An active sentence with an object can be changed into a passive sentence.
Passive sentences are far more common in Shingazidja than in European languages.
When an active
sentence is changed into passive, four things happen:
1.
The object of the active sentence becomes subject of the passive
sentence.
2.
The verb subject must agree with the new sentence subject.
3. W
is inserted into the verb stem before the final ending (-A,
-E, or -I).
3.
The subject of the active sentence becomes "agent" of the
passive sentence, i.e., the one "by whom" the action is done. The
agent is preceded ni if
it is indefined(article); and by ne
if the agent is defined (article) .
Active: MAMA
HAPIHA YE SHAHULA Mother cooked the
food
subject verb object
Passive YE
SHAHULA SHIPIHWA NI MAMA The food was cooked by mother
subject verb agent
Active: YE
MDZADZE HAPIHA YE SHAHULA The woman cooked the food
subject verb object
Passive YE
SHAHULA SHIPIHWA NE MDZADZE The
food was cooked by the woman
subject verb agent
Basically the passive suffix is W,
but the consonant vs. vowel ending of the verb (before the final ending -A)
will dictate whether anything more than W
needs to be included. On this basis, five varieties of verbs can be
distinguished:
1. Verbs ending in a
consonant + the final ending.
2. Verbs ending in I
or E + the final ending>(IA,
EA)
3. Verbs ending in A,
U, or O
+ the final ending>(AA, UA, OA)
4. Verbs of non-Bantu
origin
5. Monosyllabic verbs
VERBS ENDING IN A CONSONANT + ENDING (A): INSERT W.
W is a special kind of consonant, sometimes called a half-vowel (a shorter
version of U); therefore it can
follow directly after another consonant.
Hupiha to cook
Hupihwa
to be cooked
Hufunga to lock
Hufungwa to be locked
Hushinda to defeat Hushindwa to be defeated
Hulima to
cultivate Hulimwa to be cultivated
Hucanca to vaccinate
Hucancwa to be vaccinated
Huruma to
delegate Hurumwa to be
delegated
Huamba to tell Huambiwa
to be told
Husaidia to help Husaidiwa
to be helped
Huangalia to
watch, look after Huangaliwa to be
watched, looked after
Huombea to pray for someone Huombewa
to be prayed by someone
The choice of I or E
depends on the preceding vowel in the verb: see paragraph 105.B.
Huzaa to give birth Huzaliwa to be born (to have one's wife give birth )
Hufua to wash, to launder Hufuliwa
to be washed (laundered)
Hudjaribu to
try out, to test Hudjaribiwa to be tried out, tested
Husalimu to greet Husalimiwa
to be greeted
Huhutadjia to
have a need of Huhutadjiwa
to be needed
Hukubali to
accept kukubaliwa to be accepted
Note the following
exceptions:
Husamihi to forgive Husamihilwa
to be forgiven
Only few of them are transitive in their simple form.
Hula to eat Huliwa
to be eaten, eroded
kupva to give Hupvwawa
to be given
Hunwa to drind, to absorb Hunulwa
to be drunk up, absorbed
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