Ultimately from Ancient Greek ἴαμβος (íambos).
jambi
Inflection of jambi (Kotus type 5/risti, no gradation) | |||
---|---|---|---|
nominative | jambi | jambit | |
genitive | jambin | jambien | |
partitive | jambia | jambeja | |
illative | jambiin | jambeihin | |
singular | plural | ||
nominative | jambi | jambit | |
accusative | nom. | jambi | jambit |
gen. | jambin | ||
genitive | jambin | jambien | |
partitive | jambia | jambeja | |
inessive | jambissa | jambeissa | |
elative | jambista | jambeista | |
illative | jambiin | jambeihin | |
adessive | jambilla | jambeilla | |
ablative | jambilta | jambeilta | |
allative | jambille | jambeille | |
essive | jambina | jambeina | |
translative | jambiksi | jambeiksi | |
abessive | jambitta | jambeitta | |
instructive | — | jambein | |
comitative | See the possessive forms below. |
In all likelihood from a contraction of jagħmel bi, from the imperfect tense of Arabic عَمِلَ بِ (ʕamila bi, “to do with”), as in “What are you going to do with that?” Similar contractions compare in jaf (“to know”) and ġab (“to bring”). Another theory derives it from Arabic أَبَّ (ʔabba, “to wish, desire”), but this is less likely both phonetically and semantically.
jambi (imperfect only)
singular | plural | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1st person | 2nd person | 3rd person | 1st person | 2nd person | 3rd person | |||
perfect | m | kont nambi | kont tambi | kien jambi | konna nambu | kontu tambu | kienu jambu | |
f | kienet tambi | |||||||
imperfect | m | nambi | tambi | jambi | nambu | tambu | jambu | |
f | tambi | |||||||
imperative | — | — |