Meaning of ki- | Babel Free

Definitions

1. [[Appendix:Swahili_noun_classes#Ki-vi class|ki class_((VII))]] noun prefix and adjective agreement prefix, denoting mostly artefacts (objects made by humans) and people or objects with physical defects
   morpheme
2. it, [[Appendix:Swahili_noun_classes#Ki-vi class|ki class_((VII))]] subject concord
   morpheme
3. Prefix denoting languages
   morpheme
4. diminutive prefix
   diminutive, morpheme, prefix
5. verb-initial form of -ki- (“it, [[Appendix:Swahili_noun_classes#Ki-vi class|ki class_((VII))]] object concord”)
   morpheme
6. prefix used to derive adverbs from nouns describing human qualities
   morpheme
7. forms the name of a language
   morpheme
8. adverbial prefix
   adverbial, morpheme, prefix

Examples

“kitu kizuri”

a nice thing

“kilema”

a crippled person

“ki- + mtoto (“child”) → kitoto (“baby”)”

“ki- + mtoto (“child”) → kitoto (“childishly”)”

“ki- + -shenzi (“barbarous”) → kishenzi (“like a barbarian”)”

“ki- + Arabic سَوَاحِل (sawāḥil, “coastal dwellers”) → Kiswahili (“Swahili language”)”

“ki- + Uingereza (“England”) → Kiingereza (“English language”)”

“ki- + mapenzi (“love”) → kimapenzi (“romantically”)”

“[…] mwingiliano wa miaka mingi kibiashara, kijamii na kiutamaduni katika nchi hizi mbili.”

[…] many years of interaction, commercially, societally, and culturally, between these two countries.

“ki- + juu (“top, surface”) → kijuujuu (“superficially”)”

“نِكَمَ كِسِمَ كِسِگُ وُمْبِّ ، كِنْيِ مْتَپَاءَ مَانَ وَغُمْبِ”

It is like a shallow well where charges a young bull;

“[…] na kichwa chake kiwazi kilituonyesha nywele zilizochanwa na kupasuliwa njia katikati.”

[…] and his uncovered head showed us combed hair with a middle part.

CEFR level