Adjective in Fulfulde and Hausa: A Comparative Analysis

Citation: Bello, M. Z. and Bashir Usman, B. (2025). “Adjective in Fulfulde and Hausa: A Comparative Analysis.” in Ɗunɗaye Journal of Hausa Studies, Vol. 03, No. 02, Pp. 113 – 119. www.doi.org/10.36349/djhs.2025.v03i02.014.

ADJECTIVE IN FULFULDE AND HAUSA: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

Muhammad Zaharaddeen Bello

Department of Nigerian Languages, Umaru Musa Yar’adua University, Katsina

and

Bashir Usman

Department of Languages and Linguistics, University of Maiduguri, Borno State

Abstract:

This paper examines the adjectives of Fulfulde and Hausa comparatively. Despite the fact that the two languages are from different phylum genetically, yet it is empirical fact to pursue such a line of inquiry not only in identifying and establishing linguistic universals either for the purposes of typology or on a theoretical note but to provide a sound basis of cross-linguistics perspective of adjectives and to bring out salient features shared by both languages as well as cases of disparity. The study employs descriptive approach and the data was collected through native intuition for Fulfulde and Hausa literary text for Hausa adjectives. The study reveals that, Hausa has mainly two major classes of the adjectives thus; morphological class and syntactic class. Fulfulde, has participial adjectives, independent adjectives and derived adjectives. We observed that derived adjectives in Fulfulde are divided into three based on their morphological composition. The two languages have lot of similarities in the adjectives so also the differences that the adjectives both appear as pre- and post-nominally. 

Key words: Comparative, Analysis,  Fulfulde, Hausa,  Adjectives

Introduction

This paper essentially examines the adjectives of Fulfulde and Hausa on a comparative note; even though the two languages do not belong to the same language phylum they are not genetically related. Despite the fact that they are not related, yet it is empirical fact to pursue such a line of inquiry not only in virtue of identifying and establishing linguistic universals. Either for the purposes of typology or on a theoretical note but to provide a sound basis of cross-linguistics perspective of syntax and semantic of adjectives, and to bring out salient syntactic features shared by both languages as well as cases of disparity.

Fulfulde grammar is characterized by some peculiar features. However languages tend to share some common characteristics that are referred to as universal principles. Fulfulde has some common features that are remarkable as far as the grammar of the language is concerned. These include: The Phoneme System, the Initial Consonant Alternation and the Noun Class System. More so Hausa also has some salient features unique to its grammar which include phoneme, tone system and grammatical words category which are worth investigating. One of its grammatical word systems are adjectives.

Therefore, Adjectives in Fulfulde are largely tied to the noun in assigning it the suffix; it must take as a class marker. In Hausa they are defined syntactically by their use as nominal modifiers or predicators and semantically by their meaning. Morphologically, simple adjectives are generally distinguishable from nouns. They look like nouns, form feminine and plurals essentially like nouns and use the same genitive linker as nouns. More over many words exist both as nouns and adjectives; compare for example, the word ‘tsoho’ in the phrase ‘wani tsoho’. This paper looks at both Fulfulde and Hausa adjectives comparatively.

Methodology

The study employs descriptive approach, the data was collected through native intuition for Fulfulde and Hausa literary text. We use three competent native speakers for both the two languages to validate the data. The Hausa data are drawn from standard Hausa which serves as the reference variety due to its wide acceptance in education, media and written communication. While the Fulfulde data was collected from speakers of the Adamawa dialect, selected because of its prominence and active use in everyday communication in northeastern Nigeria.

The Concept of Adjective

Adjectives constitute a very important lexical category in both descriptive and theoretical linguistic research that have generated a lot of debates and discussions, which raise issues of unresolved issues despite several proposals and advances made. Much of the renewed interest in the semantic and syntactic studies is language-specific. At the moment, there is still a question whether adjectives can be considered to belong to a universal set of lexical categories. Closely related to this is the controversy surrounding adjectives regarding lack of universally acceptable definition. Cross-linguistic studies of adjectives on a comparative note (see. Baker, 2003) has suggested that comparison across human languages is an essential aspect of formal linguistics. Cinque and Kaynes (2005) argued that the study of closely related languages or dialects or even unrelated ones has proven extremely useful in illuminating relation between cross-linguistics syntactic differences that might otherwise appear unrelated and have helped to identify the so- called core principles of Universal Grammar.

Rufai attempts to analyzed the situation along the verbal grade line. He suggested that they can be formed from both verbs and nouns that counter Newman’s claim which suggest that they can only be formed from verbs. The paper addresses the issue of ungrammaticality of some participial adjectives that show regular and productive form in the language. Semantically, those adjectival past participles that is not systematic as they have different semantic notion. Their NPs have patience meaning while other has agentive meaning.

The Adjectives in Fulfulde

The Adjectives in Fulfulde are largely tied to the noun in assigning it the suffix it must take as a class marker. However, unlike the noun the adjectives have a root rather than a stem because the adjectival root can take as many nominal suffixes as possible. Like the nominal stems, the adjectival roots select the type of suffixes they occur with. There are some common adjectives in Fulfulde that can stand alone without the nouns they modify, that is to say their nouns can be understood through their suffixes.

The adjective in Fulfulde is similar to the noun, because the adjective has one of the important features of noun; the nominal class marker. Like in other noun class languages, almost all adjectives in Fulfulde copy the class markers of the nouns they qualify. This case is referred to as concordial agreement in noun class languages. And the class markers are determined by the nominal suffixes attached to the stems. The adjective phrase AP in Fulfulde can constitute a main clause without including the noun that it qualifies in the structure. Since adjectives in Fulfulde copy the class suffixes of their referents, they can be comprehensive enough even when the nouns they qualify are not reflected in the constituent. Therefore, an adjective can be a subject as well as an object. In any sentence, the adjective occupies the SPEC position of the IP. In the absence of the NP, the adjective assumes the position of the NP that it qualifies. Let us consider the following examples.

1a. woj                        -jo                                boxeejo                                  red complexion

b. woom-       -ɗo                               goomooɗo                 fat person

c. woom-        -nde                            womownde               large cap

d. daneejo.         white CS.       “white man”

e. ginnaaɗo.      mad CS.          “mad man”

f. somɗo.           tired CS.          ‘tired man’

From the above examples, two types of suffixes occur with the specific adjectival roots. It looks like the type of suffix is determined by the final sound of the stem. The change in the initial consonants of the roots is because of class suffix. While in other examples, all the initial consonants have not changed at all. The Verbonominal adjectives are the adjectives that are derived from verbs by attaching nominal suffixes to them. Simple verbonominals adjectives or participles are hybrid words consisting of a verbal root plus a nominal suffix, notwithstanding participles may consist verb root plus a tense suffix a preterit element and a nominal suffix depending on the semantic requirement.

2a. nyolndi.               decay CS.                   “decayed (porridge)

b. lammuɗam.                        sour  CS.                   ‘processed milk’

c. ngulndi.                hot CS.                       ‘the hot food’

In Fulfulde, you have only one way of expressing these adjectives. In the first place, contrary to Hausa language in Fulfulde the nouns and the adjectives that qualify them are juxtaposed without any linking element. While adjectives in Hausa can occur both pre and post nominally, in Fulfulde adjectives are always  preceded by their nouns. The alternative order where a linker is used in Hausa in even attested in Fulfulde.

The Adjective in Hausa

Adjectives constitute an important grammatical category in the Hausa language, serving the function of describing or qualifying noun, which are used to express qualities such as size, color, shape, condition, quantity and other attributes of a noun. Adjective in Hausa often agree with the noun they describe in terms of gender and number. Adjective in Hausa play a crucial role in meaning construction and sentence clarity, as they help to provide more precise information about noun. To understand how adjectives function in Hausa one should therefore have essential knowledge of Hausa grammar and effective communication in both spoken and written forms. This paper addresses the issue of ungrammaticality of some participial adjectives that show regular and productive form in the language. Semantically, those adjectival past participles that is not systematic as they have different semantic notion. Their NPs have patience meaning while other has agentive meaning. The study reveals that adjectives in Hausa are free to occur on both sides of the noun. He upheld the view that noun adjectives ordering by existing topological studies seems a unipositional occurrence of adjectives in languages, i.e adjectives either occur prenominally or post-nominally. Although, such generalization can be statistically true in some languages it not so. Let us consider the examples below.

3a. Baƙin mutum.           Black + linker + man.       “a black man”

b. Mutum baƙi.              Man black.                        “a black man”

c. Baƙin gajeren mutum.   Black + linker + short + linker + man

d. Mutum baƙi gajere .         Man black short.     “a short black man”

The above examples show that the adjectives can occur both pre and post nominally. The pre-nominal adjectives are accompanied by a kind of linker which perhaps is as basic as the post-nominal adjectives which doesn’t require a linker. However, in terms frequency the pre-nominal adjectives can posited as a basic form in Hausa despite being morphologically complex. There are Adjectives derived by affixing ma-, ba-,  mai-  attached to the verb or noun bases to form agentive nouns. Many words of this form especially those based on intransitive verbs, also (or primarily) function as adjectives. Consider the following   examples.

4a. Mafaɗaci  adj.      fighter,

b. Matsiyaci   adj.      poor,  destitute

c. Maikyau     adj.      beautiful

b. Ba-duku    leather worker

Adjectival Past Participle are productively formed from verbs by means of a tone integrating suffix –aCCe)LHH (where CC represent a doubled/germinated copy of the preceding consonant). The feminine counterpart has final –iya rather –e. plural past participles use the normal –u)LH plural suffix. let us consider the following examples;

5a. Dafaffe  - cooked < dafa – cook

b. Rubutacce – written < rubuta – write

Predicate Adjectives

Adjectives can function predicatively or attributively. As a predicate, adjectives function as the Y in equational or identificational sentences of the form (X) Y STAB. The young obligatorily agrees that gender and number with the expressed or understood X subject. Examples

6a. [yaron] X [dogo] Y ne

b. [gidajen] X [sababbi] Y ne

c. [karensa] X [mafadaci] Y ne

Attributive Adjectives (Alternative Word Orders)

Simple, single word adjectives occur both before and after the head noun. Pronominal adjectives obligatorily connect to the head by means of a genitive linker (-n or –r, depending on number and gender); post-nominal adjectives are immediately juxtaposed to the head noun. Let us consider the following examples;

7a. Farin gida (lit. white. L house) ‘gida fari’ white house

b. Katon dutse (lit. huge. L.stone) ‘dutse katoto’   huge stone

c. Tsatsamar fura (lit. Sour. L. fura)          ‘fura tsatsama’  Sour fura

From the above examples one would generalize noun phrases in Hausa with two orders have the same essential meanings, although, these are few examples, differences do exist, however, but at the pragmatic/stylistic level. Both orders are normal and quite common. In Hausa we have headless adjectives, which are extremely common in the language occur either because of syntactically favored ellipsis or because the head is understood from the context. Notice that because these words are adjectives (and not nouns), the gender is determined by the controlling noun (even if not expressed) rather than being an intrinsic property of the adjectives itself. Let us consider the following examples;

8a. Babur sabo or sabon babur                   new motor cycle

c. Miyagun ‘yan siyasa                               evil politicians

From the examples, one would notice that, if the head as in example I, Babur is deleted from the phrase, the surface result is simply sabo new ‘one’, which is the case with sabo ‘new’ and miyagu ‘evil’ in the above examples respectively.

Comparative Analysis of Fulfulde and Hausa Adjectives

Both Fulfulde and Hausa share similar forms and structure in their adjectives, considering the fact that adjectives can function predicatively or attributively. As a predicate, adjectives function as the Y in equational or identificational sentences of the form (X) Y STAB. The young obligatorily agrees that gender and number with the expressed or understood X subject. As can be seen below;

9a        [yaron] X [dogo] Y ne

b.         [gidajen] X [sababbi] Y ne

c.         [karensa] X [mafadaci] Y ne

However, Hausa has mainly two major classes of the adjectives thus; morphological class and syntactic class. Morphological has some other sub-classes such as (i) derived adjectives as in “Mahaukaci” crazy (ii) past participle adjectives as in “ mutum baqi gajere” short black man (iii) derived adjectives of sensory quality “kakkaifa” very sharp quality (iv) reduplicated adjectives “jaja-jaja” reddish (v) compound adjectives “ruwan kasa” brown. For Fulfulde, we so far identified the following adjectives; (i) participial adjectives an in “goomooxo” fat person (ii) demonstrative adjectives as in “Nagge ngee” this cow (iii) independent adjectives as in “ginnaaxo” mad man (iv) derived adjectives as in “nglundi” the mad man.

The so-called simple adjectives classes consist of morphologically non-derived words. The masculine singular constitutes the unmarked form. The corresponding feminine is formed by adding a toneless suffix (-a) to the masculine stem (not to the underlying base). The surface output is determined in accordance with the general feminine formation rules described but repeated. The derived adjectives are divided into three based on their morphological composition.

As far as the grammar of Fulfulde is concerned, all the types of adjectives can be derived through suffixation of the nominal class affixes. The noun class system plays a very vital and indispensable role in all the derivations affecting them. For the derived adjectives, we need to know that the suffixes are attached to either nouns or verbs to derive them. In this category we may have two types of suffix markers; jo and ɗo, the former being attached mostly to borrowed stems.

The two languages have lot similarities in the adjectives so also the differences. For Hausa, despite the major classification of the adjectives to two broad heading; morphological and syntactic, it shares similarities to that of Fulfulde especially that the adjectives both appear as pre-nominally and post-nominally. The surface output for Hausa adjectives is determined in accordance with the general feminine formation rules described above. However, if the adjective precedes the second noun, the modification does not apply to the first noun, instead, they modify nouns individually, the adjectives can modify the coordinate structure as such, in which case it takes plural concord. However, in Hausa, when the construction is used with regular adjectives, it tends to emphasize a contrast and/or indicate above average attributes.

For Fulfulde the agreement is shown in the adjectives with is preceding noun, if the noun is singular the adjectives must also be singular as it will agree with the noun in the initial consonant alternation (ICA) the agreement must be shown clearly there. Notice that because of being adjectives (and not nouns), the gender is determined by the controlling noun (even if not expressed) rather than being an intrinsic property of the adjectives itself. Adjectives in post-nominal position also permit the insertion of conjunctions or modal particles, which are not the case pronominal adjectives.  

However, in Hausa ambiguous sentences allow the interpretation with the adjective modifying the first noun only. The ellipsis of the second adjective does not work if the words do not march in gender. The extension of the adjectival meaning works only from left to right. If the adjective precedes the second noun, the modification does not apply to the first noun, instead, the modification nouns individually, the adjectives can modify the coordinate structure as such, in which case it takes plural concord. In Hausa, those words applied as adjectives (or sensory quality nouns), are used as the process of full reduplication with a companying vowel shortening produces forms that are semantically ‘attenuated’ which have the quality of the simple adjectives but to lesser extent. When a reduplicated base is used as the input of the derivation, the resultant semantic output are adjectives. Some few words appear only in this form with an extent of non-reduplicated stem. 

The adjectives can also be formed from common nouns by full reduplication of the underlying noun, preserving the original tone. this is accompanied by shortening of the final vowel of both parts. The resulting adjectives, which correspond to such English adjectives as ‘powdery’ or ‘sacklike’ indicate a quality or characteristics of the source nouns. The formation appears to be extremely productive. Although the nouns from which the adjectives are derived are variably masculine or feminine (even plural), the derivatives themselves are invariant and do not have inflected feminine or plural forms. However, syntactically they can function as predicate adjectives or as attributive (post-nominal) modifiers.

Conclusion

We want to categorically states here that, this work is not exhaustive about the study of adjectives in both Fulfulde and Hausa, yet we set the pace for further studies. We try to unlock the divergent aspect of the grammars of the two languages. Fulfulde and Hausa, genetically were two distinct languages, Fulfulde is a Niger-Congo language under West-Atlantic, found relatively closer to Serer, Wolof, Djoyla and Adyukur, distantly related to Hausa which falls under Chadic relatively closer to Karekare, Bade, Ngizim, Angas etc. However, Cross-linguistic studies of adjectives on a comparative note (see. Baker, 2003) has suggested that comparison across human languages is an essential aspect of formal linguistics. We set to test the universality of language comparatively as a tool for expressing our complexities through communicating similar tools as a means of understanding meaning within the communicative prerequisites.

Adjectives constitute a very important lexical category in both descriptive and theoretical linguistic research that have generated a lot of debates and discussions, which raises unresolved issues despite several proposals and advances made. Much of the renewed interests in the semantic and syntactic studies are language-specific. At the moment, there is still a question whether adjectives can be considered to belong to a universal set of lexical categories or not.

We try in this paper to addresses the issue of ungrammaticality of some participial adjectives that show regular and productive form in Fulfulde and Hausa. Semantically, those adjectival past participles that are not systematic as they have different semantic notion. Their NPs have patient meaning while other has agentive meaning. The study reveals that adjectives in Hausa are free to occur on both sides of the noun. Noun adjectives ordering seems a uni-positional occurrence in both the two languages, i.e adjectives either occur pre-nominally or post-nominally.

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