Ujinsi wa nomino za mkopo katika lugha ya Kiswahili

Abstract

Masculine, the world languages are generally categorized into two categories; masculine language, feminine language and neuter language. Many Bantu Languages, Swahili inclusive is generally categorized as neuter language; meaning that objects have on its vocabulary like noun has no grammatical gender. However, if you underscore a close observation especially on the borrowed noun, you find something different. The aim of the current article therefore is to investigate how the borrowed noun that enters into Swahili from gendered language behaves. The questions raised by this article are: first, do really borrowed noun that come from gendered language into Swahili become neuter like other noun? Secondly, by looking those borrowed now from gendered language and the way they behaves in Swahili, is it correct to generalize that Swahili language is neuter. These questions and other of this trend are the ones addressed in this article. Data collected from through interview and observation is used to support the argument.