kuna

verb

there is; there are.

Use it to say something exists or is available in a place. Hakuna is the negative: there is not; there are not.

Origins

Kuna fuses two old pieces: ku-, the “there” locative marker (Proto-Bantu kʊ́-), and na, “and, with” (Proto-Bantu nà).

Sources6

Charles Sacleux, Grammaire des dialectes Swahilis (Paris: Procure des PP. du Saint-Esprit, 1909), PDF page 343.
Contrasts kuna with negative hakuna in existential constructions. Historical evidence; not a survey of current Kenyan speech.
A. C. Madan, Swahili-English Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903), PDF page 210.
Describes existential kuna and its negative hakuna. 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 351.
Lists existential kuna separately from the verb meaning to scratch. Historical Zanzibar evidence.
University of Kansas Open Language Resource Center, University of Kansas Kiswahili Glossary (University of Kansas Open Language Resource Center), kuna glossary rows.
Uses kuna to describe food availability and scarcity.
ku- (Wiktionary)
Traces the ku- “there” subject-concord element to Proto-Bantu *kʊ́-, illustrated with kuna.
na (Wiktionary)
States na (“and/with”) is inherited from Proto-Bantu *nà.