A VOCABULARY OF THE FIPA LANGUAGE
BERNHARD STRUCK
1908
African Affairs
THE Fipa language is one of the great Bantu family of Central Africa. The tribe is settled on the boundary of N.-E. Rhodesia and German East Africa, extending along the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika as far as Karema, touching in the interior the Lake Rikwa and the Mambwe country. The original features of the language belong to the Bemba and Luba group, but the great invasion of the Hamitic Watusi and their Bantu followers from the north (about 1830) has considerably modified the vocabulary
more »
... d the pronunciation. In the south, in the so-called Urungu country, people have kept some phonetic peculiarities of Ki-Mambwe, such as the use of y instead of y. j 1 lately more and more Swahili words are commonly used. The material the following statements are based on is taken partly from the collections of Professor Meinhof, which I have been most kindly permitted to use, partly from 130 Fipa sentences written down for me by the Swahili Mwalimu Mbwana at Bismarckburg. Berry from a low scrubby tree, a peculiar kind of, vuvindi Between, kagati Bismarckburg, native name of the German station, Kcuakga Board, mbao ; kitiramba (on the "mbaya") Boat, isuwa Bow, mlahwa; makokve (of marriage) Bow-string, lugunzi Bowels, amala Bowl of tobacco-pipe (made of clay), nuiigu Box, mfua Boy, mboi Bread, mukati Breadth, yjtsalala Break, to, -tafuna, -vunc&a ; -kutula (off) Bring, to, -Ufa Buffalo, mbogo Build, to, -kula Buy, to, -kola Can, -manya Canoe, jpvalo Chief (head man), iyumbc Child, mwana Cloth, myenda; tueieta (native); kaniii (European, blue) Club (wooden), muhiri, mpiri Come, to, -iza Cook, to, -ereka, -himya Copper ornament on die calabash of the pipe-bowl, nsamio Cotton, mpamba Crying of the men during their procession to the place of sacrifice, uae-nae Cut, to, -kaia ; -hutula (to pieces) Dance, to, -vina Dawa for catching porcupine, Akome Day, vwanda Demon, evil, nulu Destroy, to, -onona Devil, tntaisimu (petrified image of an old chief) Do, to, -kita Dog, ivtva Dress (oneself), to, -ztvala Drink, to, -nwa Dwell, to, -ikala Ear, kutwi Ear-pin, kitctiga, muiimbi Eat, to, -lya Eight, munane Elephant, nzovu, ntirya Empty, -tuku, must ni kimwi End-piece of the loom, muiandiio European, muSuugu Extinguish, to, -simya Eye, Bio Eye-lid, ngohe Fall, to, -hona Farm, tialo Fat, mafuta Fear, to, -oyoka Fetish representing the nulu, muHri Finger, munwe Fire-hook, musonsero Fisherman, muloua Five, -tano Flour (native), nusu Flute made of bamboo, Csann
doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a098977
fatcat:ka2wkecqczaknpv5hwbugum6ta