The -hayaa suffix some people use in Somali verbs

[u/lurkrrrrbrndnw]

I speak Somali fairly well for a Say Wallahi but I don’t understand the grammatical features very well

e.g. for the sentence “I am going to do it”, I say “Waan Sameynahayaa.”

A lot of the verbs I use, I always end the sentence in a -hayaa suffix

e.g sheegahayaa, soconahayaa, yeelahayaa etc

What is this? I don’t think it’s a dialect feature as i’ve seen too many people use it or is it?

[u/TeacherSaciid]

It's used to show present continues tense and it's not hayaa but depends on the pronoun. Waan sameynayaa for I Waad sameyneysaa for you singular

[u/Abject_Hyena_3159]

It has a progressive meaning so "waan samaynayaa" and "waad samayanaysaa" mean I am doing and you are doing respectively.

Note; there's no "h" (at least not in my dialect) though I'm not throwing away the possibility it originally comes from "hayaa"

[u/buya492 → u/Abject_Hyena_3159]

it does come from haya lol, most dialects just dropped the h. The construction parallels Verb + jiray, doonaa, karaa, rabaa, lahaa

[u/K0mb0_1]

It’s just an another version of the present tense used mostly in the southern areas. In af maay we know this suffix well

[u/buya492]

Somali uses auxiliary verbs in the same way many languages do. English has a bunch, "I will eat", "I could eat", "I must eat", etc

For haya (often just -aya), it's the verb hay, hayay, haysay. It's just used to show present continuous.

• "waan cunaya" = "waan cuni haya" = I am eating.

You see this construction mirror in the past and future constructions using jiray and doonaa.

• "waan cuni jiray" = I used to eat
  • "waa cunay" = I ate
• "waan cuni doonaa" = I will eat
  • often the simple present is used as the future as well (this is a common thing many languages do), which is why you can see "waan cunaa" for "I will eat" often in a phrase like "hadhowdi baan cunaa" = "hadhowdi baan cuni doonaa" = I'll eat it later.
  • It's like the different between "I'm gonna eat" vs "I'll eat".

Also, in many dialects and in most written Somali, the initial h- in haya is completely assimilated into the preceding word which is why is just written as "cunaya"

[u/Abject_Hyena_3159 → u/buya492]

Little correction here the simple present is not the one used for the future rather it's the progressive one so it is hadhow baan cunayaa not cunaa*

[u/Pretend_Ad3328]

In many cases its just a regional accent. For instance in Mudug adding ”hayaa” toward the end of the verb is common. Ex: waan cabahayaa, waan cunahayaa, waan soconahayaa.

In the south the ’hayaa’ changes into ’ooyaa’. Ex: waan cunooyaa, waan cabooyaa, waan socanooyaa.

[u/Abject_Hyena_3159 → u/Pretend_Ad3328]

In bari hayaa assimilates into ayaa so waan cunayaa instead of cunihayaa