mimi
pronoun
I; me.
Mimi can make the speaker explicit or add emphasis; a verb’s subject prefix can also identify who is speaking.
Origins
The word’s earlier history is still under review.
Sources3
Charles Sacleux, Grammaire des dialectes Swahilis (Paris: Procure des PP. du Saint-Esprit, 1909), PDF page 147.
Explains independent pronouns used alongside verbal and possessive pronouns for emphasis. Historical evidence; not a survey of current Kenyan speech.
A. C. Madan, Swahili-English Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903), PDF page 254.
Lists mimi for I or me and describes emphatic constructions. Historical evidence; not a survey of current Kenyan speech.
University of Kansas Open Language Resource Center, University of Kansas Kiswahili Glossary (University of Kansas Open Language Resource Center), mimi glossary rows.
Identifies mimi as the first-person subject pronoun.
Examples
Mimi ninafanya kazi.
I am working.
Hiki ni kitabu changu mimi.
This book is mine.
Mimi huenda sokoni kila Jumamosi.
I go to the market every Saturday.
Aliniambia mimi.
He told me.
Mimi na wewe tutaenda pamoja.
You and I will go together.
Ni mimi niliyefanya hivyo.
It was I who did that.
Mimi sipendi chai.
I don’t like tea.
Je, unanijua mimi?
Do you know me?
Mimi niko hapa.
I am here.
