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LESSON 25. THE RELATIVES
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LESSON 25 THE RELATIVES We have already discussed the interrogatives: nani? “who?” nini?·what?” -a nani” whose? -ipi? “which?” etc. Let us look at the relatives. Consider these sentences: a. The man you saw yesterday is my father. b. The book which you gave me is very, very nice. In the first sentence we left out one word, namely, “whom”. “The man whom you saw...”The words “whom”in the first sentence and which in the second are called relative pronouns. Swahili has two ways of expressing relative pronouns. It either attaches the relative particle to the verb or it uses the word amba to which it attaches the relative particles. Here are some examples of each: a. With the M/W A class, ye (abbreviation of yeye) is used in the singular and o (abbreviation of wao) is used in the plural. e.g. Mtu uliyemwona jana ni baba yangu, “The man whom you saw yesterday is my father.” Note that Swahili uses object prefixes together with the relative particles. In the above sentence, the object prefix m “him, her” , (in uliye-m-wona)hasbeenusedtogetherwithye.Youcertainlyremember that w has been added to make mw because the verb begins with a vowel,i.e.ona,“see”.In the plural,this sentence would read: PART ONE 85 Watu uliowaona jana ni baba zangu, “The people you saw yesterday are my fathers”. b. With the rest of the classes, the relatives are denoted as follows: M/MI: Mti ulioanguka,The tree which fell. Miti iliyoanguka,Trees which fell. KI/VI: Kitabu ulichonipa,The book you gave me. Vitabu ulivyonipa,The books you gave me. N: Nyumba aliyojenga, The house he built. Nyumba alizojenga,The houses which he built. MA: Tunda lililoiva, The fruit which is ripe. Matunda yaliyoiva,The fruits which are ripe. Uso uliotakata,The face which is clean. Nyuso zilizotakata,The faces which are clean. PA: Pahali palipochafuka. The place which is dirty. KU: Kusoma kunakofaa. Reading which is useful. Briefly, from the above examples we get the following relative particles for all the noun classes: MI/WA : ye and o KI/VI: cho and vyo M/MI: o and yo N: yo and zo MA: lo and yo U: o and zo KU: ko PA : po and zo The second way of rendering the relative pronouns is to attach the relative particles to the word amba, thus: mtu ambaye... kitabu ambacho... watu ambao... vitabu ambavyo... mti ambao... nyumba ambayo... miti ambayo... nyumba ambazo... [54.144.95.36] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 10:08 GMT) 86 SWAHILI MADE EASY tunda ambalo... uso ambao... matunda ambayo... nyuso ambazo... kusoma ambako... pahali ambapo... Originally Swahili relatives were expressed only by adding the relative particle to the verb. Adding the relative particle to the word amba to express relationship is a recent introduction into the Swahili language. It is, nevertheless, accepted as correct Swahili usage. The relative of time is expressed by -po-, “when”e.g. Alipokuja nilikuwa shuleni, “When he came I was at school.” Ninaposoma sitaki kelele, “When I am reading I do not like noise”. In the future tense, the relative particle kapo is used, e.g. Utakapokuja... “When you come”. Utakapokuja utakuta “When you (will) come you kazi tayari, will find the work ready”. The relative of place is ko, “where”, e.g. Sijui alikoweka kitabu kile, “I do not know where he put that book”. Je, unajua alikokwenda? “Do you know where he went?” Note that mo and po are also used instead of ko with some difference: Usiingie chumbani “Do not enter the room walimo wageni. where the guests are”. Palipokaa/walipokaa “Where old men are (sitting) wazee hakuna cha kuogopa. there is nothing to be afraid of ”. PART ONE 87 EXERCISE 32 Fill in the right relative particles: 1. Wali... kuwa watoto walipenda sana kucheza. 2. Miti ili... anguka jana ilikuwa mirefu sana. 3. Mwizi ali... iba shuleni amekamatwa na polisi. 4. Pahali tuna... kaa ni pazuri sana. 5. Nili... mwona sikumjua, nilifikiri ni mgeni. 6. Watoto wasikae mahali wali... kaa wazee, si vizuri. 7. Mwalimu wetu anapenda nyuso zili... takata. 8. Sijui ana.. weka vitabu vyake, njoo tutafute. EXERCISE 33 Translate into Swahili: 1. The book which gave me is very nice. 2. Whose book is lost, mine or the teacher’s? 3. The man who gave you that book is my father. 4. The house which you see was built by those people. 5. The name which you...