##08. LOCATIVE EXPRESSIONS
ocative expressions in Bole typically include a preposition plus a word or phrase
indicating location. Like other African languages, Bole has few  true
L
prepositions. Most words that European languages express with prepositions ( in ,
 on ,  under ,  between , etc.) derive from nouns and are in a genitive relation to the noun
to which they express a locative relation. Discussion here focuses on the internal structure
and lexical categories found in locative expressions. See żż [simplex, locative S] for the
functions of locative expressions in larger contexts.
True Prepositions
We define  true prepositions as words that must head a larger phrase and must govern
a nominal complement, i.e. true prepositions cannot appear without a complement and only
the PHRASE that the preposition governs, not the preposition itself, can be governed by a
higher category. The true locative prepositions of Bole are the following:
gą  at, on, in : preposition expressing stationary location, e.g.
nć fiowu gać boćnoć  I stayed at home
ko  from : preposition expressing source, e.g.
nć ndin ko boćnoć  I came from home
n;  via : preposition stating path of action, e.g.
nć fioćppu\ n; boćnoć  I passed by way of home
kapa  as far as, up to : preposition expressing extent, e.g.
mu ndęna kapa P�kkać  we will go as far as Fika
ą  at, on, in , e.g.
ishi gać go\roć ać (`" gać) gaĄ boĄn�  he has kola in his mouth
da\nde ać makaranta  the children are at school
The last word, ą, is cognate with a stationary locative preposition widely found in other
Chadic languages, e.g. Hausa na\ zaunaĄ ać gida\
 I stayed at home . In Bole, this word
seems to be shifting away from unequivocal prepositional function. Its most frequent uses
are as a third person auxiliary in imperfective TAM s (żż) and as an auxiliary in sentences
with locative predicates (żż), such as the last example above. Historically these uses derive
from the prepositional function, but in modern Bole, ą is perhaps better viewed as a copula
meaning  is, are . In sentences such as ishi gać go\ ać gaĄ boĄn�  he has kola in his mouth ,
roć
the interpretion is virtually always ambiguous between a prepositional phrase within the
predicate (as in the English translation here) or as a bi-clausal sentence, viz.  he has kola
(and) it is in his mouth .1 Unambiguous stationary locative phrases generally use the
preposition gą, hence the parenthesized option with this preposition in the penultimate
example above.
The two monosyllabic prepositions with Hi tone, ko and n;, condition Low Tone
Raising (LTR) on their complements, e.g. ko Pikkać ^from Fika&, m; Pikkać  via Fika
(P�kkać). The preposition kapa, though it bears Hi tone, does NOT condition LTR, viz.
kapa P�kką  as far as Fika . This follows from a general pattern that only monomoraic
prepositions and conjunctions cliticize to their complements and hence condition LTR (żż).
1
It is probably this ambiguity in interpretation which has led to the apparently functional shift of ą away
from its general prepositional status, with concomitant replacement by gą in this function.
1
Locative  Prepositions Derived from Nouns
As noted above, Bole uses nouns to express most locative relationships that European
languages express with prepositions. Several of these derive from body parts, though Bole
does not have as many words transparently related to body parts as do some languages,
such as Hausa or Bade. Below is a list of the common Bole locative relational nouns with
examples for each. Note that a complete locative expression (other than a locative
goal żż) requires one of the true prepositions in addition to these nominally based locative
words. (See also section żż for special uses of boĄ, gaĄ, and ko.)
boĄ  end of, edge of, tip of, opening of <  mouth  see NOTES below
zan kurpi gać boĄ boćzoć  they left the well-bucket (kurpi) at the edge of
the well
sunn� de ać boĄ t�linoć  his name is on the tip of my tongue (&  on
the mouth of my heart )
fiowu\ gać boĄ liklik kujeĄra  he s sitting on the very edge of the chair
(liklik = ideophone giving sense of  the
VERY edge )
boi  behind <  back
&yoru\ gać boi-noć  he stood behind me
fioćppa m; boi mo\tać sa  don t go behind the car ( don t [you pl.]
follow via behind the car )
mu fioppać m; boi sa  we won t go behind
dąllą  between <  center
dąlląmu  between us
dallano ga isin kapa lapiya  between me and him (there is nothing) except
good relations (Rubuta Wakita, p. 12)
GIMBA: NEED MORE EXAMPLES OF dalla meaning both 'between' and 'in the middle of'
d�m  in front of <  being ahead, precedence (cf. boĄ doćm  first )2
&yoru\ gać doćm-no  he stood in front of me
soĄjaĄwa ać j� ndęna doćm gwamnać the soldiers are passing before the governor
gaĄ, gaćwa  in, into (cf. boĄ gaćwa  chest  gąwa is not used alone as a noun)
(see NOTES below)
gaĄ boćnno  inside my house
ka pofiun do\do ko gaĄ aćkoĄt�@  did you remove money from (inside) the box?
o\, nć pofiuwoĄ ko gaćwa  yes, I removed (it) from within
"
j�  against, on the surface of <  body
gosu\ gać j� rećwe  he is supporting himself against the tree
ko  on <  head 3 see NOTES below
shi fiowa gać ko kujeĄra eme\@  are you going to sit on this chair?
o\", nć fioćwa gać konn�  yes, I am going to sit on it
nć taĄwu\ ko ko goćggoć  I moved from on the road (i.e.  I moved off
the road )
2
This word is homophonous with d�m  blood . This must be accidental homophony rather than a
semantic extension.
3
Ko  on is homophonous with the preposition ko  from (see preceding section). This appears to be
accidental homophony. Note that the two words appear together in the third example.
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ko&y&yeć  above 4
koy&ye rećwe  above the tree
baĄlinshe ać j� ngećfieć n; ko&y&yeć  the storks are passing overhead ( & via
above )
woć liśoć li  under < w�li/�li  earth, ground, (locatively) on the ground
lwoć l&oć
ga\ rę woć li firęj�  the lizard went under the refrigerator
reć lwoć
nć �nna\-n� gać woć
lwoćli sa  I didn t see him underneath (it)
cf. nć za\ gać oć  I put it on the ground
woĄ li
NOTES ON  PREPOSITIONAL NOUNS: Most noun-derived locative words can be
used without a complement to mean  in (it), behind (it) , etc. BoĄ
 at the edge of , gaĄ  in ,
and ko  on are bound forms that require a following complement. The  full form gąwa
 in (it) can be used with no overt complement. Ko is the bound form of the word for
 head . The free form of the word for  head , koĄyi, only has the literal meaning. Hence,
ko  on always has either a nominal or pronominal complement. Likewise, boĄ is the word
for  mouth and without a complement it has only a substantive nominal meaning.
GIMBA: CHECK THESE CLAIMS. WE NEED EXAMPLES SHOWING THAT koyi
ONLY MEANS  head AND THAT boWITHOUT A COMPLEMENT MEANS ONLY  mouth
(IF, IN FACT, THIS IS TRUE.)
The words above are nouns in a genitive relation with their complements. Those
ending in Hi tone condition Low Tone Raising, e.g. boi rewe  behind the tree , �l �li
rewe  under the tree (< rŁwe). There are a few locative relational nouns that use the
preposition gą with their complements. This same preposition is the stationary locative
meaning  at, on , but here it is functionally more like its instrumental comitative use (żż).
nem (gą)  near (to)
nzeć ttę nem gać inać  come close to me
meć
ka inna\-n� gać nem@  do you see him nearby?
gaćra&! (gać)  distant (from) <  long, tall
zućbbi boĄ dećmeć ye ko gaćra&! gać boćnoć
 dump the trash far from the house ( & from far from the house )
nć �nna\ Bamoi ko gaćra&!  I saw Bamoi from afar
ko&y&yeć (gać)  above (this word can also take a direct noun complement see above)
baĄlinshe ać j� ngećfieć n; ko&y&ye gać mimmuć
 the storks are passing above us ( & via above us )
GIMBA: DO COMPASS POINTS WORK THIS WAY? IF SO, REVISE TO HAVE A
SECTION CALLED SOMETHING LIKE "LOCATIVE ADVERBIAL WORDS",
INCLUDING THE 3WORDS ABOVE, COMPASS POINTS AND kać
fii  outside (not covered
anywhere here)
Compass Points
The Bole words for compass points are the following in the Fika dialect:
4
This word probably derives historically from ko  on ( head of ) +  ya  thing . Ko with a pronominal
complement geminates the consonant of the pronoun. Though gemination does not now take place with a
noun complement, the historical source of the gemination is probably assimilation of a linking morpheme
(żż), which would, at one time, have been present before both pronoun and noun complements.
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fiać
r  east
z�ni  west =  afternoon
gudi  north (cf. Kanuri g�ćdi  east )
ąushi  south (=  river )
The Gongola River bisects the Bole-speaking region along an east-west axis. The late
John Lavers has pointed out that for people north of the Gongola, the area including Fika,
the word ąushi means  south . In the Gombe area, south of the Gongola, the word ąushi
means  north . The Bole list in Kraft (1981), which is from the Gombe dialect, thus has
ąushi  north and gwąna  south .
Words Meaning  place
Bole has four words, each of which can be translated  place in English but which are
functionally distinct.
bećyi `" be' &i  physical location (Hausa wurę)
i `" beć
be'i gać selweĄfii  the place is slippery
mi&y&ya bućttun ko be'i gompo  the people poured out from playing field ( place of
the game )
This word also functions something like Hausa gać in the meaning  environment , e.g.
rę
be' lwu\ j�n�  things are calm ( the place is-tranquil-ICP ).
i koć
kućsać  place associated with, one s customary place, bailiwick (Hausa gurb�)
nć kućsaĄno  I am in my place, I m where I belong
kućsać koćmshine  tethering post ( place of cattle )
gaćmać  presence of, chez (cf. gąmą  waist ) (Hasa wurin..., wajen...)
Bole, like other Chadic languages, requires that the head of a locative construction be
something that, itself, is a location. Entities that cannot be considered locations, such as
humans or animals, must be embedded in a phrase with a locative head. In Bole, the word
gąmą serves as the head of such constructions.
nć ę zoćntućmoć do\do ko gaćmać Bamoi  I took a loan of money from Bamoi
mu yawwo gać gaćmać Bamoi  we stay with Bamoi ( & at the place of Bamoi )
mu fioppa n; gaćmaćko  we will pass by your place 
Esse wakita ko gama bowu a inna gama beni a makaranta midil a gorwun
siri.
 Here is a letter from a father (bowu) going (to) his son (be-ni) at middle school
in a big town. (Rubutu Wakita, page 6)
The following passages from folktales illustrate the contrast between be'i  physical
location and gąmą  presence (and, in the first example, a use of be'i that shows how the
 physical location and  environment senses can be semantically linked).
(A girl goes to an ebony tree asking it to send down fruits:)
DaĄshiti mboć
rmi nać, ^^Kala\ be'i gać pempel� sa, nć ęnaĄ taćn@&& Ita ndaći gaćmać pempeli.
 Then the ebony said,  But the place doesn t have any wind, what will I do? She (the
girl went to (the place of) the wind. (Dindi Bo Pikka, page 9 = DMB 022-024)
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(A dog and her children have eaten the children of a hyena, and the hyena is pursuing them:)
Zoćnge jaćm wattućb be'i-su, ita ndettuć.
 When the hyena again found their place, she came. (AgaZ 049)
The hyena has found a physical place be'
i  place is an object, not a locative.
&& Also AgaZ 062, 097
pai, pa\ta  location of, direction of
taćkać ye ać pai a]u@  where is the shoe
pai b�n�  interior of th house
pai teneĄ  right here
nć za\ woĄ gać pa\ta tana\  I put it over there
nć za\ woĄ gać pa\ta teneĄ  I put it here
pa\ta aću@  whereabout?
Pai and pa\
ta are always linked to some other locative word. It is difficult to pin down an
independent meaning for these words other than  location . A phrase like pai b�n� refers
to the interior of the house as a location, whereas b�n� alone refers to the physical
structure. Pai also serves as the base of locative deictic words (see next section).
Locative Deictics and  Pro-locatives
The pro-forms for locatives are as follows:
teneĄ ( tene\ non-final)  here
tana\ ( tana\& phrase final)  there
payyeĄ ( payye\ non-final)  here
payya\ payya\
( & phrase final)  there
ąu?  where?
le ąu  everywhere, anywhere
nćgoć@  where is & ? (nćgoć as�bit�@ ^where is the hospital@&)
be'i mo\  someplace
fi�
be'yye]  there, the place in question
The parenthesized alternations are part of a general pattern for the entire set of proximal
and distal deictic words (żż). PayyeĄ and payya\ have the word pai, mentioned at the end
of the preceding section, as their base, but in modern Bole they function as independent
locative deictics, not as words resulting from a productive morphological process operating
on pai. Pai may be the base of peĄwe  direction; outside (? < pai + ye  location + the ),
though there are no regular phonological processes or known sound changes that would
account for the exact form.
TeneĄ can be extended by the deictic particle -y� (żż) with no clear difference
and tana\
in meaning from the base words. Note the following contrasts in both meaning and tonal
behavior when this particle vs. the previous reference marker (PRM) -yę are added to teneĄ
and tana\. The particle -y� behaves like a separate word, conditioning the non-final forms
of the deictic words, whereas the PRM acts like a clitic, conditioning Pre-Clitic Lowering
(żż).
tene\y�  here teneĄye]  the nearby place in question
tana\y�  there tanaĄye]  the distant place in question
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The expressions be' fi�  someplace (the indefinite pro-locative) and be'yye]  there
i mo\
(in the sense of a referential place rather than deictic  there ) use the word for  physical
place mentioned in the preceding section.
nć �nna\ta\ gać be'yye]  I saw her there
(a place known or referred to, not necessarily visible)
ka inna\ta\ gać be'i mo\
fi� fio@  did you see her someplace?
The words boĄ  mouth , gaĄ  in , ko  head
These three words have special lexical status in Bole. In addition to their developing
locative  prepositional functions (żż above), they have become lexicalized as an obligatory
or quasi-obligatory component of many expressions, and their base meaning has faded or
been lost entirely. A number of place names incorporate these words (cf. Ibrizsimow and
Gimba (1994x)). Following are examples of such expressions:
boĄ bućrućm (`" bućrućm)  knee
boĄ dećmeć  trash, sweepings (cf. daćma\  sweep )
boĄ doćm  first (cf. d�m  in front )
boĄ dućmpać  full moon (= dumpo tere  butting of the moon )
boĄ gaćwa  chest, cough (cf. gąwa  interior , but originally  front, chest )
boĄ tećktećkeć  last, end of (cf. taćka\  finish, be finished )
am boĄ nguro  Canton Head ( master of the mouth of the canton/ward )
BoĄ-GaĄni, BoĄ-GaĄru  Mouth of Forest ,  Mouth of Wall  wards of Fika town
BoĄ-Ju\mać  Mouth of Friday (Mosque)  a town near Daniski hill
GuĄsho-BoĄ-Daći  Hill of Mouth of Redness  a town near Mazawun, SE of Fika
gaĄ ba[agać  shelter consisting of frame covered with stalks (Hausa ruć )
mfa\
gaĄ b�n  room (cf. b�n�  house )
gaĄ �do  face (�do  eye )
gaĄ juĄrać (`" juĄrać)  living quarters inside a compound set aside for a relative s family
gaĄ koĄr� (`" koĄr�)  farm
gaĄ koĄyi  head as a locus of something as opposed to the body part
(cf. poćfia daćwwoć in gaĄ koĄyi  removing one s pants via the
head , a proverb meaning  doing things in an upside down way )
gaĄ ma\"  armpit (ma\
 arm )
"
GaĄ-Nguzum, GaĄ-DaĄna In-Ngizim ,  In-Kapok  wards of Fika town
GaĄdaĄkać  In-Granary Roof  a large town west of Fika5
PaĄ -L�fio  Lake of Inside of Clay  a town near Mazawun, SE of Fika
li-GaĄ
ko gaćmać  lower back (gąmą  waist )
ko ido  eyebrow (�do  eye )6
ko ma\  shoulder (ma\  arm  see fn.___)
"
Ko-Kandać  Head of ?  a town in the Fika area
5
Ibriszimow and Gimba (1994x:98) derive the name of this town from dakka  enclosure made of
cornstalks . In terms of meaning this seems more plausible than a derivation from daĄkać  roof of a
granary , but the pronunciation of the town name suggests the latter.
6
The first syllable of �do  eye bears Hi tone in the expression for  eyebrow because of Low Tone Raising
(żż). The same applies to the Rising (= Lo Hi on one syllable) tone of ma\"  arm in the expression for
 shoulder
6
The path for these lexicalized expressions is evident in expressions of identical structure
where the head words still permit a more literal interpretation, e.g. boĄ bin  doorway
( mouth of hut ), gaĄ saćra  palm ( interior of hand ), ko b�n  roof ( head of hut ).
Historical/Comparative note: Lexical incorporation of body parts into
expressions that have locative reference is a widespread feature in West Africa in both
Chadic and non-Chadic languages. For example, from Bade afian  head we have
afia\kfa\n  knee (cf. Ngizim kłfu), afia\ks�r�;n  termite mound (cf. Hausa su\r�). From
}
Miya vłw  stomach, interior we have vućwa sh�m  farm (= sh�m cf. Bole gaĄ kor� `"
Ą
koĄr�), vućwagwahiy  town (gwahiy seems not to be used independently). Related to
Duwai me  mouth , we have mę}  exterior door of a compound (< v�ć  fall  cf.
gvi go
Ngizim m�yać mavgi  exterior door   mouth of falling-place ), mę}ski  interior door in a
]
house (cf. Ngizim m�ya-k sąu  interior door   mouth-of room ). Given the
phonological shifts away from the original words in the Duwai examples, these must now
be lexical units, no longer viewed as composed of two words. This suggests that such
lexicalization may not be uncommon, a suggestion that has implications for identifying
cognate items across languages.
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