-aji

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Swahili

Etymology

From *-aga (constantly repeated action or habitual state) +‎ -i.[1][2]

Suffix

-aji

  1. (usually in m-wa class(I/II)) agent of an action or person who performs the action as their profession
    m- + ‎-soma (to read) + ‎-aji → ‎msomaji (reader)
    mw- + ‎-uza (to sell) + ‎-aji → ‎mwuzaji (vendor)
    ki- + ‎-nywa (to drink) + ‎-aji → ‎kinywaji (beverage)
  2. (in u class(XI)) fact of performing an action
    u- + ‎-fuga (to keep (livestock)) + ‎-aji → ‎ufugaji (herding, livestock management)
    u- + ‎-pasua (to operate on) + ‎-aji → ‎upasuaji (operation)

Derived terms

References

  1. ^ Polomé, Edgar C. (1967) Swahili Language Handbook (Language Handbook Series)‎, Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics, page 77:
    The agentive suffix {i}, added to the Bantu verbal derivational suffix *{ag} expressing a constantly repeated action or a habitual state, constitutes the Swahili complex nominal derivational suffix {aji}, which indicates more specifically the habitual doer of the action, especially the professional agent, {...} With the class-prefix {u}, the suffix {aji} expresses the abstract concept of the habitual action
  2. ^ Schadeberg, Thilo C. (1992) A Sketch of Swahili Morphology, 3rd edition, Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, →ISBN
  1. Marten, Lutz, Gibson, Hannah, Guérois, Rozenn, Jerro, Kyle (2024) “Morphosyntactic variation in Old Swahili”, in Hannah Gibson, Rozenn Guérois, Gastor Mapunda, Lutz Marten, editors, Morphosyntactic variation in East African Bantu languages: Descriptive and comparative approaches, Berlin: Language Science Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 389 of 373–420:In addition, the agentive suffix -aji is also found, which appears to be an innovation in Swahili.