wewe
pronoun
you.
This form addresses one person and can add emphasis to the person being addressed.
Origins
Wewe is inherited Bantu vocabulary. The same word for “you” appears across the family: Chichewa, Tumbuka, Tooro, and Venda all have iwe.
Sources4
Charles Sacleux, Grammaire des dialectes Swahilis (Paris: Procure des PP. du Saint-Esprit, 1909), PDF page 147.
Explains emphatic independent pronouns and explicitly retains the corresponding verbal subject or object marker. Historical evidence; not a survey of current Kenyan speech.
A. C. Madan, Swahili-English Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903), PDF page 397.
Contains wewe in an incidental conjunction example; not a full pronoun description. Historical evidence; not a survey of current Kenyan speech.
University of Kansas Open Language Resource Center, University of Kansas Kiswahili Glossary (University of Kansas Open Language Resource Center), wewe glossary rows.
Identifies wewe as singular “you”.
- wewe (Wiktionary)
Lists cognate forms iwe (“you, singular”) in Chichewa, Tumbuka, Tooro, and Venda.
Examples
Mimi ni Amina. Na wewe?
I’m Amina. And you?
Wewe unatoka wapi?
Where are you from?
Wewe ni mwalimu?
Are you a teacher?
Nitakusubiri wewe.
I’ll wait for you.
Wewe unapenda chakula gani?
What food do you like?
Wewe nenda kwanza.
You go first.
Nitakaa hapa na wewe.
I’ll stay here with you.
Wewe unaishi karibu?
Do you live nearby?
Hii ni kwa ajili yako wewe.
This is for you.
