Zulu Phinda

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Summer is here.  You might fly to Africa, down south of the continent.  Let’s brush up your isi-Zulu, one of the languages spoken down there.

Phi-nda means repeat.  Phi, as in pills.  The second part is a tough one.  It doesn’t have an English equivalent.  Maybe -nda as, in the English word hand?

Zulu
English
Phinda.
Repeat.  Do it again.
Mama, uyaphinda!
Mother, he is doing it again!
Awungiphinde dadewethu.
Give it to me again my sister.
Awungiphinde sthandwa.
Give it to me again my darling.
Asiphinde.
Let’s do it again.
Sizophinda.
We will do it again.
Musa ukuphinda.  Uzodakwa.
Don’t do it again.  You’ll get drunk.
Ngiphindela kudokotela.
I’m going back to the doctor.
Phindela ekhaya.
Go back home.
Waphindela e-St. Petersburg.
She went back to St. Petersburg.
Phinda.
A boy’s name.
Phindile.
A girl’s name.



Nonqaba waka Msimang is the author of Sweetness the novel.




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