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“maa”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-03
The sense "five" is a recent extension during recent efforts to revitalise Gamilaraay, drawn from the fact that many languages use the same word for "hand" and "five" (cf. lima in many Austronesian languages), and that this semantic extension was also used to derive the word for "five" in other Indigenous Australian languages which traditionally did not have a word for "five".
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “is this a different etymology to the above?”)
1936, L. G. Terehova, V. G. Erdeli, translated by Mihailov and P. I. Maksimov, Geografia: oppikirja iƶoroin alkușkoulun kolmatta klaassaa vart (ensimäine osa) , Leningrad: Riikin Ucebno-Pedagogiceskoi Izdateljstva, page 3:
Paljo uutta ja interesnoita töö saatta tiitä maast, kus möö elämmä.
You will get to know a lot of new and interesting things about the earth, where we live.
1937, V. A. Tetjurev, translated by N. I. Molotsova, Loonnontiito (ensimäin osa): oppikirja alkușkoulun kolmatta klaassaa vart, Leningrad: Riikin Ucebno-Pedagogiceskoi Izdateljstva, page 5:
Alemmas pintamaa ain muuttijaa, ain vaaliammaks ja viimen männöö samalaiseks, ku i alumain maa.
Further down the topsoil always changes, always lighter and finally becomes just like the underlying soil.
1) obsolete *) the accusative corresponds with either the genitive (sg) or nominative (pl) **) the comitative is formed by adding the suffix -ka? or -kä? to the genitive.
Crane, Thera, Larry Hyman, Simon Nsielanga Tukumu (2011) A grammar of Nzadi : a Bantu language of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, →ISBN
*) the accusative corresponds with either the genitive (sg) or nominative (pl) **) the terminative is formed by adding the suffix -ssaa to the short illative (sg) or the genitive. ***) the comitative is formed by adding the suffix -ka to the genitive.
1927, “ZONG OF TWI MAARKEET MOANS”, in THE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD, page 129, line 15:
Maa bee haghed i more caar an angish than Ich."
May be upset in more care and hardship than I."
References
Kathleen A. Browne (1927) “THE ANCIENT DIALECT OF THE BARONIES OF FORTH AND BARGY, COUNTY WEXFORD.”, in Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of lreland (Sixth Series), volume 17, number 2, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, page 129
The unmarked form of a verb “indicates a completed action”, e.g. mo lọ sí ilé-ìwé (“I went to school”), though with stative verbs like mọ́(“to know”) and wà(“to exist”), the action is expressed without particularization, e.g., as “a statement of a general character or universal truth” (Ogunbọwale, 1970), or without any notion of past tense. Take for example, oorú mú (“it is hot”) and mo ní ilé (“I have a house”).
Progressive
Termed the incompletive by Ajani (2001), this describes an action in progress, “either in the present or before the present”. The sentence wọ́n ń ṣiṣẹ́ could be translated as “they are busy working” or “they were busy working”.
Relational
This aspect “describes an event or activity that is not complete, with reference to an ongoing event”. Though it may represent an action that has already taken place, the suggestion is that the relevance or effect of said action is still ongoing. The sentence ẹ ti jẹun translates to “you have eaten” or “you ate” — Ajani (2001) notes that “although the activity of eating has taken place sometime before the moment of speech, its effect is still being felt and is still considered incomplete with reference to other activity or event at the moment of utterance”. Previous studies have inaccurately characterised ti as a marker of perfective aspect. Adéwọlé (1991) demonstrates that ti, as a relational marker, can be strung together with other markers to express a sequential relationship between events.
Wọ́n ò tí ì jí.
They haven’t woken up.
Anticipative
This aspect describes an activity “that is non-existent but likely to take place”, and can be used in “predicting, planning, or speculation”. It can be translated as “will”, “might” or “have plans to”, expressing anticipation of a possible future event or action.
Intentional
Like the anticipative, yóò is mainly used to refer to actions in the future, though it differs from máa in that it expresses an intention to do something. It “denotes that the speaker has control over the performance of the activity in question, and has weighed all the options before making the decision”. Note that yóò cannot be used after regular pronouns, the subject must be an emphatic pronoun like èmi or òun.
Ẹ̀yin yóò wá kí wa lọ́la.
You intend to come and visit us tomorrow.
Backgrounder
Provides “a background to another action that is yet to take place. the backgrounder aspect operates within the main clause to provide a background to the event described in the subordinate clause that is introduced by 'kí' (before).”
Àwa yóò ti lọ kí ẹ tó padà.
We will have left before you return.
Inceptive
Describes “an activity that is yet to begin but which the speaker has decided to embark upon shortly There is an anticipation, informed by a decision, to embark upon the process of leaving the place of utterance”. This aspect is somewhat similar to the intentional yóò, but it suggests that the subject of the sentence has made a decision to do something in the near future.
Èmi yóò máa lọ.
I will be leaving any time from now.
Manifestive
This sequence “describes an activity that would have started prior to another one”. In the manifestive, “the activity is expected to have begun and be ongoing before the second event takes place”. There is also an intention or expectation, by the speaker, to have already started doing something “by the time the subject of the second clause arrives on the scene”.
A ti máa lọ kí o tó dé.
We will have left before you arrive.
Relevant–inceptive
This “describes an activity that has or had just started but is or was still on-going before another one”. The activity, “though begun prior to the moment of speech, still has relevance and effect at the moment of speech”.
Wọ́n ti ń sùn kí a tó dé ilé.
They had already gone to bed and were sleeping before we got home.
In this sentence, the “act of sleeping carried on into the moment of speech” and “probably was interrupted with the arrival of the persons in the second clause”.
Habitual
The habitual aspect in Yoruba “describes an activity that was performed on a regular basis prior to the present or is continually performed on a regular basis. It refers to a habitual event or activity, either in a timeless frame or in a past frame”. It may be analysed as the habitual aspect in the past tense, or without any “specific time frame of reference”.
Expective
This “describes an activity that will have begun and still be ongoing before another one takes place”, and may be analysed as a combination of the backgrounder and anticipative aspects. While “the backgrounder deals with an event that would have begun and have been completed before another event, the expective deals with an event that would have begun and would still be ongoing before a second event takes place”. This aspect is similar to the manifestive, but there is a “sense of certainty” that the manifestive lacks.
Ìwọ yóò ti máa kàwé kí a tó jí.
You will have been reading before we wake up.
Antecedent completion
This aspect “describes an action that used to have been completed, on a regular basis, prior to another activity”, and may be seen as the addition of incompleteness (ń) to the manifestive aspect (ti máa), or relationality (ti) to the habitual aspect (máa ń). While “the manifestive describes an activity that would have started prior to another one, the antecedent completion describes an activity or event that took place regularly before another one over a period of time prior to the moment of utterance”.
yóó, yíò and yíó are alternative forms of yóò. Note that if a pronoun comes before yóò, that pronoun must be emphatic.
ò is an alternative form of kò, often used after personal pronouns.
Treated as representations of the “perfective unmarked” aspect in Bamgboṣe (2000) and completive aspect in Ogunbọwale (1970). This aspect is termed “relational” by Adéwọlé (1991) and Ajani (2010) in their analyses.
According to Ogunbọwale (1970), these are used to “describe a habitual action in the past but one which has ceased to exist”. This is analogous to the aspect of “antecedent completion” in the analysis by Ajani (2010).
kì í and tí ì are sometimes written without spaces: kìí and tíì.
References
Adebayo, T. A. (2021) “Yorùbá Sentential Negative Markers”, in Studies in African Linguistics, volume 50, number 1, →DOI, pages 140–166
Adéwọlé, L. O. (1991) “Aspect and Phase Systems in Yoruba”, in Calgary Working Papers in Linguistics, volume 14, pages 1–20
Ajani, Timothy Temilọla (2001) Aspect in Yoruba and Nigerian English, University of Florida dissertation
Bamgboṣe, Ayọ (2000) A Grammar of Yoruba, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN
Ogunbọwale, P. O. (1970) The Essentials of the Yoruba Language, London: University of London Press, →ISBN, →OCLC