ina

Asking Where

Level 1

Use Ina + noun?, postposed ina with plain continuative, or fronted A ina with relative continuative.

How It Works

The short search frame Ina Maryam? uses a noun naming the sought referent. Postposed Jaka tana ina? uses plain continuative agreement. Fronted A ina yara suke? instead uses relative continuative.

Compare Ina Maryam? “Where is Maryam?” with Ina neman Maryam “I am looking for Maryam”. In the second, ina marks the speaker as continuative subject; neman Maryam supplies the action expression.

Kano speakers strongly prefer a before ina in the fuller fronted frame, although omission is possible. The short noun-only search frame does not take that a and is not a general substitute for pronoun-based questions. Source questions can begin Daga ina, “From where”.

Locative relative -ke has construction- and speaker-dependent vowel length. Ordinary spelling leaves that pronunciation information unmarked; do not infer one universal length from the written ending.

Examples (5)

  1. Ina Maryam?

    Where is Maryam?

    Short noun-only search frame.

  2. Jaka tana ina?

    Where is the bag?

    Postposed question with plain continuative.

  3. A ina yara suke?

    Where are the children?

    Fronted question with relative continuative.

  4. A ina kike?

    Where are you?

    One female listener.

  5. Ina neman Maryam.

    I am looking for Maryam.

    Ina is first-person continuative marking.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

inaLevel 1Asking Where

Learn This First

Recognize participant reference in continuative frames and separately represented tone/vowel length before the location question. The locally supplied kike/suke location forms distinguish the question ina from its first-person homograph.

Words in This Pattern

ina