- Bucumi – a name meaning “tenth child” (“bu-chu-mi”)
- Minani – a name meaning “8th 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!)
I'm learning to speak Kirundi, the language of Burundi. Here are the notes from my lessons.
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