And then again there is this close verbal connection between Hindi, Urdu and Persian (Farsi) on one hand and Arabic on the other, besides the connection of all four with Swahili.
Therefore Gabru and Mervyn Lobo should not feel this violation they tend to experience when someone enters their domain of Swahili and matters East African. They have laid claim to it but alas they have no title. Roland. Toronto. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Vivian A. DSouza Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2012 9:58 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [Goanet] Kiswahili of Swahili words........ While on this topic, we should remember that Swahili is a composite language, which has adapted/adopted words from several languages, based on the people that the local folks came in contact with. Hence there are words that come from Arabic, Portuguese and most commonly Hindi. A friend who hails from Pakistan accompanied me to Tanzania in the 1990s and was surprised to hear words that were very close to Hindi. For example: Tayari in Kiswahili for ready Kitabu for book Kalamu for pen etc. etc. Bandera in Kiswahili for Flag, clearly a Portuguese derivative Mesa for table etc. The words for days of the week are clearly of Arabic derivation like I-Juma for Friday, Juma Mosi (the day after Friday) for Saturday Juma pili (second day after Friday) for Sunday etc. etc. Most languages have been enriched by association with other languages including English, so why not Kiswahili ?
