This morning, listening to uKhozi as usual on my way to work, I heard the latest incarnation of the ‘No Limits’ adverts for Telkom. And it’s worse. I didn’t think it could be, but it is. It seems that, in their effort to cling to the English phrase ‘No Limits’, they’ve found another word to […]
Tag: isiZulu
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Abandonment Parsing
When I was walking back from the Southdale centre, tramping through the dust and skirting the fresh puddles from the 3am thunderstorm, I saw MaSibeko approaching (uZodwa). Since we had already greeted each other that morning, she simply continued the conversation from three hours earlier: … sekushiyelekile. It took me a moment to realise what […]
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Word Route – *hlang
When it comes to this word, there are two interesting aspects – the way that the noun is used relative to the creation myths of the amaZulu, and the link with the verb *hlangana. The pictures created by these two aspects are intriguing and evocative – you’ll see why. At the heart of today’s word […]
*ba, *fa, *ga, *hlwa, *kha, *lwa, *ma, *mba, *na, *nya, *pha, *sa, *sha, *sho, *tha, *thi, *va, *wa, *ya, *za & *zwa These are the smallest verbs that there are in isiZulu, although many of them have a huge impact on the language. I have called them ‘monoconsonantal’ because the meaning doesn’t actually lie in […]
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Word Route – *fa
It’s one of the 21 monosyllabic (or, more correctly, monoconsonantal) verbs in isiZulu (which I’ll write more about in another blog post): *ba, *fa, *ga, *hlwa, *kha, *lwa, *ma, *mba, *na, *nya, *pha, *sa, *sha, *sho, *tha, *thi, *va, *wa, *ya, *za & *zwa It has 5 major meanings (and countless idiomatic ones), 8 nominal […]
I’ve just been reading a journal article: Basque Language: History and Origin by John D. Bengtson. It is a labyrinthine exploration of the intricate and sometime alien language that is Basque. Something caught my eye, though, on the third page: “According to George Starostin (Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow) the 50 most basic and […]
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umGqibelo
Thina sonke sivela kweny’indawo. We all come from another place. This morning, listening to uKhozi loDádò while driving to Norwood mall, it was very difficult to make out the names of the toddlers phoning in on their mothers’ phones – but when asked ‘uvela kuphi nendawo?’, their replies were crystal clear: ngaseShowe. in the area […]
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Word Route: -vuma
This is by no means a simple word route today (not that they ever are, really) – 23 separate derivations from the original stem, which itself has over 11 subtly different meanings. The history of the word is important – it’s derived from the ur-Bantu root -lûma, meaning ‘to roar’ and ‘to allow’. For its […]
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Word Route: -Lo
Looking 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 […]
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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 […]