ABSTRACT
Among personal pronouns, Swahili distinguishes six "contrastive pronouns": mimi "me", wewe "you" (singular), yeye "him/her", sisi "us", ninyi "you" (plural), and wao "them". Swahili verbs also use a "subject pronoun" that indicates the subject of the verb. Swahili verbs may also include an "object pronoun" that serves as an object (or complement) to the verb. The segment order within the Swahili verb is fixed, with the subject pronoun appearing first, followed by the tense marker, then by the object pronoun, which comes just before the verb stem. In other words, the position of a given segment within the verb determines its function. Some "contrastive pronouns" are optionally used in Swahili to draw the contrast between the subject or the object of a given verb with other persons or objects. English emphasizes subject and object pronouns with an emphatic accent rather than with a "contrastive pronoun".
