Tuesday, January 29, 2013

More on Good Morning, Sneezing, What Brings You Here?, I Have No Money, See You Another Day

More on good morning:

  • Two ways of saying "Good Morning" have been mentioned here before.  This is how they are different:
    • "bwakeye?" comes from the verb "guca" meaning "to become morning."  It has a neutral pronoun, so literally means "did it become morning?"
    • "mwaramutse?" comes from the verb "kuramuka" meaning "to wake up."

Sneezing:
  • When someone sneezes, a Kirundi speaker will say:
    • kira -- be healed (the imparative form of "gukira" meaning "to get well" or "to get rich")
  • The polite reply is:
    • twese -- all of us

What brings you here?
  • ugenzwa namaki? -- what brings you here?
    • "kugenzwa" comes from "kugenda" meaning "to go"
    • "amaki" comes from "amakuru" meaning "news"

I have no money:
  • nta amafaranga ndafise -- no money | I have
    • ("ntamafaranga ndafise")
    • faranga -- money ("amafaranga" is plural)
    • nta -- negation ("nta'mafaranga" = "no money")
    • ndafise -- I have

See you another day:
  • tuzosabira uwundi musi -- see you later | another | day
    • "uwundi" is one of many words meaning "other", whose usage depends upon the type of thing...

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