simu
noun
phone.
The plural is also simu.
Origins
Simu was already recorded in the early 1890s as the word for the telegraph and its messages, and later for the telephone. It most likely came through Omani Arabic سيم (sīm, “telegram”), spoken in Oman and Zanzibar, and goes back to Persian سیم (sīm, “silver; metal wire”).
Sources8
Zev Brook, Which Arabic Dialect Are Swahili Words From? (Studia Orientalia Electronica, 2022), Vol. 10, p. 9, entry “Telephone”; p. 7, introduction to the etymology list.
Derives simu from Omani Arabic sīm “telegram,” itself from Persian sīm “wire,” and presents this as the most plausible explanation rather than a certainty.
Martin Haspelmath and Uri Tadmor (editors), World Loanword Database: Swahili (Max Planck Digital Library, 2009), cldf/forms.csv ID Swahili-23-12-1; cldf/borrowings.csv IDs 8422 and 21438.
Records simu as a clearly borrowed class 9/10 noun, with source words sīm “wire” in Indian Ocean Arabic and sīm “silver, wire” in Persian; its simu row cites Sacleux (1939).
Charles Sacleux, Dictionnaire swahili-français (Paris: Institut d’ethnologie, 1939), pp. 804–805, entry “Sim, Simu”; the script form is on p. 805.
Records sim or simu for a telegraph wire, the telegraph, a telegram, and the telephone, and derives it from Persian sīm, “silver; telegraph wire,” printing the donor form in Arabic script as سيم.
Edward Steere, A Handbook of the Swahili Language as Spoken at Zanzibar (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1894), 4th edition, revised by A. C. Madan, p. 385, entry “Simu”.
Records simu as the electric telegraph.
Carl Reinhardt, Ein arabischer Dialekt gesprochen in ʿOmān und Zanzibar (Stuttgart and Berlin: W. Spemann, 1894), pp. 35–36 and 293; preface p. VII.
Records sym for a telegram and fissym for news by telegraph in the Omani Arabic spoken in Oman and Zanzibar; it does not discuss Swahili.
Francis Joseph Steingass, A Comprehensive Persian-English Dictionary (London: Routledge & K. Paul, 1892), p. 717, entry سیم.
Gives Persian سیم (sīm) as “silver” and “a wire of silver or any other metal,” and sīmi talagrāf as a telegraph wire; it does not discuss Swahili.
Charles Sacleux, Dictionnaire français-swahili (Zanzibar: Mission des PP. du Saint-Esprit, 1891), p. 925, entries “Télégramme” to “Télégraphique”.
Gives sim for the telegraph and telegrams, and kupiga sim for sending a telegram.
University of Kansas Open Language Resource Center, University of Kansas Kiswahili Glossary (University of Kansas), simu glossary rows.
Documents phone.
Examples
Simu yangu haina chaji.
My phone is out of battery.
Nipigie simu ukifika.
Call me when you arrive.
Nimepoteza simu yangu.
I've lost my phone.
Namba yako ya simu ni ipi?
What's your phone number?
Naweza kununua kadi ya simu wapi?
Where can I buy a phone card?
Usiache simu mezani.
Don't leave the phone on the table.
Simu inaita.
The phone is ringing.
Sina mtandao kwenye simu.
I have no network connection on my phone.
Alinipigia simu jana usiku.
They called me last night.
