{"id":24105,"date":"2025-07-02T17:00:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T17:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24105"},"modified":"2025-07-02T17:00:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T17:00:17","slug":"roomy-houses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=24105","title":{"rendered":"Roomy Houses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the Swahili words I learnt recently is  <strong>chumba<\/strong> (room). I wondered where it comes from and what other words are related to it. Let&#8217;s find out.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/davidstanleytravel\/33821679354\/in\/photolist-TwGWWE-2obbcYW-hNo7ew-2ditwht-D8fYCW-d838dU-d82b7s-2ra3psr-d82ieb-d82aum-d829Zq-7dP2FX-Dwgkse-d81VU7-d82iYf-dsm4zK-d835Yf-d834WJ-yL6NM-d8377E-5JMRn5-2k1616N-2mJHS51-FYXvPx-22WTkV7-FanBgs-LF7HmU-2iugWqo-RKJXWM-bPnTjz-bAtfhq-7CELoc-FawTkc-J1u75N-2obXpvv-d83bPY-d822xb-FWDiSA-2o93Pkq-d823dG-2ip1EPM-d826gb-d823Lo-2nFRvPY-2jdSthg-5hFecf-FamPjN-d824q1-7F8HV7-3tbZ71\" title=\"Tanzania Village House\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/4187\/33821679354_4994f51d0a_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" alt=\"Tanzania Village House\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>Chumba<\/strong> means room, chamber, cabin or cloakroom, and is a diminutive of <strong>nyumba<\/strong> [\u02c8\u0272u.\u1d50b\u0251] (house, apartment), which comes from Proto-Bantu <em>*nj\u028a\u0300mb\u00e1<\/em> (house) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/chumba#Swahili\">source<\/a>].<\/p>\n<p>Related words include<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>chumba cha kulia<\/strong> = dining room<\/li>\n<li><strong>chumba cha kulalia<\/strong> = bedroom<\/li>\n<li><strong>kichumba<\/strong> = small room<\/li>\n<li><strong>jumba<\/strong> = mansion, large building<\/li>\n<li><strong>kijumba<\/strong> = cottage, small house<\/li>\n<li><strong>uchumba<\/strong> = courtship, engagement<\/li>\n<li><strong>-chumbisha<\/strong> = to get engaged to be married (of a man)<\/li>\n<li><strong>-chumbishwa<\/strong> = to get engaged to be married (of a woman)<\/li>\n<li><strong>mchumba<\/strong> = financ\u00e9(e), lover, partner<\/li>\n<li><strong>wachumba<\/strong> = spouse, couple<\/li>\n<li><strong>unyumba<\/strong> = married life, marital relations<\/li>\n<li><strong>nyumba ya uzazi<\/strong> = womb, uterus (&#8220;house of parenthood&#8221;)<\/li>\n<li><strong>nyumbani<\/strong> = at home, in the house<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Other room-related words in Swahili include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>bafu<\/strong> (bath, bathtub, bathroom), which was borrowed from English <strong>bath<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>darasa<\/strong> (classroom, class period, lesson), which was borrowed from Arabic <strong>\u062f\u064e\u0631\u0652\u0633<\/strong> (dars &#8211; study, studies, lesson, class)<\/li>\n<li><strong>msalani<\/strong> (bathroom, toilet), a locative of <strong>msala<\/strong> (private chamber, retreat, bathroom, toilet), from Arabic <strong>\u0645\u064f\u0635\u064e\u0644\u064e\u0651\u0649<\/strong> (mu\u1e63allan &#8211; place of prayer, prayer room\/hall)<\/li>\n<li><strong>faragha<\/strong> (privacy, private chamber, retreat, opportunity), which was borrowed from Arabic <strong>\u0641\u064e\u0631\u064e\u0627\u063a<\/strong> (far\u0101\u1e21 &#8211; empty space)<\/li>\n<li><strong>sebule<\/strong> (living room), which was borrowed from Arabic (?)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here are a few house- and home-related proverbs and sayings in Swahili:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Nyumba njema si mlango.<br \/>\n  <em>A good house isn\u2019t judged by the door.<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Kinywa ni jumba la maneno.<br \/>\n  <em>The mouth is a house of words.<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Nyumba ya udongo haihimili kishindo.<br \/>\n  <em>A house made of mud cannot withstand a strong wind.<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Mkate mkavu wa nyumbani ni bora kuliko nyama ya shuwa ya pengine.<br \/>\n  <em>A piece of dry bread from home is better than a roasted piece of meat from someone else&#8217;s home.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Sources: <em><a href=\"https:\/\/mhariri.com\/kamusi\/learn-swahili\/proverbs-in-swahili-and-their-translations-and-meanings\/\">https:\/\/mhariri.com\/kamusi\/learn-swahili\/proverbs-in-swahili-and-their-translations-and-meanings\/<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/pristinetrails.com\/blog\/swahili-proverbs\/\">https:\/\/pristinetrails.com\/blog\/swahili-proverbs\/<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The more Swahili I learn, the more interesting it gets. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.japanesepod101.com\/member\/go.php?r=759259&amp;i=b0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/banners\/banner_japanesepod.jpg\" alt=\"The Fastest Way to Learn Japanese Guaranteed with JapanesePod101.com\" width=\"630\" height=\"83\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!-- Blog horizontal --><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\n     style=\"display:block\"\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5001128073855040\"\n     data-ad-slot=\"1685480124\"\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\n<\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the Swahili words I learnt recently is chumba (room). I wondered where it comes from and what other words are related to it. Let&#8217;s find out. Chumba means room, chamber, cabin or cloakroom, and is a diminutive of nyumba [\u02c8\u0272u.\u1d50b\u0251] (house, apartment), which comes from Proto-Bantu *nj\u028a\u0300mb\u00e1 (house) [source]. Related words include chumba [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86,104,107,10,447,66,78],"tags":[449,453,164,158,452,451,138,454,281,450,448],"class_list":["post-24105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arabic","category-english","category-etymology","category-language","category-proto-bantu","category-swahili","category-words-and-phrases","tag-arabic","tag-chumba","tag-english","tag-etymology","tag-home","tag-house","tag-language","tag-nyumba","tag-omniglot","tag-room","tag-swahili"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24105"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24107,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24105\/revisions\/24107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}