KI/VI (7/8) Animals, objects kiti/viti (“chair/chairs”) JI/MA (5/6) Fruits, objects tunda*/matunda (“fruit/fruits”) M/MI (3/4) Nature,activity mti/miti (“tree/trees”) M/WA (1/2) Humans mtu/watu (“person/people”) Here is short simplifcation of the first 10 classes, which are the most logical and regular to begin with: Depending on the Class (which is based traditionally on Semantics or meaning), a noun and its adjectives will take a certain prefix which identifiies the class and whether it is singular or plural. There are 13 so-called Nominal classes, and 3 Locative classes, each usually given a number from 1 to 16 for organization purposes. Swahili has a rather complex system of Noun Classes. “Good afternoon” (“News of the afternoon) “Good morning” (Literally, “news of the morning”) However there are daily greetings which also used “Habari”: The “Habari” greeting, “Habari gani?” (“What kind of news?” or more typically “How are things?”) is usually answered with “Nzuri” (“good”) or “Nzuri sana” (“Very good”). (“Not much.” literally, “(I have) no matters.”) Hujambo? (“What’s up?” literally, “(you have) no matters?”)ī. There are other forms of the “Jambo” greeting. Habari gani? (“How are you?” literally “What kind of news?”) This song contains in the chorus a very simple, common exchange in Swahili, with the very rough equivalents in English and their literal translations:ī. Mtu – (noun, 1/2) person, someone plural form is watu “people, population” Karibu – (phrase) “welcome”, “come in”, like いらっしゃいませ (irasshaimase) in Japanese also related to the adverb for “nearby” or “soon”ġ0. Geni – (adjective) strange, unusual, foreign noun forms (1/2) are singular mgeni, plural wageniĦ. Matata – (plural noun, 6) problems from verb tata, “to tangle”ĥ. Habari – (noun, 9/10) news, information from Arabic خبر (“habar, khabar”) meaning “news, information”, as in مرحبا (“marhaba”, or “welcome”), which is related to greetings in Kiswahili “Habari gani” (“what kind of news?”) and Bahasa Melayu “Apa Khabar” (“what news?”)Ĥ. Bwana – (noun, 5/6) mister, sir, man, waiterģ. Jambo – (noun, 5/6) matter, affair, thiing, businessĢ. There are no problems, there are no problemsġ. Kenya, good country, there are no problemsĬountry with peace, there are no problems “Greetings, Sir” (Translation by ORS, 2010)
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |