"The name of the Dutch person"
Translation:Jina la Mholanzi
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I'm not sure which sentence you're referring to (the stem '-ake' means his/hers/its). That would be in one of 3 ways:
- Jina lake la kiholanzi - his/her Dutch name
- Jina lake ni la Mholanzi - his/her name is that of a Dutch person
- Jina lake ni la kiholanzi - his/her name is Dutch
The prefixes change the meaning of the word. The adjective stem '-holanzi' is used to mean 'Dutch' (adj) or 'of Dutch origin', but doesn't stand alone.
- Mholanzi - Dutch person
- kiholanzi - Dutch (adj), of Dutch origin
- Uholanzi - Holland.
The first and 2nd prefixes apply to all nationalities and references to country-specific origins. The last prefix applies to countries whose translations and pronunciations change from English to Swahili. For probably 98% of African countries, the name doesn't change from English to Swahili, so the prefix 'U-' is not used.
On the subject on country names: last year when I asked my Uber driver in Dar to take me to Ubalozi wa Uswidi, he told me everyone would say Ubalozi wa Sweden. I forgot to ask him what our language would be called: Kiswidi or Kisweden. The latter sounds pretty weird to me :)
it would be Kiswidi. It's very common to conversationally mix English and Swahili
That should also be accepted, but the m- in mholanzi, mtanzania etc., already implies a person.
Unfortunately you cant see them in the Duolingo mobile app, you'd have to view it in the browser. It's the bulb icon
I'm confused about the difference beween Mkenya and Wakenya, Mchina and Wachina, etc. Can anyone expain when to use M and when to use Wa?
M- is singular (Kenyan). Wa- is plural (Kenyans). See this thread: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/32745349
Does 'la' translate as the English preposition 'of'? It doesn't come up in online lists of prepositions but that seems to be its meaning here.
But which form of the -a to use depends on the noun class of the possessor (jina in this case). Check out the 'Tips and Notes' for each noun class (web version only), under the '-a of association'-
La means of. There are also different forms of La with other letters in front of the -a, and the -a is called the -a of association. For example, you can have ya, cha or vya, all of which mean of, but you use them in different noun classes and depending on if the noun it makes an association with is singular or plural. It's not too hard to understand, but make sure you read the notes at the beginning of each unit to understand how to use them.
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How would you say "Xxx is a Dutch name"? Wouldn't it also be "Xxx ni jina la Mholanzi" (like in the example "Rehema is a Kenyan name" - "Rehema ni jina la Mkenya"). If yes, how do you tell apart "a Keyan name" and "a name of the Kenyan person"?
