The Arabic Language

wonúsuLHL gílibu 
ítokum
 
discuss.GERUND be.difficult 
2p
‘Discussing is difficult for you’ (Wellens 2005: 186)
(10) 
nyerekú 
tím 
ámsuku
HHL
 mulódo
 
child be.old hold.INF hoe
‘The child is old enough to hold the hoe’ (Wellens 2005: 191)
An example of the use of the passive is in (11):

---

Arabic Pidgins and Creoles 
309
(11) 
dakulú
LLH
 
íta 
fi 
turá
enter.PASS 2s 
in earth
‘You were buried’ (Wellens 2005: 179)
If this analysis is correct, it would make Nubi a rather special case among creolised 
languages, which rarely develop tones. An alternative analysis interprets these 
data in terms of accent, the tones being secondary (Gussenhoven 2006). 
Nubi nominal forms do not usually distinguish between singular and plural, 
although there seems to be a marker for plurality 
-á
, as in 
lájer
/plural 
lajerá
(Arabic 
al-ḥajar
) ‘stone’. Sometimes groups of human beings are indicated with a collec
-
tive prefix 
nas-
, derived from the Arabic word 
nās
‘people’, as in 
nas-babá
‘fathers 
[collective]’; 
nas-yalá
‘children [collective]’. Adjectives sometimes have a form in 
-in
to denote the plural. The genitive exponent 
ta
clearly derives from Egyptian 
Arabic 
bitāʿ
; it is used both with nouns and with pronominal suffixes (
tái
‘my’, 
táki 
‘your [singular]’, 
to 
‘his/her’, 
téna 
‘our’, 
tákum 
‘your [plural]’, 
tóumon 
‘their’).
Like most other creole languages, Nubi has only one verbal form, for example, 
ábinu
‘to build’ (Arabic 
banā
), 
álabu
‘to play’ (Arabic 
laʿiba
), 
ángulu
‘to remove’ 
(Arabic 
naqala
), 
árija
‘to return’ (Arabic 
rajaʿa
). The most likely etymological source 
for many verbs is the Arabic imperative, as may be seen in verbs like 
gúm
‘to stand 
up’ (Classical Arabic perfect 
qāma
, imperfect 
yaqūmu
, imperative 
qum
). The bare 
verbal stem is used for all persons and in non-stative verbs by default denotes past 
tense. It may be expanded with a number of aspectual particles:
rúa
‘to go’ (< Arabic 
rāḥ
; imperative
 ruḥ
)
ána rúa
‘I went’ (punctual past)
ána bì-rúa
‘I shall go’ (future)
ána gí-rúa
‘I am going’ (continuous)
ána bi-gí-rúa
‘I shall be going’ (future continuous)
ána kán-rúa
‘I had gone’ (pluperfect)
ána kán-gí-rúa
‘I was going’ (past continuous)
ána kán-bi-rúa
‘I would go’ (hypothetical)
In non-stative verbs, the verb stem denotes present tense; with 
kán
it indicates 
past tense, for example, 
kán íta féker 
‘you were thinking’ (Wellens 2005: 57).
Many verbs end in a suffix 
-u
, which is used with transitive verbs, such as 
dúgu 
‘to hit’, 
róbutu 
‘to tie’, 
ákulu 
‘to eat’, but not with intransitive verbs, such as 
gúm 
‘to stand up’ and 
núm 
‘to sleep’. In some verbs, there is an opposition between 
forms with and without 
-u
, for example, 
wónusu 
‘to tell something’ and 
wónus 
‘to 
talk’. This ending is probably a remnant of the object pronoun 
-hu
, which through 
re-interpretation has become a marker of transitive verbs (Wellens 2005: 337–45).
Nubi has developed a focalising particle 
yá 
(probably derived from Arabic 
vocative 
yā
), which serves to contrast or highlight a sentence constituent, as in 
(12):

---

310
The Arabic Language
(12) 
mamá 
tá-ki 
yá 
má 
gi-dúgu
 
mother
 
POSS-2s 
FOC 
NEG 
CONT-hit
 íta
2s
‘It was not your mother who was hitting you’ (Wellens 2005: 237)
Negation is expressed by 
má 
or 
mafí
, which usually occurs sentence-finally, as in 
Bongor Arabic, as in (13):
(13) 
bé 
tó-umon 
kwéis 
má
 
house 
POSS-3p 
good 
NEG
‘Their house is not good’ (Wellens 2005: 251)
The lexicon of Nubi is built on an Arabic basis, but contains a large number of 
Swahili and recently acquired English loans. In some cases, pairs of synonyms 
exist that are indicative of the close relationship between the Nubis and the 
Bantu-speaking environment, for example, 
áseti
(Arabic 
ʾasad
)/
símba
(Swahili 
simba
) ‘lion’; 
béda
(Arabic 
bayḍa
)/
mayái
(Swahili 
mayai
) ‘egg’; 
gemís
(Arabic 
qamīṣ
)/
šáti
(Swahili 
shati
< English 
shirt
). There is one frequent verb that has been taken 
over from Swahili, 
wéza
‘to be able’, although there is an Arabic equivalent 
ágder
(Arabic 
qadira
).
Text 2 Ki-Nubi Arabic (after Heine 1982: 50)
1.
 núbi kúlu má anás ta béle alí úmon 
fógo dé íla wazée yá já wéledú
1. The Nubi are not people of the country 
where they are now, except for the 
elders, they came and got children.
2.
 yalá kamán wéledú, úmon alí 
kubarín dé mútu, yalá al fádul dé 
kúlu anási jedidín
2. The children, too, got children; those 
who were old, died; the children who 
were left behind, they were all new 
people.
3.
 gén ta núbi, úmon gí gén bakán 
wái, gén fu kámbi
3. The stay of the Nubis, they are staying in 
one place, they stay in a village.
4.
 úmon áju bádu, úmon gí lébisí 
gumási, kánzu, bóuzá tróúz, šátí, 
kóti ma tóróbús, dé sáfa fi sáfa ta 
rujalá
4. They like each other; they wear clothes, 
gowns, knickerbockers, shirts, jackets and 
hats. This concerning the men.
5.
 nuswán gí lébis kurbába, gemís, 
tób, fi kurá úmon gí lébis borotús 
ma ndála
5. The women wear a 
gurbaba
, shirts, upper 
cloth; on their legs they wear clogs and 
sandals.
6.
 úmon gí másatú rásu, úmon gí 
gídu adán ma nyangáratu ta kipín 
ma kisáfu
6. They plait their hair, they pierce their 
ear and nose with ear-rings and nose-
rings.

---

Arabic Pidgins and Creoles 
311