The Noun Markers “in”, “hi” and “hinda”

Bismillah. This is the 9th lesson on “Tausug 101: Learning Bahasa Sug” by Anak Iluh. For lists of lessons, please go to: Lists of Lessons.

In constructing simple sentences in Bahasa Sug (which we will be discussing soon, in sha Allah), we need to know how NOUNS in a sentence are identified. There are, in fact, a number of noun markers that exists in Bahasa Sug. These are articles that let us know whether the one being identified as a subject or a direct object in a conversation is indeed a noun. In this lesson, we will introduce the first three Noun Markers: In, Hi and Hinda (as the name suggests, any words following these 3 markers are always considered to be “nouns”).

The Article “In”

The Tausug article “In” is the equivalent of the English articles “The” and “a/an”. It is almost always used before the “object” it is identifying (the noun). Article “In” is usually followed by improper nouns—nouns that are not absolutely identified or named—and can be used both for subjects and objects of the verb. Let’s see the sentence construction below:

As indicator of subject:

Báy	House
In báy	The House
In báy malingkat.	The House is beautiful.

                

As indicator of direct object:

In báy	The house
Kiyta’ ku in báy.	I saw the house.

The Tausug article “In” can also be used as the verb-to-be “is” in a sentence, such as:

Mastal	Teacher
In mastal	The teacher
Siya in mastal.	He is the teacher.

And even as indicator of the “doer” of the verb:

Nagbayta’	Told; (p.t. of bayta’, “tell”)
…in nagbayta’ káku’…	…the one who told me…
Hi Ahmad in nagbayta’ káku’.	Ahmad is the one who told me.
(An exception: in this example, the article “In” follows a verb instead of a noun)

It will be observed, that the role of the article “In” is greatly affected by the kind of VERBS that are being used in a sentence. We will be discussing this in our upcoming Lessons in Tausug Verbs (Lesson 12 onwards) in sha Allah.

Articles “Hi” and “Hinda”

Another pair of Tausug articles important to be learned is the two Personal Noun Markers: “Hi” and its plural form, “Hinda”. They have almost the same function as the article “In”—identifying nouns either as subjects, objects or doers of the verb. But these two articles are used only with Proper names, particularly names of people (including the ‘people-callings’ like mother, father, uncle, etc.).

I believe there is no English equivalent of the articles “Hi” and “Hinda” because English do not use such articles identifying names of people. For Tagalog speakers, articles “Hi” and “Hinda” are the equivalents of “Si” and “Sina” respectively. Let us study the following examples for article “Hi”:

As indicator of subject:

Hi Fatima	(She) Fatima
Malingkat hi Fatima.	Fatima is beautiful.
Hi Fatima malingkat.*	Fatima is beautiful.

                

As indicator of direct object (receiver of action):

Hi Inah*	(My) Mother
Siyum ku hi inah.	I kissed my mother.

[*NOTE: Adding the article “Hi” on an unidentified, name-callings like Inah (Mother), Ama’ (Father), Apu’ (grandparent) would transform the article “Hi” as a “personal possessive article” having the same role as Genitive pronouns “ku”. For details, pls read the lesson on Genetive Pronouns for this ]

As indicator of doer of verb:

Limaksu	Jumped (p.t. of laksu, “jump”)
Limaksu hi Jamal.	Jamal jumped.
Hi Jamal in limaksu.*	Jamal is the one who jumped.
*changing of word orders will be discussed in the next lessons.

In using the plural form “Hinda”, there is one particular rule that we have to consider (and must always keep in mind!):

RULE:

When the article “Hinda” is placed before a proper noun (say a name of a person), it would automatically be assumed that the “person” we are referring, has other companions although they were not mentioned anymore. When we say “Hinda Ahmad”, we are not just talking about Ahmad, but also whoever he is with at that time. This can be easily understood by comparing examples in Tagalog’s “Sina”.

Hinda Ahmad     =              Sina Ahmad       =             Ahmad (and his companions/others)

Hinda Hanif	Hanif (+ others)
Bagay ku hinda Hanif	I am friends with Hanif (+ others)
Miyanaw hinda Hanif.	Hanif (+ others) went out.

Today’s Lesson will end here. I have to apologize for being unable to update these lessons for a long time. I am now having a hard time finding a good piece of free time to edit and post my entries. I thank all those readers who keep on supporting this humble blog 🙂 Insha’Allah I am still trying hard to give this blog some more “purpose” that will benefit a greater number of people.

I hope we learned something today.
You can always email me for questions and clarifications.

Salam Kasilasa!

—-to be continued InshaAllah—

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