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Deprecated: Implicit conversion from float 10.5 to int loses precision in /home/quasar/lingala.uk/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php on line 78 Nouns – Lingala
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class="post-22283 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-lessons category-nouns">
In earlier lessons we have learned the words bokonziand bolingo. Along with the word bomoi, these words are nouns that are an abstract idea, that is they don’t physically exist as things so as a human or a car does.
In many cases, abstract are formed from other words in Lingala. You can see that those three words have the prefix bo– and generally they don’t have a different plural form.
The word bolingois derived from the word –ling– meaning to love. Therefore bolingomeans is the quality of love. Similarly, the word bokonzicomes from one of our new vocabulary words: mokonzi, meaning chief or king. These two examples show us that abstract nouns are normally formed by simply replacing the prefix of the original word with the bo– prefix.
n the following table notice some other abstract nouns that can be formed:
malamu
good, well
bolamu
goodness
monene
great, big
bonene
greatness, bigness
elenge
young person, youth
bolenge
youth (abstract – i.e. in our youth)
moko
one
bomoko
oneness, unity
moto
person
bomoto
personality, character
Notice in the last two examples, the prefix bo– is put in front of the regular prefix mo-. This only happens occasionally in Lingala and is often done when the word is a shorter word in length.
Many other words can be formed in this way. Look out for others in the coming lessons.
Note: The word bomoidoesn’t have a word that is is derived from, but it does share the same abstract idea as life is not a physical thing we can point to.
We have already learned a number of nouns in the preceding two lessons, but so far they have all been in the singular form. How do we say the plural form of nouns in Lingala?
Lingala (as is true of a number of African languages) makes changes not to the suffix – or end – of a word, but rather to the prefix – or start – of a word. Notice the following examples:
bomoi
life
bomoi
lives
likambo
thing
makambo
things
mobali
man/husband
mibali
men/husbands
moto
person
bato
persons/people
mwana
child
bana
children
mwasi
woman/wife
basi
women/wives
nkombo
name
bankombo
names
nsango
news (singular)
bansango
news (plural)
ntango
time
ntango
times
nzambe
god
banzambe
gods
Notice the way the prefix changes to make the word plural. Though it may at first seem random and unrelated, there is a consistency in how most plural nouns are created in Lingala. The following table which breaks down these plural classes or groups:
Singular Prefix
Plural Prefix
Type
Example
mo–
ba–
person/people
moto / bato
mo-
mi–
object (thing)
motó / mitó
li–
ma–
idea (thing)
likambo / makambo
e–
bi–
object (thing)
eloko / biloko
–
ba–
thing (nasal, nz-, mb-, etc.)
nzambe / banzambe
lo–
n–
thing
lokasa / nkasa
lo–
ma–
thing
loboko / maboko
There are a few variations of these combinations, but generally most fall into one of these categories.
When we take the numbers that we learned earlier, we can start to use these plural nouns along with plural verbs (when needed) to create new sentences. See how the numbers are placed after the noun, just as we do with adjectives: