Divehi to Swahili: the same description changes form with different nouns
A shared Divehi modifier does not require an identical target prefix
Divehi nouns do not have grammatical gender in Fritz’s description. A translation into Swahili still has to identify the target noun’s class and its number so that related words agree. The visible prefix on a description is therefore not a label for the sex of the person who owns the object, nor simply a decorative part of the word.
The University of Georgia grammar illustrates mtoto mzuri for a good child and watoto wazuri for good children. Its tree examples contrast mti mzuri with miti mizuri. The descriptions differ when the corresponding noun classes or number differ. This is useful for a Divehi list describing people and plants: one repeated source meaning need not produce one unchanged target adjective form.
Fritz’s discussion of nonpersonal reference explicitly includes animals and plants as well as inanimate objects. That source distinction is not the same as Swahili’s noun-class system. A tree and a knife can both be nonpersonal in the Divehi analysis without belonging to the same Swahili agreement pattern. Translating the source category into one universal nonhuman prefix would confuse two different grammatical organizations.
Some number differences are visible elsewhere in the phrase
The Swahili grammar also illustrates kisu kizuri against visu vizuri for a knife and knives. In a Divehi instruction to select one item from several, the number matters independently of the descriptive quality. A target phrase retaining the correct noun meaning but using the plural agreement pattern could refer to several items rather than the single object requested.
Not every target noun makes the singular-plural contrast equally obvious. The teaching table gives nyumba nzuri in both its singular and plural slots. An unchanged visible noun phrase therefore cannot by itself prove that the translation has preserved the intended count. The surrounding numeral, reference, or sentence may need to establish whether one house or several houses are involved. Do not add a count absent from the Divehi source merely to remove this formal ambiguity.
Compare two original intentions: the good tree beside the house, and the good knives inside the house. The descriptive meaning can be similar, while the noun class, number, and location relationship differ. A mechanical replacement of the repeated description would miss the agreement dependencies; a mechanical reading of every nearby house as plural could introduce an additional error because its visible form may not change.
The same lesson shows the child’s verb retaining a subject marker while tense markers distinguish present, past, and future. Agreement and event time are therefore separate information inside a target sentence. Changing a tense marker does not repair a description attached to the wrong noun class, and changing a noun prefix does not establish when the event occurs.
For a Divehi message describing several objects, connect each Swahili modifier to its own head noun before interpreting its prefix. Then preserve the source number and event time independently. This gives the repeated source description its intended meaning while allowing the target forms to differ for a child, a tree, a knife, or a house.
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