Swahili language

Verb affixation

Swahili verbs consist of a root and a number of affixes (mostly prefixes) which can be attached to mean express grammatical persons, tense and many clauses that would require a conjunction in other languages (usually prefixes). As sometimes these affixes are sandwiched in between the root word and other affixes, some linguists have mistakenly assumed that Swahili uses infixes which is not the case.

Related Topics:
Verbs - Root - Tense - Conjunction - Infixes

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In most dictionaries verbs are listed in their root form, for example -kata meaning 'to cut/chop'. In a simple sentence prefixes for grammatical person are added, e.g. ninakata. Ni- means 'I' and na- means . Note that na is not an infix even though it is in between two morphemes:

Related Topics:
Dictionaries - Morphemes

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ni- na- kata 'I am cutting'

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1stSING. PRES.PROG. cut/chop

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Now this sentence can be modified either by changing the subject prefix or the tense prefix, for example:

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u- na- kata 'You are cutting'

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2ndSING. PRES.PROG. cut/chop

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u- me- kata 'You have cut'

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2ndSING. PRES.PERF. cut/chop

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The simple present is more complicated and learners often take some of the phrases for slang before they discover the proper usage. Nasoma means 'I read'. This is not short for ninasoma ('I am reading'). a- is the tense prefix for simple past and the vowel of the prefix ni- is assimilated. That way it is difficult to tell the prefixes as part and easier to consider them as one, e.g.:

Related Topics:
Slang - Vowel

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na- soma 'I read'

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1stSING.:PRES. read

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mwa- soma 'You (pl.) read'

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2ndPLUR.:PRES. read

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The complete list of basic subject prefixes is (for m-/wa- or human class):

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SINGULAR PLURAL

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1st PERSON ni- tu-

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2nd PERSON u- m-

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3rd PERSON a- wa-

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The most common tense prefixes are:

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a-

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na-

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me-

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li-

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ta-

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However it is not only tenses in the sense the word is used in English that can be expressed by tense prefixes: conjunctions can be used in this context as well. For example ki- is the prefix for - the sentence "nikinunua nyama wa mbuzi sokoni, nitapika leo" means 'If I buy goat meat at the market, I'll cook today'. The conjunction 'if' in this sentence is simply represented by -ki.

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A third prefix can be added, the object prefix. It is placed just before the root and can either refer to a person, replace an object or emphasize a particular one, e.g.:

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a- na- mw- ona 'He (is) see(ing) him/her'

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3rdSING. PRES.PROG. OBJ3rdSING see

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ni- na- mw- ona mtoto 'I (am) see(ing) the child'

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1stSING. PRES.PROG. KL.1 see child

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There are not just prefixes. The root of a word is not really the one proposed by most dictionaries - the final vowel is an affix too. The suffix provided by dictionaries means . Other forms occur for instance with negation, e.g. sisomi (the 0 in this case means null morpheme, i.e. it represents an empty space):

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si- 0 som -i 'I am not reading/ I don't read'

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1stSING:NEG PRES read NEG

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Other instances of this change of the final vowel include the conjunctive, where an -e is implemented. This goes only for Bantu verbs ending with -a, ones derived from Arabic follow more complex rules.

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Other suffixes, which once again look suspiciously like infixes, are placed before the end vowel, e.g.

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wa- na- pig -w -a 'They are being hit'

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3rdPLUR. PRES.PROG. hit PASSIVE IND.

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