Laiti mpwa wangu asingekuwa mgonjwa, angeenda na shemeji yangu sokoni kununua kanga nyingine.

Laiti means if only. It introduces a wish or an unreal situation, often with a feeling of regret or disappointment.

So Laiti mpwa wangu asingekuwa mgonjwa... is like saying:

If only my niece/nephew were not sick...

It is stronger and more emotional than a plain if.

asingekuwa can be broken down like this:

• a- = subject marker for he/she
• -si- = negative marker
• -nge- = conditional marker, often would / were to
• kuwa = to be

So asingekuwa means:

he/she would not be
or in this kind of sentence, more naturally: if he/she were not

Because of laiti, the whole clause is understood as a contrary-to-fact wish.

Both contain the conditional marker -nge-, but one is negative and the other is affirmative:

• asingekuwa = a-si-nge-kuwa = he/she would not be
• angeenda = a-nge-enda = he/she would go

So:

• asingekuwa mgonjwa = if he/she were not sick
• angeenda = he/she would go

This is a very common Swahili pattern for unreal or hypothetical situations.

In Swahili, the subject is usually built into the verb.

Here, the a- in both asingekuwa and angeenda means he/she for a singular person.

So Swahili does not need a separate word like English he or she in this sentence.

Also, Swahili does not normally mark natural gender in verbs, so a- can mean either he or she. You understand the gender only from context.

Mpwa usually means niece or nephew.

Like many Swahili nouns referring to people, it does not tell you the person’s gender by itself. So mpwa wangu can mean:

• my niece
• my nephew

Context tells you which one is meant.

Possessives in Swahili agree with the noun class of the noun they describe.

So the difference is not about my, but about the noun before it.

• mpwa wangu
• shemeji yangu

mpwa takes the possessive form wangu, while shemeji takes yangu.

This is something learners often just have to get used to noun by noun. Swahili possessives change form depending on noun class.

Shemeji is a family word related to marriage, often translated as in-law.

Depending on context, it can refer to different relationships, such as a sibling-in-law or another in-law connection. English often forces you to be more specific than Swahili does.

So shemeji yangu is generally:

my in-law

or, depending on context, my brother-in-law / sister-in-law.

No. Here na means with, not and.

So:

angeenda na shemeji yangu sokoni
= he/she would go with my in-law to the market

Swahili na can mean both and and with, so you decide from context.

Soko means market.
Sokoni means at the market / to the market / in the market.

The ending -ni is a locative ending. It often gives the idea of location.

So:

• soko = market
• sokoni = at/to the market

After a verb of motion like go, sokoni is very natural.

Kununua is the infinitive to buy.

After a verb of motion like go, Swahili often uses the infinitive to show purpose:

• ameenda kununua = he/she has gone to buy
• angeenda kununua = he/she would go to buy

So here:

angeenda ... kununua kanga nyingine
means
would go ... to buy another kanga

You can think of it as in order to buy.

A kanga is a colorful printed cloth commonly worn in East Africa. It is both a garment item and a piece of fabric used for different purposes.

English speakers often leave it untranslated as kanga, because there is no perfect one-word English equivalent.

So kanga nyingine is most naturally:

another kanga

Nyingine comes from -ngine, which means other, another, or different. Its form changes to agree with the noun class.

Since kanga takes this agreement pattern, you get:

kanga nyingine

This can mean:

• another kanga
• a different kanga
• one more kanga

In this sentence, another kanga is the most natural translation.

A fairly literal translation is:

If only my niece/nephew were not sick, he/she would go with my in-law to the market to buy another kanga.

A more natural English version might be:

If only my niece/nephew weren’t sick, he/she would go with my in-law to the market to buy another kanga.

The important thing to notice is that the Swahili sentence expresses an unreal wish: the person is sick, so the trip is not happening.