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- "Umeamkaje?"
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Well you could always say "Habari za asubuhi?" but I think this one means more of like "How'd you sleep last night?"
it's a part of the greeting like
'good morning,' (then) umeamukaje?'how did you sleep?'
If you break is down using the STROVE method:
Subject: U- ('You') Tense: Me (Present Perfect)- ('Have/Did') Relative: Not used Object: Not used Verb: (Ku)amka ('Wake Up') Ending: Je- ('How?')
Putting it back together- 'How have you awoken?' or as someone else pointed out 'how did you sleep last night?'
Oh my gosh! Thank you so much. I will do my best to remember this method. As an English speaker, this is a very interesting method of asking a question.
I was confused, since there was only one word and an entire sentence to go with it. Note to self: use STROVE for Swahili. It shouldn't get lost in all of the other languages I'm learning.
Yes, I originally thought this was an odd and random question because I took its meaning literally, as if to ask how one literally woke up; I could only imagine this being said if one person had poisoned another, and did not expect them to wake up. :)
The existanse of this as a single word and from what my three days of learning this language tell me is that politeness is quite important to Swahili culture.
This is a pretty specific question. I'm surprised that it's just one word.
This is because Swahili is agglutinative, meaning words are combined to form another word with a separate but derived meaning. See Dalaryn's post above for a breakdown of what each component means.
Swahili can say a lot of very specific things in one word.
Hawakulikana means "They were not edible to one another."
Let me correct you as follows:
Wanakulana = They are eating each other.
In English Grammar. We use each other and one another to show that each person in a group of two or more people does something to the others where in Swahili we simply fix the pronoun ‘na’ at the end of the verb to mean the same in English.
Wa-na-kula-na = They eat each other
The negative is made by fixing ‘ha’ before the subject marker prefix ‘wa’ and change last letter of the pronoun ‘na’ from ‘a’ to ‘i’ and for the case of the monosyllable verb ‘la’ the infinitive part ‘ku’ is dropped leaving the monosyllable verb ‘la’ by itself.
Ha-wa-la-ni NOT ha-wa-kula-ni.
If you do not want to drop the infinitive part ku’ you may write as follows:
Ha-wa-kula-ni = Hawakulani.
There is no such thing like Hawakulikani. Let me correct you as follows:
Wanakulana = They are eating each other.
In English Grammar. We use each other and one another to show that each person in a group of two or more people does something to the others where in Swahili we simply fix the pronoun ‘na’ at the end of the verb to mean the same in English.
Wa-na-kula-na = They eat each other
The negative is made by fixing ‘ha’ before the subject marker prefix ‘wa’ and change last letter of the pronoun ‘na’ from ‘a’ to ‘i’ and for the case of the monosyllable verb ‘la’ the infinitive part ‘ku’ is dropped leaving the monosyllable verb ‘la’ by itself.
Ha-wa-la-ni NOT ha-wa-kula-ni.
In the past tense wa-li-kula-na = They ate each other
The negative is ha-wa-ku-la-na = Hawakulana = they did not eat each other
If you do not want to drop the infinitive part ku’ you may write as follows:
Ha-wa-kula-ni = Hawakulani.
There is no such thing like Hawakulikana.
This seems to be almost the same as umelalaje. I guess its just giving options? Is there one more commonly used?
"Kulala" means "to sleep." "Kuamka" means "to wake up". So "Umelalaje" means "How did you sleep?" and "Umeamkaje" means "How did you wake up?" In meaning, they're similar (essentially Good Morning), but technically they are different.
Somehow "umelalaje?" sounds like someone wants to know the way in which I slept (on my side) whereas "umeamkaje" sounds like they want to know how I slept (well). Could be regional, "umelalaje" makes literal sense.
In my experience, Umeamkaje is more commonly used (in North-Eastern Tanzania)
Is it also alright to include "How have you awakened?" as another possible answer?
If you use wewe, you stress you. You could always use wewe, but it might be more appropriate in an exchange like this:
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Umeamkaje? (How did you wake up?)
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Salama. Umeamkaje wewe? OR
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Salama. Wewe umeamkaje? (Safe/good. How about you?)
You could also drop the wewe in the reply, but it feels natural to include it.
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Eh?? I've just been told "salama" means "hello" after I typed"peace to you" now you say it means safe?!
Frankly speaking "Hello" to me means something like Hi! and in Swahili I will link to Habari! to alert someone for more greetings if any. But before I explain anything to anyone where he/she is a Swahili or Foreigner I like to break down the entire Swahili word or sentence into parts of speech and by doing so I have to pre-translate them literally before I joined them back into an entire word or sentence and give a proper meaning in general which is not necessarily a literal translation again. Therefore salama literally means safe. For example "How was your wake up today"? Or "How did you wake up"? You may then reply like "my wake up was safe" or I woke up peacefully = Nimeamka salama. (where there is peace there is safety) and everything goes well enough to be safe and peaceful.
wewe is not used if speaking to one person as it already used in the word. However, you can use it when you want someone to know you are talking to the question is for them to them e.g wewe,'person addressing' umeamukaje? Translate to' you, how did you wake up?
hope that makes sense and answers your question
Niliamka asubuhi translates as (I) 'woke up this morning!' as in the start of any good blues!
It will only accept the given answer (How did you wake up?) even if you enter what is more correct English like how did you sleep? etc and ask it to accept your answer. Otherwise it won't let you proceed further without entering the given answer. In Kenya the stock phrase was indeed 'lala nzuri?' or umelalage in brief or as part of a longer sentence (jinsi gani..).
The tense marker 'me' in Swahili is for Present Perfect Tense not Past Tense
You have gone = Umeenda You did go = Ulienda Umeamkaje = How have you woken up?
The tense marker 'me' in Swahili is for Present Perfect Tense not Past Tense
You have gone = Umeenda You did go = Ulienda Umeamkaje = How have you woken up?
clearly, "how did you awaken" is correct. just a matter of time (maybe after a good night's rest)...
If my objective is to translate it into English, then "How did you sleep?" should be an acceptable response, since no one says, "How did you wake up?"
Unless you're surprised because you were expecting them to have been killed, lol. "HOW DID YOU WAKE UP?!"
Is this an equivalent of how was your night/ how did you sleep/ good morning? Or does it literally mean wake up - would you answer, i woke up easily, with an alarm, etc?
It's a normal to use this word. As it's common to say... How did you awake?
It's basically a way to ask "how was your night and how are you this morning?"
I would reply: Nimeamka vema labda wewe. Translation: I woke up fine, and you?
literally I think this means: 'You woke up!?' I think the English is at fault. if it is supposed to mean how do you feel on waking up - i.e. how are you after your sleep?' surely the swahili would be habari? or 'lala nzuri?' (you slept well? or 'how did you sleep?')
