ndani
adverb
inside; within.
Use ndani ya before naming what something is inside.
Origins
Ndani is inherited Bantu vocabulary, though its exact reconstructed form is not documented. One proposed link, to nda, “stomach,” plus the locative ending -ni, is flagged by the source itself as unverified.
Sources6
Martin Haspelmath and Uri Tadmor (editors), World Loanword Database: Swahili (Max Planck Digital Library, 2009), wold-master/cldf/forms.csv row 37027.
Records the inside sense and its grammatical classification.
Charles Sacleux, Grammaire des dialectes swahilis (Paris: Procure des Pères du Saint-Esprit, 1909), PDF page 285.
Documents the inside meaning.
A. C. Madan, Swahili-English Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903), PDF page 302.
Documents the inside meaning.
Edward Steere, A Handbook of the Swahili Language as Spoken at Zanzibar (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1884), PDF page 387.
Documents the inside meaning.
University of Kansas Open Language Resource Center, University of Kansas Kiswahili Glossary (University of Kansas), ndani glossary rows.
Documents the inside meaning.
- ndani (Wiktionary)
States ndani is inherited from an unspecified Proto-Bantu source, and flags an unverified hypothesis tying it to *nda “stomach” plus locative -ni.
Examples
Ingia ndani, mvua inanyesha.
Come inside, it's raining.
Pesa ziko ndani ya bahasha.
The money is inside the envelope.
Kuna watu wengi ndani ya matatu.
There are a lot of people inside the matatu.
Tusubiri ndani.
Let's wait inside.
Ndani kuna joto sana.
It's very hot inside.
Usiache vitu vya thamani ndani ya gari.
Don't leave valuables inside the car.
Nimefunga simu ndani ya sanduku.
I've locked the phone inside the box.
Choo kiko ndani, upande wa kushoto.
The toilet is inside, on the left.
Watu wote wako ndani.
Everyone is inside.
