Nuer verbs occur in two separate categories when considered in their relationship to their objects.
They are divided into Transitive and Intransitive which will be explained here.
A woman is talking to her child and says:
||Gatdä̲, ci̲ mi̲th mïdan? Kuä̲n a thïn rɛy duëël.
My child did you eat a little while ago? There's porridge in the House.
||Kä̲ cä̲ re̲c bu̲̩l kɛ kui̲cdu̲, ŋotɛ maac. /Ke̲n buɔ̩th i̲ nä̲k?
And I roasted fish for you, it is still on the fire. Has hunger not killed you?
||Cä̲ mi̲th, madi̲n. Cä̲ mi̲th kɛ kuä̲n, ci̲ tha̲a̲ndɛ duɔth, Cä̲ re̲c cam kɛɛliw, tä̲ä̲mɛ cä̲ riä̲ŋ.
I've eaten, mother. I ate porridge, some of it remains. I ate the fish completely, now I'm full.
||Cak a thï̲n rɛy dia̩r. Ruɛ̲th kɛ. Thu̲k kɛ kɛn diaal.
There's milk in the milk gourd. Drink them. Finish them all of them.
||Diaar a ni̲?
Where is the milk gourd?
||Bi̲ jï̲n ɛ wä̲ jɛ̲k rɛy duëël thaar duëël gɛ̲kä̲ diëny.
You will find it in the house in the back of the house beside the baby-basket.
Further examples of Transitive-Intransitive verbs.
- Cä̲ maath kɛ pi̲w. -- I drank (with) water (and not something else).
Cä̲ pi̲w math. -- I drank (the) water.
- Cä̲ thuɔ̲k kɛ la̲t. -- I finished (with) work (and not something else).
Cä̲ la̲t thu̲̩k. -- I finished (the) work.
- Cä̲ ruac kɛ ruac. -- I talked (with) talk (and not something else).
Cä̲ jɛ lar. (Cä̲ jɛ lat.) -- I said it.
- Cä̲ lä̲t kɛ la̲t. -- I worked (with) work (not something else).
Cä̲ la̲t la̲t. -- I worked (the) work.
- Cä̲ gɔa̲r kɛ warɛgak. -- I wrote (with the) letter (and not something else).
Cä̲ warɛgak gɔ̲r. -- I wrote (the) letter.
- Cä̲ piɛ̲th kɛ bɛl. -- I planted (with) dura (and not something else).
Cä̲ bɛl pith. -- I planted (the) dura.
- Cä̲ ciöt kɛ ciöt. -- I called (with a) call (and not something else).
Cä̲ jɛ cɔl. -- I called him.
- Cä̲ puaak kɛ gat. -- I bathed (with) the child (and not something else).
Cä̲ gat puɔk. -- I bathed (the) child.
- Cä̲ tëk kɛ tëk. -- I lived (with) life (and not something else).
Cä̲ jɛ tɛ̲k. -- I lived him i.e. made him to live.
- [iö] is a difficult diphthong spoken between the -o as in "toe" and the -u of "foot".
- Most Nuer verbs have a Transitive and Intransitive stem. e.g. [cam] means "to eat" and grammatically it requires
an object. [mi̲th] also means "to eat" but like "to dine" it does not require an object to complete it. However, this
transitive intransitive idea in Nuer has a wider scope in actual meaning than does the English idea. It is
also subtle and a bit difficult to grasp in every instance. Grammatically, the transitive verb many either
stand alone or take an object in the form of a prepositional phrase.
Definition of meanings:
- Transitive: The transitive form of the verb indicates a definite and specific object without reference
to anything else.
- Intransitive: The intransitive form of the verb indicates a specific, contrastive object when it is
followed by a prepositional phrase or clause introduced by the preposition [kɛ].
- [Cɛ kuä̲n cam. ] -- He ate (the) porridge. Trans. specific object but not necessarily contrastive with
- [Cɛ mi̲th kɛ kuä̲n. ] -- He dined with (on) porridge (and not something else). Intransitive.
A specific object but in contrast with all other possible foods.
- As can be observed throughout these lessons, both types of verbs, transitive and intransitive, occur in all 3
aspects and in the various moods of the verb. But each is a unit in itself and must be learned separately.
There is no way of predicting a transitive form from an intransitive form or vice-versa. They are, for the most
part, totally unrelated phonemically.
Most Nuer verbs occur in both these grammatical environments and are sometimes strange sounding to
- Cä̲ tɔ̲ɔ̲c. -- I lay down. (Intrans.)
- Cä̲ gat tɔa̲a̲c. -- I laid the child down.
- Cä̲ nyu̲u̲r. -- I sat. (Intrans.)
- Cä̲ gat nyuɔ̲ɔ̲r. -- I sat (the) child.
- Cä̲ bɛ̲n. -- I came. (Intrans.)
- Cä̲ jɛ bëë. -- I came-for it.
- [tha̲a̲ŋ] is a noun meaning "some" i.e. less than half of the minority. It has no plural. A second word [ri̲w]
is a noun meaning "some" i.e. half or more, or the majority. When these words are suffixed with the
possessive adjective endings the resultant meaning follows this pattern:
- Some of you, some of it, some of us, some of them.
e.g. [Göörä̲ tha̲a̲ndiɛn. ] -- I want some of them.
- When either if these nouns occurs unsuffixed with another noun the meaning is still "some of..." or "some".
e.g. [Tha̲a̲ŋ wu̲tni̲ cikɛ bɛ̲n. ] -- some men came.
- The verb [ruɛ̲th] is used with drinking milk only, in E. Nuer.
- The verb [ŋot] is the Nuer equivalent of "lissa" in Arabic. It means both "still" and "not yet" depending on how you look at it!
- Double verbs are common in Nuer speech particularly in connection with the verbs [bɛ̲n] and [wä̲]. They take the place of an
infinitive in English when used as the direct object of the verb.
- [Göörä̲ wä̲. ] -- I want to go.
A verb in the 2nd Aspect may follow a verb in any of the 3 aspects to make a double verb construction.
- Wa̲a̲ mi̲th. -- I am going to eat.
- Cä̲ wä̲ mi̲th. -- I went to eat.
- Bä̲ wä̲ mi̲th. -- I will go to eat.
- Wa̲a̲ jɛ nɛn. -- I am going to see it.
- Cä̲ jɛ wä̲ nɛn. -- I went to see it.
- Bä̲ jɛ wä̲ nɛn. -- I will go to see it.
Intransitive verbs -- the two verbs occur together. Transitive verbs -- The 1st Aspect has the
direct object of the double verb in between the two verbs (see example above). In all instances the object may
be anything from a word to a clause.
- Bi̲ ɤä̲n mi̲ ci̲ jï̲n ɛ la̲r ɤä̲ bɛ̲n nɛn.
I will come and see (the thing) which you told me. (3rd Asp.)