Some ideas marinate for a long time before reaching the right moment to come forth. I had written the words down on an envelope, about 9 months ago. That envelope has travelled with me all over, tucked into the depths of whatever bag I was carrying or floating freely in the back of my car. […]
Tag: ideophone
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Sounds of Silence
In my endless research on izenzukuthi (ideophones), I have begun to get an idea of different groups – monosyllabic, disyllabic and polysyllabic – and what sort of sounds are associated with what ideas. Because, in case you didn’t already know this, ideophones are all about sound. Specifically, they represent the association of a sound with […]
I’ve been wanting to write about these for a very long while already. They have always fascinated me, and I believe that they are the heart of isiZulu. For all of you who don’t know what an ideophone is, I’ll explain here. For those of you that know already, proceed to the next paragraph. Let’s […]
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Háwu!
There are three ideophones involved in the fullest understanding of both the general idea and the two distinctions of the concept of ’emotion’ in isiZulu – háwu, hawu (6-3.3-9) and hawu (6-3.9). Háwu! is an ideophone denoting emotion. It gives rise to all of the different nominal (2) and verbal (4) derivations dealing with emotion. […]
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Word Route – Lee
I found this one while translating, as usual, and noted it down while I searched for ‘intimacy’ and ‘alienation’ (it’s a marriage preparation course – interesting linguistically because so many of the English words relating to romance and love and relationships are based on only two or three roots in isiZulu). When I came to […]
My wife’s sms comes through mid-morning: how would you define an ideophone? I imagine the conversation diverging from the task at hand, the English teachers (supposed to be) discussing next term’s syllabus and sharing out the work for it, and the sudden foray into isiZulu linguistics. I try to figure out what the best approach […]
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Word Route: Dábu
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 […]
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Word Routes: Cwiya or Dábu?
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 […]
uMabhengwane 