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Linguistics / ubuLimi

khona

Most people who speak even a little bit of isiZulu know that one of the responses in the greeting, usually to “unjani?” or “ninjani?” can be “ngikhona” or “sikhona”. And you may also have an idea that it means the equivalent of “I’m fine” or “we’re fine”. But that’s not all that khona means. Not […]

Categories
Linguistics / ubuLimi

Locative Demonstrative Copulatives

These things make a bit more sense in the light of day than they did at 6 this morning. Locative Demonstrative Copulatives, or LDCs, do not occur in English. They don’t occur in any of the Indo-European languages, as far as I’m aware. They are the strange chimeric offspring of Demonstrative Pronouns and Copulatives, and […]