nchi
noun
country.
Its noun-class agreement is i- in the singular and zi- in the plural.
Origins
Nchi belongs to Swahili’s older Bantu vocabulary.
Thilo Schadeberg; edited by Martin Haspelmath and Uri Tadmor, Swahili vocabulary, in World Loanword Database (2009), Swahili record Swahili-19-11-1.
Identifies noun classes 9/10. Classifies nchi as earlier Bantu vocabulary.
Taasisi ya Uchunguzi wa Kiswahili (TUKI), TUKI Kamusi ya Kiswahili-Kiingereza, PDF page 214, nchi.
Documents the country sense.
Examples
Nchi hii ina milima mingi.
This country has many mountains.
Unatoka nchi gani?
Which country do you come from?
Nchi hizi zinapakana.
These countries share a border.
Tunasafiri kwenda nchi nyingine.
We are travelling to another country.
Nchi yetu ina lugha nyingi.
Our country has many languages.
Ametembelea nchi tatu.
She has visited three countries.
Nchi hiyo iko mbali.
That country is far away.
Nchi nyingi zina pwani.
Many countries have a coast.
Wageni wanatoka nchi mbalimbali.
The visitors come from various countries.
