v.n. kkwak (m)) crow (rooster) ex sh‰sh‰ kkwa sy the rooster 

crowed | cara 

kkw (LL) interr.adv. how? (seems to be used only in standard greetings--cf. wnkwa) 

ex Q; F tlaf kkwa? - A: Nd lfiy. Q: Good morning. (How did you arise?) - A: 

Just fine.; Q: N tiya mku kkwa? - A: Nd lfiy. Q: Good afternoon. (How did 

you beat the sun?) - A: Just fine. | ina?, yaya? 

kula (HH) v.B (v.n. klak”) extract, wrench out, pull out ex mn kla sw dlrkyay I 

plucked the chicken | cire, fige


kula (HH) v.B (v.n. kl (f), klak) clear bush | yi sassabe 

klkul (L) adj. deep ex gr kkulna deep hole; wh” klkulya deep sand; rrarw 

klkulna deep holes | zurfi 

kllum (T) adv.time always | kullum 

kma (H) part. (topicalizing particle) as for, indeed ex d k”rma ghd” tuws” tstl, 

nj kuma dw nj m gsw he took out his fish and gave it to her, but she said that 

she wouldn’t accept it | kuma 

kmy (TH) n.f. (pl. kmyayw) ear | kunne 

kuna (L) v.B (v.n. knk”) vomit ex tt kna kunw he is vomiting | harar 

knkl (TH) n.m. (pl. knklalw) cap | hula 

kunna (bor) v.B2 bor (v.n. knnk”) light a fire ex knn sy he lit it | kunna 

kuns” (bor) v.A2 bor (v.n. knsk”) wrap up, envelop ex kns sw g˘rwy he 

wrapped up the kolas | unsa 

knt” (T) n.f. bitter tomato Solanum incanum | gauta 

kura (L) v.B (v.n. krak”) miss (a shot) ex mn ff wy mm d kuruwny I shot 

at the francolin but I missed (she missed to me) | kuskure 

krma dzh” (T) n.m. (pl. krmamw) (f. krma dzku) deaf person | kurma 

krum (H) n.m. scoop made of calabash fragment | mara 

krum (H) n.m. plain tuwo | gayan tuwo 

ksam (L) n.m. (pl. ksammw) rat, mouse | bxera, kusu 

ksan (T) prep. nearly, almost | kusan 

ksy (TH) n.m. (pl. ksyayw) bone | ashi 

kt” (H) n.pl. (pl. ktatw) thing(s) | abu, abubuwa 

kt” niy atsk”n (H H H) n.? wild animal | naman daji 

ktuwur (L) n.m. basket used for transporting chickens, chicken coop | akurki 

kuwa (L) v.B (v.n. kwak”) draw water ex d btln d kw(a) by d buwy(a) 

kam they were going, drawing water, and bringing it home | jawo ruwa 

kwa (LH) part. topicalizing particle ex t Mammn kuw, vkyuws” myyw as for 

him, Mamman, he didn’t have a sister | kuwa 

kuwr (L) v.A2 (v.n. kwrak”) cut grass (with sickle) ex mn kwr ws nglat” I cut 

grass with a sickle | yanke ciyawa 

kw (F) interjection come on and…!, just…! (strengthens imperative) ex gsay kw! just 

take it! | mana 

kwa (H) v.D (v.n. kwhy (f)) lack ex mn kw sw mnnuwny I couldn’t find my 

money’; kwhya lfiywt illness | rasa 

kw (L) part. 1. how about…?, what about …? ex fy kw, fy tsn m? how about 

you, what are you going to give me?; wnkwa?, kkw? how?. 2. formative attached 

to certain deictics to make question words ex íykw? where? | fa? 

kw Ö k (H irreg) conj. if, when (as part of an event sequence, not simply a condition 

and a consequence; used only imperfectively, i.e. events not yet completed or habitual 

event sequences) ex kw buwatln k, kya ky whi ttlnay when they come, 

they will take their things; b kyr kw mra vya gtak” k, tzuws”zy when a 

thief finds a door open, he will enter | idan, in 

kwcay (bor) v.A2 bor wrest away, snatch ex kwcyan swhi tuwnay he snatched 

my things | wace 

kw (HL) conj. it is possible that (plus tensed clause) ex kw tl”n buw mr they 

may bring money; kw f m biy maytl”nw you might not see them; kw fa 

nytln myyw you cannot have seen them | mai yiwuwa 

kwiy (L) n.m. greed | kwadayi


kwfa = kwpa (T) prep., conj. (indicates an elapse of time or hiatus after which a time 

or activity commences, but sometimes seems to overlap with hr, which always 

indicates a time or an an activity continues up to a specified time or end point) 1. until, 

only until, after ex kwpa s”nt kd miy b not until it has gone three days do 

we uncover it; sw kwpa sw until tomorrow (standard leave taking--sw, q.v. 

seems redundant); d w say kwap tntln ynza she follows him to their house to 

her place. 2. (with perfective) have to, must ex mm kf”n pyayya dkuna niy 

bws” k, kwpa ”n tr tsr but bevore he (the child being weaned) is returned to 

the home of his parents, he has to spend two months (at the home of his uncle) | sai 

kwkws” (TH) n.m. fodder, leaves of beans, peanuts, corn | harawa 

kwkws” zway (TH H) n.? shell of peanuts | kwasfawo(n gyaa 

kwkwiy (T) n.m. (pl. kwkwiyayw) granary | rumbu 

kwm (H) n.f. mahogany (Khaya senegalensis) | maaci 

kwmbal (L) n.m. (pl. kwmballw) stick | sanda 

kwmbala íiji (L T) n.? pestle | taarya 

kwngwaliy (L) n.m. (pl. kwangwaliyyw) snail | katantanwa 

kwngwy (TH) n.m. (pl. kwngwyayw) fingernail | farce 

kwpa = kwfa (T) prep., conj. until, not until | sai 

kwar (L) v.A1 (v.n. kwrar” (m), kwrak”) cry out, shout ex Dlramb” kwar sy the 

dodo cried out | yi ihu 

kwrar” (T) n.m. shouting | ihu, kururuwa 

kwray (L) adv.man. good fortune, fine ex nd kwray (as response to various 

greetings) just fine | lafiya lau 

kwrkwadum (L) n.f. (pl. kwrkwad”mmw) Bambara groundnuts (Vigna 

suberranea) | gujiya 

kwarta (L) v.B2 (v.n. kwrtak”) dig by brushing away dirt | tona. yasa 

kwtay (L) n.f. (pl. kwtayyw) dust | ura 

kwtla (H?) adv.loc. below, under ex t kwtl ín t”kn it is under the chair; ír 

kwtl put it on the ground | asa (da) 

kwtla b” (H H) n.? area below the navel | ciki 

kwykway (THH) adj. hard (to the touch) ex zkiy kwyakwyya hard stone | tauri 

kwlati (L) n.m. (pl. kwlattw [kwl—ttw]) gourd ladle | ludayi 

kwry [kry] (TH) n.m. burnt tuwo | anzo 

Kwtat (TL) n.f. woman’s name | sunan mace 

kwiy (HL) v.A1 (v.n. kwyk”) catch, hold ex mn kwiiy suw ksamy I caught the rat | 

kama, rie 

Kwyta (L?) n.m. man’s name | sunan mutum 

kynw (TH) n.m. (pl. kynwaww) smoke | hayai 

kyrti (TL) n.m. height, tallness ex sm b kyarti tall man; ím m kyarti tall 

woman; sb” sba kyarti tall people | tsawo 

Kyraw (L?) n.m. man’s name | sunan mutum


L 

l”l”” (L) adj. weak, soft ex sm ll””na weak person; tk”n lll””ya soft chair | 

rashin kxarfi, laushi 

lf” (T) n.f. load carried on the back ex a n lf” he carried a load on his back | kaya 

l”ha (L) v.B (v.n. lhak”) loosen | sassauta 

lm (H) n.f. (pl. lmamw) hut ex lnhwun = ln tuwun my hut’; mn tsgawun 

lnhwun I stayed in my hut; mn nay ln tuwun I looked at my hut | aki 

lma kf” (H H) n.f. forge, smithy | maera 

l”mba (L) v.B (v.n. lmbak”) cover with blanket, grass, etc. | rufe 

lngr (TH) n.m. the fig tree Ficus polita | durumi 

la (L) v.D (v.n. lhiy) get well, recover | warke 

lbad” = ghma labad” (L) n.m. shoulder | kafadxa 

la” (HH) v.A1 (v.n. lak) mix mud | kwaa 

lfiywt” (TH) n.? good health ex nd lfiywt” nd lfiywát” | lafiya 

lh” (T) n.m. (pl. lhahw) jackal (Canis aureus) | dila 

lak” (L) v.A1 (v.n. lkak”) fear ex mn lkiya sy I fear him | tsorata 

lakuca (HH) v.A2 bor (v.n. lkucak”) tickle ex lakucatl say he tickled her | lakuce 

lkumiy (L) n.f. (pl. lkumiyyw) camel (Camelus dromedarius) | rakxumi 

lkumi t tsk”n (L T H) n.? giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) | rakxumin dawa 

llyuw [l¥lyuw] (L) n.m. clitoris | an tsaka,aniya 

lniy (L) n.m. (pl. lmiyyw) bullfrog | bududdugi 

lankwasa (bor) v.B2 bor (v.n. lnkwsayak) bend ex mn lankwsa sw zíy I bent 

the bow | lankxwasa, tankware 

law (L) v.A1 (v.n. lwak”) pick (fruit), pluck ex mn l˘ suw mngwarawy I picked the 

mango | cire 

lwur (T) n.m. sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) | dankali 

ly (H?) n.m. (pl. wtl”my) boy, son ex ly ga”na a small boy; ly nuwun my son | 

yaro, a 

lay (L) v.A1 (v.n. lhiy) cure, make well ex nk”n nyh lwn say this medicine cured 

me | warkar 

lay (HH) v.A1 (v.n. lyak) paint red | shafa wa ja 

l = ly (H?) n.m. son, boy | yaro, a 

lbedi (T) n.m. (pl. lybyadyadyw) medium-sized basket | kwando 

llmbi (HH) n.m. bull calf | marai 

l lbi (H? H) n.m. small hut | aki arami 

lmbi (H) n.m. (pl. lmbambw) bull | bijimi 

lbi (H) n.f. shelter | rumfa 

lr (TH) n.m. (pl. lrarw) needle | allura 

lvin (L) n.m. charcoal | gawayi 

lwr [lwr] (TH) n.m. the fig tree Ficus thonningii | ceiya 

Lyz (TL) n.m. man’s name | sunan mutum 

l‰kciy (TL) n.m. time ex ‰ naka l‰kaciy ka during that time; l˙kciy b ts”tsal kw 

ma ka, shyknn d fr p˙nkay the time for taxes, when it come, well then he 

begins to pay | lokaci 

lgud” (T) n.f. red earth | koya


Lmay (T) n.m. man’s name | sunan mutum 

lmfshi (T) n.m. breathing ex ”n sw lmfshiyy he breathed | lumfashi 

lw (L) v.def. 1. love, like ex mn lwza I love her; mn lw acn nuwun I like my 

work. 2. want ex mn lw d” buwsy I want him to go | so 

lw” (L) n.m. (pl. lww) occiput | yeya 

lyp” (L) n.m. crime, fault | laifi 

M 

Mdala (L?) n.m. man’s name | sunan mutum 

m” (H) n.m. (pl. maw) castrated goat | taure 

mdzay (H) n.f. earth | asa 

m”ma (L) v.B (v.n. mmak”) get lost ex mn mma sy I got lost | ata 

mna (L) num., interr.quant. how much?, how many? ex mr mn? how much money?; 

shw mn? how much oil?; cw mn? how many goats?; zkiy mn? how many 

stones? | nawa? 

m”na (L) v.B (v.n. mnak”) 1. (before a verb) do again ex d kiya tvi d m”na bytly 

he set to walking and took her again; kw mna ts yuw kÖ on the next day… 

(when again the dawn broke…). 2. (after a verb, with m added) once again ex kf”n 

ts”rk” ta mkuw, d zay(a) kuw mnmy before noon, they put fire to it once 

again. 3. fill in where crops fail to germinate ex m mna zuwy he filled in the 

sorghum | sake; ofa 

mr (H?) n.f. sesame (Sesamum orientale) | rii, nomi 

mr”m (L) n.f. (pl. mr”mmw) arrow shaft | kyaure 

m”ruw (HH) v.A2 (v.n. mruwk”) twist, wring ex mn mrw sa I twisted it | 

murdxe 

m”ts” (HL) v.A1 (v.n. mtsk”) sell ex mn mts suw zwy I sold the corn | sayar 

mzam, mzan dz”h” (H) n.m. (pl. mzamw) hunter, shooter | maharbi, mafarauci 

m (L) interr.pro. what? ex m jik n? what is it?; m mbyra kb” tafa? what tore 

your gown?; t”f m? what did he shoot?; f ”hn tbrma naf m? what did 

you bind your mat with?; ”m cna m? what kind of work did he do? | me? 

m- (T) n.f. (form used with possessor; citation form mh”) mother, aunt (maternal or 

paternal) ex mwun my mother; mf” your (m.s.) mother; mma our mother; m 

Vziya Vaziya’s mother | uwa, inna 

m (H) pro.rel.f. ( sba) (f. of b) 1. one who owns ex m mr rich woman. 2. one who 

does ex m yw madwoman; ím m kalak” good-for-nothing | mai 

ma (L) v.D (v.n. mhiy (f)) lose; forget ex mn m sw mrnuwny I lost my money | 

tar, yar; manta 

m Ö -w (H irreg) negative, aspect (post-verbal, enclosing a complement, if any in 

perfective; encloses entire predicate in all other TAMs and sentence types; m has a 

long vowel with equational and adjectival predicates, short elsewhere; see ta…-w for 

negative subjunctive) general negative for all sentence types except subjunctive ex 

zartla mw he didn’t call her; Ndwya zar m Kashamuw Nduya didn’t call 

Kasham; t m tuwsw he won’t accompany him; t m bta zhkuw he won’t untie 

the donkey; Ndwya m dwakw Nduya doesn’t have a horse; wtl”my m


íyk”nuw the children are not here; Ndwya d” m wyahndzhw Nduya is not a 

Hausa man; wy m twahuw no one is different | ba Ö ba 

mcm (TH) n.m. head pad for carrying load | gammo 

mdashi (H) n.f. (pl. mdashshw) okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) | kuewa 

mdz” (T) n.f. (pl. mdzadzw) river | kogi 

mg”dza (L?) adj. more than a year old ex mg”dza zw (m) sorghum more than a year 

old; mg”dza mr (f) millet more than a year old; mg”dza kt” (pl) things more 

than a year old | shekararre 

mgirbiy (T) n.? harvesting hoe | magirbi 

mh” (T) n.f. (citation form; m- with possessor) mother; aunt (maternal or paternal) | 

uwa, inna 

mha (L) num. six | shida 

myw (LH) n.f. millet | maiwa 

mak” (L) v.A1 (v.n. mykak (m) mkak”) 1. spend time ex mak” sy he spent time; 

sw kwpa mkk” until later (standard leave-taking). 2. stay, settle ex mak” yk”n 

he stayed here | jima; zauna 

mka k”n (H? T) n.m. thumb | babban yatsa 

mkasa (T) n.m. the guinea corn parasite Striga senegalensis or S. hermontheca | uduji 

mka ts”my (H? TH) n.m. big toe | babban yatsan afa 

mkwakwm (HH) n.? (in wtl” mkwakwm) baby | jinjiri 

mkwaya (H) n.f. woman | mace 

mlv (TH) n.m. (pl. mlvw) chief, king, leader of a festival | sarki, shugaba 

mm (TH) n.f. sicklepod (Senna obtusifolia) | tafasa 

mnd”r (L) n.m. (pl. mnd”rrw) spitting cobra | ganshea 

mnyw = myyw (TH) existential (negative of y) there is no…, there isn’t any… 

ex wyhan mnyw there is nothing; t mnyw he’s not here | babu 

mngana (L) n.m. black scorpion, possibly emperor scorpion (Pandinus emperator) | 

duwu 

Mngaw (T) n.m. man’s name | sunan mutum 

Mngla (TL) n.m. man’s name, one of the founders of Miya | sunan mutum 

mar (HL) v.A1 (v.n. mrk” (f)) 1. get, find. 2. discover that. 3. manage to do | samu 

mr”n dz”h” (L) n.m. (pl. mramaw) (f. mr”n dzku) sorcerer | maye, mayya 

mr” (L) n.f. (pl. mrw) millet | gero 

mriyak (HH) n.f. genet (Genetta genetta) | cimola, inyawara 

ms” (T) n.f. (pl. msasw) African catfish (Clarias lazera and other Clarias spp. or 

Heterobranchus bidorsalis) [internet has only Clarias gariepinus for ‘African catfish’, 

whereas Reed et al. do not mention this species] | tarwaa 

ms” (TH) n.f. hemp, kenaf (Hibiscus cannibus) | rama 

Msang (TL) n.m. man’s name | sunan mutum 

mts”r (L) num. seven ex sb” mtsr seven people | bakwai 

mtsaw, mtsaw (H?) n.m harvest season ex kw ”m mats‰ ka when harvest 

season comes | kaka 

my (H) n.f. hunger | yunwa 

myyw = myy = mnyw (TH) existential there is no…, there isn’t any… ex Q: 

g˙r myy? - A: g˙r myyw Q: Aren’t there any kolas? - A: there aren’t any kolas 

| babu 

m zyÖ? (T L) interr. why? ex m zy f k”na wa? why did you buy it? | don me?, me 

ya sa? 

mblam (H) n.m. (pl. mblammw) crowned crane (Balearica pavonina) | gauraka


mb”lm” = mb”l”n (L) v.A2 (v.n. mblmak”) blink, wink ex mb”lmiya sy = 

mb”linya sy she winked at him | kyifta ido 

mb”na (L) v.B (v.n. mbn (f), mbnak”) be good, be nice, be beautiful ex wshasham 

mb”nata sw the year was good; wn mb”natla sw wùn mb”natla súw | yi kyau 

mbrgu (L) n.m. (pl. mbrgwgww) ram | rago 

mb”shi (HL) v.A1 (v.n. mbshk”) extinguish ex mn mbsh skuway I put out the fire 

| bice 

mba (L) v.D (v.n. mbhiy) finish; be finished ex mn mb scanay I finished the work; 

cm mbt say the work is finished | are 

mb” (H) n.f. (pl. mbaw) thigh | cinya 

mbal (HL) v.A1 (v.n. mblk”) 1. pull out, pull off ex mn mbal suw sr”my I drew 

out the knife. 2. undress ex mn mbal say I undressed. 3. unhaft; become unhafted ex 

mn mbal suw gty I unhafted the axe; mblt s giti = gti mblt s the axe 

became unhafted. 4. put out head (grain) | cire; tue; kwae; fid da kai (hatsi) 

mbn (H) adj. good, beautiful, nice | kyau, kyakkyawa 

mbsak” (L) n.m or f. evil, bad, ugly ex dlyramb” b mbsak” evil dodo; nk”n 

malv ta mbsaka haliy this chief has an evil personality | mugu, mugunta 

mbsak” (L) n.f. smallpox | agana, ado 

mbtl” (L) adj., n.m. near, nearby ex vwagwahi j mbtl” the town is near; 

vwagwahi mbtlya nearby town; km mbtlna nearby house; kt” mbtlni 

nearby things | kusa, kusanci 

mblmbel (L?) adj. in the open, visible ex d sw gdlamby dmb”r nuws t”ds 

mblmbely thereupon his (clothes made of) baobab bark were out in the open | a fili 

mbidla (HH) v.B (v.n. mbdlak) melt ex shw mbidlat say the oil melted | narke 

mby (H) adj. 1. red ex ndwul mbyna red pot; dlrky mbyya red chicken; sb” 

mbyni red people. 2. European ex mbyna European man; mbyy European woman; 

mbyni Europeans | ja; Bature 

mbya sw (H H) n.f. fish with red tail (means “red tail”), probably tigerfish (Hydrocynus 

vittatus and probably other H. species) | irin kifi mai jar jela, tsage 

mbydl (TH) n.f. cucumber (Cucumis melo) | gurji 

mbyar (HL) v.A1 (v.n. mbyrk”) tear, rip; be torn, be ripped ex mbyaran sw kb” 

tuwny he tore my gown on me; bb” tuwun mbyrtl sw my gown tore | kece, 

yaga 

mky = mnky (TL) quant.univ. (only as the head of a generic clause; see k‰mky) 

whatever …, anything that … ex t kmaytln g mk, f sh”y whatever has 

spoiled, discard it | kome Ö 

mmniy (H) n.pl. (pl. of my) Miya people | Miyawa 

mmiy (L) n.f. sore, ulcer | gyambo 

mnky = mky (TL) quant.univ. (only as the head of a generic clause; see k‰mky) 

whatever …, anything that … ex t wn gam knws mnky, j dydayy 

whatever he fillls his house with, it’s just right | kome Ö 

mr dzh” (T) n.m. (pl. mr ghnw) (f. mr dzku) vervet monkey (Cercopithecus 

aethiops) | ira 

mr (H) n.m. (pl. mrarw) metal, money | kui, arfe 

miy (L) v.A1 (v.n. myaw (m), myak”) die ex miyta sy he died | mutu 

my dz”h” (H) n.m. (pl. mmniy) (f. my dzku) Miya person | Bamiyi 

my (H) n.? Miya ethnicity ex mlv” my the chief of the Miyas; vna my Miya 

language | Miyanci 

Mya (L) n.?, adv.loc. Miya town | garin Miya


myaw (L) n.m. death | mutuwa 

muw (T) n.f. (pl. muwaww) python, probably African rock python (Python 

sebae) | mesa, muuwa 

mku (H) n.f. (pl. mkwakww) sun, daytime ex tyak mku spending the day | rana 

mkwa (H) adv.time at midday ex s‰ mkwa they rested at midday | da rana 

mtsm (TH) n.f. tamarind (Tamarindus indica) | tsamiya 

N 

n aux. 1. formative of uncertain function that sometimes appears in negative imperfective 

and negative non-verbal sentencs ex nj m nluw jf” nzw she doesn’t love her 

husband; m d m n tsn? aren’t you going to give me any?; tard ían tuws” 

m nkmw he will find that his wife is not at home; íiyk t” m n ímw 

thereupon he no longer has a wife. 2. perhaps the same formative is see in t-n 

conditional with non-perfective clauses--see tn | 

nn (TH) adv.time today | yau 

n”tsay (HL) v.A2 (v.n. ntsyak” (m)) submerge, dive under water ex n”tsya sw ˘ 

byay he submerged under the water | nitse 

n (T) linker ( ny) (f. t) 1. genitive linker for masculine head noun. 2. head of 

masculine independent genitive. 3. head of masculine ordinal numeral | -n, na 

n (L) interr. (see = w for other types of questions) question marker, apparently 

restricted to focused subject equational questions ex Ndwya/fy w jik n? who is 

Nduya/who are you? | 

na (L) v.D (v.n. nhy (f)) 1. (with ICP) become ripe ex natl”n sy they got ripe; zw 

b nws” ripe corn. 2. (no ICP) be done (cooking) ex n sy it is done (cooking) | 

nuna 

na (L) v.D (v.n. nhiy (f)) be tired ex mn nwan sy I’m tired | gaji 

na (T) aux. (directely follows relative pronoun, precedes subject pronoun and other 

auxliaries within clause) imperfective verbal auxiliary in relative clauses ex sm b na 

d buws the man who will come; ím m na d buwaz the woman who will come; 

zhk” m na m”n d íaratl takn whi kn the donkey on which I will put this load | 

ní” (H) n.f. bush duiker (Silvicapra grimmia) | gada 

naa (bor) v.B bor (v.n. nk”) turban (a chief) | naa (sarki) 

na” (HH) v.A1 (v.n. nak) sharpen (blade) ex na” srm he sharpened the knife | 

wasa 

nk”n (T) det.m. ( nyk”n) (f. tk”n) this, this one | wannan (namiji) 

nka (T) det.m. ( nyka) (f. tka) that, that one (distant) | wancan 

nnki (TH) n.m. (pl. nnkakw) saliva | yawu 

nay (HL) v.A1 (v.n. nyk”) see; look at | gani, duba 

ny = n ` (TL) presentative (invariable regardless of complement) here’s …, there’s … 

ex ny ywun yka k there’s an elephant (over there); ny ywunnw yka k there 

are some elephants (over there); ny knwan íykn k”n here’s my house | ga Ö 

nd (T) adv. just, only ex Q: F tlafw kkwa? - A: Nd lfiy. (standard morning 

greeting) Q: How did you arise? - A: Just fine.; Q: ín wtl”my? - A: Tln nd” 

kwaray. Q: How are the children? - A: They are just fine.; yr nma nd- wty we


have exactly the same language; Mngla kuw, kw kla smay sb” niya 

knws” k d v nd” brkatai kwi as for Mangila, when the people of his house 

swept up the trash, they just dumped it randomly | sai, kawai 

ndl”k” (H) n.m. resin, pitch | dano 

ndliy (L) n.f. brains | kwanya 

nd”m (HL) v.A1 (v.n. ndmk”) surround, go around ex drh nd”n vwagwahi the 

road goes around the town | gewaya, kewaye 

ndmk” (0H) n.? strolling | yawo 

nd”ra (tones?) prep. (from just two examples in texts, with ‘know’) know about ex 

mma wy sm m ndra wiyw but one person didn’t know about another one; 

íiyk k‰wnk s”n sw ndr wyy from that point everone know about the other 

one | 

nd”r” (HH) v.A2 (v.n. ndrk” [note tone]) 1. find, come across. 2. find that, discover 

that ex mn ndr ganzakway tiy sw fuwy I found a hyena had killed the goat 

| tarar 

ndrjim (L) n.m. dodo covered with long grass and brown mask | Dirzama 

nd” (L?) quant. a few ex tmakwy nda a few sheep; sb” nda”/sb” nd = 

sb” ndni a few people | kaan 

ndzhiy (L) n.m. poverty | tsiya, fatara 

ndkway (H) n.f. hooded vulture (Necrosyrtes monachus) | ungulu 

ndmy (TL) quant. alone, just…, only ex mn ndmywn just me; t ndmyws” 

him alone; my ndmaym only us | kaai 

ndmndam [ndndam] (L) adj. heavy ex bhw ndmndanna heavy bag; zkiy 

ndmndnya heavy stone; kt” ndmndnni heavy things | nauyi 

ndgwe-ndegwe (T) id. indicates walking ex d dza vnatlny ndgwe-ndegwendegwe 

kwpa nd b ba gwlfu she fell in ahead of them walking along walkwalk-walk 

until they came before palace | amsa amo 

ndiytl” (L) n.m. shallow ex gy ndiytl”na shallow hole; wh” ndbiytliya shallow 

grass; kt” ndytlni shallow things | mara zurfi 

Ndkay (L) n.f. woman’s name | sunan mace 

ndyim (L) n.m. (pl. ndyimmw) heel | diddige 

ndwul (L) n.m. (pl. ndwulalw) cooking pot ex ndwula rf” pot for miya | tukunya 

ndwula ghm (L H) n.? skull | oon kai 

Ndwya (L) n.m. man’s name | sunan mutum 

ndyakw” (HL) v.A1 (v.n. ndykwak”) drip ex ndyk say it dripped | iga 

ndym (F) quant. all, everything; (as sentence level modifier) completely ex sba ndyn 

= sb” ndyntln = ndyn sb all the people; mr ndyn = mr ndynwas” all the 

money | duka, duk 

ndza (L) v.D (v.n. ndzhiy (f)) become poor ex ndzata sy he became poor | tsiyace 

ndzrandzr (HH) n.m. probably the plant Urginea nigritiana | albasar kwai 

n ` = ny` (TL) presentative (invariable regardless of complement) here’s …, there’s … 

ex n kaf”ma b wn kn dkunf” here it is, the girl’s father has sent us | ga Ö 

nglat” (L) n.m. (pl. nglattw) sickle | lauje 

ngn (H) n.f. (pl. ngnanw) name ex ngnuwun my name; ngnaf” jy w? what is 

your name?; ngnuwun jy Kwrara my name is Kwarara | suna 

ngrbbw (TH) n.m. caltrop, puncture vine (Tribulus terrestris) | tsidau 

ngrf” (L) n.m. (pl. ngrffw) gums, palate? | dasashi 

ngvrk” (TL) n.m. type of bee | 

ng (L?) n.m. forked pole | gwafa


ngul (HL) v.A1 (v.n. nglk”) peek | lea 

nglahm-nglaham (HH) n.m. gamba grass (Andropogon gayanus) | gamba 

ngwngwa” (L) n.m. throat (entire throat area) | maogwaro 

ngwrak” (L) n.m. trachea, windpipe | maogwaro 

ngwarma (HL) v.B2 (v.n. ngwrmk” (m) [note tones]) frown, scowl ex ngwrm 

say he frowned; ngwrmk gn t”myrwa my frowning | aure fuska 

ngwrtiy (L) n.m. snoring ex tt m ngwrtiy he is snoring | minshari 

ngyrh (TH) n.m. the tree Dychrostachus cinerea | unu 

ny (T) linker pl. of (genitive linker for plural head noun, head of independent genitive, 

head of ordinal numeral) | -n, na 

ny (TL) pro.coll. (associate floating low tone to complement) those associated with.…, 

and others like…, & Co. ex ny Ksham Kasham et al.; ny zw í”n mr” things 

like sorghm and millet; ny w (ny w d bwatln?) who all? (who all went?); ny 

bh” one’s family (“father & Co.”) | su . 

nyk”n (T) det.pl. these | waannan 

nyka (T) det.pl. those | waancan 

nyw (TL) det.pl. some, certain (ones), others | wadxansu 

nyw (TL) det.pl. some, certain (ones), others | waansu 

nja (L) v.D (v.n. njhiy (f)) 1. refuse. 2. be rebellious | i; gagara 

nzl (H) n.m. (pl. nzlalw) wooden flute played in hocketing order with four others | 

sarewa 

nzuw (HL) v.A1 (v.n. nzwk”) close up tight, draw tight | tsuke 

P 

p”dla (HH) v.B (v.n. pdlak) mix, stir (beer) | dama 

p”la (HH) v.B (v.n. plak) jump ex mn pla sy I jumped | yi tsalle 

pliy (L) n.m. (pl. pliyyw) ashes | toka 

p”na (L) v.B (v.n. pnak” (m)) pay, ransom | biya, fansa 

ppn (TH) n.f. (pl. ppnanw) cave | kogo 

p”r (HL) v.A1 (v.n. prak” (f)) cut, slaughter | yanka 

pram (H) n.m. (pl. prammw) blood | jini 

prar” (L) n.m. the shrub Guiera senegaliensis | sabara 

p”s” (L) v.A1 (v.n. psak”) bury ex mn ps” sw vyyawy I buried the corpse | binne 

p”tl” (HL) v.A1 (v.n. ptlk” (f)) hit (once, to remove dust, etc.), clap ex mn ptl 

kmn I clapped my hands | kaa, yi tafi 

pa (L) v.D (v.n. phiy = phy) collect, gather ex mn p sw zwy I gathered up the 

corn | tara 

pk” (H) n.f. (pl. pkakw) arm (entire arm); wing ex pk” dl”rky chicken wing | 

hannu; fiffike 

pk” kyarkyar (H LHL) n.? triceps | dantse na asa 

pka ndkway (H H) n.f. “vulture wing”, cat’s whiskers the potherp (Gynandropsis 

pentaphylla) | gasaya 

plakashw (LHL) n.m. hawk | shaho 

plgwy (TH) n.f. Sodom apple (Calotropis procera) | tunfafiya


pap”ra (LH) v.B2 (v.n. pp”rk” [note tones]) (plac. of par) cut many, slaughter many 

ex mn ppr sy I cut many times | yayyanka 

pp”ra ki (L H) n.m. potsherd | tsingaro 

pp”ra kt” (L H) n.pl. calabash fragment, any broken piece | sakaina, laka 

par (L) v.A1 (v.n. prak”) pick (beans) ex mn pr sw dzmy I picked beans | rore 

par (L) v.A1 (v.n. prak”) spray ex mn pray by I sprayed water on him | fesa 

par (HL) v.A1 (v.n. prk”) implant, haft ex mn par suw gti nuwny mn par suw gìti 

nuwnáy | kafa, kwaa 

pra (HL) v.B2 (v.n. prk” (f)) cry, make a cry, cry of an animal ex pr sy he 

cried; prk” ta duwak” neighing of a horse | yi kuka 

prats” (L) n.m. the tree Cassia singueana | runhu 

pt” (T) quant. all ex pt”tln all of them; pt” sb” all the people | duka 

py (L?) n.f. pond | rafi 

pay (HH) v.A1 (v.n. pyak) meet | tare 

pí (TH) n.f. (pl. píyayw) branch ex píy dm reshen bishiya | reshe 

pler (L) n.m. (pl. plerrw) skin, hide | fata 

plera shm (L H) n.? foreskin | loa 

plera vn (L H) n.? lip | lee 

plm (TH) n.m. pulp | totuwa 

ppy (TH) n.m. woven tray | faifai 

p (T) id. quickly ex ”m cm pi he did the work quickly | amsa amo 

piya (HH) v.B (v.n. pyaw (f), pyak) lie down ex mn pyawn say I lay down | 

kwanta 

piya (HH) v.B (v.n. pyak) return ex mn pya sy I lay down | koma 

pym (TH) n.f. (pl. pymamw) pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo) | kabewa 

pyt” (TH) n.m. sweetness ex skwam m piyt” sweet honey | zai 

piyay (HH) v.A2 (v.n. pyk [sic]) lay out, spread ex mn pytl say mn pìytlá say | 

kwantar 

piyay (HH) v.A2 take back, return (tr.) ex Q: f piy m? - A: mn py ndwul what 

did you take back? - I took back the pot | mayar 

puwa (L) v.B (v.n. pwak”) (tr., intr.) hide ex puwata sy he hid; puwa sw mr 

nuwsy he hid his money | bxuya, bxoye 

puway (L) v.A2 (tr.) hide ex st pway he is hiding it | bxoye 

py˘na (H) adj. (pl. py˘ni) (f. py˘ya) white ex mbrgu py‰na white ram; tmku py˙ya 

white ewe; tmakw py‰ni white sheep | fari 

R 

r””n (HH) v.A2 (v.n. r”nk”) seal, patch, stop up | lie 

r”dla (L) v.B (v.n. rdl” (f), rdlak”) write | rubuta 

rdz (TL) n.f., adv.time in the late afternoon, in the evening ex tywyka r”dz come in 

the evening; krf vtl” ny r”dz 5 o’clock in the afternoon | da yamma 

rdz (TH) n.m. late afternoon, evening | yamma 

rf” (H) n.m. (pl. rfafw) miya | miya


r”f”n (HL) v.A2 (v.n. rfyafyn (m), r”f”nk” [note tones]) thatch ex mn r”f”n suw 

lmy I thatched the hut | jinka 

r”m (HL) v.A1 (v.n. rmk”) eat (meat) ex mr r”n tlwi I ate meat | ci (nama) 

r”na (L) v.B (v.n. rm (f), rnak”) copulate (by humans), have sexual intercourse ex 

r”natla sy = r”natlr”nw he copulated with her | ika, yi jimaíi 

r”na (HH) v.B (v.n. rnak) be abundant ex r”natln say they are abundant | yi yawa 

r”nts” (HH) v.A2 (v.n. rmats” (f), rntsk”) have a stomach ache ex vwwun jt 

r”ntsuwn = r”ntswn sy my stomach aches | ji ciwon ciki 

r”tl” (HL) v.A1 (v.n. rtlk”) knock down, throw down | kayar, ka da 

rv” (T) n.f. chaff | aiaiyi 

r”v”” (HH) v.A2 (v.n. rva” (m), rv”ak) become thin ex mn rv”uwn say I 

became thin | rame 

r”v”z” (L) v.A2 (v.n. rvazhi (m), r”v”zak”) be fat ex r”v”a”ta sy he got fat | yi iba 

ra (L) v.D (v.n. rhiy (f)) exceed, surpass ex rn rw he surpasses me | fi 

ra (L) v.D (v.n. rhiy (f)) leak ex ln tuwun st ry (the roof of) my hut leaks | yi yoyo 

ra” (HH) v.A1 (v.n. rak (f)) (tr.) moisten; (intr.) get wet ex mn r”tl say I 

moistened it; kb” ra”tl say the gown got wet | jikxa; jikxu 

rcamby (TL) n.m. dodo with shaggy grass and ashes on skin | dodo (iri) 

ra” (HH) v.A1 (v.n. rak) decay, spoil ex tlwi ra”t say the meat spoiled | rue 

ryai (L) n.m., adj. dampness; cold (to touch) ex by ryayana cold water; lm‰ 

ryayaya cold soda; kt” ryyani cold things; by suw ryyy ‘the 

water is cold | laima; sanyi 

rak” (L) v.A1 (v.n. rkak” (f)) chase ex mn rk”tl”n sy I chased them off | kora 

ramb” (HL) v.A1 (v.n. rmbk”) bother, upset | dama 

rtaya (bor) v.B2 bor (v.n. rtyak) hang ex rty kb” tuws” he hung up his gown | 

rataya 

rva” (L) n.m. thinness | ramewa 

rvazh” (L) n.m. fat, corpulence | tea 

raw (HH) v.A1 (v.n. r‰ (f), rwak) request, beg, beseech ex mn r˘yt I beseeched 

him; mn rw rwaw I made a beseechment | roa 

ryy (TH) n.m. life | rai 

rm (H) n.m. shade, shadow | inuwa 

rna (bor) v.A2 bor (v.n. rnk”) belittle, despise, scorn ex rnwan sy he belittled 

me | rena 

rtlyi (T) n.m. necklace | dutsen wuya 

rn (TH) n.m. locust bean cakes used for flavoring | kalwa 

rinja (L) v.B (v.n. rnjak”) fish (verb) ex mr rnjb I fishe | yi su 

ryj (TL) n.m. (pl. ryjyyw) well (for water) | rijiya 

rnna (H) adj. (pl. rnni) (f. rynya; iy is long in feminine, short in masc. and pl.) black 

ex m” rnna black castrated goat; fw rynya black goat; cw rnni black goats | 

bai 

R˘ya (L?) n.m. man’s name (chief of Miya in 1983) | sunan mutum 

ruwn” (L) v.A2 (v.n. rwnak”) cool off ex by rwun sy the water cooled off | huce 

ruwa (L) v.B (v.n. rwak” (m)) plow, make ridgerows | hua, yi noma 

ruway (bor) v.A2 bor (v.n. rwyak) be confused ex mn ruwy sy I was 

confused | rudxe 

rwun (L) n.m. (pl. rwunnw) wind | iska


S 

s- (Ö -y) aux. see sw | 

sba (H) pro.rel.pl. (pl. of b, m) ones who own, ones who do ex sba km 

householders; sba yw madmen; sba mr rich people; dzf” sba mr rich males; 

tvam sba mr rich women | masu 

sb” (H) n.pl. (pl. sbabw) (pl. of sm) people | mutane 

s” (H) n.m. the tree Detarium microcarpum, D. senegalense | taura 

s”k”n (HH) v.A2 (v.n. sk”nk”) swallow (verb) | haiye 

s”la (HH) v.B (v.n. slak (f)) remain, be left over ex m d slawa? what’s left?; s”la 

sy it’s left over | saura 

sm (H) n.m. (pl. sb”, sbabw) person, man | mutum 

s”n (L) v.A1 (v.n. snak” (f)) 1. know, know how to ex mn snya sy = mn snya 

gam I know him; mn sn gan sn ka I know; wiy s”m ma nd”ra wiyuw neither one 

knew about the other. 2. (with nd”ra) know about | sani, san da 

s”na (HL) v.B (v.n. snw (m) (no gerund)) spend the night, sleep ex my snm yka 

we slept there; mn snwn sy = mn sna s”nw I spent the night/slept | kwana, yi 

barci 

snw (TH) n.m. 1. sleeping; passing the night. 2. a day (24 hour period) ex sn‰ tsr 

two days | kwana, barci 

sn‰ dm (TH H) n.? dozing | gyangyai 

sp”n (H) n.m. (pl. sp”nnw) tuwo, staple food | tuwo 

sr”m (L) n.f. (pl. sr”mmw) knife | wua 

sr”m m tlym (L H H) n.f. razor (“knife for shaving”) | aska 

s”rka (bor) v.B2 bor (v.n. srkk”) stir something into liquid ex nn s”rknyh ‰b I 

stirred the medicine into the water | sirka 

srth” (TH) n.m. (pl. srthahw) lake | tabki 

sa (L) v.D (v.n. shiy (f)) drink; smoke (tobacco) ex m s sbyay I drank water; tt s 

tab” he is smoking | sha 

sba (bor) v.B2 bor (v.n. sbk) be fond of, be used to ex sb sy he is used to it | 

saba da 

sb‰ (T) adj. new ex sbo ndwul = ndwul sb‰na new pot | sabo 

sb˘da (HL) conj. because, because of; in order that ex saboda wanka because of that; 

wy m ya nay sarariy na dnaw sb˘da yaw nza one cannot seen the sky 

because of its (locusts) great numbers; d kiy kw d z”za ndyan hay sab˘da 

gwn ka santla m kynuww they bring fire and shove it in (pits) because that 

pcust does not like smoke; saboda d” gh”dzatl”n wutl” bazam in order that they 

become young men (referring to young boys being circumcized) | saboda 

sf” (H) n.m. coarse flour; dregs of beer | diddiga, tsaki 

ska (bor) v.B2 bor (v.n. skk”) weave cloth ex mn sk sy I wove it | sakxa 

sk (bor) v.A2 bor (v.n. skyak) change, do again ex sk sw gliy nuwsy he 

changed his behavior; mn sk kab” I changed clothes | sake 

sl (H) n.m. white-tailed mongoose (Ichneumia albicauda) | tunku 

smay (L) n.m. trash, sweepings | shara 

Smb (TL) n.m. man’s name | sunan mutum 

san (L) v.A1 agree ex santa sy he agreed; st snwa sy he agrees | yarda


sr (L) adv.loc, adj. distant ex kn k j sr ‘the house is far away; km srna a 

distant house; vwagwahi srya a distant town’; kt” srni distant things | nesa, da 

nisa 

sar (L) n.A1 (pl. sr (m), srak”) 1. pour into ex sr by ‰ dk”man pour water into 

the gourd bottle. 2. circumcise ex sar sw ly nuwny my son was circumcised | 

ura; yi kaciya 

saw (L) n.A1 (pl. swak”) rest, breathe, pant ex s˘ sy he rested | huta, yi numfashi 

sw (H) n.f. (pl. swawaww) tail | jela, wutsiya 

swkiy (H) n.? feeling better (after an illness) ex mn dky suw swkiyy I feel better | 

saui 

say (L) v.A1 (v.n. syak”) (intr.) be tired, (tr.) tire out ex saya sy he got tired; nk” 

can saywan sy this work tired me out | gaji, gajiyar 

sy (H) n.f. (pl. syayw) liver | hanta 

say (H) aux. contraction of sw Ö -y, q.v. | 

shg”d”l (L) n.m. calf; lower leg | sha raa 

Shgin [Shgyin] (L?) n.m. man’s name | sunan mutum 

shm (H) n.m. (pl. shmamw) penis | bura 

shash”n (HH) v.A2 (v.n. shsh”nk”) smell, sniff | sansana 

Shbiy (TL) n.m. man’s name | sunan mutum 

shia (HH) v.B (v.n. shak (f)) 1. throw ex mn sha sw zkiyy I threw a stone’; 

mn shf ˘ I agree with what you say. 2. lay eggs ex yt sh tsw she is 

laying eggs | jefa, jefar, saka kxwai 

shm (T) n.f. (pl. shmamw) farm ex shm tuwun my farm; shim ta Kasham Kasham’s 

farm; Ksham shm Kasham is on the farm; vw shim ha bh” on father’s farm | 

gona 

shnk” (TH) n.m. (pl. shnkakw) tongue | harshe 

shndr (TH) n.m. rust | tsatsa 

shn” (T) n.m. cold weather ex rwun b shin” cold wind | ari 

shinyi (HH) v.A2 (v.n. shnyk” (m)) suck ex tt shny shinyw he is sucking | tsotsa 

shp” (T) n.f. spear grass (Imperata cylindrica) | tofa 

shrh” (L) n.m. jealousy, envy | kishi, hassada 

sh‰sh‰ (T) n.m. (pl. sh‰shwaww) rooster | zakara 

shw (H) n.m. (pl. shwaww) oil | mai 

shw (TL) adj. blue ex kb” shwya blue gown | shui 

siya (L) v.B (v.n. syak”) move a bit ex siyata sy à siyata sáy | gusa 

siyay (HH) v.A2 hitch up (child on back) ex siyya sy she hitched him up | zakudxa 

skutiy (L) n.f. bellows | zugazugi 

skwam (H) n.f. (pl. skwammw) honey | zuma 

sw (Ö -y) (H L irreg) aux. (tones: If a vowel follows, suw contracts with the vowel 

and imposes H tone; otherwise, súw has H and replaces the next tone with L. function: 

Cannot be used in negatives, WH or yes/no questions, or sentences with focus;mutually 

exclusive with, but similar in function to g- ~ gàm, q.v.) 1. (with a noun or 

nominalized phrase, usually with -y) just, only, all that remains… (cf. meaning 

#3 of gm) ex s-kidtl”n just the third one of them; a iyka suw yayahiyuws-ay all 

that remains is weaning him. 2. (in sw k”n(ay)) (then) here is…, (then) here comes… 

ex jy d sw k”n lakmiy ttsk”m when here was the giraffe; ny bza sw 

kny when here comes her family (“father & Co.”). 3. (in perfective, VERB s-y or 

sw NOUN y) sense of definiteness or completion of the verb ex nj s-y he 

refused; mr suw mbrgw-y he got a ram; b”sama sw kby he washed a


gown. 4. (sometimes in perfective with intransitive verb, sw alone) sense of 

definiteness or completion of the verb ex b”s”ta sw he bathed (= b”s”ta sy). 5. 

(in imperfective, s- VERB -y) imparts future meaning to imperfective ex mn s z- 

y I will put it on; t s bt m-ay he will untie the goat. 6. (with adjective, 

quantifier, or nominal predicates) perfectivity, having moved into a state ex t sw 

gra b smay he became a prominent person; t suw ts”nts”may it became 

fermented. 7. (with ‘have’ predicate, not used with final -ay) perhaps imparts 

perfectivity, e.g. “came into possession of” ex Ndwya s- mr = Ndwya g- mr 

Nduya has money | 

sw (TL) adv.time tomorrow | gobe 

T 

tbabaw (L) n.m. (pl. tbabawww) bark (of tree) | awo 

t”a (HH) v.B (v.n. tbak) close, shut, cover | rufe 

tcku (TH) n.f. Gambian oribi (Ourebia ourebi) | batsiya 

t”f” (HL) v.A1 (v.n. tytifi (f), tfk”) shoot ex mn tf” suw gwgmay I shot a dove | 

harba 

tgwar dz”h” (L?) n.m. (pl. tgwarw) (f. tgwar dzku) leper | kuturu 

t”ka (L) v.B (v.n. tkak”) accompany ex t”kawan bhya kanwn he accompanied me 

to my house | raka 

tk”m (L) n.f. (pl. tk”mmw) chair, stool | kujera 

t”k”n (HH) v.A2 (v.n. tk”nk” (m)) 1. beat (drum) ex t”kn suw gngamy ‘he beat 

a drum. 2. touch ex t”knwn sy he touched me. 3. cling to | kadxa (ganga); taa, 

mae 

tkit”ki (T) n.m. silence | shiru 

t”la (HL) v.B (v.n. tllk”) enter ex mn tlawn sy I entered | shiga 

tlp” (L) n.f. (pl. tlppw) hoe for cultivating | fartanya 

t”ma (L) v.B (v.n. tm (f), tmak”) sing ex t”ma st”may he sang | rera 

tmku (TH) n.f. (pl. tmakwy) sheep, ewe | tinkiya 

tmb”zm (HH) n.m. spirit | iska 

tmyar (L) n.m. (pl. tmarrw) forehead | goshi 

tn ( ) (T) prep., conj. since, from the time that ex tn bazara t was”nws” htln 

hr bahy mtsaw from the hot season, he will spend the year with them up until the 

harvest season | tun 

t”n” (HL) v.A1 (v.n. tnk”) remember | tuna 

tnni (L) n.m. thinking | tunani 

t”n” (HH) v.A1 (v.n. tnak) go close along ex mn tnuwn t bngo I went 

close along the wall | raa 

t”nz” (L) v.A2 (v.n. twaz” (m), tnzak”) plant ex mn tnz” sw zwy I planted 

sorghum | shuka 

tr (L) n.pl. peers, age-mates ex tr”wun my peers; nkin tr”wun these peers of mine; 

trma our peers; tra Kasham Kasham’s peers | tsararraki, saíoíi 

t”r (HL) v.A1 (v.n. trk”) sew | inka 

t”ra (L) v.B (v.n. tirk” (f), trak”) whisper, slander | raa


tratsniy (TL) n.f. gizzard of chicken | undu 

t”ray (HH) v.A2 (v.n. trayak”) greet ex t”raywan sy he greeted me | gayar 

triy (H) n.m. dirt (on clothes, etc.) | azanta, daua 

t”ry” (HH) v.A2 (v.n. tryk” (m)) pound in mortar ex t”ry suw zwy she pounded 

sorghum | daka 

ttl” (H) n.m. cotton (Gossypium spp.) | auduga 

t”va (L) v.B (v.n. tvi (m), tvak”) walk, travel ex ty t”va tv he is walking | tafi, yi 

tafiya 

tvam (L) n.pl. (pl. of ím) women, wives ex nkin tvam these women | mata 

t (T) linker f. ( ny) (m. n) 1. genitive linker for feminine head noun. 2. head of 

independent genitive. 3. head of ordinal numeral | -r, ta 

t (L) aspect hortative auxiliary | 

ta (L) v.D (v.n. thiy) 1. eat (tuwo) ex mn t sw sp”ny I ate tuwo. 2. defeat, 

conquer. 3. achieve goal | ci 

t Ö -w (L) negative, aspect (see maÖw for negation of all other clause types) 

negative for subjunctive ex ty t zrw he should not call; f ta ra w”huw don’t 

soak the clothes | ba Ö ba 

t (H irreg) conj. (used when conditional clause is not understood as a narrative 

sequence; see tn for non-perfective conditional clauses; see kwÖk for sequential 

sense) 1. (introducing perfective clause ending in k) if ex t mbnatla s ían k, t˘ 

tln m tiy viyazaw d” baytly if the woman is beautiful, well they won’t kill her. 

tjeu take her away; ta ”m ma dabra naka ba shimuw, to, shm tuws” d 

llacyzy the that farm owner doesn’t come up with a plan, well his farm will be 

ruined. 2. (introducing perfective concessive conditional, no k at the end) even if, no 

matter if ex mn ta mar gm m‰t m ghraza, mn glw even if I get an old car, I 

want it | idan, in 

tb” (T) n.m. (pl. tbabw) tobacco (Nicotiana rustica; N. tabacum), cigarette | taba 

tab”na (L) v.B2 (v.n. tybyaben (m), tb”nak”) abuse, berate, insult, disparage, 

denigrate, malign ex mn tb”naya sy I abused him | zaga 

tbrma (LH) n.m. palm leaf mat | tabarma 

t bb” (T L) n.? elephantiasis of the scrotum | gwaiwa 

tbaf” (H) n.m. grass | ciyawa 

tbas” (H) n.m. wound | rauni 

thy (TH) n.f. food (of animals or people) ex thy tuwun my food (cf. thywun ‘my 

eating’) | abinci 

tk”n (T) det.f. ( nyk”n) (m. nk”n) this, this one | wannan (mace) 

tka (T) det.f. ( nyka) (m. nka) that, that one | waccan 

tku (L) v. defective (masc. sg. imperative of ba; f.sg. imper. tk”m, pl. imper. tka , 1st 

pl. imper. tmy) go! | jeka/ki/ku, mu je 

tl (H) n.m. (pl. tlalw) beer ex tla zw guinea corn beer | giya 

tal (HH) v.A1 (v.n. tlak (f)) winnow with wind ex tal sw zwy she winnowed 

sorghum | shea 

tlmy (TH) n.f. worm | tsutsa 

tmas” (L) n.m. itching | aiayi 

tambaye (bor) v.A2 bor (lovee is indirect object) ask ex d tmbaytla nj lw w n 

they ask her which one she loves’ | tambaya 

tn (H irreg) (used when conditional clause is not understood as a narrative sequence; see 

t for perfective conditional clauses; see kwÖk for sequential sense) 1. (introducing 

non-perfective clause ending in k) if ex f tn s bf kn k, f k”na kam b rf


if you are going to go home, by some vegetables; t˘, tn suw wnka ka, mm shin 

tuwun gyy well, if that’s how it is, well there’s this famr of mine. 2. (introducing 

non-perfective concessive conditional, no k at the end) even if, no matter if ex mn 

tn g tlwun piy, n m gam bankwna ín ty even if I will be leaving early, I 

will say good-bye to him | idan, in 

tnjm (TL) id. indicates falling | amsa amo 

tans” (HL) v.A2 (v.n. tmas” (m), tnsk”) itch ex tanswn sy I feel itchy | ji 

aiayi 

tnw (TL) conj. if it’s a case of ex tnw Kaf a kafwn mn, tnuw Gru 

kafwun mn whether it’s a case (of going to) Kafi, it’s me who is sent, or if it’s a 

case (of going to) Bauchi, it’s me who is sent | 

ts” (H) n.f. winter thorn (Faidherbia albida) | gawo 

tt”fy (TH) n.f. (pl. tt”fyayw) beer strainer | mataci 

tat”ha (HL) v.A2 (v.n. tt”hk”) strain, filter ex mn tth tal I strained beer | tace 

tat”ray (HH) v.A2 exchange greetings | gaisa 

ttabr (TLH) n.f. domestic pigeon | tantabara 

ttsy (LH?) n.f. large red chili peppers (Capsicum annum) | tattasai 

ttas” (L) n.f. chicken’s crop | maoo 

tts” (H) n.f. tweezers | matsefata 

ttsiy (L) n.f. (pl. ttsiyyw) tendon, vein | jijiya 

tatuwa (L) v.A2 (v.n. ttuwak”) wipe out bowl with finger ex mn ttuwa tl”rky I 

wiped out the calabash with my finger | sudxe 

ty (HH) v. defective (imperative of bay;,pl. imper. tyy, 1st pl. imper. tyiym) take (it 

there)! | kai! 

tfir (H) n.m. fig trees Ficus gnaphalocarpa, F. sycomorus | aure 

tmbr dzh” (TH) n.m. (pl. tmb ghnaw) (f. tmbr dzku) gazelle (Gazella 

rufifrons) | barewa 

tr (H) n.m. (pl. trarw) moon, month | wata 

ttelw (TH) n.f. cornstalk flute | sirii 

ttyl (TH) n.m. fruit bat Eidolon helvum | jemage 

tiy (L) v.A1 (v.n. tyt” (f), tyk”) 1. beat, hit, kill ex mn tytla sy I beat her. 2. (with 

day) spend the day ex mn tye mku yk I spent the day there | doka, kashe; wuni 

tyatl” (L) n.m. (pl. tyatltlw) kunu | kunu 

tyin (L) n.f. (pl. tyimmw) tooth | haori 

tyin tvy (L T H) n.? incisors | haoran cizo 

tyin twma (L T H) n.? molar | haoran taunawa 

tyiy (L) n.m. (pl. tyiyyw) hand plow, hoe for banking ridgerows | garma 

tzh” (T) n.m. gunea worm | kurkunu 

tl”ma (L) v.B (v.n. tlym (m), tlmak”) shave ex mn tlmaya sw ghmuwsy I 

shaved his head | aske 

tlpy (TH) n.m. (pl. tlpyayw) leaves ex tlpy mas” leaves of hemp; tlpy nuwun 

my leaves | ganye 

tlrf” (L) n.m. (pl. tlrffw) forest | kurmi 

tlrky (TH) n.f. (pl. tlrkayayw) calabash, gourd bowl | warya 

tlrky by (TH TH) n.f. gourd cup | moa 

tl”rp” (HH) v.A2 (v.n. tlrpak) embrace ex tl”rp” sw wn tuwsy he embraced his 

daughter | runguma 

tla (L) v.D (v.n. tlhiy (m)) lift, pick up | aga 

tla (H) v.D (v.n. tlhy (f)) stand up, wake up ex mn tlwn say I stood up | tashi


tlak” (HL) v.A1 (v.n. tlykyki (m), tlkk”) scrape, abrade, scratch (to relieve itch) ex 

mn tlk” suw twatwnay I scraped by body | kankare, karce, sosa 

tlrwan (L) n.m. (pl. tlrwannw) root | saiwa 

tlwiy (L) n.m. (pl. tlwiyyw) meat, flesh, muscle ex tlwiywan my muscles; tlwiy 

nuwun my meat | nama 

tlwiy ntsk”n (L T H) n.? wild animal | naman daji 

tlwiy pk” (L H) n.? biceps ex tlwiy pkuwun my biceps | wanji 

tlwiy shag”d”l (L L) n.? calf (of leg) | sha raa 

tliy (HL) v.A1 (v.n. tlyk”) squeeze, press out | matsa, matse 

tluw” (HH) v.A2 (v.n. tlwk”) wet mix ex mn tlw fra I mixed fura | dama 

tlya” (HH) v.A1 (v.n. tli (f), tlyak) hoe, cultivate ex mn tlyi sw shn 

tuwny I cultivated my farm’; m tlyi he farmed | yi noma, nome 

tlyaw (L) v.A1 (v.n. tlyw (f), tlywak”) etch, trace designs ex tlyaw sw tlrkyay 

he etched the calabash | zana 

t‰, t˘ (F, L) interjection OK, well | to 

tsa (L) v.D (v.n. tshiy) give | bayar 

ts”f” (HL) v.A1 (v.n. tsfk”) dry up ex ws” tsf” say the grass dried up | bushe 

ts”ga (L) v.B (v.n. tsg” (f), tsgak) sit down ex mn tsgawan sy I sat down; mlv 

t tsge the chief is seated | zauna 

ts”gay (L) v.A2 seat ex ts”gaytl”n sy he seated them | zaunar 

ts”gay (HH) v.A2 (v.n. tsgayak) (+ tspr) urinate; (+ yiy have diarrhea ex 

ts”gay sw tsp”ry he urinated; tt tsgaya e he has diarrhea | yi fitsari; yi 

zawayi 

ts”ma (HH) v.B (v.n. tstsm (f), tsmak) swear (t0) | rantse 

tsmy (TH) n.f. (pl. tsmyayw) foot | afa 

tsnts”m (L) adj. sour ex tl tsntsnna sour beer; lm‰ tsntsnya sour citrus’, kùt” 

tsntsnni ‘sour things’, tàl j tsnts”n; kt” tsntsnni sour things; tl j tsnts”n the 

beer is fermented; t suw tsnts”may it is sour/fermented | tsami 

tspr (TH) n.f. urine | fitsari 

tsr (L) num (in counting tsr) two ex sb” tsr two people | biyu 

ts”r (?) v.A1 rake, sweep | share 

ts”r (HL) v.A1 (v.n. tsts”r, tsrk”) stop, stand ex f tsrk sy you stopped; tsrtla 

s mkw it’s midday (the sun has stood) | tsaya 

tsrdy (TH) n.f. (pl. tsrdyayw) space between two huts filled by a wall | kusa 

ts”rt” (HH) v.A2 (v.n. tsrtak) pick (peanuts) from vines, pull off ex mn tsrt” zwy 

I picked corn | cire 

tsry” (HH) v.A2 (v.n. tsryk”) step on ex mn tsrya sk”t”rwy = mn tsry 

k”t”r I stepped on a scorpion | taka 

tsa” (HH) v.A1 (v.n. tsak) extend, stretch ex mn tsuwn say I stretched | mie 

tsgwa” (L) n.m. limping ex tt tsgwa” he is limping | dxingishi 

tsk”m (H) n.f. (pl. tsk”mmw) the bush | daji 

tsr (H) n.f. the tough grass Cymbopogon gigantea | tsaure 

tsatsiya (HL) v.B2 ask repeatedly | tattambaya 

tswar (L) n.f. exchanging ex my n sw tswary we exchanged | musaya 

tsiy (HL) v.A1 (v.n. tsyk”) (tr., intr.) burn ex mn tsiy swasay I burned grass; ws” 

tsiy say the grass burned | one 

tsiy (HL) v.A1 (v.n. tsyk”) ask ex tsywn mn he asked m; tsy tsiyw he asked a 

question | tambaya 

tsiya (HH) v.B (v.n. tsyak (m)) dig | tona


tsyaku (L) n.f. (pl. tsyakwkww) ridgerow | kunya 

tsoa (HL) v.B2 (v.n. tswa” (m), ts˘k”) carve ex ts‰ ji = ts‰ sw jay he 

carved wood | sassakxa 

ts‰h‰ (T) adj. old (thing) ex ts‰ho km = kn ts‰h‰na old house | tsoho 

tsway (L) n.m., adv.time morning ex sw tsway until morning | safe 

tugur (HH) v.A2 (v.n. tgurak) wither ex zway tugurtl say the guinea corn withered 

| yanwana 

tku (L) v. defective (v.n. bwk” (f)) (m.sg. imper. of b”, buw; f.sg. imper. tkam, pl. 

imper. twka) come! | yaka, yaki, ku zo 

Tkwal (HH) n.m. man’s name | sunan mutum 

tuwr” (bor) v.A2 bor (v.n. twrk”) push ex mn twr” sy I pushed it | tura 

tw (H) n.m. (pl. twaww) arrow | kibiya 

twah”(-tuwah”) (L) adj. different ex Vnm n Wshir twh”-tuwah” Miya and 

Siri are different (languages) | daban 

twatw (HH) n.f. 1. body; ex twatws his body; my tb”na twatwma we 

abused each other. 2. each other (reciprocal) | jiki; juna 

tway (HL) v. defectice (masculine and feminine singular imperative of buway; pl. 

imper. , 1st pl. imper. twiym) bring! (imperative) | kawo! 

ty (TL) interjectiion exclamation of surprise or dismay | tabi 

tykun (L) n.f. rain shower, esp. in the early morning | marka 

tymtyam (TH) adj. odiferous, smelly, having a stench ex hm b ta tyamtyamni 

smelly food | wari,oyi 

tyan (HH) v.A1 stink ex tyantn say it stinks | yi wari 

tywlln (TH) n.m. (pl. tywllmamw) cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis) | balbela 

V 

vah” (H) n.f. the potherb Ceratotheca sesamoides, false sesame | karkashi 

vg”d” (L) n.f. (pl. vgddw) pants | wando 

vn (H) n.m. (pl. vnanw) 1. mouth. 2. language ex vna my Miya language. 3. (with 

expressed location) in front of, ahead of ex mn vna Kasham I’m in front of Kasham; 

mn vnuws” I am in front of him; mn tsrwn vna km I stopped in front of the 

house | baki, harshe 

vn (H) n.f. (pl. vnanw) grinding quern | dutsen nia 

vnah” (L) adv.loc. in front, first ex tln vnah” they are in front | a gaba, na farko 

vna kw (H H) n.? flame | harshen wuta 

vna mdz” (H T) n.f. riverbank | bakin kogi 

vna sb” (H H) n.? language ex vna my Miya (languages) | harshe 

vna sk (H L) n.f. story | tatsuniya 

vriy (l) n.f. crying, cry (of various animals) ex tt vriy he is crying; vriya duwak” 

neighing; vriya zhk” braying | kuka 

v”rk” (HH) v.A2 (v.n. vrkk” (f)) give birth to, beget ex v”rk ly she bore a son; 

yt vrka vrkw she is giving birth | haifa


vrk” (H irreg) n.m. (pl. wtl”m) (vrk” phrase initial; see examples for tonal behavior) 

boy, son ex vrk” nuwun my boy; nk”n vrk” this boy; mb” vrk” thigh of a boy 

| yaro 

vrk” dm (T H) n.? (pl. wtl” dm) fruit | an icce 

vrk” km (T H) n.m. finger | yatsa 

vrk” ts”my (T TH) n.m. toe | yatsan afa 

vtam (H) n.f. false locust (Prosopis africana) | kxirya 

v”vaya v.A2 pour repeatedly | zuzzuba 

vzh” (H) n.f. sickness | cuta 

va (L) v.D (v.n. vhiy (m)) (tr., intr.) pour, spill ex mn v sw mry I poured out 

millet; by vta sy the water spilled | zuba 

vki (L) n.f. (pl. dwan) (m. ys”) sister, close female relatives of same generation ex 

vkya mwun my maternal aunt; vkya bwun my paternal aunt; vkyaza her sister | 

íyaruwa 

var (L) v.A1 (v.n. vrak”) singe ex mn vr tlw I singed the meat | babbake 

var (HL) v.A1 (v.n. vrk”) run, run away ex nj vr say she ran away | gudu 

vray (L) n.m. (pl. vrayyw) 1. seed ex vray nuwan my seeds (for planting); vray 

zw sorghum seeds. 2. kind, type. 3. one’s blood relatives ex vraywan my relatives 

(NOT ‘my kind’ or ‘my seeds’) | iri; zuriya 

vshi (L?) n.m. brother boyfriend | saurayi, anuwa 

vtl” (L) num. five ex sb” vtl” five people | biyar 

Vziya (L) n.m. man’s name | sunan mutum 

vrdm (TL) n.m. type of small squirrel | kurege (iri) 

vy (H) n.m. (pl. vyayw) doorway ex vya lm door of the hut | ofa 

vyaw (L) n.m. (pl. vyyw) corpse | gawa 

vyayw (HH) n.m. (pl. vyayuwww) fireplace, cooking tripod | murhu 

vw (H) n.f. (pl. vwaww) 1. stomach, belly ex nj vw she is pregnant. 2. pregnancy. 

3. inside, among | ciki, cikin 

vuw (HL) v.A1 (v.n. vwk”) (intr.) boil ex by vuw say the water boiled | tafasa 

vwa (H) n.loc. formative used with certain words referring to places | 

vwagwahiy (H T) n.f. (pl. vwagwahiyyw) town, village | gari,auye 

vwa shm (HH T) n.f. farm ex vw shim ha bh” on father’s farm | gona 

vwshi = ghma vuwshi (L) n.m. (pl. vwshshw) rubbish heap | juji 

vy (TH) n.m. buttocks | uwawu 

vyyvyay (THL) adj. slippery, slimy ex mdeshi j vyyyavyay okra is 

slimy | yaui 

W 

-w (H) negative, aspect see m Ö -w, t Ö -w | ba 

wh” (T) n.f. (pl. whahw) sand | yashi 

w, w (L) interr.pro. (w when clause final; see w for examples) who?, whom? ex w 

jik n? who is it?; w zratln? = w d zratln? who called them?; w jy 

zruwsa? who will call him? | wa?


w = (L) interr. ( is by far the most frequent; see n for focussed subject equational 

questons) question marker of any type of question (yes/no, constituent--na only in 

constitent questions) ex wna jirk d” uwy wa? which monkey sustained a 

fracture?; tukusm gam, m jy ”man wnk”n wa?! hedgehod, is it you has been 

treating me thus?! | 

wciya (TH) pro.f. (f. of wn) so-and-so | Wance 

w” (H) n.m. (pl. waw) faeces, excrement, shit | kashi 

wk” (H) n.m. (pl. wkakw) a lie | arya 

wn (T) prep. like ex wn mn like me; wn fwy like you (ms); wn Kasham like 

Kasham; wn Ndwya like Nduya; wn m” lika a goat | kamar 

wan (L) v.A1 (v.n. wnak”) (tr., intr.) fill, fill with; be full ex mn wn sy I filled it; 

ndwul wan sy the pot is full | cika 

wn (TL) det. the, the one in question ex dgy ky fy o tl”rky d kiya zrf 

wn d ary o when she scooped up flour in the calabash, she took that silver and 

put it inside for him; my gm sw ín Mmmn wny we met up with that 

Mamman; tway fy wana mn sw bring that flour so I might drink | -n/-r 

wn (TL) pro.m. (f. wcya) so-and-so | Wane, Wance 

wnka (H) adv.man. thus ex tln d t mka ntln wnk they were living like that; 

tvam kw nay wnka k s mry when the women saw things were like that, they 

would run away; saboda wanka because of that | haka 

wnk”n (H) adv.man. thus ex dga tluws, ptl kab” wankn when he arose, he shook 

his gown thus | haka 

wnkwa (T) interr.adv.man. how?, by what means? ex f kwy zhk” wnkwa? how/by 

what means did you catch the donkey? | yaya? 

wnkwky (TL) quant.univ. however …, no matter how… ex f ta gh”mak gm 

wnkwky, n nay gm however you climb up, I will watch | ko yaya Ö 

wr (H) n.m. festival, celebration, holiday ex wra Kavr the Kav”ra festival | biki, salla 

wrawaraty (LH) n.m. cockroach | kyankyaso 

wray (bor) v.A2 bor (v.n. wryak) select out ex mn wry sw fuw tuwny I 

removed my goat (from the group) | ware 

was” (L) v.A1 (v.n. wshashi (m), wsak”) swell ex w wasu wsw it swelled | 

kumbura 

ws”n (L) n.m. 1. year ex c‰nk”n ws”n di f” it is now 40 years. 2. rainy season ex 

jy wasm in the rainy season; rei j ws”m it is cold during the rainy season | 

shekara, damina 

was”na (L) v.A2 (v.n. wshasham (m), ws”nak”) spend a year ex was”nata sy it 

lasted a year | shekara 

wsay (L) n.f. salt | gishiri 

wshasham (L) n.m. (pl. wshashammw) 1. rainy season ex whsasham mbnata 

sw the rainy season has been good. 2. year | damina, shekara 

wyna = wna (L) interr. adj. m. (pl. wyni) (f. wyya) which one?, which…? | wanne?, 

waneÖ? 

wyna Ö ky (L) quant.univ. ( wyni) (f. wyya Ö ky; used only as the head of a 

generic clause; see k‰wna Ö (ky)) every …, any … | kowane 

wyya (L) interr. adj. f. (pl. wyni) (f. of wyna ) which one?, which…? ex wyya d 

za ? which one (f. thing) broke?; f k”na wyy tl”rkya? which calabash did you 

buy? | wanne?, wane.? 

wyya Ö ky (L) quant.univ. ( wyni) (f. counter part of wyna Ö ky; used only as 

the head of a generic clause; see k‰wyy Ö (ky)) every …, any … ex t t gan


wy vuwgwhiyky, d kwiya s”by whatever town they conquered, they would 

capture people (as slaves) | kowaceÖ 

w (L) interr.pro. (form used when non-initial; see w) who?, whom? ex tab”na we? 

who did he abuse?; Ndwya k”na tlwy we? who did Nduya buy meat for?; n zaka 

kn h we? whose house did you enter?; n baka Kn˙ ín w? who did you go 

to Kano with? | wa? 

wky = wnky (TL) quant.univ. (used only as the head of a generic clause; see 

k‰wnky) whoever …, anyone who … ex t zra gam Kasham wky/wnky, 

t m nayw whoever calls Kasham, he will not answer; Ndwya t zr gam wky, 

t m hayw whoever Nduya called, he would not answer | kowa 

wlewl (HHL) n.m. wild hunting dog (Lycaon pictus) | kyarkeci 

wna = wyna (L) interr. adj. m. (pl. wyni) (f. wyya) which one?, which…? ex wna 

jirk d” uwy wa? which monkey sustained a fracture | wanne?, waneÖ? 

wnky = wky (TL) quant.univ. (used only as the head of a generic clause; see 

k‰wnky) whoever …, anyone who … ex t zra gam Kasham wky/wnky, 

t m nayw whoever calls Kasham, he will not answer; f tn g zara wnky, t 

zuwaf” zuww whoever you call, he will ignore you | kowa 

wr (H) n.m. (pl. wrarw) neck | wuya 

wy (T) det.m. ( nyw) (f. wya) a,an, a certain (one), another (one) | wani, wata 

wiy (HL) v.A1 (v.n. wyk”) shout, cry out ex mn wyaz wyw I am calling out to 

her | yi ara, yi ihu 

wiya (HH) v.B (v.n. wyak) jump down ex wiya sy she jumped down; wr b wya 

d”b” wrestling festival (festival of jumping into the arena) | dira 

wyahn dzh” (HH) n.m. (pl. wya sb”) (f. wyahn dzku) Hausa person | Bahaushe 

wytsuwy (T TL) adv.time day after tomorrow | jibi 

w” (H) n.f. locust bean tree (Parkia biglobosa) | orawa 

wlum (L) n.m. sprouted grain for brewing beer | soko 

wn (H) n.f. (pl. wtl” tvn) girl; daughter ex wn gyaiya little girl; wn tuwun my 

daughter | yarinya, íya 

wn (H) n.? playing (only as object of ”m ‘do’) ex wtl”mi n sw wnay the 

children played | wasa 

wuna (L) v.B (v.n. wnak”) move ex wuna sy he moved | gusa, yi motsi 

wna baday (H L) n.? (pl. wnabadayyw) small basket | kwando arami 

wunay (HH) v.A2 (v.n. wnayk”) stir thick substance ex wuny sw sp”ny = 

wuny sp”n she stirred tuwo | tua, motsar 

wunay (HH) v.A2 (v.n. wnayak (f)) sprain ex mn wnay wnyw I got a sprain | 

gurdxe 

wura (L) v.B (v.n. wr (m), wrak”) copulate (of animals) ex mbrgu wura sw 

tmakwy the ram copulated with the ewe | yi barbara 

wur” (HH) v.A2 (v.n. wrak”) sip | kura 

wrum (L) n.m. (pl. wrummw) knee | gwiwa 

wus” (L) v.A1 (v.n. wsak”) chip, pinch off piece ex ndwul wus”ta sy the pot chipped 

| algace 

Wshir (L?) n.?, adv.loc. Siri town | Siri 

wt (TH) num. one; a, a certain; the same ex sn wut one person; yr nm nd 

wty we speak the same language; wt once, one time; mn bwn gKan‰ 

wt I have been to Kano once | aya 

wtl” (L) n.pl. (used as the first element of numerous compounds) child(ren); small | an, 

íyar


wtl” bazan (H L) n.pl. (pl. of bndz”h”) young men | samari 

wtl” ghrwiy (H L) n.? calf (of cow) | marai 

wtl” mkwakwm (H HH) n.m. baby | jinjiri 

wtl” my (H H) n.pl. (pl. of ly, wn) children, offspring ex wtl” niywan my children | 

yara, íyaíya 

wtl” tvm (H L) n.pl. (pl. of wn, bzaniy) girls | íyan mata 

wtl” zham (H TH) n.pl. bird | tsuntsu 

wyak d”b” (LLH HH) n. wrestling match | kokawa 

Y 

yddny (TH) adv.man.rel. how + indirect question | yadda 

yagu (L) v.A1 (v.n. ygwak”) mix dry substances ex mn ygwa sw mry ín zw 

I mixed millet and sorghum | garwaya 

yky (TL) n.m. war | yai 

ymm (TLH) adv.loc. west | yamma 

yn (H) n.m. grave ex ynwas” my grave’; ynza her grave; yntln their grave | kabari 

yarda (L) v.B2 (v.n. yrdak”) agree ex mn yrda sy I agre | yarda 

ys” (H) n.m. (pl. dwan) (f. vki) brother, close male relatives of same generation ex 

ys” bwun paternal uncle; ys”za her brother | dxanuwa 

ywun (H) n.f. (pl. ywunnw) elephant (Loxodonta africana) | giwa 

ykwa = íykwa (T) interr.adv.loc. where? ex fy bafiy ykwa? where are you going?; 

f b”kw ykw? where did you come from? | ina? 

ynf” (L) n.f. the plum tree Vitex doniana | inya 

ykwky (TL) quant.univ. (only as the head of a generic clause; see k‰ykw) 

wherever …, anywhere that … ex my ta bam gn ykwky, kwfa miy nayy 

wherever we went, we would see him | koíina 

yw (H) n.f. madness, insanity | hauka 

yw (H) n.? dawn ex yw ts sy the dawn has come | gari, yanayi 

Z 

z”k” (HL) v.A1 (v.n. zkk”) thresh (on ground or in mortar) ex mn zk zw I 

threshed sorghum | sussuka 

zkiy (L) n.f. (pl. zkiyyw) 1. stone ex zkiy geiya small stone (for throwing, etc.). 2. 

hill | dutse 

zkiya ghns (L L) n.? hail | anara 

zlam (H) n.m. (pl. zlammw) rainbow | bakan gizo 

z”na (L) v.B (v.n. znak”) lay out to dry ex mn zna sw kby I lay the gown out to 

dry | shanya


z”za (L) v.B (v.n. zhzhi (f), zzak”) skin, flay ex mn zza sw mbrgwy I flayed 

the ram | fee 

z”za (L) v.B (v.n. zzak”) put in/on repeatedly | sassaka 

za (L) v.D (v.n. zahy) 1. be enough ex z sw it’s enough; hmbta zn sy the food 

is sufficient for me. 2. be up to, be strong enough for | isa (intr., tr.) 

za (L) v.D (v.n. zahy (f)) enter ex mn zwan sy I entered; tt zws” zw he entered | 

shiga 

za (L) v.D (v.n. zahy) put, put on ex mn z sw kby I put on a gown | sa, saka 

zí” (H) n.f. (pl. zíaíw) bow (for shooting) ex kwmbala zí” zá’” | baka 

zab” (L) v.A1 (v.n. zb” (f), zbak”) dance ex zab” szabay s/he danced | yi rawa 

za (L) v.B2 (v.n. zak”) choose ex za sw mlvy they chose a king | zaa 

za” (HH) v.A1 (v.n. zak) frighten, scare ex mn ziy say I scared him | razana, 

tsorata 

zfiy (T) n.m. hot, heat ex kuw j zfiy the fire is hot; ndwul b zfiy hot pot; kt” 

sba zfiy hot things | zafi 

zga (T) n.? common-law marriage | 

zgariy (L) n.m. mischief | rigima 

zny (TL) n.f. woman’s wrapper (not a traditional article of Miya clothing) | zane 

zniy (L) n.m. eyebrow, eyelashes | gira, gashin ido 

zar (L) v.A1 (v.n. zhrar” (m), zrak”) call, summon; (+ nduw call by a name) | kira 

zay (HH) v.A1 (v.n. zyak) 1. put in ex zay sw ghuwy à zay súw ghàuwáy. 2. 

cause ex m zyÖ why…?; bm b zyÖ the reason why… | sa 

zaz”ma (L) v.B2 (v.n. zz”mak”) coax ex mn zz”maya ta b”t I coaxed him to enter | 

lallashe 

zha (L) v.D (v.n. zhhiy) 1. come upon someone unaware, burst in on ex mn zhf say I 

came upon you unawares. 2. (with wiyhan) be one’s concern ex wyhan zhy maw 

it’s none of his business; wywan zhm mw I couldn’t care less; ywar nuws” j 

zhk” he chatters too much | samun wani ba da shirinsa ba, ìruwan waniî 

zhbd (TH) n.f. civet cat (Viverra civetta) | jibda 

zhk” (L) quant. much, many | da yawa 

zhk” (T) n.m., n.f. (pl. zhkakw) donkey | jaki 

zhm (TH) n.? (in wtl” zham) bird | tsuntsu 

zhrak” (L) n.m. pied crow (Corvus albus) | hankaka 

zhrar” (L) n.m. calling | kira 

zhw (T) n.m. rope | igiya 

zhzh”k” (H) n.m. (pl. zhzh”kkw) porcupine (Hystrix cristata) | beguwa 

zhiga (L) v.B (v.n. zhg” (f), zhgak”) praise, shout praises of | yaba, yi kirari 

zhym (TH) n.m. owl (Ptilopsis leucotis) | mujiya 

ziyr” (L) v.A2 (v.n. zyrak” (f)) pass ex ziyr” sy he passed | wuce 

zukut” (HH) v.A2 (v.n. zkutk”) push | tura 

zw (H) n.m. (pl. zwaww) guinea corn, sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) | dawa 

zuw (L) v.A1 (v.n. zwak”) 1. (tr.) leave ex zuwm km he left us at home. 2. ignore. 

3. let, allow. 4. postpone, put off ex my zw sw bhiyy I put off the trip | bari, 

yale, fasa 

zway (H) n.f. (pl. zwayyw) peanuts, groundnuts (Arachis hypogaea) | gyaa 

zw gam (H L) n.m. maize, corn (Zea mays) | masara

Independent pronouns (8:§1.1) 

Singular Plural 

1 mn 1 my 

2m fy [fw:] 2 hn 

2f mc”/mciy 

3m t/ty 3 tln 

3f nj/njy 

Verbal Subject Clitics (8:§1.2) 

Perfective Subjunctive 

APPENDICES 1 

APPENDIX I: PRONOUNS 

Negative 

Subjunctive 

Focused Subject 

Perf. I; Imperf. 

(w. no AUX) 

51 

Focused 

Subject 

Perf. II 

Imperfective w. 

AUX 

1 mn mn mn ta mn mn d mn + AUX n 

2m f f f " fy " f " f " f 

2f m m m " mc " m " m " ? 

3m () Ø d ty t t " t " t” " () 

3f () (nj) d nj " nj " nj " nj” " () 

1p my my my t my " my " miy " y 

2p n n hn " hn " hn " h”n " ? 

3p ((tln) ) (tln) d tln t tln " tln " tl”n " () 

Intransitive Copy Pronoun Clitics (5:§4.1) 

Verbal TAM’s (Perfective) Nominal TAM’s (Subjunctive) 

H H Class 

‘X turned’ 

Other classes 

‘X bathed’ 

H H Class 

‘that X turn’ 

Other classes 

‘that X bathe’ 

1 sg. mn ghdza-wn say mn bsu-wan sy mn gh”dza-wn mn b”su-wun 

2 m.sg. f gh”dza-k say f b”s”-ku sy f gh”dza-f f b”sa-f” 

2 f. sg. m gh”dza-kn say m b”s”-k”n sy m gh”dza-ghn 

[ghdzn] 2 

m b”sa-gh”n 

[bsn] 1 

3 m.sg. gh”dza-t say b”s”-ta sy d gh”dz-uws d b”s-uws” 

3 f.sg. gh”dza-tl say b”s”-tla sy d gh”dza-z d b”sa-za 

(plural persons on next page) 

Condit. 

Future 

1 References in parentheses are to Russell G. Schuh, A Grammar of Miya, Linguistics Volume 130, 

University of California Press, 1998. 

2 The sequence /agh”C/ is realized phonetically as [C]. See 2:§1.2.2.

Appendices 52 

1 pl. my ghdza-m say my bs”-m say my gh”dz-m my b”s-ma 

2 pl. n gh”dza-k say n b”s”-ka sy n gh”dza-n n b”sa-n 

3 pl. gh”dza-tln say b”s”-tl”n sy d gh”dza-tln d b”sa-tln 

Direct Object Pronoun Clitics (5:§4.2) 

Verbal TAM’s (Perfective) Nominal TAM’s (Subjunctive) 

H H Class 

‘he untied …’ 

Other classes 

‘he called …’ 

H H Class 

‘that he untie …’ 

Other classes 

‘that he call …’ 

1 sg. b”ta-wn say zar-wan sy d b”tu-wn d zar-uwn 

2 m.sg. b”ta-f say zar-f” sy d b”ta-f d zara-f” 

2 f. sg. 

b”ta-ghn say 

[btn] 1 

zar-gh”n sy 

d b”ta-ghn 

[btn] 1 

d zara-gh”n 

[zrn] 1 

3 m.sg. b”ta-y say zar-ya sy d b”t-uws d zar-uws” 

3 f.sg. b”ta-tl say zar-tla sy d b”ta-z d zara-za 

1 pl. b”ta-m say zar-ma sy d b”t-m d zar-ma 

2 pl. b”ta-n say zar-na sy d b”ta-n d zara-n 

3 pl. b”ta-tln say zar-tl”n sy d b”ta-tln d zara-tln 

Indirect Object Pronoun Clitics (5:§4.3) 

L Tone Class Verb H L Tone Class Verb 

‘he called the boy for …’ ‘he got money for …’ 

1 sg. zar-a-n sw vrk-y mar--n sw mr-y 

2 m.sg. zar-a-f suw vrk-y mar--f sw mr-y 

2 fsg. 

zar-a-ghn suw vrk-y mar--ghn sw mr-y 

[mrn] 1 

[zrn] 1 

3 m.sg. zar-a-y suw vrk-y mar--y sw mr-y 

3 f.sg. zar-a-tl suw vrk-y mar--tl sw mr-y 

1 pl. zar-a-ma sw vrk-y mar--ma suw mr-y 

2 pl. zar-a-n suw vrk-y mar--n sw mr-y 

3 pl. zar-a-tln suw vrk-y mar--tln sw mr-y 

Independent Genitive Pronouns (8:§1.4) 

SINGULAR PLURAL 

Masculine Feminine Plural Masculine Feminine Plural 

1 nwun twun nywan 1p nma tma nyma 

2m nf” tf” nyf” 2p nn tn nyn 

2f 

ngh”m 

[nm] 1 

tgh”m 

[tm] 1 nyim 

3m nws” tws” nywas” 3p ntln ttln nytln 

3f nz tz nyz

Direct Genitive Pronoun Clitics (10:§3.1.1) 

mb” (f) 

‘thigh’ 

ngr (f) 

‘leg’ 

Appendices 53 

gam (f) 

‘jaw’ 

pram (m) 

‘blood’ 

tn (m) 

‘nose’ 

kyar (m) 

‘back’ 

1 mb”wun ngarwn agamuwun pramwan tnwn kyarwn 

2m mbaf” ngarf” gamaf” pramf” tnf kyarf 

2f mbagh”m 

[mbn] 1 

ngargh”m 

[ngarm] 1 

gamagh”m 

[gamm] 1 

pramgh”m 

[pragh”m] 

tnghm 

[tnyn] 2 kyarghm 

3m mbuws” ngarws” gamuws” pranwas” tnws” kyarws” 

3f mbaza ngarza gamaz pranza tnz kyarz 

1p mbma ngarma gamma pramma tmm kyarma 

2p mban ngarn gaman prann tnn kyarn 

3p mbatln ngartln gamatln prantln tntln kyartln 

Linked Genitive Pronouns (10:§3.3.1) 

Masculine Feminine Plural 

Singular Plural Singular Plural Singular Plural 

1 nwun 1 nma 1 twun 1 tma 1 nywan 1 nyma 

2m nf” 2 nn 2m tf” 2 tn 2m nyf” 2 nyn 

2f ngh”m 

[nn] 1 

2f tgh”m 

[tn] 1 

2f nygh”m 

[nyin] 3 

3m nws” 3 ntln 3m tws” 3 ttln 3m nywas” 3 nytln 

3f nz 3f tz 3f nyz 

Demonstrative Adjectives and Pronouns (10:§2.2) 

Masculine Feminine Plural 

Near nk”n tk”n nykin 

Far nka tka nyka 

Indefinite Adjectives and Pronouns (10:§2.3) 

Masculine wy 

Feminine: wya 

Plural:nywy 

3 Underling /gh/ is palatalized to [y] in the environment of morphological palatalization and/or /y/ 

(2:§1.2.2).

Appendices 54 

APPENDIX II: VERB CLASSES 

The paradigms in this Appendix illustrate all the forms characteristic for all the verb 

classes described in Chapter 4 and all the TAM’s described in Chapter 5. They are 

divided into two large formal classes: Verbal TAM’s and Nominal TAM’s (see 5:§1 

for this distinction). Within each of these paradigms, the verbs are listed according to the 

following eleven classes: 

L Ca “L” MONO-VERBS, 4:§1.2.3.4 

H Ca “H” MONO-VERBS, 4:§1.2.3.5 

L CVCa “L” POLY-VERBS of the final a class 

L CVC 

 

L CVC© “L” POLY-VERBS of the final Ø class 4:§1.2.3.1 

H H CVCa “H H” POLY-VERBS of the final a class 

H H CVC 

 

H H CVC© “H H” POLY-VERBS of the final Ø class 4:§1.2.3.2 

H L CVCa “H L” POLY-VERBS of the final a class 

H L CVC 

 

L H CVC© “H L” POLY-VERBS of the final Ø class 4:§1.2.3.3 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The CVC and CVC” examples of the “final Ø classes” are phonologically predictable 

variants, but both are included with Verbal TAM’s to show how tones are distributed 

when the verb roots have one and two syllables respectively. With Nominal TAM’s, all 

verbs have final -a, thus neutralizing all termination distinctions. 

The citation form of the example verbs for each Verb Class is the gerund (4:§2.2). 

Gerunds are the simplest reference for tone class. For each class, there is a transitive verb 

to illustrate the form with no clitics (Ø Object), the IO Pronoun clitic, and the DO 

Pronoun clitic and an intransitive verb to illustrate the Intransitive Copy Pronoun 

(ICP). Aside from Imperatives, which by definition can have only subjects which 

include 2nd person, the forms are those which would have a non-nominal 3rd masculine 

singular subject (‘he VERB’). Type of subject never affects the form of the verb itself. 

The pronominal clitics are third masculine singular in all cases except ICP for 

Imperatives, which, again, can have only 2nd person subjects. Tones on the third 

masculine singular clitics are representative of tones for all clitics whose tones are 

determined by lexical verb tone rather than having inherent tone (see 4:§1.2.2 for tonal 

classes of clitics). 

The illustrative TAM’s are the following:

Appendices 55 

Verbal TAM’s Nominal TAM’s 

Imperative (5:§2.1.1) Imperfective with Totality s-…-y (5:§2.2.3.5) 

Perfective (5:§2.1.3) Subjunctive (5:§2.2.2) 

Hortative (5:§2.1.3) Perfective with focused subject (5:§2.2.1) 

Negative Imperative/Horative/Subjunctive (5:§3.3) 

The only important TAM forms which are not included are the Counterfactual 

(5:§2.1.4) and the Conditional Future (5:§2.2.5), for which I do not have full paradigms. 

The negative Perfective (5:§3.1) is identical to the Perfective with m (COMPLEMENTS) 

-w following the verb. Negative Imperfective (5:§3.4) is identical to the Imperfective 

illustrated here, but with the discontinuous negative m-…-w replacing the s-…-y 

Totality. 

VERBAL TAMS 

TAM Verb Class Ø object IO pronoun DO pronoun ICP 

Imperative 

• singular 

• 2 plural 

• 1 plural 

L Ca 

H Ca 

L CVCa 

L CVC 

L CVC” 

H H CVCa 

(continued on next page) 

tshiy ‘give’ 

ts 

tsy 

tsym 

kwhy ‘lack’ 

kwy4 kwyy 

kwymy 

tkak” 

‘accompany’ 

tka 

tky 

tkiym 

zrak” ‘call’ 

zr 

zry 

zriym 

bsak” ‘wash’ 

bs” 

bsy 

bsiym 

btak ‘untie’ 

bta 

bty 

btiym 

ts-y 

tsy-y 

tsym-y 

? 5 

tka-y 

tkiy-y 

tkiym-y 

zra-y 

zriy-y 

zriym-y 

bsa-y 

bsiy-y 

bsiym-y 

bta-y 

btiy-y 

btiym-y 

ts-ya 

tsy-y 

tsym-y 

kw-y 

kwy-y 

kwym-y 

tka-ya 

tkiy-ya 

tkiym-y 

zr-ya 

zriy-ya 

zriym-y 

bs”-ya 

bsiy-ya 

bsiym-y 

bta-y 

btiy-y 

btiym-y 

zhiy ‘enter’ 

z-ku 

zy-ka 

zy-m 

tlhy ‘stand up’ 

tl-k 

tly-k 

tly-m 

tsgak” ‘sit down’ 

tsga-ku 

tsgiy-ka 

tsgiy-m 

bwak” ‘go out’ 

bo-ku 

bwiy-ka 

bwiy-m 

bsak” ‘bathe’ 

bs”-ku 

bsiy-ka 

bsiy-m 

ghdzak ‘turn’ 

ghdza-k 

ghdziy-k 

ghdziy-m 

4 The Ø object forms of this verb include the Totality suffix -a;y (7:§2). Vaziya would not give this verb in 

the affirmative Imperative without this suffix. 

5 Kwa; ‘lack’ was the only transitive H class monoconsonantal verb I found. Vaziya could make no sense 

of this verb with an Indirect Object.

Imperative 

(continued) 

H H CVC 

H H CVC” 

lak ‘chop’ 

l 

ly 

liym 

rak ‘moisten’ 

r” 

rby 

riym 

H L CVCa -------------7 H L CVC 

H L CVC” 

------------- 

mrk” ‘get’ 

mr 

mry 8 

[ ] 

mrym 

[ ] 

tfk” ‘shoot’ 

tf 

tfy 

[ ] 

tfym 

[ ] 

Appendices 56 

ala-y 

liy-y 

liym-y 

ra-y 

riy-y 

riym-y 

------------- 

mr-y 

mry-y 

[ _ ] 

mryma-y 

[ – – – _ ] 

tf-y 

tfy-y 

[ _ ] 

tfyma-y 

[ – – – _ ] 

l-y 

liy-y 

liym-y 

r”-y 

riy-y 

riym-y 

------------- 

mr-y 

mry-y 

[ _ ] 

mryma-y 

[ – – – _ ] 

tf”-y 

tfy-y 

[ _ ] 

tfyma-y 

[ – – – _ ] 

dzrak ‘scatter’ 

--------6 dzriy-k 

dzriy-m 

rak ‘decay’ 

r”-k 

riy-k 

riy-m 

snw ‘spend night’ 

sna-k 

sniy-k 

sny-ma 

tsrk” ‘stop’ 

tsr-k 

tsriy-k 9 

tsry-m 

[ ] 

ísk” ‘be sated’ 

ís”-k 

ísy-k 


Perfective 

L Ca 

H Ca 

L CVCa 

L CVC 


ts 

tsa-y 


kw 

---------3 tkak” ‘accompany’ 

t”ka 


zar 

t”ka-y 

zara-y 

tsa-ya 

kwa-y 

t”ka-ya 

zar-ya 

[ _ ] 

ísy-ma 

[ – – – ] 


za-ta 


tla-t 


ts”ga-ta 

ghrak” ‘grow old’ 

ghar-ta 

6 The only intransitive verb of this type that I found requires a plural subject. 

7 I found no transitive verbs and only two intransitive verbs in this class. The intransitive verb here is the 

only multiconsonantal verb I found where a regular gerund (*s©;na;k©) was not accepted. The form 

s©;na;w is a deverbal noun (4:§2.3). 

8 See 4:§1.2.3.6.2 for the unusual contour tone associated with the plural Imperative suffix -iy with H L 

class verbs. 

9 The tones I transcribed for this form are HHL, as given here. Expected would have been HFL or H ! HL. 

This could be a transcription error—cf. 4:§1.2.3.6.2.

Perfective 

(continued) 

L CVC” 

H H CVCa 

H H CVC 

H H CVC” 

H L CVCa 


b”s” 


b”ta 


al 


ra” 

-------------5 ------------- 

H L CVC mrk” ‘get’ 

mr 

H L CVC” tfk” ‘shoot’ 

t”f 

Appendices 57 

b”sa-y 

b”ta-y 

ala-y 

raa-y 

------------- 

mar-y 

t”f-y 

b”s”-ya 

b”ta-y 

al-y 

ra”-y 

------------- 

mr-y 

t”f-y 


Hortative 

L Ca 

H Ca 

L CVCa 

L CVC 

L CVC” 

H H CVCa 

H H CVC 

H H CVC” 

H L CVCa 


t tsa 

t tsa-y 


t kwa 


t t”ka 


t zar 


t b”s” 


t b”ta 


t al 


t ra” 

-------------5 ------------- 

H L CVC mrk” ‘get’ 

t mr 

H L CVC” tfk” ‘shoot’ 

t t”f 

t t”ka-y 

t zara-y 

t b”sa-y 

t b”ta-y 

t ala-y 

t raa-y 

------------- 

t mar-y 

t t”f-y 

t tsa-ya 

t kwa-y 

t t”ka-ya 

t zar-ya 

t b”s”-ya 

t b”ta-y 

t al-y 

t ra”-y 

------------- 

t mr-y 

t t”f-y 


b”s”-ta 


gh”dza-t 

dzrak ‘scatter’ 4 

dzar-tln 


ra”-t 


s”n-t 


tsr-t 


í”s-t 


t za-ta 


t tla-t 


t ts”ga-ta 

bwak” ‘enter’ 

t boo-ta 


t b”s”-ta 


t gh”dza-t 

dzrak ‘scatter’ 4 

t dzar-tln 


t ra”-t 


t s”n-t 


t tsr-t 


t í”s-t

Appendices 58 

NOMINAL TAMS 

TAM Verb Class Ø object 10 IO pronoun 8 DO pronoun ICP 

Imperfective 

(+ s-…-y 

Totality) 

L Ca 

H Ca 

L CVCa 

L CVC(”) 

H H CVCa 

H H CVC(”) 

H L CVCa 


t s- tsy t s- ts-yy 


t s- kwy ---------3 tkak” ‘accompany’ 

t s- tky 


t s- bsy 


t s- btay 


t s- lay 

-------------5 ------------- 

H L CVC(”) mrk” ‘get’ 

t s- mry 

t s- tk-yy 

t s- bsa-yy 

t s- bta-yy 

t s- la-yy 

------------- 

t s- mra-yy 

t s- ts-uws-y 

t s- k-ws-y 

t s- tk-uws-y 

t s- bs-uws-y 

t s- bt-uws-y 

t s- l-uws-y 

------------- 

t s- mr-uws-ay 


Subjunctive 

L Ca 

H Ca 

L CVCa 

L CVC(”) 

H H CVCa 

H H CVC(”) 

H L CVCa 


d tsw 

d tsa-y 


d kwaw 


d t”kaw 


d b”saw 


d b”taw 


d alaw 

-------------5 ------------- 


d marw 

d t”ka-y 

d b”sa-y 

d b”ta-y 

d ala-y 

------------- 

d mar-y 

d ts-uws” 

d k-uws 

d t”k-uws” 

d b”s-uws” 

d b”t-uws 

d al-uws 

------------- 

d mar-ws 


t s- z-ws-y 


t s- tl-ws-y 


t s- tsg-uws-y 


t s- bs-uws-y 


t s- ghdz-uws-y 


t s- r-uws-y 


t s- sn-uws-ay 


t s- tsr-uws-ay 


d z-uws” 


d tl-uws 


d ts”g-uws” 


d b”s-uws” 


d gh”dz-uws 


d ra-uws 


d s”n-ws 


d ts”r-ws 

10 The Ø object and IO pronoun object forms both end in -a and the Totality suffix is -ay. The abutting a’s 

coalesce to give “Cay”. There is no non-arbitrary way to decide where the morpheme boundary is, so I 

have written these forms with no morpheme division between verb form and Totality suffix.

Appendices 59 


Perfective w. 

focused 

subject 

L Ca 


t d tsw 

t d tsa-y 

H Ca 


t d kww ---------3 L CVCa tkak” ‘accompany’ 

t d tkaw t d tka-y 

L CVC(”) bsak” ‘wash’ 

t d bsaw t d bsa-y 

H H CVCa btak ‘untie’ 

t d btaw t d bta-y 

H H CVC(”) lak ‘chop’ 

H L CVCa 

t d law 

------------t 

d la-y 

5 

------------- ------------- 


t d marw t d mar-ya9 t d ts-ws” 

t d kw-uws 

t d tk-uws” 

t d bs-uws” 

t d bt-uws 

t d l-uws 

------------- 

t d mar-ws” 9 


Negative 

Hortative/ 

Imperative/ 

L Ca 

Subjunctive H Ca 

• 2 ms subj. 

• 3 ms subj. 

L CVCa 

L CVC(”) 

H H CVCa 

H H CVC(”) 

H L CVCa 


f ta mar-w 

t mar-w 


f ta ts-w f ta tsa-y-w 

t ts-w 


t tsa-y-w 

f ta kww 

t kw-w 


f ta tka-w f ta tk-y-w 

t tka-w 


t tka-y-w 

f ta b”s-w f ta b”sa-y-w 

t bs-w 


t bsa-y-w 

f ta bta-w f ta bt-y-w 

t bta-w 


t bt-y-w 

f ta al-w f ta la-y-w 

t la-w 

------------t 

la-y-w 

5 

------------- ------------- 

f ta mar-y-w 

t mar-y-w 

f ta ts-ws-uw 

t ts-ws-w 

f ta kw-uws-w 

t kw-uws-w 

f ta tk-ws-w 

t tk-uws-w 

f ta b”s-uws-w 

t bs-uws-w 

f ta bt-uws-w 

t bt-uws-w 

f ta l-uws-w 

t l-uws-w 

------------- 

fa ta mar-ws-uw 

t mar-ws-uw 


t d z-ws” 


t d tl-uws11 tsgak” ‘sit down’ 

t d tsg-uws” 


t d bs-uws” 


t d ghdz-uws 


t d r-uws 


t d s”n-ws 


t d ts”r-ws” 9 


f ta z-f-w 

t z-ws-w 


f ta z-f-w 

t z-ws-w 


f ta tsg-f-w 

t tsg-uws-w 


f ta b”sa-f-w 

t bs-uws-w 


f ta ghdza-f-w 

t ghdz-uws-w 


------------t 

r-uws-w 


f ta ghdza-f-w 

t ghdz-uws-w 


f ta ts”ra-f-w 

t ts”r-ws-uw 

11 The final L is probably a transcription error for downstepped H—cf. t© d©; b-uws©; ‘HE went’. The 

final L domain shown for the H L CVC(©) verbs may be the same error—cf. the Negative Hortative 

counterparts.

miya-english-hausa dictionary - UCLA Department of Linguistics

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