The fascinating story of the Swahili traffic island

"Swahili has some even stranger adaptations of English words: kiplefiti "traffic island" is from keep left. Swahili words which begin with ki- in the singular normally begin with vi- in the plural; we therefore find a plural viplefiti "traffic islands". Moreover, since a number of Swahili words have a plural prefix ma-, we find the English word mudguard adopted as a plural madigadi "mudguards", with a corresponding singular form digadi "mudguard"!"
Jean Aitchison, Language Change: Progress or Decay?, Cambridge University Press 2001.

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