Mama humbembeleza mtoto anapolia usiku.

Bembeleza means to soothe, comfort, coax, or calm someone gently. In this sentence, it suggests the mother is calming the child in a tender way, especially because the child is upset or crying.

With children, kubembeleza often has the sense of comforting them lovingly, not just speaking to them.

Hu- marks a habitual action. It shows that this is something that happens regularly, usually, or as a general habit.

So Mama humbembeleza mtoto means something like Mother usually comforts the child or Mother comforts the child habitually.

A useful contrast is:

• Mama humbembeleza mtoto = she does this regularly
• Mama anambembeleza mtoto = she is comforting the child now

In this habitual form, hu- normally appears without the usual subject prefix.

So Swahili says:

• Mama humbembeleza mtoto

not:

• Mama ahumbembeleza mtoto

This is normal behavior for the habitual marker hu-.

That m- is an object marker, and it refers to mtoto.

So hu-m-bembeleza literally includes the idea usually comforts him/her.

In Swahili, it is very common to use an object marker even when the full object noun is also present, especially when the object is a specific person or animate being. Since mtoto is a singular animate noun, the object marker is m-.

Swahili often packs a whole clause into one verb form. Anapolia can be broken down as:

• a- = he/she
• -na-
• -po- = a relative/time element giving the sense of when
• -lia = cry

So anapolia means when he/she cries or when he/she is crying.

This is very normal in Swahili: ideas that take several words in English are often expressed in a single verb word.

The natural reading is that the child is crying.

The a- in anapolia means he/she, and in this sentence it most naturally refers back to mtoto, the nearest suitable singular animate noun. It also makes the most sense in context: the mother comforts the child when the child cries at night.

If the speaker wanted to make it clear that the mother was the one crying, Swahili would usually be phrased differently to avoid confusion.

Swahili does not have articles like the or a/an.

So:

• mama can mean mother, a mother, or the mother
• mtoto can mean child, a child, or the child

Context tells you which meaning is intended.

In Swahili, many time words can function directly as adverbs, so no preposition is needed.

So usiku means:

• at night
• during the night

This is very common. Other examples are:

• asubuhi = in the morning
• jioni = in the evening
• leo = today

Not exactly, because the meaning would shift.

• anapolia = when he/she cries
• analia = he/she is crying or he/she cries
• akilia can mean if/when he/she cries or while crying, depending on context

So anapolia is the clearest choice here for the meaning when the child cries.

The plural of mtoto is watoto.

If you changed the sentence to children, the agreement would also change:

• Mama huwabembeleza watoto wanapolia usiku.

Here:

• wa- in huwabembeleza is the plural object marker
• wa- in wanapolia means they

So the sentence would mean that the mother comforts the children when they cry at night.