uMabhengwaneLooking at the two letters above, it’s hard to imagine how significant they are in the language of the amaZulu. You may even be thinking I’m crazy, or lost, or both. Let me show you. -lo is the meaning portion (the root) of the noun isilo, which has izilo as its plural. It has numerous […]
Dábu is an ideophone – a part of speech which in isiZulu has the rather usage-oriented name of ‘isenzukuthi’. What this means is ‘the thing that works using ukuthi’ – so-called because ideophones are used much like the English phrases ‘it goes bang‘ or ‘they always go pop like that’, where the ‘to go…’ is […]
When you listen to uKhozi FM, it’s almost immediately clear which bank/business/government department/NGO is actually connecting with their audience. The ones that use idiom. The ones that account for and celebrate the variety of their audience. The ones that connect with culture and history, as well as economic indicators and market research. Take Telkom, for […]
This morning I am torn between two word routes to follow: ukuCwiya or Dábu The first has to do with muthi killings and analysis. The second word route has to do with tearing, cracking & all metaphorical aspects thereof. Like rhegnumi in Greek. Dábu or Cwiya? Cwiya is a verb root, meaning ‘cut off small […]
Example from lesson with Josh – Ubungathini? I parsed this as follows: U-be-{wo-}nga-THI-ni? The root of this predicative interrogative sentence is the following: THI, an irregular verb denoting to Say, Speak or Mean. Reading the particles of the verb as it is expressed, the following is the combined meaning: You-contingent-{remote}can-SAY-what? Translated as: What would you […]
You hear a word, and something in it sticks in you. You hear it often enough, and it starts to take on a specific meaning depending on when you hear it. You grow to understand it, and even use it. But it nags at you. It begs to be investigated. So you track it down, […]
It is on Saturday that the differences seem to be most stark. Driving to Wits University for a debating tournament, I am greeted by the amaZulu understanding of Saturdays – burial and wedding announcements, imingcwabo nemishado, followed by Maskandi and Gospel on UKhozi FM. Of the four teenagers in the car, only one is anywhere […]
In the evenings, after work, my other job begins. I go to people’s houses all over Joburg, lugging a small black bag filled with dictionaries and books of proverbs, old grammar books and tattered notes. The people I visit are monolingual, largely, or at best they speak two languages from the Indo-European family, such as […]
The loss of language, and so the imperative to preserve language, is actually a fight about the basic metaphors that make up our world. Language is not just language. Language is also the impetus for culture, in that the metaphors and ways of seeing and being and doing, and even the very structure of each […]
What monoglots, especially English monoglots, fail to realise is just how limited their world is. Their perception of the universe is coloured by the fact that they can only interact with people who speak their language, and they judge people based on how well or badly they speak it. They can only think about the […]
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