Swahili days of the week

Things you need to know about Swahili Days of the Week (Siku za wiki)

In Swahili culture the first day of the week is Saturday, which is translated as Jumamosi, literally meaning “first day of the week.” As you can see from the chart below, most days of the week follow the same pattern except Thursday and Friday, which are of Arabic origin. In Swahili, Thursday is translated as Alhamisi. The Arabic translation of Alhamisi is “The fifth” (day), however it is actually the sixth day of the Swahili week. It is followed by Friday (Ijumaa), which is the seventh day of the week. Ijumaa literally means “prayer day.”

In East Africa the “weekend” (wikendi/wikiendi) consists of Saturday and Sunday as in the Western world, although many Muslims on the coasts of Kenya and Tanzania consider Friday as a day of rest and prayer also.

When using Swahili days of the week in a sentence, the day of the week is placed in the same way as in English, either directly before the subject or at the end of the sentence, for example:

Jumatatu Khadijah atarudi Nairobi. – On Monday Khadijah will return from Nairobi.

Khadijah atarudi Nairobi Jumatatu. – Khadijah will return from Nairobi on Monday.

As you can see from the sentences above the word Jumatatu does not take a preposition to become “on Monday.” However, days of the week can take demonstratives, and are N- class nouns. Therefore the examples above could be modified to the following:

 Jumatatu hii Khadijah atarudi London. – This Monday Khadijah will return from Nairobi.

Khadijah atarudi Nairobi Jumatatu hii. – Khadijah will return from Nairobi this Monday.