Learn about augmentatives in Swahili
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Intro |
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| Michael: What are augmentatives and how are they formed in Swahili? |
| Gertrude: And are they commonly used? |
| Michael: At SwahiliPod101.com, we hear these questions often. In the following situation, Elsa Estis has a test soon. Her mom, Emiliya Estis, asks her, |
| "Do you have a lot of homework?" |
| Julia Mogaka: Je, una kazi nyingi ya ziada? |
| Dialogue |
| Julia Mogaka: Je, una kazi nyingi ya ziada? |
| Joyce Mogaka: Ndio, lazima nisome hili jitabu! |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Julia Mogaka: Je, una kazi nyingi ya ziada? |
| Michael: "Do you have a lot of homework?" |
| Joyce Mogaka: Ndio, lazima nisome hili jitabu! |
| Michael: "Yes, I have to read this big book!" |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: As you may remember, Swahili grammar arranges nouns into a number of classes according to their usage, and each class has its own prefixes or suffixes. But did you know that in the Swahili language, some nouns can express augmentatives, diminutives and collectives just by changing the prefixes? In this lesson, we will focus on the augmentatives, or |
| Gertrude: Hali ya ukubwa |
| Michael: So, what is an augmentative? Well, in English, if we had to describe two different sizes of something, we generally use an adjective like ‘big’ to indicate that the noun names a large item, and ‘small’ for the smaller item. English does have a few augmentatives, though. The ‘grand’ in ‘grandfather’ is an augmentative, as is the ‘mega’ in ‘megastore’. Since the 90’s, we have also been using the German-borrowed prefix über which has a couple of meanings in German. However, in this context, it has the same function as the "over"-prefix in English. It is used to indicate that something is enormous or, in slang, "everything". |
| In Swahili, some nouns can be made into augmentatives to express largeness or character. These can come from any noun class except the |
| Gertrude: P-A |
| Michael: and |
| Gertrude: K-U |
| Michael: classes, and abstract nouns from the U class. Nevertheless, you will discover that augmentatives are only possible with certain nouns. |
| After a noun has become an augmentative, it will belong to the |
| Gertrude: JI / MA |
| Michael: class, and follow the agreement rules for this class. This is true even if the nouns involved belong to animate things, like people, animals or insects. Basically, augmentatives are marked by a set of singular and plural prefixes. Let us illustrate this with an example! For any given noun, normal size is associated with the noun class to which it belongs. Take, for instance, the normal word for ‘knife’ |
| Gertrude: kisu |
| Michael: You would use this exact word to describe a regular-sized knife. But if you want to describe a bigger knife, you would replace the class prefix with an appropriate augmentative prefix, and that would have the effect of moving the noun into another class. So, for instance, if I take the phrase ‘my knife’ |
| Gertrude: [NORMAL] kisu changu |
| Michael: and turn it into ‘my large knife’ it will become |
| Gertrude: [NORMAL] jisu langu |
| Michael: Notice how even the possessive pronoun |
| Gertrude: kisu |
| Michael: changes to |
| Gertrude: jisu |
| Michael: to agree with the new noun class? To help you understand this idea more clearly, we should go over the four basic rules for making augmentatives in Swahili. |
| The first rule applies to nouns that do not come from the JI / MA class. To create an augmentative from one of these nouns, the first step is to remove the class prefix. You will be left with the noun in its basic root form. If that root noun is two or more syllables, you do not have to change it further, because it will now be in the augmented singular form. Then, if you wish to make the plural form, simply add an M-A prefix.. As an example, let us look at the word ‘child’: |
| Gertrude: [NORMAL] mtoto |
| Michael: If we remove the prefix |
| Gertrude: m |
| Michael: the word becomes |
| Gertrude: [NORMAL] toto |
| Michael: which means ‘big child’. To express the plural, ‘big children’, we add the M-A prefix and get |
| Gertrude: [NORMAL] matoto. |
| Michael: Let us try another example. The regular word for ‘basket’ is |
| Gertrude: [NORMAL] kikapu |
| Michael: ‘Large basket’ is |
| Gertrude: [NORMAL] kapu |
| Michael: And the plural, ‘large baskets’, is |
| Gertrude: [NORMAL] makapu |
| Michael: But what about nouns with disyllabic or polysyllabic root stems which do not have a prefix? In this case, you will only change it in the plural. For instance, the word ‘cat’ |
| Gertrude: [NORMAL] paka |
| Michael: Because it has no prefix already, the form remains the same in the singular augmentative, ‘large cat’. But the plural, ‘large cats’, gets the M-A prefix added on, becoming |
| Gertrude: [NORMAL] mapaka |
| Michael: Let us move on the second rule, which also applies to nouns that are not in the JI / MA class. If the base noun is only one syllable, or begins with a vowel, the J or J-I prefix is added for singular nouns. Like the word for person |
| Gertrude: [NORMAL] mtu |
| Michael: If you want to talk about a huge person, you drop the M prefix and add the J-I prefix, resulting in an augmented noun: |
| Gertrude: [NORMAL] jitu |
| Michael: which means ‘giant’. To form the plural of that, the M-A prefix is added to the already augmented singular noun, so you get |
| Gertrude: [NORMAL] majitu |
| Michael: meaning ‘giants’. The third rule is about nouns that already belong to the JI / MA class. These nouns don't indicate augmentation with prefixes or infixes. Instead, largeness is emphasized by the use of adjectives. For example, |
| Gertrude: [NORMAL] tunda |
| Michael: which means "fruit". We add an adjective to get |
| Gertrude: [NORMAL] tunda kubwa |
| Michael: for ‘large fruit’, and |
| Gertrude:[NORMAL] matunda makubwa |
| Michael: for the plural, ‘large fruits’. |
| Lastly, let us look at the fourth rule. Some nouns can be changed into augmentatives in order to show a derogatory connotation. For example, the word |
| Gertrude: [NORMAL] mwizi |
| Michael: means ‘thief’, but if you augment it with the J-I prefix to make the word |
| Gertrude: [NORMAL] jizi |
| Michael: it adds a deeper level of negative connotation. From the context of the conversation you are in, you will probably know when the speaker is using an augmentative to be derogatory! |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Let us take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Julia says "Do you have a lot of homework?" |
| Gertrude as Julia: Je, una kazi nyingi ya ziada? |
| Michael: Now let’s take a look at our second sentence. Do you remember how Joyce says |
| "Yes, I have to read this big book!" |
| Gertrude as Joyce: Ndio, lazima nisome hili jitabu! |
| Michael: The noun in this sentence is |
| Gertrude: jitabu |
| Michael: meaning ‘big book’. As you can hear, Joyce dropped the prefix from the regular word for book, |
| Gertrude: kitabu |
| Michael: and she replaced it with the prefix |
| Gertrude: ji |
| Michael: to say "big book". |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you learned about augmentative nouns in Swahili. You learned what they mean, what the four main rules are and how they are formed. |
| Cultural Insight |
| Michael: As in English, it can be tricky to determine what is big and what is not. The perceived size of an object depends on a number of factors. We can use the color spectrum to draw an analogy. Think about this: where do you draw the line between what is pink and what is red? They are closely related and the line may vary from person to person. But we all know that pink and red are distinct colors, and most of the time we would agree on what is pink and what is red! In the same way, where Swahili speakers draw the line between one level and another can vary from speaker to speaker. After all, what is just an ordinary snake to me |
| Gertrude: nyoka |
| Michael: might be a huge snake to you! |
| Gertrude: joka |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Gertrude: Kwaheri! |
| Michael: Goodbye! See you soon! |
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