Learn Hardcore Swahili: Jana, mama alipika pilau ya nazi aliyoiita chakula maalum cha sherehe. - Yesterday, mother cooked coconut pilau which she called a special celebration food.

The double ii in -iita comes from the object marker -i- meeting the initial i of ita. In writing they appear as ii, but it’s just those two morphemes next to each other.

What exactly is the role of aliyoiita in the sentence? Is it like “which she called”?

Yes. Aliyoiita starts a relative clause that describes pilau ya nazi:

pilau ya nazi aliyoiita chakula maalum cha sherehe
= “the coconut pilau that she called a special celebration food”

So aliyoiita chakula maalum cha sherehe is “that she called a special celebration food,” and it directly modifies pilau ya nazi, just like an English “which…” clause. The “which” element is built into the verb form aliyoiita.

Why is it pilau ya nazi and not pilau wa nazi or pilau cha nazi?

In Swahili, the “of” word (ya, wa, cha, la, za, etc.) agrees with the first noun (the head), not with the second one.

pilau is in noun class 9
The class‑9 “of” form is ya

So:

pilau ya nazi = “pilau of coconut” → “coconut pilau”

Forms like pilau wa nazi or pilau cha nazi are wrong because:

wa agrees with class 1/2 nouns (people, e.g. mtu wa kazi)
cha agrees with class 7 nouns (e.g. chakula cha kuku)

Here the head noun is pilau (class 9), so we must use ya.

Why is it chakula maalum cha sherehe and not chakula maalum ya sherehe?

Again, the “of” word agrees with the head noun:

chakula (“food”) is class 7 (ki-/vi-)
Class 7 uses cha for “of”

So:

chakula maalum cha sherehe
= “special food of celebration(s)” → “special celebration food”

If you said chakula maalum ya sherehe, ya would be agreeing with a class‑9/10 noun, but the head here is chakula (class 7), so ya would be ungrammatical. Cha is required.

What noun classes are pilau, nazi, chakula, and sherehe, and how do they show up in this sentence?

pilau – usually class 9
- Shows up as: pilau ya nazi (uses ya for class 9)
- Controls -yo- and -i- in aliyoiita (relative + object for class 9)
nazi (“coconut”) – also class 9
- Here it just follows ya; its class doesn’t change any agreement in this phrase because agreement is with pilau.
chakula (“food”) – class 7 (ki-/vi-)
- Connector for “of” is cha → chakula … cha sherehe
- Plural would be vyakula.
sherehe (“celebration(s)”) – class 9/10
- If it were the head noun, you’d see ya sherehe (e.g. siku ya sherehe), but here it’s the second noun; agreement follows chakula, so we get cha sherehe.

So the noun classes control:

ya in pilau ya nazi (class 9 head)
cha in chakula maalum cha sherehe (class 7 head)
-yo- and -i- in aliyoiita (class 9 head)

Why does the adjective maalum come after chakula, and does it change form to agree with the noun?

Swahili normally puts adjectives after the noun:

chakula maalum = “food special” → “special food”

Many common adjectives take class markers (e.g. mtu mzuri, chakula kizuri), but maalum is an Arabic loan and is usually invariable:

chakula maalum
siku maalum
vitabu maalum

So:

It follows the noun.
It does not change form to match the noun class in everyday usage.

Can the comma after Jana be omitted, and does it change the meaning?

Yes, you can write:

Jana, mama alipika pilau…
Jana mama alipika pilau…

Both are correct. The comma just marks a slight pause after the time expression. The meaning (“Yesterday mother cooked…”) does not change; it’s a matter of writing style.

If I want to say “my mother” instead of just “mother”, where does -angu go, and does the verb change?

You add the possessive after mama:

Mama yangu alipika pilau… = “My mother cooked pilau…”

Details:

yangu is the class‑1 possessive form for “my”.
It comes after the noun: mama yangu.
The verb alipika does not change; it still has a- for “she/he”, which fits mama yangu (3rd person singular).

Is there any difference between chakula maalum cha sherehe and chakula cha sherehe maalum?

Both are grammatically possible, but:

chakula maalum cha sherehe is more natural: noun → adjective → “of …” phrase.
chakula cha sherehe maalum sounds a bit marked or poetic; it could suggest “the celebration food that is special,” but in normal speech people almost always say chakula maalum cha sherehe.

So the recommended, most idiomatic order is the one in the original sentence.

Could you leave out ya nazi or the whole aliyoiita chakula maalum cha sherehe part and still have a correct sentence? How would the meaning change?

Yes:

Jana, mama alipika pilau.
- Correct. Just “Yesterday, mother cooked pilau.” No mention of coconut and no description.
Jana, mama alipika pilau ya nazi.
- Correct. “Yesterday, mother cooked coconut pilau.” The relative clause is gone, so we don’t know that she called it a special celebration food.

You can remove either modifier, but you cannot leave aliyoiita hanging without what she called it. For example:

pilau ya nazi aliyoiita chakula maalum cha sherehe → complete
pilau ya nazi aliyoiita → feels incomplete here, because “called it what?” (You’d normally add something: aliyoiita maalum, aliyoiita tamu sana, etc.)

How does the word order in this Swahili sentence compare to English, especially for the relative clause?

Main clause:

mama alipika pilau ya nazi
= Subject (mama) – Verb (alipika) – Object (pilau ya nazi)
→ same basic S–V–O order as English: “mother cooked coconut pilau.”

Modifiers:

Time word Jana is placed at the beginning, just like English “Yesterday, …”.
The relative clause comes right after the noun it describes:
pilau ya nazi [aliyoiita chakula maalum cha sherehe]
= “the coconut pilau [that she called a special celebration food]”

The main difference is inside the relative clause: English uses a separate word “which/that”, but Swahili builds that into the verb form aliyoiita instead of using a separate pronoun.