serikali

Swahili

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from Omani Arabic سُركار (sörkār), from Persian سرکار (sarkâr).[1]

Pronunciation

  • Audio (Kenya):(file)

Noun

serikali class IX (plural serikali class X)

  1. government

Derived terms

Descendants

  • → Kamba: silikali
  • → Kikuyu: thirikari
  • → Luhya: eserikali

References

  1. ^ Brook, Zev (2022) “Which Arabic Dialect Are Swahili Words From?”, in Studia Orientalia Electronica‎[1], volume 10, number 1, page 8 of 1-10: “‘Government’, Sw serikali. From OAr sörkār norm. serkār (R: 126) from Persian sarkār. Sw serikari is found in nineteenth-century texts, so the dissimilation of the liquids likely happened after it was loaned, but Holes (2011: 479) also notes instability between /l/ and /r/.”
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.