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- "Asubuhi njema kaka"
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Asubuhi makes me think of the Japanese word asa (morning).
... well, actually, it made me think more of Asahi Shimbun (the "Morning Sun Newspaper", a popular newspaper in Japan)
That is very interesting. The word actually comes from Arabic "as-subh", meaning "the morning". It's cool how words are similar through languages.
Arabic and Japanese are completely unrelated to each other. Outside of direct borrowings, any similarities are entirely coincidental.
Have a good morning, brother = asubhui njema kaka Have a good afternoon, sister = mchana mwema dada
The prefixes 'nj' and 'mw' - do they change because of the gender (brother vs sister), or the difference between morning and afternoon?
They change because of the difference between morning and afternoon. In Swahili, each noun belongs to a different noun class and the noun class it belongs to decides the prefix of the adjective describing it. The words "asubuhi" and "mchana" belong to different noun classes and thus, the adjectives take different prefixes.
Thank you very much for your reply. :) Fascinating that afternoon and morning are not in the same noun class despite both being 'times' of the day!
Fascinating, yes; however, not usual at all. You are studying Spanish, for example. Look at the example below, where the gender changed despite both being times of the day.
buenos días -- good morning buenas noches -- good evening
In East African culture, you would use "habari za asubuhi" much more frequently than "asubuhi njema," especially as a greeting. Perhaps you see someone on the street in the morning, the first thing you would say to them is "habari za asubuhi." "Asubuhi njema" would be used more frequently when leaving a conversation: "Bye. Have a good morning!" I have never heard someone start a conversation or greeting with "asubuhi njema."
