The book is organized in 55 chapters with a section for each part of speech. However, this is the other class, for words not fitting well elsewhere, and about half of the class 910 nouns are foreign loanwords. Learn swahili noun classes with free interactive flashcards. Swahili utilizes over noun classes the equivalence of. We will first learn about prepositions, negation, questions, adverbs, and pronouns including. Pdf this paper articulates the syntactic properties of nouns in swahili in relation to. Nearly all of these classes can be broken into singularplural pairs. A substantial amount of the swahili vocabulary is of nonbantu origin, and most of it entered the. This book is for doctors, nurses and other clinicians working or living in east africa. The nouns of bantu origin are also quite diverse, designating among other things various kinds of. You will most commonly use these with nouns like shambani or nyumbani, or the locative demonstratives hapa, huko, kule, etc. Swahili noun classes ultimate cheat sheet discover. Generally articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun. Each noun class has both a singular and a plural form, to make 18 total.
Swahili grammar and workbook provides a practical and comprehensive companion to swahili grammar, filling in gaps left by other textbooks. Three full noun classes are devoted to different aspects of space and time. Abstract grammatical priming was investigated in kiswahili, which has a complicated grammatical noun class system a system like grammatical gender, with up to 15 noun classes that have obligatory agreements on adjectives, verbs, pronouns and other. Swahili speakers can also be found in surrounding countries, such as burundi and mozambique. They abandoned their homes after the storm waliacha nyumba zao baada ya dharuba. Swahili is getting lost and i am really sorry for the future generations. Choose from 500 different sets of swahili noun class flashcards on quizlet. About half of the swahili noun classes are meaningful semantic groupsthe nouns within those classes all have a lot in common e. Business people for instance will speak sheng a mixture of swahili and english because thats what people want to hear. Beginning swahili workbook will be used to help students practice the grammar introduced in each chapter. A complete course for beginners, is such an excellent resource. Negating prefixes personal for each subject prefix there exists another corresponding prefix which use negates the whole sentence. Make the most of your trip to work by learning swahili grammar on the way. Adjectives always come after and generally agree with the noun, so in swahili good dog is dog good.
Different from proper nouns, this sort of nouns is not written in a capital letter. A cheat sheet to swahili noun classes and associated grammar, including why. When using a verb, this noun class uses a in singular and wa in plural for. While only 510 million people speak swahili as their first language, as a second. Noun classes ngeli za kiswahili nouns in kiswahili are grouped into various noun classes because of two main reasons. Whereas english grammatical inflections occur at the end of the word, in swahili everything is done at the beginning. Swahili phrases agree with nouns in a system of concord, but if the noun refers to a human, they accord with noun classes 12 regardless of their noun class. For subjects other than persons the respective prefix of the corresponding noun class is used, which will be introduced in nouns. Welcome to the fourth swahili lesson about the plural. Noun class as number in swahili request pdf researchgate. The n class contains words mostly borrowed from other languages pri marily english and arabic.
Click download or read online button to get swahili grammar and workbook book now. Many grammars and textbooks of swahili avoid taking a clear stand on the issue. In general, they are used to link words to other words. Pdf the swahili noun phrase in its sentential aspect. This time we will learn about the singular form and what it looks like in the plural, followed by. Kitabu is the swahili word for book but the word for books is vitabu. Verbs agree with the noun class of their subjects and objects. Presenting the essentials of swahili grammar in a highly accessible fashion, it reduces complex language topics to helpful rules and mnemonic aids, enabling maximum grammar retention and accurate usage.
The genitive pronominal forms angu, ako, ake, etu, enu and ao are frequently inflected with a group of nouns referring to close human relationships with their appropriate class 9 10 concords, regardless of the fact that they are animate giving yangu, yako, yetu etc. This word falls into the socalled ki vi class, one of eight in the swahili language. Swahili represents an african world view quite different. For example, kenyans living in nairobi are generally educated in english, as english is one of the two official languages of kenya. Choose from 500 different sets of swahili noun classes flashcards on quizlet. Nouns in the english system a noun can be defined as a word used to name a person, place, or thing. Swahili nouns must take ncprefix to appear in a phrase i. Handouts of various materials will also be provided. Swahili grammar for introductory and intermediate levels. Swahili is a bantu language of the nigercongo family and has a typical, complicated bantu structure. Classes 3 m 2, 7 ki, and 5 ji, leaving aside class 1 m 1 and 910 no prefix, for the reasons mentioned above. Swahili nouns are, like those in other bantu languages, noted for a system of semantically based classing, which affects not only nouns but also their modifiers adjectives, numbers, demonstratives and verbs. In linguistics, a noun class is a particular category of nouns. When the plural prefix vi is added to an adjective, it forms an adverb.
Classes 9 10 have the largest number of foreign words of any noun class in swahili, thus making the total vocabulary very large and very diverse as to content. The kamusi project english swahili dictionary a abandon verb, acha. Perfect for use on a smart phone or an ipad using the ibooks app. Swahili articles are words that combine with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Nouns in kiswahili are grouped into various noun classes because. Even though the demonstratives hapa or hapo actually refer to noun class 16, swahili speakers almost always use the noun class 17 prefix to form possessives and associatives for them. Swahili noun classes noun classes ngeli za kiswahili nouns in kiswahili are grouped into various noun classes because of two main reasons. A grammatical category similar to gender in which nouns may be organised according to meaning, such as sex, animacy or shape. This book is designed to be used as a supplement to other swahili language textbooks, and provides more extensive explanations of the grammar lessons presented in textbooks. It is uncustomary for the borrowed nouns to take the swahili noun class prefixes. Swahili or kiswahili, is an official language of tanzania, kenya english is the official language the government of kenya and is widely spoken in urban areas, the democratic republic of the congo, rwanda and uganda. Written by a highly experienced instructor, swahili grammar and workbook will be an essential resource for all students and teachers of swahili. For example, swahili utilizes over noun classes, the equivalence of a romance language having genders.
A non profit organization dedicated to creating a dictionary of swahili and. In section 2 i describe the swahili noun class system, discuss some earlier work on noun. Some authors use the term grammatical gender as a synonym of noun class, but others consider these different concepts. Swahiliverbsgeneral wikibooks, open books for an open. According to the book, some people in swahili speaking countries actually use their watches like this. An outline of the swahili language and its grammar. Swahili noun classes ultimate cheat sheet discover discomfort. Kiswahili s vowel harmony there are 9 noun classes in kiswahili. But you dont have to save this download a copy of the cheat sheet as a pdf. This site is like a library, use search box in the widget to get ebook that you want. Learning the swahili articles displayed below is vital to the language. However, the swahili plural form of this word books. I will then describe the verbal complex, taking each morpheme in turn and describing its form and possible functions. Sarufi ya kiswahili cha ngazi ya kwanza na kati almasi, oswald, fallon, michael david, wared, nazish pardhan on.
Learn swahili noun class with free interactive flashcards. This is a prominent feature of some languages such as swahili. Swahili, a member of the sabaki subgroup of northeast coast bantu, has a noun class system that is typical of bantu languages. In the second section of the chapter, i will present the syntax of swahili. A noun may belong to a given class because of the characteristic features of its referent, such as gender, animacy, shape, but such designations are often clearly conventional. Generally, swahili speakers do not know what a noun class is unless theyre formally educated in swahili. The manual is arranged by topic to help learners locate information easily. Four appendices, swahili english and english swahili vocabulary lists, a bibliography and an index presented at the back of the book for easy access to information.
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