More Goodbyes, Greetings, But & Then, Misc

More Goodbyes:

• nagasaga  -- another way to say goodbye (perhaps less common)
• nagasaga mwirirwe -- bye, have a good day
• mwirirwe -- have a good day
• from the verb "kwira" -- "to get dark / become night" so this word is essentially expressing the wish "when the day ends, may you still be well"
• tuzosubira -- see you later
• "tuzosubira" verses "turasubira"
• tuzosubira -- see you later (tomorrow or beyond)
• turasubira -- see you later (today)
• "turasabira"  is also more definite
• These have subtly different literal meaning, but their usage idiomatically varies regionally.
• tuzosubira ejo -- see you tomorrow
• na hejo -- see you tomorrow
• na -- it is
• hejo -- of tomorrow
• used if you actually expect to see them tomorrow
• impore -- peace/calm/tranquility
• used to bid farewell?
• musezere mu Kirundi -- say farewell to him in Kirundi
• musezere -- say farewell to him/her
• mu -- in
• (what my teacher told another Kirundi speaker who was leaving our office)

Greetings: (somehow I forgot to mention here the following essential phrases, which I learned early and practice often:)

• The this commonest greetings are:
• amkuru? -- news? (like "what's new?")
• bite? -- how? (like "how is it going?") 
• this is actually Swahili
• (ni) gute? -- (is) how?
• the Kirundi equivalent of "bite" but said less often
• The two most frequent responses to all of these greetings are:
• (ni) sawa --  (is) good [Swahili]
• (ni) meza -- (is) good [Kirundi]
• note that the Swahili response can be used to the Kirundi question and vice versa.
• bite and ni sawa seem to be the most commonly used among the speakers with whom I interact
• Another response to these three questions is
  intǒre -- beautiful
  and this apparently sounds quite relaxed
• amahoro -- peace (another greeting)

But & Then:

• rero -- then
• sawa rero -- okay then (used as in English)
• urumva rero -- listen then
• my teacher called this a "consequential" phrase, used commonly in long explanations.
• ariko -- but
• recall that Kirundi does not distinguish between "l" and "r" sounds.  this word sounds very much like "aliko" to my English ear...

Misc:

• inzu hehe? -- house where?
• I was very proud of myself when I accurately picked this phrase out of an overheard conversation between native speakers...

Hold Please, Some Complex Verbs

Hold Please:

• rindira gato -- wait a little bit
• rindira -- wait  (imperative form of "kurindira", "to wait for")
• gato -- a little bit

Some complex verbs:

• urabishobora? -- can you do it?
• ura -- indicates present tense, 2nd person
• bi -- do 
• shobora -- can you 
• compare to "urashobora ______?" construction described on 11/14/12
• barabishobora? can they do it?
• bara -- indicates present tense, 3rd person
• uragishobora? -- can you carry it?
• gi -- carry
• urakunda umukate? -- do you love bread?
• kunda -- love
• umukate -- bread
• urankunda? -- do you love me? (Without the question mark is affirmative, "you love me)
• n -- indicates self

Directions and Verbs

More on Directions (and a lesson about verbs):

• Last week I learned that one can give directions by saying:
  kata iburyo/ibubamfu -- turn right/left
  (pronounced: katiburyo/katibubamfu)
• However, this is apparently incorrect, and one should instead say:
  katira iburyo/ibubamfu -- turn right/left
  (pronounced: katiribuyo/katiribubamfu)
• "kata" and "katira" are both simple imperative forms of "gukata" -- "to turn," but "katira" is the form that better joins with a direction (and in general the "ir" marker indicates that some sort of specifier will follow the verb).

• Other verbs follow this same pattern, for example: "kurindira" -- "to wait"

• rindira -- wait (imperative)
• rindirira aha  -- wait here 
• One could say "rindira aha" would be understood, but this is not correct, because the verb is in an isolated form ("wait.") rather than one that leads to more detail ("wait here")
• ndindira -- wait for me
• ndindirira aha -- wait for me here

• (Incidentally, another useful phrase when giving directions is: katira aha -- turn here)

• Another example of this "ir" modifier that came up in the last lesson was "zana" and other forms of the verb "kuzana" -- "to bring":
• zana -- bring (which can be gruffly and imperfectly used as in "zana ID" -- "bring. ID.")
• zanira -- bring ____ (e.g. "zanira ID" -- the more correct way to say "bring ID")
• muzane -- bring him/her (e.g. the baby)
• muzanire -- bring him ____ (e.g. "muzanire inka" -- "bring him a cow")
• In this case, my teacher explained that the "ir" indicates that an indirect object will follow.

Days, Hours, At the Door, Talking About Yourself, More On Making Appointments, Bringing People Things., Misc Useful Phrases, Some Question & Command Verbs

Days of the week:

• kuwambere – Monday
• kuwakabiri – Tuesday
• kuwagatatu – Wednesday
• kuwakane – Thursday
• kuwagatanu – Friday
• kuwagatandatu – Saturday
• kuwamungu – Sunday

Hours of the day:

• Kirundi speakers use Swahili when counting the hours of the day.  Because of the annual equilibrium of day length in their equatorial homeland, their hours start at daybreak – 7AM -- rather than midnight as English speakers are used to, and repeat at sundown – 7PM: 
• samoya -- 7 
• sambiri -- 8 
• satatu – 9 
•  sayine -- 10 
•  satanu -- 11 
•  sasita -- 12 
•  sasaba -- 1 
•  samunani -- 2 
•  sacenda -- 3 
•  sakumi --  4 
•  sakumi n’imwe -- 5  (actually "sakumi na imwe")
•  sakumi na zibiri -- 6
• Instead of indicating AM or PM, then, one indicates day or night: 
•  igitondo – morning 
•  umugoroba – evening
• for example: 
•  satatu zo mu igitondo – third hour of the morning, 9AM
• zo – of (possessive preposition?) 
•  mu – in 
• literally: “9 of in the-morning”
• (following the rules against vowel repetition, this sentence should be said "satatu zo migitondo")

At the door:

• ni nde? – who is it? (is who?)
• ni Cameron – it is Cameron
• ni Cameron na Arthur – it is Cameron with Arthur

Talking about yourself:

• ndi ingaha/ndaha – I am here
• ndi mwiza – I am handsome/good
• ndi muremure – I am tall

More on making appointments:

• ingo ngaha ejo? – come here tomorrow?
• ingo – come (imperative)
• ngaha – here
• ejo – tomorrow
• (This sentence lacks some grammatical markers of tense, etc. that were left unstated by my teacher, but he claimed that it is perfectly understandable; a form for learning, in order to start putting words together and using the language…)
• ingo ngaha – come here
• zana ID/SSC/Green Card – bring ID/SSC/Green Card
• “zana” is the imparitive form of “kuzana”, “to bring”

Bringing things to people:

• nzanira urupapuro -- bring me a paper
• muzanire urupapuro -- bring him/her a paper
• if directing someone to an appointment with a doctor, for example, one could use this construction to say:
• muzanire insurance card -- bring him/her your insurance card
• (while trying out this new word, naming various things that one could bring, I suggested "muzanire inka" -- "bring him a cow." My teacher indicated that this is actually an extremely useful phrase, redolant with metaphorical meaning.  In the agrarian nation of Burundi, a cow has the meaning "something valuable" (as opposed to "impene ", or "goat", which implies "something modest").  "Muzanire inka" thus means "bring him something valuable," and could find traction when discussing, say, a dowry, or a bribe...)

Misc Useful Phrases (learned while going to the other office for a meeting and some food):

•  ingo tugende -- come let's go
• ingo  -- come
• tugende -- let's go (1st person plural imperative of "kugenda", "to go")
• this phrase is grammatically incorrect but extremely common vernacular
• tugende kurya -- let's go eat
• ugurura imodoka/umudoga -- open the car
• ugurura -- imperative form of "to open"
• imodoka/umudoga -- two words for car; both sound, if pronounced, like the English words "motor car" from which they are derived.
• atsa imodoka -- start the car
• atsa -- start, from "kwatsa," "to illuminate"
• atsa amatara -- turn on the lights
•  kata iburyo/ibubamfu -- turn right/left
• (of course pronounced: katiburyo/katibubamfu)
• [EDIT: it turns out that this isn't grammatically correct.. see the next note!] 
• gendimbere (genda imbere) -- go straight
• imbere -- front
• injira -- come in
• sohoka -- get out (not necessarily rude, depends on context)
• from the verb "kwugara," meaning "to close", come two (relatively) useful words:
• ugara -- close! (the imperative form)
• wugaye? -- did you close?
• [NOTE: I had previously listed this verb as "kugara" but this is incorrect, and actually means "to spread your wings."]
• ceceka -- be quiet (imperative verb)
• agacerere -- silence (noun)
• ndahejeje kurya -- I am finished eating
• "ndajeje"  -- I am finished, present tense
• kurya -- to eat, infinitive
• c.f. "nahejeje kurya" -- "I have been finished eating"
• umukate -- bread
• gukunda -- to like or love (only one word for both)
• urakunda ...? -- do you like ...?
• urakunda umukate? -- do you like/love bread?
• urashobora kwandika? -- can you write?
• This form is extendable to any infinitive verb, within reason:
• urashobora kurya? -- can you eat?
• urashobora guhaguruka? -- can you stand?
• urashobora kwimuka? -- can you move yourself?

A few more imperative and question forms for common verbs:

• usually, the simple, singular imperative form is made by dropping the ku or gu that you find at the beginning of all infinitives ("w" is "u" following rules against vowel repetition):
• kurya --> rya -- eat
• guteka --> teka -- cook
• kugenda --> genda -- go
• kwicara --> icara -- sit
• kuzana --> zana -- bring
• kwandika --> andika -- write
• though this simple singular imperative pattern has exceptions:
• kuza --> ingo -- come
• it is also possible to form 1st person plural imperatives, though I have only yet learned one example:
• kugenda --> tugende -- let's go
• question forms do not seem to be so obviously patterned:
• kugira --> urafise ____? -- do you have ___?
• kuza --> uraje? -- are you coming (now) ?
• --> urazakuza? -- are you coming (later same day)?
• --> uzoza? -- are you coming (after today)?
• kugenda --> urakiye? -- are you going?
• --> uzogenda? -- will you go?
• kuzana --> wazanye ____? -- did you bring ____?
• kwandika --> wanditse? -- did you write?

 

More Introductions, Pleasantries, and Telephone Phrases

More on introductions:

• In addition to "witwa nde?" (literally "you are named who?"), one can also ask:
  izina ryawe ni nde? -- what is your name?
• izina -- name
• ryawe -- your (c.f. "ryanje" for "my")
• ni -- is
• nde -- who
• (As stated in an earlier lesson, one can answer this question in a similar fashion: "izina ryanje ni Cameron")

Some pleasantries:

• Two forms of "thank you":
• urakoze -- thank you (singular)
• murakoze -- thank you (plural or respectful-singular)

More phrases for the telephone:

• If you answer the phone and the person they're trying to reach is not there, you can say:
  Cameron ntawuhari or Cameron sihari -- which both mean "Cameron is not here"
• "nta" and "si" are two different ways of indicating negation
  
• You can then say:
  Cameron araza kugutelefona -- Cameron is going to telephone you
  or
  Cameron araza kuguhamagara -- Cameron is going to call you
• note that "araza" comes from the verb "kuza" meaning "to come", so these phrases might be more literally translated "a telephone/call from Cameron will be coming"
• note that both of these phrases are in the future progressive tense, "will be coming" rather than "will come", which is the way this idea is usually expressed.  It would be unusual, but you could say:
  Cameron araza azogutelfona -- Cameron will call / A call from Cameron will come.

On the Telephone

• When answering the telephone, after the greeting like “Amakuru,” one can ask:
  Uri nde? – who are you?
  • uri – you are
  • nde – who
    
    
• To which someone might reply:
  nde Cameron – I am Cameron
  
  
• I can then ask “Who do you want to talk to?” in one of several different ways:
  • ukeneye nde? – who do you need?
    • ukeneye – need (from gukenera – to need)
      
      
  • ushaka nde? – who do you want?
    • ushaka – want (from gushaka – to want)
      
      
  • ukeneye kuvugana na nde? – who do you need to talk with?
    • kuvugana – to converse, to talk with (from “kuvuga” meaning “to talk”, plus “na” which means “with” or sometimes “and”)
    • na – with (this is not accidentally repeated: na is both its own word in this sentence, and a modifying particle which changes the verb “to talk” into “to converse”)
      
      
  • If you with to be more formal, you can say:
    mwifuza kuvugana na nde? – who do you wish to talk with?
• mwifuza – “to wish”, technically in 2^nd person plural form (“yinz wish”), but in this case is formal and polite when used to address a single person. The 2^nd person singular form is “wifusa,” which would be understood, but is less formal.This construction is actually pronoun+verb:
• u – 2^nd person singular pronoun
• mu – 2^nd person plural pronoun
• However, because two vowels cannot follow each other in Kirundi, u and mu become w and mw!

Subtle Differences in Pronunciation, A Useful Phrase, Another Singular/Plural Noun Pattern, Some Compliments, and Another Useful Phrase

A subtle difference of pronunciation:

1. intóre: a single handful of bread used for scooping food
2. intǒre:
1. a traditional dancer
2. a person who is beautiful/handsome (noun).
3. beautiful/handsome (adjective)
3. intore: a kind of pepper-like vegetable, plural form.

A useful phrase:

uri intǒre – you are beautiful/handsome (“uri” meaning “you are”)

Another Singular/Plural Noun Pattern:

Singular	Plural	Meaning
Urutore	Intore	A pepper like vegetable
Urutoke	Intoke	Finger
Urusyo	Insyo	A traditional grindstone

Some compliments:

• if you want to say that someone is a good person, you can say:
  urumwana mwiza
  which literally means “you are a good child”
  • urumwana is two words concatenated due to the rules against vowel repetition:
    • uri – you are
    • umwana – child
    • yields ur(i)umwana
  • mwiza is an adjective meaning “good” or “beautiful/handsome.”
    • Remember that in Kirundi, Adjectives always follow the noun that they modify!
• A similar phrases that can be used to compliment a parent on their child is
  ufise umwana mwiza
  literally, “you have a good/beautiful child”
  • ufise – you have

Another useful phrase:

• urumva – a form of the verb “to hear”
  • Commonly used my teacher to ask someone if they have understood what he has said. This usage is a little bit harsh, though acceptable.
  • It can also be used to introduce an explanation

Misc, Talking in more detail about where you're from, Adjectives, Verbs, Nouns

• incanco – vaccinations
• urucanco – a vaccine
• ugucandaga -- to vaccinate

• urafise / ufise – two ways to say “you have,” but “ufise” is borrowed and modified from Rwandan, whereas “urafise” is pure Kurundi. Both are forms of the verb “kugira” meaning “to have.” Another form is “ugire” which is the imperative.

• Amahoro – peace, used as a greeting
  • sometimes people say “amahoro neza” – “peace good,” but this is quirky and grammatically weird.

• Appropriate replies to Amakuru? include “ni meza” and “nisawa,” just as one would say in response to “bite?”
  • As an aside, “amakuru” means “general news,” but “inkuru” is a more personal alternative, more akin to “story.” One can ask “inkuru?” of someone knows well, and you want to know what’s been happening with them. Just as in English, “good news” or “inkuru inziza” is a euphemism for The Bible, but in Kirundi, this can also be a person’s name.

Talking about where you’re from, elaborated:

• iwanyu ni he(he)? – where are you from?
  • iwanyu – your general homeland area
  • ni – is
  • he(he) -- where
• iwacu ni Washington – I am from Washington
  • iwacu – my general homeland area
    • “wacu” is a word that indicates ownership
    • “I” indicates a place
• Here are all the different forms of the “I” and “wacu” combination:
  • iwacu – our home / my general area
  • iwanje – my home
  • iwanyu – yinz home / your general area
  • iwawe – your home
  • iwabo – their home / her/his/its general area
  • iwe – his/her/its home
• Without the “i”, “wacu” simply indicates ownership:
  • umwana wacu – our child
  • inka wacu – our cow
• But note that it can still indicate a place without the “i"
  • inka z’wacu – cows of where I’m from
  • abana b’wacu – “the kids back home” (where the “b’” is the plural form of the “z’” in the last example)

Some basic adjectives:

• The other day, we learned that one can wish someone a good day at work by saying:
  akazi keza
  where “akazi” means “work” and “keza” means “good” or “beautiful” or “handsome.”
• In Kirundi, all adjectives change to agree with the noun they modify. Here is good/beautiful in several different contexts:
  • ugire akazi keza – have (imperative) work good, “have a good day at work”
  • urafise unzu inziza -- you-have home beautiful, “you have a beautiful home”
  • Obama ni mwiza – Obama is handsome/ good (“ni” means “is”)
  • intebe inziza – chair (infinitive) beautiful, “a beautiful/good chair”
  • ikintu niziza – this thing (is) beautiful
• In the same manner, the adjective for “ugly” also means “bad”
  • Romney ni mubi – Romney is ugly/bad
  • imeza mbi – table (infinitive) ugly/bad, “an ugly/bad chair”

Some verbs to memorize (then learn to conjugate):

• kugira – to have
• kurya – to eat
• guteka – to cook
• kuza – to come
• kugenda – to go
• gupfa – to die
• kwicara – to sit
• guhaguruka – to stand
• kuzana – to bring
• gutwara – to take away
• kwiba – to steal
• kuba – to be / to reside
• guta – to lose or throw away
• gutora – to find or to pick up
• kuzimira – to get lost
• kwandika – to write
• kwuzuza – to fill up a small vessel, to fill a prescription, or to fill out a form
• kwimura – to move or relocate something, or somebody, else
• kwimuka – to move or relocate oneself
• kwambara – to dress
• kwica – to kill

Some common plural/singular noun forms:

Singular:       gi   ki      mu

                          \   /        /   \

Plural:             bi        ba  mi

• Nouns beginning with either “gi” or “ki” in their singular form will begin with “bi” in their plural form:
  • igiti – a tree → ibiti – trees
  • ikintu – a thing → ibintu – things (not humans or animals, “i-bin-hu”)
• Nouns beginning with “mu” in their singular form will begin with either “ba” or “mi” in their plural form. Generally, nouns that refer to a type of person will take the “ba” form whereas anything else, including body parts, will take the “mi” form:
  • People:
    • umuntu – a person/human → abantu – people (“a-ban-hu”)
    • umutwa – a Burundian pygmy → abatwa – pygmies
      • the same for other ethnic groups: umuhutu/abahutu, umututsi/abatutsi
    • umutama – an old man → abatama – old men
    • umwami – a king → abami – kings
      • remember, if one vowel follows another, the first one disappears:aba+ami = abami
  • Non-People:
    • umurima – an agricultural field → imirima – fields
    • umutwe – head → imitwe – heads
    • umuti – medication → imiti – medications
    • umwaka – year → imyaka – years
      • once again, the rules against vowel-combinations are at play here
      • the sense of this is apparent if you try to pronounce “imi+aka” and “umu+aka”, as they very clearly become “imyaka” and “umwaka”

Ways to Say Farewell and Good Morning, More on Prepositions, More Questions/Answers About Work, and An Interrupted Lesson on Verbs and Conjugations

Ways to say farewell:

• Turasubira – see you later
• (Ugire) akazi keza – have a good day at work (“ugire” is the imperative form of “have,” “akazi” means “work,” and “keza” means “good or beautiful”)
• Ugire umusi mwise – have a nice day (singular)
• Mugire umusi mwise -- have a nice day (plural)
• Umusi mwise – have a nice day (general, singular or plural)
• Umugoroba mwise – have a nice evening
• Ijoro ryisa – have a good night

Ways to say Good Morning:

• Mwaramutse? – (“mga-ra-mu-tse”) a morning greeting, derived from the verb "guca" meaning “to pass through the night” or “to be able to wake up in the morning”
  • If used casually, and expect a positive reply, can say: 
    Mwaramutse nesa? – literally something like “did you wake up well?” but means “good morning (“nesa” means “good”)
  • If you don’t expect a positive reply, that the person might not have slept well or been able to get up easily, you can say:
    Mwaramutse gute? – literally “how did you sleep?” or “how was getting up?” but can mean “how are you holding up?” or “how are you feeling?” (“gute” means “how”)
  • One can reply with “mwaramutse” or “mwaramutse nesa”

More on Prepositions:

• When saying “I live in Pittsburgh,” it would be appropriate to say “mba Pittsburgh”, where mba is a version of the verb kuba meaning “to reside.” Thus one is literally saying “I live Pittsburgh,” without a preposition.
• However, this is technically grammatically incorrect, and done because of the difficulty of finding the appropriate form of the preposition for non-Kirundi place names.
• In Burundi, one would use various forms of the preposition “i” meaning “in.”
• For example, using two Burundian provinces:
  • Mba i Bujumbura – I live in Bujumbura
  • Mba mu Kayanza – I live in Kayanza
• However, the form muri, which has the connotation of “inside”, can be used with any place name, and is more grammatically correct (even if usually left unspoken):
  • Mba muri Bloomfield – I live in Bloomfield
• The preposition kuri means “on a big thing,” and can be used to describe situations like workplace, for example:
  • ukora kuri airport – I work at (on) the airport

More questions/answers about work:

• ukora hehe? – where do you work? (“ukora” meaning “work” and “hehe” meaning “where”)
  • ukora muri Downtown – I work Downtown
• ukora iki? – what work do you do? (“iki” meaning “what”)
  • ndegisha – I teach (“n” indicates “I”, “I-form” of the verb)
  • nde umwigisha or shortened: ndumwigisha – I am a teacher (“nde” meaning “I am”)

Verbs and Conjugations:

(this lesson was interrupted...)

• Virtually all Kirundi verbs, in their Infinitive forms, start with “ku” or “gu” and end with “a.” For example:
  • kuza – to come
  • kuba – to reside
• One verb, all conjugations: to come
  • infinitive, to come -- kuza
  • present, I come – ndaje

Misc.

• Bucumi – a name meaning “tenth child” (“bu-chu-mi”)
• Minani – a name meaning “8^th child"
  
  
• Inpembo – reward/pay (“impe” combination is difficult, practice it)
  
  
• The sounds of “nt” vs. “nk” are difficult to recognize, distinguish, and produce.  Both sound like "nh" to my ears, but seem to occasionally sound like "n+k" and "n+t". Beware!
  
  
• Nagiye ejo – I went yesterday (ejo means both yesterday and tomorrow, depending on context)
  • Remember that one vowel cannot follow another, and when they do, the first vowel is dropped. So “nagiye ejo” is actually pronounced “nagiy ejo.” 
• Hirya y’ejo – the day after tomorrow. (the “y’” means “of”. This can be included in the word without the apostrophe as “hirya yejo”)
  
  
• Leta zunz’ubumwe z’amerika – USA (“z’” is another form of “of”… plural?)
  • Leta – state, government
  • Zunze – holding together
  • Ubumwe – unity (“ubu-mge”)
  • This name should be properly written “zunze ubumwe”, but because two vowels cannot occur together, it is pronounced and can be written “zunz’ubumwe” (the second way is more vernacular))
    
    
• Sawa – alright, okay, good (nisawa w/o the “ni”)
  • Sawa rero – “okay then”, equivalent of “bye now” (the “ro” is barely pronounced!)