Unit 3: Familia - Family > Lesson 1: Baba, mama, na watoto

I am confused by the sentence "Familia ya baba na mama Hadija." I would expect "Familia ya baba na mama ya Hadija." Can somebody please explain? Asante.

Alec.MacLean wrote:

I am confused by the sentence "Familia ya baba na mama Hadija." I would expect "Familia ya baba na mama ya Hadija." Can somebody please explain? Asante.

This is something that threw me too when I started living in Tanzania. Mama Hadija, with no possessive, is the correct (colloquial?) way of saying Hadija's mother. In fact, the mother is probably addressed that way most of the time, rather than by her actual name.