LESSON 7: The Pronouns III (Oblique Form)

                Bismillah. This is the 7th lesson on “Tausug 101: Learning Bahasa Sug” by Anak Iluh. For lists of lessons, please go to: Lists of Lessons.


                We are done with the first two forms of pronouns in Bahasa Sug: the Nominative (lesson 5) and the Genitive (lesson 6) pronouns. Today, we will discuss the third and last form of pronouns: the Oblique form.
                Oblique Pronouns are also known as “Independent, Possessive Pronouns”. These are another form of possessive pronouns (which state ownership) like the genitive pronouns; but they are able to stand on their own (thus the name independent) and are also used as subject of the verb in a sentence. Here are the Oblique Pronouns in Bahasa Sug:

OBLIQUE PRONOUNS    (INDEPENDENT, POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS)  in BAHASA SUG
1st Person (speaker)	Singular	Káku’
	Dual	Kátu’
	Plural (including the listener)	Kátu’ niyu
	Plural (excluding the listener)	Kámu’
2nd Person (to listener)	Singular	Kaymu
	Plural	Kaniyu
3rd Person (absent)	Singular	Kaniya
	Plural	Kanila

(Please try to compare this table with the previous tables given in lessons 5 and 6)

                This is the equivalent of Tagalog Language’s “Sa Akin, Sa Iyo, Sa Kaniya…” and the English’s “Mine, Yours, Him/Hers, and Theirs”. Examples in Tausug conversation:

As expressing possession:

                Káku’ in kahawa ini.                       This coffee is mine.
                Kaymu in tinapay.                           The bread is yours.
                In mga saying yaun, kanila.        Those bananas are theirs.
                (Note: This lesson was made while the author is feeling hungry, really hungry.=)

And as subject of the verb:

Miyadtu aku kanila.       =      I went to them. (kanila is the subject of the verb miyadtu)
Nagbayta’ siya káku’     =        He said to me. (kaku’, “me” is the direct object of the verb    nagbayta, “was told”)

                Because there is nothing left to explain, this will end our lesson number 7. For more examples and new Tausug words for your vocabulary, pls go to the download link below and click download. Keep inviting more friends to learn Bahasa Sug with you. It’s more fun if you have a partner :-)

                Here’s another short Tausug conversation (Pagsambung-laung) to better understand how these pronouns are used:

Pagsambung-Laung III              [NEEDS EDITING! NEEDS NEW EXAMPLE!!!] 

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o

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You can listen to this conversation in the audio files provided.

Till next Thursday. Salam kasilasa!           

-Anak Iluh

LESSON 6: The Pronouns II (Genitive Form)

          Bismillah. This is the 5th lesson on “Tausug 101: Learning Bahasa Sug” by Anak Iluh. For lists of lessons, please go to: Lists of Lessons.

          In this lesson, we will discuss the second form of pronouns found in Bahasa Sug: the Genitive Pronouns. Hmm, the word “genitive” seems so foreign to us, so we will use the other user-friendly name of it: The Dependent, Possessive Pronouns.

          Possessive Pronouns, as the name suggests, are those pronouns used to indicate ‘possession’ of an object: be it a thing, a person, or anything that can be owned (even action and dreams!) by the subject. There are two kinds of possessive pronouns: dependent and independent. Genitive pronouns are the “dependent, possessive pronouns” because they cannot stand alone. The following are the Genitive Pronouns found in Bahasa Sug:

GENITIVE PRONOUNS   (DEPENDENT, POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS) in BAHASA SUG
1st Person (speaker)	Singular	Ku
	Dual	Ta/Natu
	Plural (including the listener)	Natu’
	Plural (excluding the listener)	Namu’
2nd Person (to listener)	Singular	Mu
	Plural	Niyu
3rd Person (absent)	Singular	Niya
	Plural	Nila

(Try to compare this table with the one we have in Lesson 5)

            Because these pronouns are ‘dependent’, they cannot basically stand alone nor are they used as subjects in a sentence. They are ALWAYS preceded by the object (the possession) of the subject. Examples:

Báy ku               =             My House

Báy ta/natu’      =             Our house (inclusive)

Báy namu’        =             Our house (exclusive)

Báy mu             =             Your house (singular)

Báy niyu           =             Your house (Plural)

Báy niya           =             His/Her house

Báy nila           =             Their House

            Try experimenting with these pronouns and the other Tausug Words we have learned so far. Remember that the <object> always comes before the <genitive pronoun>.

            On another case, we will also learn that these same pronouns are used to refer to the <actor> of a verb. I am still consulting the experts as to what is this ‘relationship’ called. This happens when the genitive pronouns above are preceded by <actions> instead of <objects>. We will learn more about this when we reach the Lessons on Verbs. Here are some examples:

            Kiyta’ ku hi Sulayman.             I saw Sulayman. (Ku here is the actor of the verb Kiyta’,“saw”)
            Hain in kiyawa’ mu?                Which one did you took? (mu is actor of kiyawa’, “took”)            
            Piyanaw nila in jambatan.          They walked to the wharf. (nila is the actor of piyanaw, “walked”)

            This is not limited to past tenses of verbs only as it also appears in verbs in present tense. We will try to discuss this later on for the “advance learners” only and will be discussing about them further in the VERBS, in shaa Allah. Beginners in Bahasa Sug can focus in the dependent, possessive form only.

This ends our 6th lesson.

Try to check the Download files we have in our Download page :-)

Till next week, Salam Kasilasa!
Anak Iluh

LESSON 5: The Pronouns I (Nominative Form)

Bismillah. This is the 4th lesson on “Tausug 101: Learning Bahasa Sug” by Anak Iluh. For lists of lessons, please go to: Lists of Lessons.

                Thursday is Bahasa Sug day! Hehe. Alhamdulillah, we are already done with the first part of our course, from the brief history and background about Bahasa Sug to its different sounds and letters and the special rulings therein. We are now about to begin the second part; the second level which will be a little harder to put in to words…but hopefully we will be able to learn them easily. We will start by introducing the Common Pronouns in Bahasa Sug (thanks to Mr.Boutemr and Dayang ni D of for this suggestion).

             There are basically three forms of pronouns found in Bahasa Sug: 1) the Nominative form (which is the most common, I think); 2) the Genitive Form; and the 3) Oblique form. Don’t panic! We will try to discuss them one at a time. (I am also trying to learn them as much as I can.) The 2nd and 3rd form will be discussed in next lessons to come, in sha Allah. Today, we will focus on the first form: the Nominative Form.

            So what do we mean when we say “Nominative”? According to Merriam-Webster, in the grammar of languages, ‘nominative’ refers to the ‘marking typically of the subject of the verb’. In this definition, we can basically say that these kinds of pronouns are only used as subjects (I am still on the process of doing some experiments, hopefully to find some exemptions in this rule). The basic idea is there: when using the pronoun as the subject of the verb, we use the following Tausug pronouns:

COMMON NOMINATIVE PRONOUNS in BAHASA SUG
1st Person (speaker)	Singular	Aku
	Dual	Kita
	Plural (including the listener)	Kita niyu or Kitaniyu
	Plural (excluding the listener)	Kami
2nd Person (to listener)	Singular	Ikaw
	Plural	Kamu
3rd Person (absent)	Singular	Siya
	Plural	Sila

               
                It can be observed that these pronouns are indeed similar with the Tagalog Pronouns, except in some of it such as Kitaniyu (“Tayo” in Tagalog) and Kamu (“Kayo” in Tagalog). Learning these pronouns will surely be a ‘no-sweat’ thing for Filipino learners and those who are already fluent in Tagalog.

                To get a better picture of how these pronouns are used, here is a short Tausug Conversation (this is an example of a quite informal conversation between two peers):

Pagsambung-Laung III

Maryam:          Indah, hisiyu kaw yan?                                 Indah, who are you?
Yusra:              Aku hi Yusra.                                              I am Yusra
Maryam:          Ikaw ka in anak hi abu’ hadji Del?              Are you a daughter of Aunt Hja. Del?
Yusra:              Huun, aku in magulang.                               Yes, I am the eldest.
Maryam:          Pila kamu magtaymanghud?                        How many are you (siblings)?
Yusra:              Tuw. Babai kami katan.                              Three. We are all girls.
Maryam:          Hain na in mga manghud mu?                      Where are your sisters?
Yusra:              Yadtu sila ha iskul.                                      They are at school.
Maryam:          Hi Fairodz, grade pila na?                           What grade is Fairodz now?
Yusra:              Grade six na siya.                                       She is now in Grade six.
Maryam:          Marayaw isab nakapagkila kita.              It is good that we met each other.
Yusra:       Huun sa. Biya’ naglayu’ na kitaniyu           Your right. We have been far from
                        katan yan.                                                   each other (for a while).

                Due to some technical problems (which includes the inability of the author to record the audio in a female voice), the audio file for this conversation will be released next week. Thank you very much for your kind considerations. :-)

                Here are the new Tausug words we learned today in this lesson:

Hisiyu     =    Who                            Manghud   =   Younger sibling                
Pila         =    How many                   Yadtu        =     There
Anak      =    child (son/daughter)       Nakapagkila (r.w. Kila) = to Know or to Meet
Abu’/Babu’  =    Aunt                       Katan     =    All
Magulang     =    Elder child            Naglayu’ (r.w. Layu’)= Become far  

Salam Kasilasa!
Anak Iluh