17 Lesson 1: Familia yangu

MSAMIATI

The basic structure for an affirmative past tense verb in Swahili is:
Subject Prefix + Tense Marker (-li-) + Verb Stem + Final Vowel (-a)
The subject prefix indicates the subject of the sentence.

 Nilisoma

In the above sentence, the tense marker for the past tense is -li. It indicates that the action has already happened. The verb stem is the root of the verb (e.g., from “kusoma” (to read), the stem is “-soma”). The final vowel for most Swahili verbs in the affirmative is -a.

Mfano;

Ninasoma (I am reading) changes to

Nilisoma (I read) in the past tense.
Negation of Present Tense
Negating the past tense in Swahili involves a few changes: The is a change in the Subject Prefix: The affirmative subject prefixes are replaced by the negative subject prefix. Replacement of Tense Marker: The past tense marker -li- is replaced with -ku-. For the past tense negation, there is no change in the Final Vowel.
Negative Subject Prefix + Verb Stem + Final Vowel (-a)

Demonstrative pronouns in Swahili, used to point to specific nouns, are a crucial aspect of the language. Unlike English, which primarily distinguishes between “this/these” and “that/those,” Swahili demonstratives incorporate a more nuanced system of proximity and must agree with the noun class of the noun they refer to.
There are generally three main degrees of proximity indicated by Swahili demonstrative pronouns:

1. Near the speaker (this/these): huyu/hawa
2. Near the listener or previously mentioned (that/those): huyo/hao
3. Far from both speaker and listener (that/those yonder): yule/wale

The specific form of the demonstrative pronoun changes based on the noun class of the noun it modifies or replaces. Swahili has a complex system of noun classes, and each class has its own set of concords, including those for demonstrative pronouns.
Here are some examples illustrating demonstrative pronouns with common noun classes:
M-WA Noun Class (typically for people)
Huyu ni mama yangu – This is my mother
Hawa ni wazazi wangu – These are my parents
Hawa ni ndugu zangu – These are my siblings
Hawa ni watoto – These are children

When discussing family members, a common set of possessive pronouns is used, and these terms generally follow specific noun class agreements for possessives.

Many common Swahili terms for family members belong to a noun class (or a subset of a class) that often uses ‘y-‘ as the concord marker in the singular and ‘z’ in the plural when combined with possessive pronouns. However, some family terms fall into the M-/WA- noun class, typically referring to people, which uses ‘w-‘ (or ‘m-‘ before a vowel stem) in the singular and ‘w-‘ in the plural. It’s also important to note that some very common family terms like baba (father) and mama (mother) often use a slightly different agreement pattern for possessives, frequently taking yangu (my), yako (your sg.), yake (his/her), yetu (our), yenu (your pl.), and yao (their) directly.

Note that some kinship terms have slightly irregular forms or don’t always follow the standard M/WA pattern for possessives as strictly as other nouns. Often, for close family, the possessive pronoun directly follows the noun.