Swahili grammar and vocabulary, drawn up by Mrs. F. Burt (2025)

Chapter 2. Morphosyntax of Swahili

A descriptive and historical account of the KiNgome dialect of Swahili

2005

This thesis provides a comprehensive phonological and morphological description of the KiNgome dialect of Swahili as currently spoken in the Northern Division of Mafia Island District on the south-east coast of Tanzania. Unlike other Swahili dialects, which are succumbing to the encroachment of Standard Swahili (SSW) forms and only found in small pockets of older generation speakers, KiNgome does not face extinction at present. It stands up to be a major means of daily communication among northern inhabitants of Mafia Island. The thesis has two primary goals: The first is to provide a synchronic linguistic description of this undocumented main variety of Mafia Swahili (designated as G43d under Guthrie's classification) at the phonological and morphological levels. The second goal is to examine the KiNgome data in a diachronic perspective by comparing its phonological and morphological systems with the reconstructed Proto-Sabaki (PSA) as proposed by Nurse and Hinnebusch (1993). W...

Morphosyntactic core features of Kivu Swahili: A synopsis

Afrikanistik-Aegyptologie-Online (AAeO) 1/2016 [https://www.afrikanistik-aegyptologie-online.de/archiv/2016/4479]: This paper aims to summarize the most salient features of Kivu Swahili, the variety of Kiswahili spoken in the Kivu provinces of DR Congo. It addresses the core differences between ECS (Kiswahili as spoken on the Tanzanian coast) and the Swahili from Goma/Bukavu, also taking into consideration contact-induced change and speakers’ free variations. The paper aims to illustrate the complex morphosyntax of the language, and questions the general description of the variety as a ‘pidginized’ or ‘simplified’ form of Kiswahili, due to its divergence from ECS and the peripheral location of the community of speakers. Moreover, the paper aims to address speakers’ acrolectal reference to the standard variety, and discusses the latter against a theoretical background of the ‘constructedness’ of East Coast Swahili. Some concluding remarks summarize the salient features of Kivu Swahili, and suggest perspectives on more in-depth analyses of the language.

Swahili -kwisha : sketching the path of grammaticalization

A Linguistic Reconsideration of Swahili Origins

Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, 1983

culture. What follows is an hypothesis about the origins of the Swahili language. Since Swahili is a Bantu language, its roots are to be sought in Africa, not the Islamic homelands. Hence reference to external influence is minimised in this study. Coastal people, being Muslims, would object that a language cannot be so crudely separated from the culture of the community carrying the language. To this we would answer that the culture of any community may now be rather different from that of the linguistic ancestors of the community. Both language and culture are modified over the centuries. What we are interested in here is primarily linguistic evidence for certain aspects of the language and culture of the early Swahili community before it was touched in a major way by extra-African influences. A Swahili is here defined linguistically,2 as a speaker of one of the primary dialects of Swahili, namely, from north to south: i. Northern dialects (ND): Miini (spoken at Barawa, on the Somali coast, also known as (ki)Barawa, (chi)Mwiini, (chi)Mbalazi); Bajuni (spoken on the southern Somali and northern Kenya coast: also known as (ki)T'ik'uu, (ki)Gunya); Siu; Pate; Amu (also known as (ki)Lamu). 2. The dialects of the Mombasa area, including minor dialects such as Jomvu/Ngare and Chifundi (southern Kenya coast). The Mombasa dialects are an early offshoot of ND, with some later SD overlay. 3. Southern dialects (SD): Vumba, Mtang'ata (northern Tanzania coast); Pemba; Mafia; Makunduchi-Hadimu; Tumbatu (the last two on Zanzibar Island); the speech of most of-the minor Tanzania offshore islands; Mgao (southern Tanzania and northern Mozambique coast); Mwani (northern Mozambique). 4. Unguja (Zanzibar town and island, adjoining mainland: the basis for Standard Swahili). Unguja is an SD with an ND overlay. Any attempt at explaining Swahili history must note first that all traditions of Swahili migration, since the earliest coherent records, involve movements from north to south. Apart from very localised phenomena, there are no traditions of major movement from south to north. Many of these accounts of movement start x. The original draft of this study arose as an attempt to find linguistic correlates for the archaeological data presented in the paper by T.H. Wilson (1982), to whom it owed its initial inspiration. It has benefitted from comments from H.

An analysis of Swahili verbal inflection and derivational morphemes: An item and arrangement approach

Journal of Languages, Linguistics and Literary Studies, 2023

This research paper investigates the affixation and derivation processes in Swahili, a highly inflective and agglutinative language spoken in East Africa. Swahili defaults to SVO but allows for VSO or SOV word orders. The study's primary objective is to understand how Swahili words are inflected or derived, and the function of affixation. The research aims to enhance our understanding of the language's morphology and contribute to language learning and teaching methodologies. The study uses a descriptive-qualitative approach, collecting data from the Swahili dictionary, native Swahili speakers, and other relevant resources. Eight knowledgeable informants, native speakers of Swahili from Tanzania and Kenya, provide valuable insights. The researcher, who is also a native Swahili speaker, guides the data collection process. The research findings reveal that Swahili words exhibit affixation in the form of prefixes, infixes, suffixes, and circumfixes. The study also discovered that the key to successful Swahili derivation lies in utilizing stem words to create new words with distinct meanings or contexts from the same word class. Additionally, derivative morphemes were discovered as a result of the affixation process. In conclusion, the research contributes to our understanding of Swahili's morphology, particularly its affixation and derivation processes. The use of inflectional and derivational morphemes allows Swahili speakers to express complex thoughts and convey subtle nuances, making the language a rich and versatile means of communication and cultural expression. This research has implications for language learning and teaching, particularly for those interested in exploring Swahili word morphology.

Misrepresentations and Omissions in Kiswahili Phonology

International Journal of Linguistics and Communication, 2015

Kiswahili is one of the most studied and documented African languages. Whereas we must commend those who have authored books and papers on Kiswahili linguistics using either English or Kiswahili as the medium, it is important to point out that some of the works have misleading claims on the language. Such claims tend to, at best, confuse students of Kiswahili linguistics and, at worst, reverse gains already achieved in the study of the language. In this paper, I look at misrepresentations in the works on Kiswahili phonology. I show that some of the claims on the production of Kiswahili sounds are incorrect from a phonetic point of view. I also show that a number of rules formulated for Kiswahili phonological processes are incorrect and, therefore, untenable. Such rules pertain to consonant weakening, palatalisation, liquid hardening, "vowel coalescence" and glide formation. I also show that rules that are convincingly part of Kiswahili phonology are omitted in most if not in all works in the language. I conclude the paper by making the claim that thorough grounding in articulatory phonetics and a good grasp of phonological theory are prequisites in delivering a credible phonological analysis of Kiswahili and, indeed, of any other language.

Meaning deviation through a mispronunciation of some words during communicative practices in Bukavu Swahili

International Journal of Innovation and Applied Studies, 2021

This study investigates the way some speakers of Bukavu Swahili in Bukavu transform the message due to a mispronunciation of some words during communication. The present study aims at understanding, how, why and when some word meanings are deviated by these speakers. The mispronunciation of some words in Bukavu Swahili creates a deviation of their meanings. This is done due to the fact that by mispronouncing a word, a different word is born which puts the listener into confusion. Thence a different message is conveyed contrary to what the speaker wanted to give. During this investigation, we noticed that deviations in Bukavu Swahili can be analysed through two different factors, namely intentional and non intentional factors. For intentional factors we identified deviations related to comic usage of Bukavu Swahili whereas non intentional factors, consisted of deviations related to the origin of the speaker and others related to word confusing through imitation. To carry out this investigation we used the interview and documentation as major methods while observation, discussion and comparison helped as major techniques.

Variation in Kimakunduchi and Standard Swahili:Insights from verbal morphosyntax

2022

This paper explores variation between Kimakunduchi and Standard Swahili with a focus on verbal morphosyntax. With several varieties of Swahili identified and described over the years, here we focus on the Kimakunduchi variety spoken in the southeast of Zanzibar. While Kimakunduchi exhibits a number of features which are similar to those of Standard Swahili, it also has features which are distinct from those of the standard variety. In this paper we explore the variation in these two varieties through an examination of features relating to the TAM domain, negation, verbal finiteness, verb type, auxiliary constructions and relative clauses. These are areas which have not previously received in-depth examination or for which we present new data. The paper furthers the descriptive status of Kimakunduchi, contributes to a better understanding of the difference between the two varieties and deepens our understanding of microvariation in Bantu languages. The present paper also provides new insights which enable the development of updated hypotheses relating to diachronic change through reexamining Kimakunduchi and Standard Swahili morphosyntactic features.

A Grammar of Yeyi. A Bantu Language of Southern Africa

On the variability of Kiswahili in Bujumbura (Burundi)

The variety of Kiswahili spoken in Bujumbura (Burundi) is central to the present sociolinguistic and structural analysis. Swahili in Burundi looks back upon a long history: first having been intro- duced by the German colonial administration, it has turned into a trade language along both the naval and non-naval trade routes between Uvira (DR Congo), Kigoma (Tanzania) and Bujumbura. Initially stigmatized as a language of ruthless urban rioters in the post-conflict era, it has increas- ingly gained popularity in Bujumbura, and is nowadays considered as one of the languages of Bu- rundi, alongside Kirundi, French and English. Especially in the lively neighborhoods of the big- gest city, where there is a pulsating nightlife, Kiswahili can be heard in many interactions, and of- ten reveals influence from Kirundi, French, English and sometimes even Lingala. Structurally, the Swahili of Bujumbura combines elements from East Coast Swahili (ECS) as spoken in Tanzania and from Congo Swahili regiolects such as Kivu Swahili, and reveals a high degree of variability, depending upon interlocutors, contexts of interaction and communicative purpose. In this contribu- tion, apart from summarizing the sociohistorical background and suggesting sociolinguistic ap- proaches to grasping the high degree of variability in Kiswahili in Burundi, I discuss the most sali- ent phonological and morphosyntactic patterns of variation and explain their situational distribution. Swahili Forum 26: 205-239. ed. by Daisuke Shinagawa & Nico Nassenstein

Arusha Working Papers in African Linguistics, Vol. 1

2018

This is a study of the reversive verb derivation-ul-in Swahili, with particular attention to its meaning and its place among derivational suffixes. This article describes its phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic features. It is noted the affix is associated with several other meanings: among these intensive, causative, iterative, and separative. For this reason, the reversive is often described as unproductive and lexicalized. We argue that the causative reading is a result of homophony and is not reversive. Using the prototype approach we argue that these diverse meanings form a family for which the reversive sense is a good exemplar. They result from polysemy, which has also been shown to exist in the semantics of productive derivations, including the causative, applicative, and reciprocal. This study also explores the reversive suffix's position to other verb derivational suffixes. It reports on the findings of a search for pairwise combinations of the reversive and other extensions (applicative, causative, reciprocal, passive, and stative) from the Helsinki Corpus of Swahili. In all cases, the reversive appears before any other suffixes. We conclude that this is consistent with both scope theory and relevance theory.

On variation in Swahili: Current approaches, trends and directions

This overview paper aims to present general approaches to variation in Swahili, both from a structural/typological and from a sociolinguistic angle. Recently, building upon earlier dialectological studies of Swahili, varieties in the periphery have been the focus of scholarly attention, as well as urban dialects from East Africa and Swahili in the diaspora. This introductory paper intends to summarize some of the approaches and directions that address the geographical and sociolinguistic diversity of Swahili, studied from different angles. These include both traditional approaches (descriptive sketches, dialectological and dialectometrical analyses, lexicostatistics etc.) and more recent directions in Bantu studies, such as micro-parametric analysis in the field of microvariation. Moreover, current (socio)linguistic trends are discussed, which mostly deal with language contact, diversity and change in touristic settings, in relation to new media, and in regard to youth language practices, or with new approaches to urban fluidity such as metrolingualism and translanguaging. In this contribution, we aim to give an overview of current trends in the study of Swahili by analyzing processes of linguistic and scholarly diversification and variation in the Swahili-speaking world. Swahili Forum 26: 1-45. ed. by Daisuke Shinagawa & Nico Nassenstein.

Limbu-English dictionary of the Mewa Khola dialect with English-Limbu index

2002

The present dictionary is based on materials gathered in the field in 1977-1978 and slightly revised with informants in subsequent years. The original research was carried out in the village of Libang, in the Mewa Khola, where, on the recommendation of our friend Philippe Sagant, Martine Mazaudon and I worked during the monsoon of 1977. Later that same year, however, Libang was included in the restricted northern border area, and I moved to Tembe, in the neighboring Maiwa Khola valley. (I was able to return to Libang in 1999.) Although the Maiwa and Mewa valleys are traditionally considered as a single region by Limbus, the dialect of Tembe differs slightly from that of Libang, agreeing in some respects with the dialect of Phedap over the ridge to the south. The present work is based on both varieties, in particular on that of Libang, with occasional notes on dialect differences. The dictionary covers the colloquial, spoken language. It is certainly not complete, but it is comparable in scope to existing bilingual Limbu-English dictionaries apart from the completed but still unpublished work of Bairagi Kainla et al., which is in a class by itself. Most of the material, insofar as it is accurate, probably applies to most Limbu dialects. The English-Limbu section is an index, not an English-Limbu dictionary. Two aspects of the dictionary may interest specialized readers in particular. First, it provides data on the peculiarities of the Maiwa-Mewa dialect of Limbu. The material is restricted to this dialect in the interest of coherence. Second, it illustrates a relatively "strong" or restrictive approach to Limbu phonology, which I will describe in more detail elsewhere, and which seeks to define precisely the contexts in which various traits such as voicing, gemination, vowel length, and glottalization need to be taken into account. It is hoped that students of Limbu will evaluate this analysis against their own data (and vice-versa). Voiced, unvoiced, and geminated stop consonants. Limbu does not distinguish between the unvoiced (k, kh, c, t, th, p, ph) and corresponding voiced (g, gh, dz, d, dh, b, bh) stop consonants, the pronunciation being dependent on the phonological context. Thus it would be possible to write Limbu using only the unvoiced stops, and indeed this is how Limbu was written in the 19th century Sirijanga script. In the present dictionary, only unvoiced stops are written at the beginning of whole words (as indicated by spacing). Thus no entries will be found under g, gh, dz, d, dh, b, bh, although words may be pronounced with voiced initial stops in certain contexts. Syllable-final l. The consonant combination "nl" does not occur, being replaced by ll; this is the one context in which l occurs as a syllable-final. The consonant ch (pronounced [tÕh]) is a contextual variant of s in Limbu. In the Maiwa-Mewa dialect, ch appears only after t and n, while s occurs in other contexts. No word begins with ch. There is no voiced pronunciation ("z", "dzh") corresponding to s or ch. Vowels and vowel length. The long vowels iË, ÀË, aË, ÁË, and uË must be distinguished from the corresponding short vowels in closed (consonantending) syllables. In open (vowel-ending) syllables, length is generally determined by word accent and other factors: for example, prefixes and suffixes are unaccented and rather short compared to roots, which are accented. The only open syllables for which length must be distinguished (and in which long vowels are written in the dictionary) are the initial syllables of verb forms based on the past stems of certain classes of verb with closed-syllable roots (nos. 4, 5, 8, 11, and 17 below). Glottalization has also been indicated in hiatus (that is, where two vowels come together) in a few words (e.g. waÐi 'porcupine'); this kind of glottalization is also rather variable between speakers and dialects. Syncopation or vowel reduction. The syllable in Limbu regularly has the structure (C i)V(C f), with the inventories of C i and C f as described above. Other patterns do occur, however, apparently as the result of syncopation, that is, loss of a vowel with reduction of the number of syllables in the word. In the dictionary, an apostrophe is written where loss of a vowel is hypothesized; it does not represent a sound, and it can be omitted from a practical orthography. The first syllable C i V of certain words may be syncopated after a pronominal prefix. For example, mura 'mouth' becomes ku-m'ra 'his mouth', and thÀgek 'head' becomes ku-dh'gek 'his head'. Other words, Organization of entries Within each entry, the headword (in phonological transcription) is followed by the part of speech (in italics) and the English definition (in plain roman type). Illustrative phrases or sentences (if any) follow the definition, each preceded by a large raised dot . Each example is accompanied by an English translation in italics, marked off by a dash.

About the Swahili Language Swahili is a Bantu language spoken by about 35 million people in

Linguistics in the Corridor: a review of research on the Bantu languages of south-west Tanzania, north-east Zambia, and north Malawi

Understanding Kiswahili Vowels Background: Kiswahili Origin and Utility

Phonemes have been identified by linguists as the main phonological inputs of all human spoken languages. These phonemes are divided mainly into two-consonants and vowels. Each language has selected from the universal phonetic pool its own type and number of phonemes for its communicative purposes. Most of them have more consonants than vowels. Several languages share the same phonemes but use them differently to perform a variety of language specific linguistic functions. Kiswahili being one of these languages that has been studied extensively presents an interesting, scenario with regard to its use of phonemes. Kiswahili has over thirty phonemes. Traditional Kiswahili phonologists have identified five as vowels (Current linguists have identified more vowels), yet any consonant with the exception of syllabic C, cannot be used alone without it forming syllabicity with a vowel. Any user (speaker or reader) of Kiswahili language will notice that vowels though fewer than consonants have the highest use frequency. This indicates that its habitual users creatively use them to perform a variety of linguistic functions. This paper then, seeks to discuss and analyze the nature and functions of Kiswahili vowels.

Subject Agreement in Nairobi Swahili

Strategies of emphasis and intensity in Swahili

sprak.gu.se

Moreover, I am indebted to the Swahili teachers and students at the Institute of Kiswahili and Foreign Languages, Zanzibar, for their many useful comments during the two seminars held on these topics in January 2003.

A Grammatical Sketch ofDahalo, Including Texts and a Glossary

Hamburg: Buske.——(1997) Af Tunni: Grammar, Texts, …, 1991

IORIiWORD 'lhis work originates from a two-month period of field work among the Dahalo in tlrc Lamu District (Coast Province, Kenya), in January-March 1988. It was made lu,ssible by a scholarship granted by the Isdnlto ltalo-Africano. The main aim of my N{ 'rk was to collect material on the morpho-syntax of the language, a cenain amount ,l lcxicon having already been presented by Ehret (f980), in his reconstruction of l'r ,r(Fsouth-Cushitic, and olhers. The morphology had already been dealt wifi (in thc r ,(erative framework cunent ir! the 7Os) by Elderkin (especially 1974). My principal infomant was Dawa Hamadi, at that time 30 years old, niece of ,,0(of Zaborskirs (1986) informants. Although she had been living in lamu town for ,ri.rrry ycars, she was bom in the area of Mkunumbi and was fluent in Dahalo. Like ,ri,,sl l)ahalo (as a matter of fact, all tiose I met), she was bilingual in (Amu) Swahili and tx,ke oo other language. 'fhe research was carried out in Lamu lown and in the surroundinq areas of rlokowe and Mkunumbi. ..')(]IOLINGUISTIC NOTES 'l'he sociolinguistics and the history of Dahalo lie beyond the scope of the ,,(scot work. Notes on these subjects can be found in Nurse (1986) and in Tosco l'/)(D: the latter specifically deals with the issue of Dahalo as a minority language, t,r,,lr:rtrly on rhe verge of extinction. Dahalo is spokefl in the Lamu district of Coast Province, Kenya, by former l,,rrtcr-gatherers which partly turned to a sedentary exislence in recent years. Conceming lhe actual number of Dahalo speakers, it is calclllated in ,'a few r,Lrrrrlrcds" by Ehret (1980: 12), while Zaborski "could estimate abour 280 of them 1,, 'ugh fhc upper limit may be about 400" <1987 223-4). \ve think that the figure of r (r crnnot greally exceed l}le truth: in the peripheral (for the Dahalo people) area of \1,)li{)we we met in one occasion about 50 of them, and we were told that many morc ,\ (11 in lhe same area. Official stalistical data are unreliabler the Kenya Populatjon Census tepo(s the rl nr(affiliation without regard to the actual language(s) spoken by the communities, ,,r,1, rnoreover, in the case of $e Dahalo the ethnic affiliarion is concealed under thc \ (r tcrm of rrsanye-Boni", applied for the Boni of rhe Lamu Disrricr, rhe \gaak of ,, 1 :rna ltiver and Kilifi Districts and the far less numerous Dahalo. 'l-he samc confusion is found in Tucker, Bryan and lvoodburn (1,977:3'lD, , lrt rc l)ahalo is consideredrrone of the socalled'SANYE dialecB. sDoken in coasBl " ' licts non]l of Mombasa in Kenya", tierefore putting the Dahalo together with rhe r .,.r(:r, actually spcaking an Oromo dialect. A m o n g t h e D a h a l o t h c m s e l v e s , w h i l e t h e t e r m " D a h a l o " (d ' o h d 6 | o ; ,,,l lrtive M: gl!hiq!.]4.1D is undemtood, it js nevcr used, and rle Dahalo prcrcnd L rr it rneans I'slaveo in their own language (but my informants wcre not able to r,lr)r:rle oo this point, such as to give plural forms, etc.); thcy further say that , ,lr:rl(t' is a rerm uscd by lhe Swahili, !o which Lhey return referring to the Swahili as ' ,, lizg (singulalive M: &ti.q!EgLD, which v,'ould Iikewise mean "slaves". 'Ihe Dahalo we mei always referred to thcmselves as d-liLg (Singulativc Ml J 'li!-!_O; ir is probable that rhis is jusr rhe name of a section of the people, as rhe 'il',r,r:lnts wcre also very firm in saying that, while all the Daako are sedentary, not all It' l):rhalo arc Da^ko; they furthermore demonstated to understand the prccisc ' r,,Lisical value of the term "Saoye'r, applying ir wi$ preference to the lit e groups J t,,l)t.rkcr. As is probably rhe case in any bi-or mulrilingual community, the ','[|(laries belween the systems, initially strongly perceived by the speakers, l r,hr:rlly fade away, as one of the systems conquers new cofitmunicative fieldsr while , rlrr first phas€ the loans are adapted to the phonological system of the targetrllu.rric, gradually, as more and more loans creep in, they are simply stored, ,,.rrr;rlyzcd. In othe. words, when looking ar D phonology one has to distinguish " r\\'ccn lefuIrtiElgt and E e$dyttrIlel, and lheir respeclive phonological systems. r1,,. I.r.r lhar fiLany "D phonemes0 have a very low phonological weighr (see below, | .l .l l.) is, in our opinion, ro be ascribed to lhe loan origin of a large pan of D '.rl,ularyj while it is not always possible lo sepalate lrue phonemes from allophones ',i,1 t)lrones occl]r.ing only in foreign, unnativized material, it is interesling to note rt .r rnuch more reduced inventory is auained by considering only those phonemes ' lLL(lr can occuf in final position in verbal srerns (see below, 1.1.2.2.2.) (). ()lher differences between ours and Derek's and Elderkin,s systems can surely '' .rsrribed !o the different localizarion of the field work, which enabled rhem to ,,r'r{l borrowings from foreign languages which are totally unknown to oua l,l, 'Ilrlnts (at least Ciryama and lhe Orma dialect of Oromo, maybe pokomo). If, on i , ,)rrc hand, these languages reduce the impact of Swahili on D, on the othe. they ,,1,1 cw phonemes to an already rich inventory. l ll lhe phonemes 'lhe phooemic inventory of Lhe variery of D described is made up of 50 ',,r, nants and 10 vowels. 'I he following cha(stztes lhe pronunciation of consonantal phonemes where , ' t)lriDological rule operates: