Bana Prepositions

Here are some examples of simple prepositions:

mə dəlagwa 'on the mountain’
vəgha həl 'beside the river'
mbə ciki ‘in the house’

There's also a whole series of prepositions that start with 'dzə' (the word for ‘to go’) - dzəta 'under', dzəti 'on', dzəmbə 'in', dzəvəgha 'beside', dzəghwa, etc. Many of these prepositions contrast with prepositions without the 'dzə' - ta 'under', ti 'on', mbə 'in', vəgha 'beside', etc. In the case where they have the 'dzə', there is always a sense of movement.

In the following example, dzəmbə 'in' implies 'put in', while mbə 'in' is only the source:

Agha pa      məlɓəə               dzəmbə       za.
you    collect  manure               ‘in’               field
'You collect manure in(to) the field.'

Agha pa      məlɓə              mbə  za.
you    collect manure            ‘in’     field
'You collect manure in (from) the field.'

If we're talking about the location of something (and not its movement), the form without 'dzə' is used:

Ta          fə      na      ɗafa.
under    tree   is        food.
‘Food is under the tree.’

Also, many of these words beginning with 'dzə' can also be verbs. For example, dzəmbə 'in' is also 'to enter.' In some contexts, this exists with the word used as a preposition:

Aa      dzəmbiy          dzəmbə          ciki.
he       entered           into                 room
He entered the room.

Note also that even when used as prepositions, these words have some of the characteristics of verbs. In the example above, the last vowel of the word before dzəmbə is lengthened. This normally only happens when there are several verbs following each other. It does not happen with pronouns such as mbə.

A different fact about Bana is that most prepositions can be used with an implied object of the preposition: 

A        nziyiy    vəgha   hel.
he      stayed  beside river
'He stayed beside the river.'

A        nziyiy   vəgha.
he      stayed  beside
'He stayed beside it.'

For two prepositions, lə 'with' and tə 'on', the form changes in this context. For a singular implied object, it is li and ti. For a plural implied object, it is lishi and tishi.

Interestingly, the form of tə ‘on’ with dzə is dzəti, regardless of whether it has an overt object and the number of any implied object.

(Note: this is simply a slightly modified, reordered excerpt of the document we created, translated from French)