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”