My fifteen-year-old brother just got back from a three-week mission trip to Tanzania, where most everyone speaks Swahili, and a great many English as well. He gave us all quite a lecture on the Swahili language, which reminds me in some ways of Hebrew, and also brought back some currency which provided a fun source of material for deciphering. For example, one banknote had the caption “shilingi elfu moja.” Now, I’d already learnt that “moja” was one, and it takes no genius to figure out that “shilingi” means “shillings.” I thought at first that the “-i” on shilingi was likely a plural similar to the Hebrew -im, but it’s not. It’s just a sound Swahili tends to add the ends of words. So the only word left to figure out was “elfu.” Thankfully, Swahili’s absorbed a lot of Arabic, and Arabic is in turn very close to Hebrew. And Hebrew’s word for “thousand” is elef אלף, and so I figured that elfu must mean thousand. And, turning over the note to the English side, I found “One Thousand Shillings” written. So Hebrew helped me translate Swahili. And some people think Hebrew’s not a useful degree . . .
shilingi elfu moja
My fifteen-year-old brother just got back from a three-week mission trip to Tanzania, where most everyone speaks Swahili, and a great many English as well. He gave us all quite a lecture on the Swahili language, which reminds me in some ways of Hebrew, and also brought back some currency which provided a fun source of material for deciphering. For example, one banknote had the caption “shilingi elfu moja.” Now, I’d already learnt that “moja” was one, and it takes no genius to figure out that “shilingi” means “shillings.” I thought at first that the “-i” on shilingi was likely a plural similar to the Hebrew -im, but it’s not. It’s just a sound Swahili tends to add the ends of words. So the only word left to figure out was “elfu.” Thankfully, Swahili’s absorbed a lot of Arabic, and Arabic is in turn very close to Hebrew. And Hebrew’s word for “thousand” is elef אלף, and so I figured that elfu must mean thousand. And, turning over the note to the English side, I found “One Thousand Shillings” written. So Hebrew helped me translate Swahili. And some people think Hebrew’s not a useful degree . . .
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