Learn Hardcore Hausa: Likita ya ce mu motsa wuya a hankali lokacin motsa jiki. - The doctor said we should move the neck gently during exercise.

So ya is required from a grammatical point of view; you don’t just say Likita ce. The noun (Likita) identifies who we’re talking about, and ya is the grammatical subject marker that goes with the verb ce (“say”).

Why is it mu motsa and not muna motsa? What is the difference?

Mu motsa is a subjunctive / jussive form, not a normal present-tense form.

muna motsa = we are moving (progressive / continuous action)
mu motsa (after a verb like ce) = that we should move / for us to move

So in:

Likita ya ce mu motsa wuya …

the idea is:

The doctor said (that) we *should move the neck …*

If you said:

Likita ya ce muna motsa wuya …

that would mean:

The doctor said we are moving the neck …

which reports what he said about something that is already happening, not a recommendation or instruction.

Where is our in “we should move our necks”? Why is it just wuya, not wuyanmu?

Hausa often leaves out possessive pronouns for body parts when the owner is obvious from context.

mu motsa wuya literally: we move neck
natural English: we move *our neck(s)*

You can say:

mu motsa wuyanmu = we should move our neck(s)

but in a context like exercise instructions, it’s completely normal and idiomatic to just say wuya. The listener automatically understands that it refers to their own neck.

This is similar to languages where someone might say “wash face” instead of “wash your face” when giving instructions.

What exactly does a hankali mean? Is it just “slowly”?

A hankali literally means something like “with care / with attention”, and its main meanings are:

slowly
gently
carefully

So in:

mu motsa wuya a hankali

the idea is move your neck gently/carefully, not too fast or forcefully.

You’ll hear a hankali in many situations:

Yi magana a hankali. – Speak quietly / gently.
Ka tuka mota a hankali. – Drive carefully / slowly.

So it’s broader than just “slowly”; it often carries a nuance of being careful and not rough.

What does lokacin motsa jiki mean exactly, and how is lokacin working here?

Lokacin motsa jiki literally means “the time of exercise”, and in this context it translates naturally as “during exercise” or “when we are exercising”.

lokaci = time
lokacin = the time of … (genitive form)
motsa jiki = exercise (physical exercise; literally “move body”)

So:

a hankali lokacin motsa jiki ≈ gently during exercise

You could expand it in a more explicit, relative-clause style:

a hankali lokacin da muke motsa jiki
- gently when we are doing exercise

But Hausa often shortens this to lokacin + [activity].

Why is motsa used twice, in mu motsa wuya and in motsa jiki? Is it the same verb?

Yes, it’s the same verb motsa, meaning to move / to stir.

mu motsa wuya
- motsa = move (verb)
- wuya = neck
- we should move the neck
motsa jiki
- motsa = move
- jiki = body
- literally: move (the) body
- idiomatic meaning: physical exercise

Motsa jiki is a fixed, common expression for exercise. You can also say:

yin motsa jiki = doing exercise

So the sentence is not redundant; it is using motsa normally once as a verb and once as part of a compound noun meaning “exercise.”

Does ya ce mean the doctor is male? What if the doctor is a woman?

In strict standard Hausa grammar:

ya ce = he said (masculine)
ta ce = she said (feminine)

So:

Likita ya ce … = The (male) doctor said …
Likita ta ce … = The (female) doctor said …

In many real-life contexts, people might default to the masculine form if the gender is unknown or if they’re speaking in a more generic way, but if you know the doctor is a woman and want to be precise, you would use ta ce.

Could you change the word order of a hankali? For example, can you say mu motsa wuya lokacin motsa jiki a hankali?

You have some flexibility with a hankali, and all of these are possible:

Likita ya ce mu motsa wuya a hankali lokacin motsa jiki.
Likita ya ce mu motsa wuya lokacin motsa jiki a hankali.

Both basically mean the same thing: The doctor said we should move the neck gently during exercise.

Placing a hankali:

right after wuya (version 1) slightly focuses on how to move the neck.
at the end (version 2) can sound a bit more like a general instruction about being gentle throughout the exercise, though in practice the difference is subtle.

The original version is very natural and clear.

How would I say “The doctor says (regularly) that we should move our necks gently during exercise,” not just “said” once?

To express a habitual or repeated statement, you can use:

Likita yana cewa mu motsa wuya a hankali lokacin motsa jiki.
- The doctor is saying / keeps saying that we should move the neck gently during exercise.
Likita ya kan ce mu motsa wuya a hankali lokacin motsa jiki.
- ya kan ce = he usually / he tends to say
- The doctor usually says that we should move the neck gently during exercise.

Your original:

Likita ya ce …

is simple past/perfective: he said it (at some point).

How would I turn this into a direct command, like “Let’s move our necks gently during exercise”?

To make it a direct inclusive command (“let’s …”), you can use mu at the start:

Mu motsa wuya a hankali lokacin motsa jiki.
- Let’s move our necks gently during exercise.

Here mu is not part of a ya ce … structure; it directly forms an inclusive command.

So:

Likita ya ce mu motsa wuya … = The doctor said we should move our necks …
Mu motsa wuya … = Let’s move our necks … (speaker directly telling the group).