The Noun Markers “in”, “hi” and “hinda”

Bismillah. This is the 9th lesson on “Tausug 101: Learning Bahasa Sug” by Anak Iluh. For lists of lessons, please go to: Lists of Lessons.

In constructing simple sentences in Bahasa Sug (which we will be discussing soon, in sha Allah), we need to know how NOUNS in a sentence are identified. There are, in fact, a number of noun markers that exists in Bahasa Sug. These are articles that let us know whether the one being identified as a subject or a direct object in a conversation is indeed a noun. In this lesson, we will introduce the first three Noun Markers: In, Hi and Hinda (as the name suggests, any words following these 3 markers are always considered to be “nouns”).

The Article “In”

The Tausug article “In” is the equivalent of the English articles “The” and “a/an”. It is almost always used before the “object” it is identifying (the noun). Article “In” is usually followed by improper nouns—nouns that are not absolutely identified or named—and can be used both for subjects and objects of the verb. Let’s see the sentence construction below:

As indicator of subject:

Báy	House
In báy	The House
In báy malingkat.	The House is beautiful.

                

As indicator of direct object:

In báy	The house
Kiyta’ ku in báy.	I saw the house.

The Tausug article “In” can also be used as the verb-to-be “is” in a sentence, such as:

Mastal	Teacher
In mastal	The teacher
Siya in mastal.	He is the teacher.

And even as indicator of the “doer” of the verb:

Nagbayta’	Told; (p.t. of bayta’, “tell”)
…in nagbayta’ káku’…	…the one who told me...
Hi Ahmad in nagbayta’ káku’.	Ahmad is the one who told me.
(An exception: in this example, the article “In” follows a verb instead of a noun)

It will be observed, that the role of the article “In” is greatly affected by the kind of VERBS that are being used in a sentence. We will be discussing this in our upcoming Lessons in Tausug Verbs (Lesson 12 onwards) in sha Allah.

Articles “Hi” and “Hinda”

Another pair of Tausug articles important to be learned is the two Personal Noun Markers: “Hi” and its plural form, “Hinda”. They have almost the same function as the article “In”—identifying nouns either as subjects, objects or doers of the verb. But these two articles are used only with Proper names, particularly names of people (including the ‘people-callings’ like mother, father, uncle, etc.).

Asking Questions (Pangasubu)

               Bismillah. This is the 1st Bonus lesson for “Tausug 101: Learning Bahasa Sug” by Anak Iluh. For lists of lessons, please go to: Lists of Lessons.

               The very basic way of learning something is by asking questions. And learning “how to ask questions” is what we will discuss today, in shaa Allah. The following are terms used in asking question (Pangasubu = interrogatives):

English	Tausug Questions (Pangasubu)
	Regular Form	*past	*future
What	Unu	---	---
Who	Hisiyu	---	---
Whom	Kansiyu	---	---
Why	Mayta’	---	---
When	Ka’nu	Ka’nu (Kahnu)	Ku’nu (Kuhnu)
Where	Hain	Piyakain, Daing hain	Pakain
How (functional, “how it works”)	Biyariin or Biya’diin	---	---
How (Conditional or situation)	Maunu-unu or Maunu	---	---

Examples of these in regular forms:

Unu in ngan mu?	What is your name?
Hisiyu in usug yaun?	Who is that guy?
Kansiyu in badju ini?	Who own this shirt? (whom)
Hain hi Inah?	Where is mother?
Ka’nu kaw piyag-anak?	When was your birth date?
Mayta’ kaw timangis?	Why are you crying?
Biyariin kaw magtuwg?	How do you sleep?
Maunu-unu na hi Jamal?	How is Jamal doing?

               

 

* THE PAST AND FUTURE FORMS

               One might wonder why we have the columns *past and *future in the table above. It is yet another unique feature we have in Bahasa Sug: a way of differentiating questions that are affected by time. This feature only applies on Hain (where) and Ka’nu (when).