Nouns: Class 5 and 6

In this post we look at another new noun class, numbered 5 & 6. Nouns in these classes include fruit, such as maizu, bananas; body parts that come in pairs, such as magulu, feet, and things to do with speech, such as maneno, words.

Examples

Here are some examples of class 5 and 6 nouns:

chungwa	machungwa	orange(s)
embe	maembe	mango(es)
izu	maizu	banana(s)
iji	maiji	egg(s)
iwe	maiwe	stone(s)
neno	maneno	word(s)
shomo	mashomo	lesson(s)
swali	maswali	question(s)
fundisho	mafundisho	teaching(s)
sikiro	masikiro	ear(s)
gulu	magulu	foot (feet)
kanisa	makanisa	church(es)

The marker for Class 6 is obviously "ma-", but what is the marker for Class 5? It is missing entirely. Every Class 5 noun can start with whatever sound it likes.
This means that chungwa looks like ch- class nouns, and iji looks like i- class nouns. The only way you can tell the difference is through the subject concords.

Subject concords

Using the verb kufaha, to please, here are some sentences with our new nouns. What are the subject concords (bits of the verb which match the noun) for Classes 5 and 6?

Chungwa rifaha.
Maizu gafaha.
Iji rifaha.
Embe rifaha.
Maneno gafaha.
Maswali gafaha.

The concord for Class 5 is ri-. The concord for Class 6 is ga-.

Riri and gaga

Read the following examples aloud. What does riri mean?

Chungwa riri rifaha.	This orange pleases.
Maizu gaga gafaha.	These bananas please.
Iji riri rifaha.	This egg pleases.
Embe riri rifaha.	This mango pleases.
Maneno gaga gafaha.	These words please.
Maswali gaga gafaha.	These questions please.
Riri ni fundisho komu.	This is a hard teaching.

riri means this. gaga means these.

Just like everything else, this and these have to agree with the noun they refer to. For everything except people, just say the subject concord twice. So for Class 5 and 6:
ri  → riri
ga → gaga

Possessives

We also use ri and ga when saying my, your, his etc. In Possessives 1: Class 1 and 2 we saw that my is -angu, plus an agreement on the front.

For Class 5, the agreement is r-

For Class 6, the agreement is g-

Translate the following sentences into English:

Chungwa rangu rifaha.
Riri ni kanisa rangu.
Gaga maneno gangu gafaha.
Gaga ni maembe gangu.

Exercise

Translate the following sentences into Giriama:

My oranges please.

These are my eggs.

This is my stone.

My mango pleases.

These are my feet.

These teachings of mine please.

This is a hard question.