Wiktionary:About Swahili

This is a Wiktionary policy, guideline or common practices page. Specifically it is a policy think tank, working to develop a formal policy. Policies – Entries: CFI - EL - NORM - NPOV - QUOTE - REDIR - DELETE. Languages: LT - AXX. Others: BLOCK - BOTS - VOTES.

See also: Entry layout explained and Category:Swahili language

Swahili is an agglutinative Bantu language widely spoken in East Africa. This page details standard practice to be followed on all Swahili pages.

Dialects and spellings

All dialectal words should be marked; Standard Swahili (based on Zanzibari Swahili) is the default for all entries and does not need to be marked as such. Dialects do not get independent L2 headers, but instead are marked with {{label}} on the definition line and {{qualifier}} elsewhere.

Swahili is written in the Latin script primarily, but Arabic script entries are also accepted. Arabic script should not be used in translation tables, but instead linked to in the alternative forms section. Entries written in German orthography follow the same rules. All of these spellings must pass WT:ATTEST just like anything else.

Even when a base form does not exist, like -a, it will be where the entry is housed. It must be referred to and linked to with a hyphen preceding it, but the actual page it is located at should not have a hyphen in the title, but instead be (for example) a#Swahili. Hyphens in entry titles should only be used when the entry is an affix that has not meaning unless attached to an inflected form.

Several "pidginized" dialects existed, including "KiSetla" (Settler Swahili), KiVita ("war language", used by the British East African Army), KiShamba ("field / upcountry language", used by other Africans and influenced by local languages like Kikuyu in Nairobi and Luganda in Kampala), KiHindi (used by Indians), KiBabu (used by Asians in Kenya and Uganda), and KiManga (used by Arabs). Settler Swahili (also called Kitchen Swahili), the variant Europeans used when communicating with Swahili speakers, simplified Swahili grammar and modified its phonology in a number of ways, as noted by Joseph Muthiani:

Settler Swahili differences from standard Swahili

• For the present tense and for simple subjunctives, only the verb stem was used, e.g. yeye fanya kazi sana instead of yeye anafanya "he works hard"; kwenda pika chakula instead of kwenda ukapike chakula "go and cook food".
• For negatives, "no" + the verb stem was used: hapana simama hapa for usisimame hapa "don't stand here".
• For the past and future tenses, the present tense was used with an adverb of time: mimi fanya kazi kesho "I will work tomorrow"; mimi fanya kazi jana "I worked yesterday".
• Class concords (markers) were also simplified.
• Nasals were dropped or made easier to pronounce by inserting a vowel after them, e.g. mji became muji "town".
• Words used English stress, e.g. wálakini for walákini "nevertheless" (this feature is now occasionally used by speakers of standard Swahili).

Layout

Nouns

The basic noun entry:

==Swahili==

===Noun===
{{sw-noun|vi}}

# [[book]]

All entries should use {{sw-noun}} on the headword-line, which produces the plural form.

Plurals

The basic plural entry:

==Swahili==

===Noun===
{{head|sw|plural noun form}}

# {{plural of|sw|kitabu}}

These entries can be produced automatically by editors; go to WT:PREFS and enable accelerated entry creation.

Locative nouns

The basic locative noun (noun form suffixed with -ni):

==Swahili==

===Noun===
{{sw-noun-ni}}

# {{form of|sw|locative|meza}}

All entries should use {{sw-noun-ni}}.

Verbs

The basic verb entry:

==Swahili==

===Verb===
{{sw-verb}}

# to [[read]]

====Conjugation====
{{sw-conj}}

All entries should use {{sw-verb}} on their headword-line, which links to the infinitive, and {{sw-conj}} (or {{sw-conj|intr=y}} for intransitive verbs) in a conjugation section. 'Derived terms' sections should use {{sw-der}}, where all the derivative verbs and nouns can be listed.

Derivative verbs

The basic derivative verb entry:

==Swahili==

===Verb===
{{sw-verb}}

# {{sw-derform|appl|soma}}: to [[read]] for someone

====Conjugation====
{{sw-conj}}

This entry would be for -somea, the applicative form of -soma. Actual definitions can be given after a colon as shown when it would not be predictable from the form itself.

Infinitives

The basic verbal noun entry (infinitive/gerund/ku class noun):

==Swahili==

===Verb===
{{sw-inf}}

# {{form of|sw|Infinitive|soma|-soma}}

All entries should use {{sw-inf}}, usually without parameters.

Conjugated forms

The basic conjugated verb form entry:

==Swahili==

===Verb===
{{head|sw|verb form}}

# {{conjugation of|sw|nunua|-nunua|1|s|past|subsecutive}}

Adjectives

The basic adjective entry:

==Swahili==

===Adjective===
{{sw-adj}}

# [[small]]

====Inflection====
{{sw-decl}}

{{sw-decl}} automatically produces all the inflected forms in a neat table. For other templates that may need to be used for special or irregular adjectives, please see {{sw-decl}}. Invariable adjectives should not have an inflection section, but instead should have inv supplied as the first parameter in {{sw-adj}}.

Adjective inflected forms

The basic adjective inflected form entry:

==Swahili==

===Adjective===
{{head|sw|adjective form}}

# {{sw-adj form of|n|dogo}}

All entries should use {{sw-adj form of}}, which also handles the adverbial function of vi- class inflected adjectives.

Other parts of speech

==Swahili==

===Conjunction===
{{head|sw|conjunction}}

# [[or]]

Use {{head}} for these entries, which do not need further headword-line treatment.

Work to be done

• Wiktionary:Project - Swahili/missing a-z
• Category:Swahili entry maintenance shows other work to be done.

See also

• Category:Swahili language