Real B Ndakaka

[Kum Filteau]

TheWorld Almanac (1998) estimated that there were approximately two million Tumbuka speakers, though other sources estimated a much smaller number. The majority of Tumbuka speakers are said to live in Malawi.[2] Tumbuka is the most widely spoken of the languages of Northern Malawi, especially in the Rumphi, Mzuzu, Mzimba, and Karonga districts.[4]

There are substantial differences between the form of Tumbuka spoken in urban areas of Malawi (which borrows some words from Swahili and Chewa) and the "village" or "deep" Tumbuka spoken in villages. The Rumphi variant is often regarded as the most "linguistically pure", and is sometimes called "real Tumbuka".[5] The Mzimba dialect has been strongly influenced by Zulu (chiNgoni),[6] even so far as to have clicks in words like chitha [ʇʰitʰa] "urinate", which do not occur in other dialects.

Throughout the history of Malawi, only Tumbuka and Chewa (Nyanja) have at one time or another been the primary dominant language used by government officials. However, the Tumbuka language suffered a lot during the rule of President Hastings Kamuzu Banda, since in 1968 as a result of his one-nation, one-language policy it lost its status as an official language in Malawi. As a result, Tumbuka was removed from the school curriculum, the national radio, and the print media.[7] With the advent of multi-party democracy in 1994, Tumbuka programmes were started again on the radio, but the number of books and other publications in Tumbuka remains low.[8]

Two systems of writing Tumbuka are in use: the traditional spelling (used for example in the Chitumbuka version of Wikipedia and in the newspaper Fuko), in which words such as banthu 'people' and chaka 'year' are written with 'b' and 'ch', and the new official spelling (used for example in the Citumbuka dictionary published online by the Centre for Language Studies and in the online Bible), in which the same words are written with 'ŵ' and 'c', e.g. ŵanthu and caka. (The sound 'ŵ' is a closely rounded [w] pronounced with the tongue in the close-i position.)[9] There is some uncertainty over where to write 'r' and where 'l', e.g. cakulya (Dictionary) or cakurya (Bible) 'food'. (In fact [l] and [r] are allophones of the same phoneme.) There is also hesitation between the spellings 'sk' and 'sy' (both miskombe and misyombe ('bamboo') are found in the Citumbuka dictionary).[10]

Tumbuka has a tonal accent but in a very limited way, in that every word, spoken in isolation, has the same falling tone on the penultimate syllable (which also coincides with stress).[14] It is therefore not possible in Tumbuka to contrast two different words or two different tenses tonally, as it is in Chichewa and other Bantu languages. However, this penultimate falling tone occurs not on every word, but only on the last word of a phonological phrase; e.g. in the following sentence, only the second word has a tone, the first being toneless:[15]

As is usual with Bantu languages, Tumbuka nouns are grouped into different noun classes according to their singular and plural prefixes. Each class of noun has its own adjective, pronoun, and verb agreements, known as 'concords'. Where the agreements disagree with the prefix, the agreements take precedence in deciding the class of noun. For example, the noun katundu 'possessions', despite having the prefix ka-, is placed in class 1, since one says katundu uyu 'these possessions' using the class 1 demonstrative uyu. Malawians themselves (e.g. in the University of Malawi's Citumbuka dictionary) refer to the noun classes by traditional names such as "Mu-Ŵa-"; Bantu specialists, however, refer to the classes by numbers (1/2 etc.) corresponding to the noun-classes of other Bantu languages. Occasionally nouns do not correspond to the classes below, e.g. fumu 'chief' (class 9) irregularly has a plural mafumu in class 6.

Verbs, adjectives, numbers, possessives, and pronouns in Tumbuka have to agree with the noun referred to. This is done by means of prefixes, infixes, or suffixes called 'concords' which differ according to the class of noun. Class 1 has the greatest variety of concords, differing for pronouns, subject prefix, object infix, numbers, adjectives, and possessives:[20][21][22]

In the past a distinction is made between hodiernal tenses (referring to events of today) and remote tenses (referring to events of yesterday or some time ago). However, the boundary between recent and remote is not exact.[32]

Another distinction is made between past and perfect tenses. When a perfect tense is used it carries an implication that the resulting situation still exists at the time of speaking, for example: 'the pumpkins have spread (zathambalala) over the garden'.[33] The present perfect can also be used in verbs expressing a current situation such as ndakhala 'I am sitting' or ndakondwa 'I am pleased'. The remote perfect is used for events which happened some time ago but of which the effects still apply today, such as libwe lilikuwa 'the rock has fallen' or walikutayika 'he (has) died'.[34]

All Tumbuka dialects have to some extent been affected by the Ngoni language, most especially in Mzimba District of Malawi. Ngoni is a language that originates from the Ndwandwe people who were neighbours to the Zulu clan prior to being conquered by the Zulu and being assimilated into the Zulu identity. The language the Ndwandwe spoke was thus nearly identical Zulu. Below are some examples of words found in chitumbuka that are of Zulu/Ndwandwe origin, though most of them have original Tumbuka counterpart words that can be used interchangeably at the speakers will, (excluding 'munwe/minwe' meaning 'finger/fingers' for example, that seemingly did not have an original counterpart or the original word has been lost). The word njowi is used for finger/s.

An example of a folktale translated into Tumbuka and other languages of Northern Malawi is given in the Language Mapping Survey for Northern Malawi carried out by the Centre for Language Studies of the University of Malawi.[45] The Tumbuka version of the folktale goes as follows:

It is therefore of grave concern that some leaders in the Opposition have elected to take their politics to matters that concern God. The attacks by UPND leader Mr. Hakainde Hichilema on the national day of prayer on 18th October declared by His Excellency President Edgar Chagwa Lungu should not just be perceived as a question of logical debate but goes to expose the absence of religious principle in his personal life and that of the party he leads.

In the same regard, President Lungu called on all Zambians from all political and religious backgrounds to embrace this important Day for the Nation. He did this from the realization that through prayer the nation takes a moment away from the concerns of everyday life to understand the greater power that gives us guidance. This Day is not about President Lungu or PF as a Party, but about Zambia and the future of our Nation.

Lastly, it is a fact that Satanists and all those opposed to God will resist efforts by a nation to rally together in prayer. PF therefore is asking Zambians to discern the resistance as a fight between good and evil, darkness and light. It is unexplainable how anyone would get so offended with a call for prayers.

this ***** called sunday chanda he is a very evil man like kambwili described him a man with small shallow brain. If kambwili can call you dat then you are very useless. Why should you stop HH from commenting. The minute he does you ans, grow uo we want issue based politics nt personal. As zambians we are grown and can judge who is evil. When you are busy stealing millions thru commissions you want to cheat that you fear God, but you are the biggest thieves this country has ever seen.

Dnt fool God.

Some boys will be in a rude shock when HH next year 2016 becomes the president of zambia and these boys will end up hanging themselves. These boys have taken things personal on HH. HH is a zambia who can also rule this country. Therefore take it easy you boys we do not want to see you hang yourselves. HH clearly outlined reasons why these prayers will be vain and mockery to God and HH is entitled to his opinion hence leave HH alone you pf thugs.

Opportunities for hate speech to be abolished and instigators to be held accountable. Opportunities for corruption and theft of Public resources at all levels to be dealt with severely without fear or favor, opportunities for injustices and impartiality to be dealt with severely, Opportunities for educated voters and 2016 voting to be based on merit and not emotions and propaganda. Opportunities for ECZ to be structured and their standards to meet the expectations of all local stakeholders. Opportunities for Road Safety to be addressed .

I do not subscribe to the idea that politics should just be a game of winning. People really perish because of wrong political decisions. Similarly, a Christian should know that religion is not a game, because you will lose both body and soul if you take it as such.

Zambia will remain poor for as long people pay attention to things that do not add value to a nation. We know the problems in Zambia and we openly reject to confront the problems and instead we want to divert the attention to religious beliefs and want coerce everyone to follow that root. The PF govt and EL have no morals to even call for such a meeting. Just how credulous are Zambians to believe such a govt really? Prayer and fasting so that the economy is back to normal, we reconcile and the following day citizens have bread on the table. So now Chanda wants us to forget all the pressing issues and hope for a miracle from God. Let us learn to be practical and face issues the right way.

This prayer day is not for economic boom, but reconciliation. We all know that we have economic challenges as a nation, but failing to attend this national prayer will increase the feeling that HH is a Satanist, and if he does not attend, I can assure you my dear that HH will not rule in 2016. God is watching.

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