ngeli za Kiswahili - Swahili noun classes
A noun class is a particular category of nouns. A noun may belong to a class because of the characteristic features of its referent, such as sex, animacy, shape, nouns may also belong to a class because of their vowel harmony.
Every single Swahili noun belongs to a class. In total there are 18 noun classes.
This noun class contains nouns of people that start with M- (singular) WA- (plural), animals, birds, insects, fish.
This noun class contains nouns that take Ki- in the singular and Vi in the plural, also nouns that take ch- in the singular and vy- in the plural. Body parts and names of languages also fall into this class.
This noun class contains the name of trees , the names of plants, body parts, nouns that take M- in the singular and MI- in the plural. Radicals that start with a vowel MW- in the singular and MI- in the plural, in particular cases, nouns with the singular prefix MU-.
Nouns in this class can start with any letter in their singular form, but their plural forms must take ma-. Manufactured products, natural or built places, abstract or concrete concepts, parts of the body, fruits and natural objects, and majina ya vitu ambavyo havihesabiki all fall into this noun class.
majina ya vitu ambavyo havihesabiki - these nouns only exist in the plural form and are things which cannot be counted.
The broadest noun class, it contains the following nouns, manufactured products, natural or build places, abstract or concrete concepts, but also foods, fruits and vegetables. This noun class has many words that are borrowed from English. Nouns in this class are written identically in the singular and plural.
Concrete nouns with various plurals, uncountable nouns with no plural form, names of countries, and nouns that are mostly formed from adjectives, nominals or verbal roots fall into this class.
The next three classes are locatives.
This class is characterised by the class prefix -KU-. It indicates a movement from one place to another or an indefinite/general position. There are no nouns in this class, but it does contain demonstratives and infinitives. This class uses the connective KWA
This class is characterised by the class prefix -PA-. It indicates a definite or specific position, there is only one now in this class, pahali, meaning ‘a place’. Hapa panapendeza ‘here is likeable’. This class is attested by the demonstratives hapa, hapo, and pale.The connective used in this class is PA.
This class is characterised by the class prefix -M- or -MW-. This class indicates a position INSIDE a place.This class is attested by the demonstratives humu, humo, mle. This class uses the connective MWA
