Learn some common noun prefixes in Swahili
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Intro |
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| Antoni: What are some prefixes in Swahili? |
| Gertrude: And why are they useful to know? |
| Antoni: At SwahiliPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Sasha Lee hears a new word that sounds familiar, but she isn't sure about the meaning. She asks her friend, Terry Njoroge, "What does "kutokwisha" mean?" |
| Sasha Lee: Kutokwisha inamaanisha nini? |
| Dialogue |
| Sasha Lee: Kutokwisha inamaanisha nini? |
| Terry Njoroge: Inamaanisha "kukosa kumalizika." |
| Antoni: Once more with the English translation. |
| Sasha Lee: Kutokwisha inamaanisha nini? |
| Antoni: "What does "kutokwisha" mean?" |
| Terry Njoroge: Inamaanisha "kukosa kumalizika." |
| Antoni: "It means "not to finish."" |
Lesson focus |
| Antoni: In this lesson, we will be looking at some Swahili prefixes and discussing why it is important to know them. |
| Swahili is a language that relies heavily on morphemes. One can think of morphemes as the smallest pieces of words that carry meaning. For instance, in English, the word "outgoing" consists of the morphemes "out," "go," and "ing." As you can see, some of these morphemes are words that can stand alone, but others must be attached to a word. Prefixes are the latter type of morpheme. Because of prefixes, a Swahili speaker can say in one word what it takes many words to say in English. Consider the sentence, "I have seen it," in English. It consists of four words, but to say the same thing in Swahili, one only needs a single word: |
| Gertrude: Nimeiona |
| Antoni: Because Swahili relies so heavily on morphemes, it is very important to learn prefixes. |
| Prefixes determine the class of the noun in Swahili, of which there are eight major groupings or classes. The first class of nouns we will look at is the one that includes people. This is divided into singular and plural. The prefix we use for this class is: |
| Gertrude: M |
| Antoni: The singular noun for "man" in Swahili is: |
| Gertrude: mtu |
| Antoni: If we want to express the plural in this class of nouns, we must prefix the noun with: |
| Gertrude: WA |
| Antoni: The Swahili word for "men" is then: |
| Gertrude: watu |
| Antoni: As you could hear, each word contains the true noun: |
| Gertrude: tu |
| Let’s look at another noun |
| Gertrude: M |
| Antoni: The singular noun for "child" in Swahili is: |
| Gertrude: mtoto |
| Antoni: If we want to express the plural in this class of nouns, we must prefix the noun with: |
| Gertrude: WA |
| Antoni: The Swahili word for "children" is then: |
| Gertrude: watoto |
| Antoni: As you could hear, each word contains the true noun: |
| Gertrude: toto |
| Antoni: The prefixes precede this, defining it as singular, plural, and in the class of people. |
| The next class of nouns we will look at is that of "things" which include trees and plants. In the singular, these nouns are prefixed by: |
| Gertrude: M |
| Antoni: and, in the plural, they are prefixed by: |
| Gertrude: MI |
| Antoni: The singular for "tree" is therefore: |
| Gertrude: mti |
| Antoni: and the plural is: |
| Gertrude: miti |
| Gertrude: M |
| Antoni: and, in the plural, they are prefixed by: |
| Gertrude: MI |
| Antoni: The singular for "hand" is therefore: |
| Gertrude: mkono |
| Antoni: and the plural is: |
| Gertrude: mikono |
| Antoni: Not too difficult, is it?! Next, let’s discuss the noun class that uses the prefix: |
| Gertrude: MA |
| Antoni: This class includes animals, fruit, and foreign words. It also includes inanimate objects that are usually found in groups or that only exist in the plural form. In the singular, some nouns in this class take the prefix: |
| Gertrude: j |
| Antoni: or |
| Gertrude: ji |
| Antoni: This occurs if the noun is only one syllable or if it begins with a vowel. For example, in the singular, the Swahili word for "eye" is: |
| Gertrude: jicho |
| Antoni: and the plural is: |
| Gertrude: macho |
| Antoni: In another example, the Swahili word for "stone" is : |
| Gertrude: jiwe |
| Antoni: and the plural is: |
| Gertrude: mawe. |
| Antoni: Man-made objects such as tools and artifacts comprise the next class of nouns. In the singular, these nouns are preceded by the prefix: |
| Gertrude: KI, |
| Antoni: whereas the plural is prefixed by: |
| Gertrude: VI |
| Antoni: and so the singular noun for "knife" in Swahili is: |
| Gertrude: kisu |
| Antoni: and the plural for "knives" is: |
| Gertrude: visu |
| Antoni: and so the singular noun for "chair" in Swahili is: |
| Gertrude: kiti |
| Antoni: and the plural for "chairs" is: |
| Gertrude: viti. |
| Antoni: The next class of nouns we will be looking at is a broad one that includes many animate and inanimate objects. It also includes the names of animals and terms that refer to kinship. It comprises classes nine and ten. In the singular, these nouns take the prefix: |
| Gertrude: N |
| Antoni: The plural of these nouns is usually the same as the singular, so the Swahili for "bird" in both singular and plural forms is: |
| Gertrude: ndege |
| Antoni: The following class uses the prefix: |
| Gertrude: U |
| Antoni: It includes countable, uncountable, and abstract nouns. Interestingly, the plural form of this class may be considered non-existent although it is listed. The plural in this class takes the same form as those in the |
| Gertrude: N |
| Antoni: class. This is the class that is used to define concepts like "-hood" or "-ness." For instance, the word "bad" in Swahili is: |
| Gertrude: baya |
| Antoni: And the word for "badness" is: |
| Gertrude: ubaya |
| Antoni: The word for "child" is: |
| Gertrude: mtoto |
| Antoni: while the word for "childhood" is: |
| Gertrude: utoto |
| Antoni: This prefix is also added to the names of countries and religions. Consider the country name: |
| Gertrude: Ganda |
| Antoni: In Swahili, this becomes - |
| Gertrude: Uganda |
| Antoni: If we want to form the Swahili equivalent of gerunds or infinitives in European languages, the speaker must use the prefix: |
| Gertrude: KU |
| Antoni: For instance, the Swahili for "jump" is: |
| Gertrude: ruka |
| Antoni: and the Swahili noun form of this verb is: |
| Gertrude: kuruka |
| Antoni: In English, this would be "jumping." Finally, let’s look at the prefix: |
| Gertrude: PA |
| Antoni: This class actually consists of three different prefixes. They are locative prefixes meaning that they refer to location. If the location is specific, it takes the prefix: |
| Gertrude: PA |
| Antoni: If the place is indefinite or moving, then it takes the prefix: |
| Gertrude: KU |
| Antoni: and, if the place is inside something, it takes the prefix: |
| Gertrude: MU |
| Antoni: This is a broad overview of all the noun classes. Adjectives usually take the same prefix as their noun. For example, the Swahili for "sharp knife" is: |
| Gertrude: kisu kikali |
| Antoni: One important rule to remember is that people and animals must agree with the |
| Gertrude: M/WA |
| Antoni: class, no matter what class they are in. |
| Finally, verb prefixes in Swahili tell us the subject, tense, and sometimes the object. |
| And there you have it. It’s quite a lot to remember, but with a bit of practice you should be able to make it stick. |
| [Summary] |
| Antoni: In this lesson, we learned that there are eight major cases of nouns in Swahili, defined by their prefixes. These prefixes define the plural and singular nouns but also tell us a lot of other information, such as whether a place is definite, indefinite, or moving. We also learned that adjective prefixes usually agree with the noun and that verb prefixes convey a lot of information, such as the subject and tense. |
| Expansion/Contrast (Optional) |
| Antoni: A little more about verbs. In Swahili, verbs take subject prefixes instead of conjugating. |
| There are different subject prefixes for the pronouns and these are: |
| Gertrude: ni |
| Antoni: for "I." |
| Gertrude: u |
| Antoni: for "you" singular: |
| Gertrude: a |
| Antoni: for "she" and "he," |
| Gertrude: tu |
| Antoni: for "we," |
| Gertrude: m |
| Antoni: for "you" plural, and |
| Gertrude: wa |
| Antoni: for "they." This is what they sound like in sentences. "I run" in Swahili is: |
| Gertrude: Ninakimbia |
| Antoni: "You run" singular is: |
| Gertrude: Unakimbia. |
| Antoni: "He runs" is: |
| Gertrude: anakimbia |
| Antoni: "We run" is: |
| Gertrude: tunakimbia |
| Antoni: "You run" plural is: |
| Gertrude: mnakimbia |
| Antoni: And "They run" is: |
| Gertrude: wanakimbia |
| Antoni: A lot to remember, we know! But, don't worry, with a bit of study and some practice, these should come quite easily after a while. |
Outro |
| Antoni: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Gertrude: Nitakuona hivi karibuni! |
| Antoni: See you soon! |
| Credits: Gertrude (Swahili, Kenya), Antoni (English, synthetic voice) |
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