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What’s In A Name: Mount Kilimanjaro
By Harmony | January 30, 2009 | 3:40 pm
As I was studying Kiswahili today, I had one of those AHA! moments that was so good I just have to share.
Mount Kilimanjaro is the largest mountain in Africa. It resides in Tanzania, just south of the Kenyan border. For two months I lived at the base of the mountain, in the border town of Loitokitok.
Today, completely by accident, I discovered the root of the word “Kilimanjaro.”
- Kilimanjaro is really from two words: “Kilima Njaro”
- “Mlima” is the Kiswahili word for “mountain”
- In Kiswahili, you can add the prefix “ki” to many words to denote smallness. For example, “chupa” means bottle, while “kichupa” means little bottle.
- In the same vein, “mlima” can become “kilima” - a mountain is now a small hill!
I figured that part out on my own.
The “Njaro” part is a little trickier. There is no direct translation of the word into Kiswahili, but it means “caravan” in the language of the KiChagga, a dominant tribe in that area (apparently there was once a caravan route there). In KiMaasai, “njare” means “water,” and since the Maasai people derive much of their water from the mountain, it is possible that they contributed in its naming as well.
So Kilimajaro can mean “Hill of caravans” or “Hill of water.” Either way, it’s quite interesting that the tallest mountain on the continent was perceived as small!
Topics: Language |
February 1st, 2009 at 12:21 am
There is much dispute on the origin of the name -Little Mountain, as you noted, but also White/Shining Mountain. Another explanation is that it comes from the Kichagga word kilimanare - which defeats the caravan.