-ya

Kiswahili · Thesaurus

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-ya

Where it comes from

Inherited from Proto-Sabaki *-ya, from Proto-Bantu *-ia. Cognate with Rwanda-Rundi -ya.

suffix -za

causative, morpheme, often, suffix, with spirantization of the preceding consonant causative suffix Near-synonyms: -isha/-esha, -iza/-eza
Similar: -isha/-esha, -iza/-eza
morpheme, often, with spirantization of the preceding consonant used after verbs stems ending -k- (but not in -ek- or -ik-) with spirantization of the -k- to -sh- -chemka (“to boil”) + -ya → -chemsha (“to bring to a boil”)
Similar: -isha/-esha, -iza/-eza
morpheme, often, with spirantization of the preceding consonant used in some verbs interchangeably with -isha/-esha -ogopa (“to fear”) + -ya → -ogofya (“to frighten”)
Similar: -isha/-esha, -iza/-eza
morpheme, often, with spirantization of the preceding consonant used to construct a causative verb with slightly different meaning -ona (“to see”) + -ya → -onya (“to warn”)
Similar: -isha/-esha, -iza/-eza

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Cite this

MLA

"-ya." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/sw/-ya. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

APA

-ya. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 7, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/sw/-ya

Chicago

"-ya." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 7, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/sw/-ya.

BibTeX

@misc{ya_2026,
  title = {-ya},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/sw/-ya},
  urldate = {2026-11-07}
}