ngamia
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Swahili
Etymology
An old borrowing, ultimately from Arabic جَمَل (jamal).[1] Compare Yao ngamila, Chichewa ngamira.
Pronunciation
Noun
ngamia (n class, plural ngamia)
- camel
- Synonym: (poetic) jamali
- (derogatory) idiot
- Synonym: ng'ombe
Descendants
See also
- (Camelids) Camelidae: ngamia na jamaa; ngamia (“camel”) or jamali, lama (“llama”), - (“guanaco”), alpaka (“alpaca”), - (“vicuña”) (Category: sw:Camelids) [edit]
References
- ^ Brook, Zev (2022) “Which Arabic Dialect Are Swahili Words From?”, in Studia Orientalia Electronica, volume 10, number 1, page 2 of 1-10: “Among these loans is ngamia ‘camel’, from Old Swahili ngamila; removing the class 9 prefix, we would expect an Arabic form *gamī̌l, which is not attested in extant Arabic dialects”