"Rafiki"
Translation:A friend
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Etymology (rafiki)
From Arabic رَفِيق (rafīq, “companion”), from رَفَقَ (rafaqa, “to be friendly”).
Noun
rafiki (ma class, plural marafiki) or rafiki (n class, plural rafiki)
1) Friend.
2) Comrade.
Synonyms
(friend): mwenzi
(comrade): ndugu
From Wiktionary: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rafiki
Makes sense since swahili developed from a mix of arabic and bantu languages :)
This one is easy to remember if you've seen the lion king! Rafiki ni tumbili! -Rafiki is a monkey :)
Wiktionary says rafiki is both ma and n class. Is one more common than the other, or are there any differences between using the two classes?
It's a funny mix. For verbal agreement, it behaves like any other animate noun (with a- in singular and wa- in plural etc.) but for possessives it follows the N class:
Rafiki yangu alisema ... = My friend said ...
Rafiki zangu walisema ... = My friends said ...
But there's a weird little twist: The noun itself can optionally take the ma- prefix in the plural, but the z from the N class is still used on the possessive:
Marafiki zangu walisema ... = My friends said ...
A few words for family members also occasionally work this way, but I think marafiki is the most common example of this weird pattern.
