nani
interrogative pronoun
who.
Ask nani when the answer is a person. It also appears in jina lako ni nani, what’s your name?
Origins
The word’s earlier history is still under review.
Sources5
Charles Sacleux, Grammaire des dialectes Swahilis (Paris: Procure des PP. du Saint-Esprit, 1909), PDF page 168.
Explains that nani refers to people and illustrates identity questions. Historical evidence; not a survey of current Kenyan speech.
A. C. Madan, Swahili-English Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903), PDF page 301.
Records nani for asking about people, including a name question. 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 153.
Explains interrogative nani and its use in questions. Historical Zanzibar evidence.
University of Kansas Open Language Resource Center, University of Kansas Kiswahili Glossary (University of Kansas Open Language Resource Center), nani glossary rows.
Identifies nani as the question word “who”.
University of Kansas Open Language Resource Center, University of Kansas Kiswahili Glossary (University of Kansas Open Language Resource Center), jina glossary rows.
Illustrates jina lako ni nani? as a name question.
Examples
Nani anakuja?
Who is coming?
Jina lako ni nani?
What is your name?
Wewe ni nani?
Who are you?
Nani amevunja dirisha?
Who broke the window?
Mwalimu wako ni nani?
Who is your teacher?
Nani atatusaidia?
Who will help us?
Huyu ni nani?
Who is this?
Nani anapenda chai?
Who likes tea?
Nani alikwenda sokoni?
Who went to the market?
