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- "The name of the Dutch person"
"The name of the Dutch person"
Translation:Jina la Mholanzi
March 15, 2019
25 Comments
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.
M- is singular (Kenyan). Wa- is plural (Kenyans). See this thread: https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/32745349