Learn about noun classes in Swahili
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
Intro |
|---|
| Alisha: What are noun classes in Swahili? |
| Gertrude: And how do they work? |
| Alisha: At SwahiliPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Ben Lee, a student, is confused about noun classes in Swahili. He asks a teacher friend, Grace Njenga, |
| "How many noun classes are there?" |
| Ben Lee: Kuna ngeli ngapi? |
| Dialogue |
| Ben Lee: Kuna ngeli ngapi? |
| Grace Njenga: Tisa. |
| Alisha: Once more with the English translation. |
| Ben Lee: Kuna ngeli ngapi? |
| Alisha: "How many noun classes are there?" |
| Grace Njenga: Tisa. |
| Alisha: "Nine." |
Lesson focus |
| Alisha: In this lesson, we will learn about noun classes in Swahili, or |
| Gertrude: ngeli za Kiswahili. |
| Alisha: Swahili has a lot of rules, and most of these rules are centered on noun classes. If you think about the importance of grammatical gender in some other languages, this should give you an idea of what noun classes mean to Swahili. They are the hardest part of Swahili grammar, but you need to know how to use them so you can build sentences. Why are noun classes important to learn? Well, without them, you will have trouble understanding people when they are speaking Swahili, or having a conversation that flows. |
| This is because noun classes affect everything in Swahili: |
| Gertrude: Vivumishi |
| Alisha: or adjectives, |
| Gertrude:Viwakilishi |
| Alisha: meaning demonstratives, |
| Gertrude:Viwakilishi |
| Alisha: verbs and |
| Gertrude: Vitenzi |
| Alisha: modifiers. |
| You are probably wondering: what is a noun class, anyway? And how will you know what class a noun belongs to? Well, we are here to help you figure that out! |
| Swahili noun classes work a lot like gender in the romance languages, such as Spanish, or slavic languages, such as Russian. But, in Swahili, it's not just the adjectives and demonstratives that change. Verbs, modifiers, and particles also all change. They must all show class agreement with the noun by using certain prefixes. For example, in this sentence: |
| Gertrude: Watu wale wawili wazuri wameanguka. |
| [PAUSE 5 SEC] |
| Alisha: Quite a mouthful—right? In English, this sentence means ‘Those two good people fell.' In Swahili, every word of the sentence has been given the prefix |
| Gertrude: wa |
| Alisha: But why? Well, they are all agreeing with the noun, which is |
| Gertrude: watu |
| Alisha: or ‘people'. If you do not use the right prefixes throughout the sentence, the meaning of what you are saying will change. To make this idea clearer, we can compare these two sentences: |
| Gertrude: Kitu kizuri ambacho kipo hapa, |
| Alisha: which means "The nice thing that is here," whereas |
| Gertrude: Gari nzuri ambalo lipo hapa. |
| Alisha: means "The nice car that is here." Did you notice that, in English, only one word changed, but, in Swahili, all except the last word changed? You probably also noticed that, this time, not every word got the same prefix. That is okay: the correct prefixes do not always match! |
| [Recall 1] |
| Alisha: Let's take a closer look at the dialogue. Do you remember how Ben Lee says "How many noun classes are there?" |
| Gertrude as Ben Lee: Kuna ngeli ngapi? |
| Alisha: Now, let us take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Grace Njenga says "Nine?" |
| Gertrude as Grace: Tisa. |
| Alisha: Swahili nouns are grouped into nine noun classes based on the prefix they have, with each class having a prescribed number. There are two main reasons that Swahili nouns are grouped into classes. First, for their characteristics as a noun, and, second, for Swahili's vowel harmony. Here is an example of how the classes work. The nouns |
| Gertrude: wasichana |
| Alisha: meaning ‘girls' and |
| Gertrude: [NORMAL] wasimamizi |
| Alisha: meaning ‘overseers,' both belong to the class that is characterized by the prefix |
| Gertrude: wa. |
| Alisha: In terms of meaning, groups of similar nouns tend to belong to similar noun classes. This is why ‘girls' and ‘overseers' are in the same class—they both describe kinds of people. |
| Let us look more closely at the nine noun classes! The first is called |
| Gertrude: M - Wa |
| Alisha: The prescribed numbers for this class are 1 and 2, where 1 means singular nouns, and 2 means plural nouns. In this class, you will find nouns for people, animals, insects, birds, fish, and animate objects. For example, |
| Gertrude: mtoto |
| Alisha: means child, and falls under number 1, whereas |
| Gertrude: watoto |
| Alisha: means children, and falls under number 2. To form a sentence, we could say |
| Gertrude: Watoto wanaimba, |
| Alisha: which means ‘The children are singing.' Did you hear how both the noun and the verb took the plural prefix |
| Gertrude: wa? |
| Alisha: You will notice that, in all of the classes, the odd numbers are used for singular nouns, and the even numbers are used for plural nouns. So, let us move onto the second class: |
| Gertrude: M / Mi |
| Alisha: which takes the numbers 3 and 4. The nouns describing trees, plants, body parts, and other inanimate objects are in this class. For example, the word for ‘tree' is |
| Gertrude: mti |
| Alisha: and its plural, ‘trees,' is |
| Gertrude: miti |
| Alisha: Let's put it in a sentence, like ‘The trees are tall.' |
| Gertrude: Miti ni mirefu. |
| Alisha: Did you hear that the same prefix was used on the adjective for ‘tall'? |
| The third class is called |
| Gertrude: Ji / Ma |
| Alisha: This class takes numbers 5 and 6, and is used to refer to fruits, natural objects, and a wide variety of other items. In addition, collectives or inanimate objects that are usually found in groups, like |
| Gertrude: jino |
| Alisha: which means ‘tooth.' If you change ‘tooth' to ‘teeth,' you add the plural prefix and get |
| Gertrude: meno |
| Alisha: Does that make sense? I hope you are following easily! Let us look at the fourth class, |
| Gertrude: Ki / vi |
| Alisha: which also includes words starting with |
| Gertrude: Ch / Vy |
| Alisha: This noun class gets numbers 7 and 8. We use this class mostly to refer to tools, artifacts, and other things made by humans—for example, books or food. It's also used for the names of languages. The word for ‘book,' |
| Gertrude: kitabu |
| Alisha: becomes |
| Gertrude: vitabu |
| Alisha: in the plural. To make a sentence with the plural, it should sound something like this: |
| Gertrude: Alibeba vitabu vyake vya Kiarabu. |
| Alisha: ‘She carried her Arabic books'. |
| Alisha: But we are not finished with this class! The same prefix is also used to describe diminutives. Take, for example, a mountain and a hill. A hill is like a small version of a mountain, and so it falls into this class. Quite interestingly, this class is also used for things which are the object of contempt or fear, or which have a physical defect—including people with disabilities. Next up, we have the fifth class: |
| Gertrude: N |
| Alisha: which takes number 9 for singular and 10 for plural. This is the broadest class, used for a wide variety of things, including most names of animals, foods, manufactured goods, nature, and abstract concepts. It is also used for foreign loanwords. Many of these start with ‘N,' but not always. For example, this word: |
| Gertrude: mvinyo |
| Alisha: meaning wine—a word borrowed from Portuguese. Of course, there is no plural word for ‘wine'! And now for the sixth class: |
| Gertrude: U |
| Alisha: which has just one number: 11. This class is used for various nouns starting with ‘U' or ‘W,' uncountable nouns with no plural, concepts like ‘love' and ‘age,' and also religions and country names, like the word for France: |
| Gertrude: Ufaransa |
| Alisha: Our final three noun classes, seven, eight, and nine, are smaller and they are quite similar to each other in function. The three classes are: |
| Gertrude: Pa, Ku, Mu. |
| Alisha: and they are all used for locations and places—for example, the word for ‘place': |
| Gertrude: pahali |
| Alisha: Lastly, you will also find the infinitive form of verbs here. For example, |
| Gertrude: kula |
| Alisha: which means ‘to eat'. |
| [Summary] |
| Alisha: In this lesson, you learned what noun classes in Swahili are, and why they are so important to understand for fluency in Swahili. |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion |
| Alisha: Generally, Swahili speakers do not know what a noun class is unless they're formally educated in Swahili. Those who have studied Swahili at a university level, though, will be very familiar with the concept of Swahili noun classes. You can make yourself understood even if you get the noun classes wrong, but the sentences you say will not sound right. Our advice? Use the strategy of learning sentences, rather than individual words! |
Outro |
| Alisha: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Gertrude: Kwaheri! |
| Alisha: See you soon! |
Comments
Hide