Comments on: Swahili vs. English

By: Jean Burke

Jean Burke — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 04:39:50 +0000

My favourite example from Swahili is video. This isn’t official but some Swahili-speakers understand the vi-prefix as referring to plural (things)as it does in Swahili. Hence one video may be called a kideo!

By: cynthia pate

cynthia pate — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:18:02 +0000

Hello,
I am a middle school teacher working on a grant that links the underground railroad in the U.S. with the African baobab tree. I want to give the project “GIVING SHELTER” but cannot find the proper translation in swahili. It is important that I use the correct translation and also pronounce the two words correctly.
Could you possibly help?
Thank you,
Cynthia Pate

By: janderson013

janderson013 — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 01:48:14 +0000

I’ve noticed the same thing a lot in Greek, specifically with words related to modern technology. Usually the word gets borrowed with little or no modification other than a thick accent.

By: Luciano Eduardo de Oliveira

Luciano Eduardo de Oliveira — Tue, 08 May 2007 00:39:01 +0000

No, fansi is not used.

By: rbeard

rbeard — Mon, 07 May 2007 04:17:42 +0000

There are also similar examples in English, such as “the hoi polloi” where “hoi” = “the” (the people). In fact, if we allow abbreviations into the game, real redundancy appears in English-only phrases, e.g. “ATM machine”.

By: rbeard

rbeard — Mon, 07 May 2007 04:14:46 +0000

Do they use a plural “fansi”?

By: Luciano Eduardo de Oliveira

Luciano Eduardo de Oliveira — Sun, 06 May 2007 14:17:00 +0000

I can think of a Swedish example. Potatis (potato) comes from potatoes (I’m inclined to think so), but its plural form is potatisar, which has two plural markers: the English s and the Swedish ar.

Another interesting example is fans in Italian. Many Italians say Sono fans di Laura Pausini (I’m fans* of Laura Pausini), using a plural word in a language that dislikes end syllable s.

Luciano Eduardo de Oliveira

By: Paul Ogden

Paul Ogden — Sun, 06 May 2007 02:59:46 +0000

Here are some more:

Patrol has been taken over as a regular Hebrew verb: Le-fatrail (to
patrol); hu pitrel (he patrolled); pitrul (patrolling).
Format too: Le-farmet (to format); hu firmet (he formatted); firmut
(formatting).

Synchronize: Le-sankhren (to synchronize); hu sinkhrain (he
synchronized); nistakhren (let us synchronize).
Discuss: Le-daskess (to discuss); hem diskisu (they discussed).

By: Paul Ogden

Paul Ogden — Sun, 06 May 2007 02:57:03 +0000

The phenomenon of misplaced grammatical markers also finds a good
home in Hebrew — as do many other English borrowings.

The back axle of a car is a ‘bakax’. The front axle of a car is a ‘bakax kidmi’, ‘kidmi’ being Hebrew for forward.

The best of all, though, is like the Swahili examples: the sealed beam, a one-piece car headlight that contains lens, reflector and filament in a single sealed unit. Hebrew ‘silbim’, however, was taken as a plural since -im is a regular masculine plural ending. So, a single headlight is called a ‘silb’.