Nothing in Zulu

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Nothing is lutho in Zulu.

What’s wrong? Characters in movies like saying it’s nothing when clearly something is bothering them.  I don’t mind the question.  It is only when it is asked three times that I freak out.
Women used to be on their feet 24/7.  Not anymore and some men are not pleased at all, like a character in Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married? The man told his friends that his new young wife doesn’t know anything.  ‘She doesn’t cook, doesn’t clean.’

You enter a room.  Friends stop talking.  What’s the matter? Nothing.  Somebody answers.  Busted.  They were talking about you.
Lu-tho.  The first part is pronounced like loom the second one like tall.  The noun is u-tho, something. You say the first part like ooze and the second part like tall.

ZULU
ENGLISH
A-nga-zi lu-tho.
I know nothing.
Zenith, u-ba-ni o-su-zi-le?
Zenith who farted?
A-nga-zi lu-tho.
I don’t know anything.
Yi-ni-ndaba?
What’s the matter?
A-ku-lutho.
It’s nothing.
Boris, yi-ni ndaba, wathula?
Boris what’s the matter?  You are quiet.
Lu-tho.
Nothing.
Samuel, yi-ni ndaba a-wu-dli?
Samuel, what’s the matter?  You are not eating.
Lu-tho.
Nothing.
A-ka- lutho.
He is nothing.
She is nothing.
U-Thoko a-ka-zi lu-tho nge-bho-dwe.
Thoko knows nothing about cooking.
U-Daisy a-ka-zi lu-tho nge-nga-di.
Daisy knows nothing about gardening.
A-ku-kho lu-tho e-khanda.
There’s nothing in the brain.  He/She is dumb.
A-ku-kho lu-tho e-kha-ya.
There’s nothing to eat at home.
A-ku-kho lu-tho pha-ka-thi kwe-thu.
There’s nothing between us (lovers denying the affair).
Ku-no-tho.
There’s something.
By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

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