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64 SWAHILI MADE EASY LESSON 19 DEMONSTRATIVES: THIS AND THAT This,that and their plurals these and those are called demonstratives, from the Latin demonstrare, to show. In Swahili, demonstratives are of three kinds: Those that point to somebody, or something near; those that indicate persons or things far away; and those that show people,or things that are nearer to the person spoken to than they are to the speaker.Let us begin with demonstratives that refer to people. Singular Plural mtu huyu, this man (person) watu hawa, these men (people) mtu yule, that man watu wale, these men mtu huyo, that man (near your) watu hao, those men there (near you) Huyo and hao are used also to refer to persons about whom we have already spoken.They may also be used to show contempt, e.g. mtu huyu ni mjinga, “such a man is a fool”. When pursuing a thief, people cry mwizi huyo! “there runs the thief! watch out”. Suppose I see you walking with a child and I want to know whose child it is, what form should I use? Of course, huyo I should say: Mtoto huyo ni wa nani? “Whose child is that (near you)? ”Suppose again, we are walking together and we see a child some distance away from us, what form should I use in pointing to the child? No doubt, yule: Mtoto yule ni wa nani? “Whose child is that there?” And if the child is near to both of us, I should say: Mtoto huyu. PART ONE 65 Below is a list of Swahili demonstratives for different noun classes: (The symbol ø means naught or nil) NOUN CLASS M/MI mti huu, this tree, mti ule, that tree miti hii, these trees, miti ile, those trees KI/VI kitabu hiki this book kitablu kile, that book vitabu hivi, these books vitabu vile, those books øMA jina hili, this name jina lile, that name majina haya, these names majina yale, those names N/N nyumba hii, this house Nyumba ile, that house nyumba hizi, these houses nyumba zile, those houses U ukuta huu this wall ukuta ule, that wall kuta hizi, kuta hizi, those walls, PA pahali hapo, this place pahali pale, that place KU kula huku, this eating kula kule that eating For the third demonstrative (huyo), we have; M/MI mti huo, that tree (near you), or such a tree… miti hiyo, these trees (near you), or such trees… KI/VI kitabu hicho that book (near you), or such a book… vitabu hivi, those books (near you) or such books… MA jina hilo, such a name majina hayo such names N/N nyumba hiyo, that house (near you), such a house nyumba hizo, those houses, such houses U ukuta huo, that wall (near you), such a wall kuta hizo, those walls, PA pahali hapo , that place (near you) KU kula huko, this eating , or such eating ...

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