mbát or mbá (noun): son; child, offspring. Also occurs as a prefix: mbá- or mba-, as in mbá-yarutúyel ‘Star-Children.’
már ngúya ca-mbátes
he is my-son.ESS
“he is my son”
Like most nouns that end in -t, mbá(t) has an irregular definite form – mbárut – in the nominative. It can occur as a standalone noun, but it is much more frequently encountered in its prefix forms. When used in this way, it can signify any of the following:
1) a patronymic – e.g. mbá-Marcut ‘son of Marcut’ (also occurs as a personal name, Mbámarcut);
2) a cohort of a sons by a single father that live in one place. Thus mbá-Marcut can also mean “[all the] sons of Marcut” – depending on context;
3) an heir or successor of a certain person’s property or their traits, such as mba-rándut ‘king’s son/successor’. Note that this does not necessarily imply a blood/kinship relationship, so mbá-ngillándut ‘heir of [my] paternal uncle’ just means “the person who inherits my uncle’s property” or even more simply “the person who is like my uncle”, as in the following:
ca ngúya mbá-ngillándesut
I am son/heir-paternal.uncle.ESS.DEF
“I am [my] paternal uncle’s heir” or “I’m like my uncle” (metonymically)