-ako
possessive adjective
your; yours.
The form changes to match the thing possessed: jina lako, your name; safari yako, your journey.
Forms
- lako
- your; agreeing with jina
- yako
- your; agreeing with safari
- wako
- your; agreeing with a person
Origins
The word’s earlier history is still under review.
Sources4
Charles Sacleux, Grammaire des dialectes Swahilis (Paris: Procure des PP. du Saint-Esprit, 1909), PDF page 149.
Tabulates possessive agreement across noun classes. Historical evidence; not a survey of current Kenyan speech.
A. C. Madan, Swahili-English Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903), PDF page 453.
Identifies wako as an agreeing form of -ako. Historical evidence; not a survey of current Kenyan speech.
Edward Steere, A Handbook of the Swahili Language as Spoken at Zanzibar (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1884), PDF page 277.
Lists -ako for the second-person possessive and an emphatic construction. Historical Zanzibar evidence.
University of Kansas Open Language Resource Center, University of Kansas Kiswahili Glossary (University of Kansas Open Language Resource Center), ako, yako and jina lako glossary rows.
Gives -ako and yako as possessive forms for your and illustrates jina lako in a name question.
Examples
Jina lako ni nani?
What’s your name?
Safari yako ilikuwaje?
How was your journey?
Rafiki yako yuko wapi?
Where is your friend?
Kitabu chako kiko hapa.
Your book is here.
Hii ni chai yako?
Is this your tea?
Simu yako inaita.
Your phone is ringing.
Nina kalamu yako.
I have your pen.
Unapenda kazi yako?
Do you like your work?
Haya ni maji yako.
This is your water.
