Zulu Lesson Parents

So many languages in the world, so little time to learn them! The Zulu you pick up in this blog is just a bunch of twigs, because you’re learning it out of context, away from the branches they once graced.

Take parents from example. Parents come from the act of conceiving and having a baby.

Za-la: to have a baby. You say the first part like Zara, the second like luck.

Abazali: parents. You say the first part like Arthur, the second like baba, the third like Zara and the last part like limb.

Uzalwa ubani?: Who are your parents?

U-za-lwa?: You say the first part like uber, the second like Zara, and the third like flower. Let's do this: put L before -wer.

U-ba-ni?: You say the first part like uber, the second like baba and the last like Nino.

The answer to the question Who are your parents,  shifts from the woman who carried the baby to the social context in which it was born. You then answer you are the child of, who was the child of, who lived near a range of mountains or along the sea. I am the spitting image of my father. That’s why I grew up getting that question a lot.

The best way to learn languages is at the source. That’s why kids in British colonies had a problem learning English, so we ‘crammed’ meaning memorizing sentences and poetry we did not understand. Teachers were clueless like us, but still used the cane on our hands if we didn’t get words like ‘barbarian’ correctly.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.