The Kamusi Project
Beberu as adjective?
Submitted by Kamusi Editor on 9 March 2006 - 5:27pm
Currently the Kamusi contains definitions for beberu as an adjective, based on the original entry in the Rechenbach dictionary. However, other dictionaries I've consulted only give beberu as a noun. Can beberu be used as an adjective, on its own? Or must it appear in the form "ya kibeberu"?
--MB
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English
Swahili
beberu -
A google search indicates 'beberu' is being used as an adjective.
For example:
"Chini ya msukumo wa soko na mfumo wa utamaduni-beberu unaoendesha mashindano ..." [http://www.jikomboe.com/?cat=2]
"mikononi mwa makampuni beberu ya kimataifa" [http://www.urfig.org/sout-ki-decla-Geneve-omc-6-juin-pt.htm]
~Mwalimu Zuhura
do those comments settle it?
I saw those examples on Google as well, but I'm not sure whether they make the case definitively. "Makampuni beberu" is being used as a translation for "corporate elite" from the original English document - is this an accepted phrase, or is someone taking liberties with the language?
Sometimes, too, you can see a "Kamusi effect" on Google, whereby someone went to a Kamusi Hai entry that hasn't been fully polished, and uses that to translate something into Swahili in a way that a native speaker might not. If we then find just one or two examples on Google that seem to validate existing entries, it is entirely possible that an error in the Kamusi is actually the original source of the error in the other article - if we then use that example as evidence, we would end up compounding the error!
So, I'm still not convinced...
Ubeberu
I think the writer there make use of "ubeberu" -- imperialism. makampuni-beberu could be imperialistic-companies.
So -beberu there is like -imperial
Chumvi Mtembezi
"Ni ujuha mtupu!"
A bit late to join but still!
A bit late to join but still! Interestingly Madan-Johnson and TUKI-Swahili/English dict. have as original meaning of "beberu" a "he-goat" and a strong male person; Madan-Johnson is also connecting to "barubaru" which they see as a pronounciation of Arabic بعبع "a strong vigorous youth".
Thus it looks for me that they took the aspect of "bully" for ubepari as imperialism.
As for the adjective use I would ordinarily expect "ya kibeberu". On the other hand working with the TUKI-Kamusi ya Sayansi na Teknolojia I have come along quite a number of similar constructions where (for the sake of brevity?) the "ya ki-" construction has been omitted. Examples: namba atomia, namba kadiri, namba elekezi, mshituo themia, mshituo umeme and many more.
I am nowadays too far away from Swahili newspaper - is that a general trend?