Imagine something with me. There is a country which, much like many in the world, has many speakers of many languages. This country is a part of one of the many places in Africa colonised by Europeans since the 15th century. Over the 500 years since colonies of Europeans first touched its shores, only a […]
Tag: metaphor
When I get to this word, in that first explanation of the complex beauty of the izigaba zamabizo, I can barely contain my excitement. I’m sure that people I’ve taught can attest to this. I try my hardest to keep to the Socratic method, and to rely on the learner’s knowledge. This is important. It’s […]
In trying to explain the way that words are modified ngesiZulu, I often find that the words that isiZulu uses for grammatical terms are far more useful than their English equivalents. The two words above both denote ‘suffixal change’, but they have completely different ways of getting there. isijobelelo – a suffix (literally the modifiable […]
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Heart-based Relatives
I’ve already written about the inhliziyo, here, but while I was doing that (and while I was teaching yesterday) I rediscovered a set of 12 relatives derived from the the root word. If you know what a ‘relative’ is in isiZulu linguistics, skip to the list. Otherwise, stay tuned. A relative is one of four […]
As usual on a Thursday, I popped in to the Caltex in Cyrildene to buy Isolezwe on my way back from my lesson in Yeoville. It was beautiful driving down the avenues, with plain trees and liquid ambers scattering themselves over the road in the tentative autumn morning light. With the headlines staring at me […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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The Death of a Language?
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 […]
uMabhengwane 