Luke.Liebenberg's recent posts

isiZulu can seem quite complex because the smallest changes in a word can transform the meaning a lot.

For example:

Asidli - We don't eat

Asidle - Let's eat

Siyadla - We are eating

Siyodla - We are on our way to eat

Sizodla - We will eat

Asizudla - We won't eat

Here is another example:

Lala - sleep

La - Here

Lalela - Listen

So if I want to translate: "Listen here! Sleep here!" (As in giving someone a command to listen up and then tell them where to sleep.)

I would say:

Lalela la! Lala la!

Does anyone have a similar experience with their target/home language?

leosmith wrote:

I'm curious - as a learner of isuZulu, do you find Swahili comprehensible at all?

Unfortunately there is no mutual intelligibility. However there are a few words that are similar. For example Nyama means meat in both isiZulu and Kiswahili. Another interesting thing to note is that because both languages are Bantu, they have a lot of the same structures. isiZulu is the first Bantu language that I'm learning and it is quite difficult because I have no frame of reference for it due to me coming from a Germanic background. But I find some peace of mind in the fact that if I finally acquire isiZulu the other Bantu languages I want to learn like Setswana will be much easier.

In isiZulu there are praise names attached to last names. So basically every amaZulu person has certain praise names that are connected to their ancestry for every surname. If you know an amaZulu person's praise name for their surname they'd be very impressed with you. 

Hey guys!

I'm a native language English and Afrikaans speaker who is busy learning isiZulu. I thought it would be fun to share some isiZulu trivia!

• In isiZulu if you want to know what time it is you would say: "Isikhathi 'bani?". Which is basically the English equivalent for "Who is the time?"
• isiZulu has no gender when referring to he/she instead they have a gender neuter pronoun that is used. So when you ever stumble across an amaZulu person and they refer to their son as "she" you'll understand why,
• Although the clicks might seem daunting at first they're quite easy to get used to. isiZulu has three clicks which are represented by the letters 'c', 'q' and 'x'. Some of these sounds are usually sounds that some people already know how to make, now they must just learn to see it as a letter that can be used in a language.

That's all the trivia I have for today, If you guys find this interesting I'll be sure to upload more in the future!

Isipho sosuko (gift of the day): Whilst studying isiZulu in the university library that I go to it is basically impossible to quietly output isiZulu because although you try to whisper what you are learning every now and then an audible click will still ring out,  

Hey guys,

I am busy using this platform to learn isiZulu. The website https://isizulu.net/ has a very comprehensive isiZulu dictionary that would be great to use.