Zur Bildung von Diminutiv- und Augmentativformen im Swahili

Summary In written texts (mostly novels) in Swahili, a Bantu language in East Africa, and talks with speakers of the language, many examples of diminutive and augmentative forms of the nouns were found and analyzed. On morphophonological grounds, the diminutive prefix is either ki- or kiji- (double prefix), whereas the augmentative prefix is ji- or zero. The formation of the diminutive and augmentative forms in singular and plural is shown in detail for every noun class. In case of the existence of two diminutive forms of a noun (with ki- and kiji-), the form with kiji- expresses an additional diminutive idea. The diminutives express smallness in general, but can be used with a derogatory meaning; whereas augmentativos express a special hugeness, but can bo used also to characterize non-human features with persons. If emphasis is put on the diminutive (augmentative) meaning, even nouns denoting living beings take the ’ki-(resp. rna-) concords. The vi- and ma- prefixes are also used to express collectiveness.