Zulu 4 - I Don't Know

Angazi
Ma did not like the answer ‘angazi’ which means I don’t know.  She always thought I was hiding something. “Why did get such low grades at school?”  Angazi.  “Where’s your father?”  Angazi.  Please look at the question carefully.  The apostrophe stands for ‘i’ and we don’t want to say uphi ubaba.  We drop a vowel if the next word starts with a vowel.  That will be a dead give-away that Zulu is your second or fourth language if you say ‘uphi ubaba?

ZULU
ENGLISH
Uph’ubaba?
Where’s father?
Angazi.
I don’t know.
Uph’umama?
Where’s mother?
Angazi.
I don’t know.
Uph’uSerena?
Where’s Serena?
Angazi.
I don’t know.
Uph’uVenus?
Where’s Venus?
Angazi.
I don’t know.
Uph’uClaudette?
Where’s Claudette?                                                    
Asazi.  (many people)
We don’t know.
Ziph’izinja?
Where are the dogs?
Asazi. (many people)
We don’t know.
Iph’ingane.
Where’s the baby?
Asazi. (many people)
We don’t know.
Iph’imoto?
Where’s the car?
Asazi. (many people)
We don’t know.

Uph’u pronounced as ‘pool’
Angazi pronounced as in ‘zoo’
Exercise:  Make groups of five or ten.  Ask each other using your names e.g. Uph’uCarlos?


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Elections And Political Bullies

Comfort Food As Regret Food

Organic Brussels Sprouts