wapi
interrogative adverb
where?; in what place?
Used to ask about location, origin, or destination, often after a verb.
Origins
Wapi is treated as an earlier Bantu inherited interrogative in the comparative record. Historical Swahili dictionaries document its use for asking where something or someone is.
M. Haspelmath and U. Tadmor, World Loanword Database · Swahili profile (Max Planck Institute / Lexibank, 2009), Swahili profile; forms.csv.
Earlier Bantu classification cross-check.
Edward Steere, A Handbook of the Swahili Language as Spoken at Zanzibar (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1884), alphabetical entry: wapi.
Historical interrogative location use.
Examples
Unakaa wapi?
Where do you live?
Wapi tunaweza kukutana?
Where can we meet?
Uliweka funguo wapi?
Where did you put the keys?
Kitabu kiko wapi?
Where is the book?
Unatoka wapi?
Where are you from?
Wapi tuliacha gari?
Where did we leave the car?
Daktari yuko wapi sasa?
Where is the doctor now?
Unaenda wapi kesho?
Where are you going tomorrow?
Wapi ninaweza kupata maji?
Where can I get water?
