Zulu Lesson Nothing

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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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