Britannica Sources used in this answer

How does the Swahili sentence wa-tu wa-le wa-mefika show noun-class agreement?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

Thematic map of Africa showing the distribution of Niger-Congo language branches. Distinct colors represent language groups such as Atlantic, Mande, Gur, Kwa, Benue-Congo, and Bantu, with Bantu languages covering most of central, eastern, and southern Africa. A numbered key lists prominent languages in each area, and country borders are marked for reference. — Niger-Congo languages Map showing the branches and distribution of the Niger-Congo languages.

In the Swahili sentence wa-tu wa-le wa-mefika ("those people have arrived"), noun-class agreement is demonstrated through a system of concordial prefixes.1

The noun wa-tu ("people") belongs to a specific noun class that uses the prefix wa- to indicate its plural form. To maintain grammatical agreement, the other elements in the sentence—the demonstrative wa-le ("those") and the verb wa-mefika ("have arrived")—must also incorporate the same wa- prefix. This process ensures that the noun, its qualifiers, and the verb are linked by a consistent morphological marker, which is a hallmark of the noun class systems found throughout the Niger-Congo language family.123