340 NA TIVES OF EASTERN BRITISH EAST AFRICA part iir 



niwema, wema, viema, pema, chema, vyema, and kwema. The root is 

 here the final, instead of the first syllable. Any one used only to 

 European languages would at first think jigenia, pema, and vye?na to be 

 altogether different words ; and, on the other hand, from analogy with 

 ho?ia, boni, bono, would expect vita, i?iti, into, intii to be different forms 

 of the same root. But ;;//(;: means "town," ;;///" tree," into "river," 

 and mtu "man." Thus it is the ending -^;«fl', -/a, -^'/, -to, -tu that is the 

 fixed and essential part of the word, while the first syllable is variable 

 and less important. 



The changes in the first syllable serve several purposes. They 

 express number in nouns, bring adjectives and pronouns into agreement 

 with the words they qualify, and indicate the moods and tenses of 

 verbs. Thus mtu means "a man," and watu "men"; niti "a tree," 

 miti " trees " ; kilemba " a turban," vileniba " turbans " ; chombo " a 

 d^o\i" vyonibo "dhows." Again, kupata is the infinitive mood of "to 

 get " (ku being the preposition " to ") ; inapata is the present tense of 

 this verb, napata the past, and tapata the future. 



Another set of prefixes are abbreviations which enable ideas to be 

 expressed in one word, which in English require several. Thus M- 

 prefixed to the root of the name for a district is short for mtu, and 

 means a native of the tribe which occupies it ; Wa- is an abbreviation 

 for watu, and means two or more of the natives ; similarly the prefix 

 U- attached to the root indicates the name of the country, and Ki- 

 either the language of the tribe or the adjectival form of the name. 

 Thus U-kainba is the name of a district in East Africa ; Wa-kaviba is 

 the name of the tribe which inhabits it ; M-kainba that of a single 

 member. Ki-kamba is either the proper adjective relating to the tribe, 

 or, as a noun, is the name of its language. Similarly U-nyika is the 

 Nyika country, the Wa-nyika the people that dwell therein ; an 

 M-nyika is one member of the tribe, and Ki-nyika its language. 



In other divisions of the Bantu the same variations are expressed 

 by similar, though sometimes slightly different prefixes. Thus Isizidu 

 is the Zulu language. Bu-ganda is the name of the country generally 

 known in England as Uganda ; a native of the country is an M-ganda, 

 of which Wa-ganda is the plural, and Lu-ganda is the language. 



The adjectives, numerals, and pronouns, and in some cases the verb 

 also, have to agree with the noun. They are all consequently declined 

 in accordance with a set of rules known as the "concord," which is a 

 second interesting feature in Ki-suahili. The nouns are divided into- 

 eight classes, according to the formation of the plural. All the vari- 

 able parts of speech are declined in the same way as the nouns, though 

 this is sometimes masked by contractions. This is shown by the 

 following examples : — 



Mtu inema = " a good man." Mti nnveina = " a good tree." 



Watu wabili wema - " two good Miti inibili inema = " two good 



men." trees." 



