Knowing what belongs to whom, or who belongs to what (etc.) is a core part of learning any language. This page helps you understand this ngesiZulu, by answering the following questions:
- How do I show that something belongs to a named person?
- How do I show that something belongs to a thing?
- How do I show that something belongs to me, you, her, him etc?
Before answering those three questions, it’s important to cover something else. In order to understand this whole section, as well as all other sections on Concords, it is important to dive a little deeply into the sound-quality of the different Noun Classes. If you already know this, you can skip the next section.
Friends, Secret Friends, Frenemies and Enemies: the dynamics of sounds in prefixes and how they contribute to the way that concords appear in isiZulu.
There are 13 working or productive prefixes (plus 2 that are present but do not produce concords) in modern isiZulu.
Most of the prefixes are made up of a pattern that is as follows:
vowel-consonant-vowel
In almost every instance, the vowel is repeated, and is one of the primary vowels: A, I, U. In order to understand this, have a look at the page on sounds and pronunciation.
There are 7 possible consonants that are used in making prefixes: B, K, L, M, N, S and Z.
Here’s the thing: 5 of those consonants are your friends, and 2 of them are bastards (aka enemies, not your friends, designed to make your life miserable). The short way to know them is that the ones made with your nose are the bad guys: M and N. Have a look at the following table and you will see this laid out.
| prefix | how friendly is it? | what does the Subject Concord Possessive Concord & Relative Concord look like? |
| umu- | enemy | u- ka- / wa- o- |
| umu- | enemy | u- ka- / wa- o- |
| imi- | enemy | i- ka- / ya- e- |
| aba- | friend | ba- baka- / ba- aba- |
| ili- | secret friend | li- lika- / la- eli- |
| ama- | enemy | a- ka- / a- a- |
| isi- | friend | si- sika- / sa- esi- |
| izi- | friend | zi- zika- / za- ezi- |
| in- im- | enemy | i- ka- / ya- e- |
| izin- izim- | frenemy | zi- zika- / za- ezi- |
| ulu- | secret friend | lu- luka- / lwa- olu- |
| ubu- | friend | bu- buka- / ba- obu- |
| uku- | friend | ku- kuka- / kwa- oku- |
Basically, the enemies are the ones where no trace of the consonants makes it through to the level of the concords. You will see that the Possessive Concords for the enemies are all just ka- on one side and then wa-, ya- or a- on the other. These are very tricky and not very friendly to beginners.
How do I show that something belongs to a named person?
The first thing to be clear about is what is meant by a ‘named person’. Have a look at the table below to see:
| all names ngesiZulu begin with u- | uSindiswa, uMabhengwane, uZulu, uS’bo, uNtokozo nanjalonjalo |
| some family names begin with u- | umama (unyoko*, unina) udadewethu / umfowethu usisi, ubhuti umkhulu, umshana umalume ubaba (uyihlo, uyise) / utata |
| certain professions begin with u- | unesi udokotela uthisha / utisha unjiniyela unobhala usolwazi usihlalo |
You will see that all of these words have one thing in common: they begin with u-. In order to talk about something belonging to these words, you do the following:
take the u- away and replace it with a ka-
Then you look at the thing that belongs (aka the possessed) to the named person, and specifically at the prefix.
If the thing that belongs is from one of the 8 noun classe prefixes that are ‘friends’ , you use the main consonant and the vowel before the ka-, as you can see in the following table:
| abantu people | bakagogo of grandmother |
| i(li)khaya home | likamama of my mother |
| isifundo lesson | sikabhuti of brother |
| izibuko glasses | zikamalume of uncle |
| izinja dogs | zikababa of my father |
| u(lu)thando love | lukakhokho of great-grandparent |
| ubuso face | bukadokotela of doctor |
| ukudla food | kukanesi of nurse |
If the thing that belongs is from one of the 5 noun class prefixes that are ‘enemies’, you simply use the ka- without any modification at all. You can see that in the following table:
| umuntu person / significant other | kasisi of sister |
| umuthi medicine / tree | kanjiniyela of engineer |
| imizi homesteads | kaMabhengwane of Mabhengwane |
| amanzi water | kanobhala of the secretary |
| inja dog | kasolwazi of professor |
You can see that the pattern is always the possessed thing before the possessor. English uses two different patterns.
How do I show that something belongs to a thing?
If a noun is not in the lists of ‘named persons’ in the previous section, then it falls into the category of ‘a thing’.
Each of the 13 prefixes of nouns gives rise to a possessive concord. The possessive concord is composed of two parts:
- the main consonant or semi-vowel linked with that prefix
- the descriptive vowel: -a
Since the resulting concord ends in -a, and every noun in isiZulu begins with a vowel, there is a need to coalesce the vowels. If this is a new concept for you, check out Sounds and Pronunciation.
The following table shows the different components working together:
| prefix-noun | consonant / semi-vowel | concord | example |
| umu-ntu | w | wa* | umuntu womhlaba |
| aba-ntu | b | ba* | abantu bomhlaba |
| umu-thi | w | wa* | umuthi wesifo |
| imi-thi | y | ya* | imithi yesifo |
| i(li)-langa | l | la* | ilanga lobusika |
| ama-nzi | a | a* | amanzi obusika |
| isi-celo | s | sa* | isicelo samadoda |
| izi-celo | z | za* | izicelo zamadoda |
| in-ja | y | ya* | inja yesizwe |
| izin-ja | z | za* | izinja zesizwe |
| u(lu)-thando | lw | lwa* | uthando lwabantu |
| ubu-so | b | ba* | ubuso bentombi |
| uku-dla | kw | kwa* | ukudla kwamaZulu |
How do I show that something belongs to me, you, her, him etc?
In isiZulu, there is a complex set of izabizwana or pronouns that are used for various purposes. This question involves understanding one of them in particular: izabizwana zobumnini, the possessive pronoun. The following table should help you understand how it works for all 17 options:
| me | -mi | into yami my thing |
| you (singular) | -kho | into yakho your thing |
| s/he (singular) | -khe | into yakhe her thing / his thing |
| us | -ithu | into yethu our thing |
| you (plural) | -inu | into yenu y’all’s thing |
| them | -bo | into yabo their thing |
| umu- thing | -wo | into yawo its thing |
| imi- things | -yo | into yayo their thing |
| ili- thing | -lo | into yalo its thing |
| ama- things | -wo | into yawo their thing |
| isi- things | -so | into yaso its thing |
| izi- things | -zo | into yazo their thing |
| in- thing im- thing | -yo | into yayo its thing |
| izin- things izim- things | -zo | into yazo their thing |
| ulu- thing | -lo | into yalo its thing |
| ubu- thing | -bo | into yabo its thing |
| uku- thing | -kho | into yakho its thing |
You will see that there’s a lot of repetition here, but at least there is only a need to coalesce twice! You’ll also hopefully see how isiZulu is a lot more specific than English!
I hope that this makes sense to you – please drop a comment if something is unclear.