Baba alisema kwapa lake linauma kidogo, lakini presha yake haijapanda.

Alisema means he said.

It breaks down like this:

• a- = he/she
• -li- = past tense
• -sema = say/speak

So alisema = he said.

In this sentence, it introduces reported speech or what the father said.

In Swahili, after verbs like kusema (to say), kwamba (that) is often optional.

So both of these are possible:

• Baba alisema kwapa lake linauma kidogo...
• Baba alisema kwamba kwapa lake linauma kidogo...

The version without kwamba is very natural and common in everyday Swahili.

Kwapa means armpit.

So kwapa lake means his/her armpit.

This is a body-part noun, and in Swahili body parts often behave grammatically according to their noun class, which affects agreement elsewhere in the sentence.

This is because possessives in Swahili agree with the noun being possessed, not with the owner.

Kwapa belongs to noun class 5, and the possessive form used with that class is -lake for his/her.

So:

• kwapa lake = his/her armpit

It does not matter that the owner is a person. The possessive must match kwapa, not baba.

Because the subject of the verb is kwapa (armpit), not baba.

Linauma breaks down like this:

• li- = subject marker for noun class 5
• -na- = present tense
• -uma = ache/hurt

So kwapa lake linauma means his armpit hurts or more literally his armpit is aching.

If you used anauma, that would mean the subject is he/she, which is not what the sentence is saying.

No. Kuuma can have a few related meanings depending on context, including:

• to bite
• to sting
• to hurt/ache

In a sentence about a body part like kwapa lake linauma, it clearly means it hurts / it aches.

Kidogo means a little or slightly.

In this sentence, it modifies the idea of pain:

• linauma kidogo = it hurts a little / it aches slightly

You will often see kidogo used adverbially like this, even though its basic meaning is small/little.

Lakini means but.

It connects the two parts of the sentence:

• his armpit hurts a little
• but his blood pressure has not gone up

It is a very common conjunction in Swahili.

Presha is a loanword, from English pressure. In everyday speech, it often refers to blood pressure.

So:

• presha yake = his blood pressure

A more formal or fully Swahili expression would be shinikizo la damu, but presha is extremely common in conversation.

Again, the possessive agrees with the noun being possessed.

Presha belongs to the noun class that takes the possessive form -yake for his/her.

So:

• presha yake = his/her blood pressure

Compare:

• kwapa lake = his armpit
• presha yake = his blood pressure

The different possessive forms happen because kwapa and presha belong to different noun classes.

Haijapanda means it has not gone up / it has not risen.

It can be broken down as:

• ha- = negative
• i- = subject marker for the noun class of presha
• -ja- = negative perfect marker
• -panda = rise/go up

So presha yake haijapanda literally means his pressure has not risen.

This is a very natural way to talk about blood pressure increasing.

Because Swahili often describes changes in measurements or conditions with verbs like kupanda (rise/go up) and kushuka (go down/drop).

For example:

• Presha imepanda = The blood pressure has gone up
• Presha imeshuka = The blood pressure has gone down

So haijapanda is a very normal and idiomatic choice here.

It is grammatically presented as indirect speech/reporting.

Instead of something like:

• Baba alisema, “Kwapa langu linauma...”

the sentence gives the content of what he said without quotation marks:

• Baba alisema kwapa lake linauma kidogo...

That is why you see lake (his) rather than langu (my).

Yes. Depending on what sounds most natural in English, you could understand it as:

• his armpit hurts a little
• his armpit is a little painful
• he has a slight pain in his armpit

The most natural everyday translation is usually his armpit hurts a little, but the Swahili structure is flexible enough to support those related meanings.