Man invents almost 500 new Zulu words to describe contemporary concepts

Source: The South African
Story flagged by: Lucia Leszinsky

How do you recycle in Zulu? Until recently, you simply couldn’t – at least linguistically speaking.

The fact of the matter is that indigenous African languages such as Zulu lack many of the modern terms we take for granted in the English language when referring to everyday concepts. But Zulu speakers cannot, for instance, discuss how global warming affects the planet on the Internet while waiting at airports – until now. More >>

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Man invents almost 500 new Zulu words to describe contemporary concepts
Dr Sarai Pahla, MBChB
Dr Sarai Pahla, MBChB
Germany
Local time: 16:38
Member (2012)
Japanese to English
+ ...
Step in the right direction! Feb 24, 2013

Great news! I hope this initiative is carried through into other languages and is also pushed forward into the fields of science, engineering and medicine. This would really help a lot, since even basic science is difficult to teach to people who have never learned English in this country since the concepts just don't exist in their own languages. (PS. I'm a native English speaker, and no, I don't speak any African languagesicon_wink.gif)

 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 16:38
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Try selling that in Gauteng Feb 24, 2013

Phiwayinkosi Mbuyazi, a linguist, engineer and investment expert who hails from KwaZulu-Natal, considers himself a ‘language activist’ fighting for the conservation of Zulu, Xhosa and other African languages.


The problem is that Zulu is spoken in two regions in South Africa, namely KwaZulu-Natal, where Zulus originally came from, and Gauteng, where the biggest, most industrial towns and cities in South Africa are located.

The Zulu from KwaZulu-Natal tends to be more purist, and a Zulu translator from KwaZulu-Natal is more likely to use a word that doesn't borrow from a European language or from any other language except perhaps other Nguni languages. The Zulu from Gauteng, on the other hand, is a cosmopolitan Zulu, that tolerates influences from many languages, including European languages. The Zulu speaker from Gauteng probably can discuss all of the things mentioned in the article, but... using English words in Zulu.

The Zulu translator from KwaZulu-Natal thinks that using English words in Zulu is killing the language, and he will go out of his way to find terms that are non-English-like but that still capture the same meaning as the English term, without being too long. I have little doubt that the Zulu speakers from KwaZulu-Natal will be able to figure out what the new terms mean, but will the Zulu speakers from Gauteng have a clue?

This reminds me of an author who wrote an article about molecular chemistry while using no non-Germanic words -- i.e. that is what English scientific writing would have looked like if English were a purist language: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncleftish_Beholding


 

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