Nzinzi ata akopimbwa likolo, azali ndeke te (lingala) 🇨🇩🇨🇬
La mouche a beau voler haut, ce n'est pas un oiseau (français) 🇫🇷🇨🇦
Even if a fly can fly high, it is not a bird (English) 🇺🇸🇬🇧
Mesmo que a mosca voe alto, não é um pássaro (Português) 🇧🇷🇵🇹
#Lingala
#Bantu
#Proverbs
@IamCatchvibe
Silozi was born from Sotho and local languages such as Luyi. Nothing surprising. A linguistic result of the Kololo conquest, themselves running away from the Zulu.
In almost all Ntu languages, the word for « hunger » is like nzala, njaa, tsala, ondjala, injala, nzal, njana, indlala etc.
For « thirst » the most common form is like nyota, noota, nyotwa, lenyora etc.
In a lot of Ntu languages, the word for the right hand side is related to the verb "to eat" 😉
Ex: (Oshindonga, Namibia)
olulyo = right hand side
okulya = to eat
Ntu languages are very similar when it's about counting from 1 to 5. It's less true from 6 to 9. Compare yours with Nyungwe (Moz)
1- mosi
2- piri
3- tatu
4- nai
5- xanu
6- tanthatu
7- nomwe
8- sere
9- pfemba
The pangolin made the headlines some time ago.
The common name it bears in the Ntu languages, from Cameroon to South Africa, shows that it has been known to the Ntu world for millennia.
You'd be surprised how many of us have something like "kati" in our Ntu language to mean "inside":
gade (Yambasa, Cameroon)
khati (Iyaa, Congo)
mukati (Lulogooli, Kenya)
akati (Chiila, Zambia)
phakathi (Isizulu, South Africa)
#Ntu
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Because Japanese and most Bantu languages have a similar syllabic structure C(onsonant)V(owel) with most of the time the same kinds of consonants and vowels.
The noun for "butterfly" in Ntu languages is often long, with reduplicated sequence:
kipepeo (Kiswahili, Eastern Africa)
ibhabhathane (Isixhosa, South Africa)
lipulaputu (Kimatengo, Tanzania)
Bunda or bonda (for buttocks) is a well-known word in the Americas (Brazil, West Indies etc) that comes from Ntu languages. But in Africa itself, it means various other body parts as well :
mbunda (Kisanga) = hips
bunda (Kivira) = belly
mbunda (Kimbundu) = pelvis, buttocks
etc.
In most Ntu languages, the plural of an order is done by having enu/eni in the end.
Oshikwanyama (Angola/Namibia)
eta (bring, singular)
eteni (bring, plural)
« cultivate » in Ntu languages
dima (Mmaala, Cameroon)
dima (Kisanga, DRC)
rima (Kirundi, Burundi)
lima (Kesukuma, Tanzania)
lima (Rukwangali, Angola / Namibia)
lima (Tshivenda, South Africa)
#Bantu
How do you say « she looks like her mother » in your Ntu language?
Comment dites-vous « elle ressemble à sa mère » dans votre langue Ntu?
Como você diz « ela parece com a mãe dele » na sua língua Ntu?
*N-gòì is the reconstruction for ‘leopard’ in proto-Bantu
Some Bantu languages kept track of both vowels, others did not.
Isizulu (S.Afr.) ingwe
Mabale (DRC) nkoi
Kikamba (Kenya) ngo
Akoose (Cameroon) ngo
Zimbabwe is considered the country in the world with the most official languages at a national level. 16 official languages of which 13 are Bantu languages.
Cameroon is one of the most linguistically diverse countries in Africa with more than 260 languages belonging to different families. Dozens of them are Ntu and particularly important in the reconstruction of the proto-language. Among them: Bulu, Ewondo, Basaa, Tunen…
Many Ntu languages are documented today. Many others not yet. We speak our languages but we don't study them enough, for our past, present and future. This twitter account has been created with the aim of stimulating, sharing, growing this interest for our own languages.
It's ridiculous to talk about Anglophone and Francophone Cameroon, a country that is home to more than 250 African languages!
That's the consequence of having no local language as official language.
Kanyok is one of those Bantu languages whose words don't necessarily end with a vowel:
kwamb - 'to say'
kutal - 'to look at'
taat - 'father'
mwaan - 'child'
mvul - 'rain'
Bantu languages generally have a specific word for "white hair" which is not related to the one for "hair".
Ex. in Rutooro (Uganda):
hair = isoke
white hair = oruju
Words for « cheetah » are quite different across Ntu language. What do you have in yours ?
sumbu in Luvale (Angola,Zambia, DRC)
ingulule in Isuzulu (S. Africa)
This fireplace with 3 cooking-stones…
dio (Duala, Cameroon)
eziko (Kihavu, DRC)
jiko (Kiswahili, East Africa)
iko (Umbundu, Angola)
iziko (Isizulu, South Africa)
Words for "friend" and "enemy" are usually different from one Ntu language to another, especially if they are distant.
-Cindau (Mozambique, Zimbabwe)
xamwari (friend) / muvengi (enemy)
-Lingala (Congo)
moninga (friend) / monguna (enemy)
The bow is the weapon that best symbolizes our cultures. Reconstructed *bu-táà (buta, bota, uta etc) in proto-Ntu, it derives from the verb *ku-tá (throw, put, do). It is also often used with a complement to refer to newer weapons. Note that 'war' is *bi-táà (eta, bita, vita etc)
Let me guess something: From Cameroon to South Africa, From Kenya to Namibia, there is a "m" in the word for "squeezing, wringing, milking" in your Ntu language 😉
#Ntu
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