baba
noun
father; dad; a respectful or familiar form of address.
Kinship, respect, and affectionate address can all be present; context decides.
Origins
Baba means father in Swahili, and close forms show up across Bantu languages too: Shona babá, Zulu ubaba. That spread points to an older Bantu inheritance, Proto-Bantu *bààbá. Arabic بابا (bābā) and Persian بابا (bâbâ) use the same father word; those may have reinforced it on the coast, but Swahili already had it from Bantu.
Sources4
M. Haspelmath and U. Tadmor, World Loanword Database · Swahili profile (Max Planck Institute / Lexibank, 2009), Swahili profile; forms.csv.
Ages Swahili baba as earlier Bantu rather than a loanword.
Yvonne Bastin, André Coupez, Evariste Mumba, and Thilo C. Schadeberg, Bantu Lexical Reconstructions 3 (Royal Museum for Central Africa, 2002), MAIN 12 · baaba father.
Proto-Bantu reconstruction *baaba with wide zone distribution including Swahili zone G.
A. C. Madan, Swahili-English Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903), 10.
Records baba as father in historical Swahili.
Edward Steere, A Handbook of the Swahili Language as Spoken at Zanzibar (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1884), alphabetical entry: baba.
Historical Swahili form and meaning.
Examples
Baba yangu anapika leo.
My father is cooking today.
Nilimpigia baba simu.
I called my dad.
Baba, karibu nyumbani.
Dad, welcome home.
Baba yangu anafanya kazi mjini.
My father works in town.
Tafadhali mwambie baba nimefika.
Please tell dad I have arrived.
Baba mkubwa alitusaidia jana.
My father’s elder brother helped us yesterday.
Watoto wanamwita baba yao.
The children are calling their father.
Baba, naweza kukuuliza swali?
Dad, may I ask you a question?
Alimheshimu baba kama mwalimu.
They respected the father as a teacher.
