za
connective · class 10
- Literally
- “of”
- In conversation
- of, linking plural N-class nouns, as in habari za asubuhi.
Za is the small word holding habari za asubuhi together: the class 10 form of the connective -a, “of.” With a singular class 9 noun, the same connective is ya.
Origins
Za is what the connective -a, roughly “of,” looks like in class 10. The opening consonant changes to agree with the noun class. That is why habari ya carries singular class 9 agreement and habari za carries plural class 10 agreement: habari stays the same, and the connective shows the difference.
Sources3
Beata Wójtowicz and Lionel Posthumus, Greeting and saying farewell in two Bantu languages: Swahili and Zulu (Studies in African Languages and Cultures, 2021), 15.
Attests Habari za asubuhi, Habari za safari, and Habari za masomo.
Mark L. O. Van de Velde, The Bantu connective construction (Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2013), 217–252; prefinal lines 94–100 and 165–171.
Analyzes the Swahili connective as an agreement prefix plus -a and illustrates class 10 z-a.
Katrina Daly Thompson and Antonia Folarin Schleicher, Swahili Learners’ Reference Grammar (Madison: National African Language Resource Center, 2001), 92.
Lists za as the class 10 form of the connective -a and ya as the class 9 form.
Examples
Habari za asubuhi?
How is your morning?
Habari za safari?
How was the trip?
Habari za masomo?
How are the lessons?
Habari za leo?
How are things today?
Nguo za watoto ziko hapa.
The children’s clothes are here.
Sauti za ndege zinasikika.
The sounds of birds can be heard.
Barua za wageni zimefika.
The guests’ letters have arrived.
Nyumba za mjini ni nyingi.
There are many houses in town.
Safari za usiku ni tulivu.
Night journeys are quiet.
