Language Lessons

Nidi nakweseki kudiza idimi dawalunda. Chakala mwani!

do you remember all those years of french lessons? Or maybe you didn't have any- I did... I was one of those crazy ones who took french all the way through high school in the hopes of maybe being able to actually learn another language

I remember learning colours and numbers- those were easy

Nouns and names - a little more difficult

Verbs and tenses- HORRENDOUS!

I can tell you three tenses in english- past, present and future. I may use the other ones, but I couldn't identify them- and now you want  me  to identify the tense and congugate the verb to answer in the correct tense and with the right pronoun and the right suffix for the verb based on the pronoun???
I loved my high school french classes, we had lots of fun and had to really cool teachers, but I didn't learn anything... nothing!

And now I'm starting out (or rather picking up again) another language adventure

I am trying to learn the language of the Lunda people. It is difficult.

If I knew how to say 'it is fun' I would also add that in.... but maybe it's better that I don't cuz this time next year I'll probably be tearing my hair out trying to understand this langauge and learn to communicate in it!

but just for interest's sake, I'll share a (quick!) rundown of how this sentence is formed

nidi naku - is basically the phrase 'I am' but this is often shortened to just 'naku'

the verb 'eseka' is the word 'try' ... can you find it in there? The Lunda language 'squishes' words together so that a verb can have multiple prefixes and suffixes and somewhere, not necessarily in the middle, is the root of the verb. In this case the root is 'esek' ... I'm still not sure exactly why the 'a' is dropped and 'i' is added...??? but it happens ;)

'u' before any vowel become 'w' so naku eseki squishes to become nakweski ... Have I lost you yet? It gets easier

'kudiza' is the verb 'to learn'

'idimi' is the noun 'tongue' or in this case 'language'

'dawalunda' very simply means 'of the Lunda'

'Cha' means 'it' ... but only in this case ... depending on the class of the noun...  oh wait, I haven't told you yet that there are 10 classes of nouns and not only is it important to know what class each noun falls into, there are concords (I still don't know what that means exactly) that are prefixed to the nouns that follow and these can change based on whether the noun is singular or plural and whether its a regular prefix, a subjective concord or an objective concord... sigh... now I have to know what mood I'm speaking in too... :S

'kala' means 'difficult' or 'hard to do'

and 'mwani'... that's just a nice word that you add to the end of everything... it's kinda please, thankyou, I'm sorry, hello, good bye and 'I want to be polite' all wrapped up into one.... I think this is my favourite Lunda word ;)

anyway, if you'll excuse me.. I think I'd better get back to my lessons now.. sentence order is the next thing on my list and then maybe I'll get into tenses


The heavens declare the glory of God and the earth shows His handiwork... There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Psalm 19:1,3