The record-union., 1897-07-02

Fortunately prefixes are of few varie-
| ties and they do not exhibit much ir-
| regularity. The principal prefxes are
''umu,' ''isi," ILL.," and ''ula-" In the
plural Of words beginning with ''umu"
| the prefix changes to aba" as in
"umutwana," which means a child;
tabantwana-" children; but this is only
when applied to words of the masculine
or feminine gender. When found in
neuter nouns "umu'' in the plural be-
comes ''imi," as in "umufula,'' river;
| 'inifula," rivers. The prefix "isi' be-
| comes 'iZi' in the plural, as in 'isik-
wana," a sack, and ''izikwana" mean
| ing sacks. 'I' also becomes 'izi'' in the
plural, as ''induka,' stick; 'izinduka,"
| sticks.
More startling is the alteration in the
prefix ILL., which becomes ''ama" in the
plural. "Ilitshe" signifies a stone, and
stones are called "amatshe." Equally
puzzling is ''ula,'' which changes to ''izi,"
as 'ulanti," seat ''izinti," seats. Had
even these rudimentary rules been
known to Rider Haggard he would not
| have made so many little mistakes in his
| South African romances.
1t is the custom of the 'izinsiZwa," or
| the towns as "izicaka," that is, serv-
ants. Then they earn from me" to in
kota'-S4 to S7-a month, and of course,
their board. This consists exclusively
| of "mealy pap" a kind of porridge made
from Kafir corn. They call it "scof.
| Such as work in the mines get double
that amount of wages. They save all
| the "imaE,'' or money, which they
make, and, after two or three years they
go back to their people to buy an in
! tombozana," or wife. The price of this
luxury is usually from ''insuminantatu'
| to ''ishume-nane iZinkomakazi'
thirteen to fourteen cows. After a few
weeks of idleness they again go into
| service until such time as they can af-
| ford second wife. When a Kafir has
seven or eight wives he works no more.
| He lives in luxury, and watches his fam
| lily cultivate the 'umbila," that is
mealies, or corn. Should his numerous
"abantwana'-chil of the 'isi-
faZana," or female, sex he apidly grows
rich on their sale, receiving as price
many heads of cattle. Some old men
count their live stock thus acquired to
| the number of more than 'inkulung-
Wane"-1, 900.
The Zulu numerals up to ten are
spoken thus: ''Nye," "imbili," 'tatd,
| me-" 'llanu," "isitupa," 'inkota." ''shi-
yangalombi," "shiyangalolunye, 'ish-
umi'' The teens are simply ten and
the unit, this: "Ishumi-nimbili,'
twelve, or "ishumi-nisitupa, sixteen.
The M before the last word signifies
and"
The pronouns, with very little varia
tion are ''ngi," a." and "ba' for the
first, second and third persons. The
possessive case, both in nouns and pro-
nouns, IS placed after the thing pos
sessed. In the case of nouns it is
formed by affixing the prefix Of the
| thing possessed to the noun possessing.
thus: THE mans children is spoken
"abantwana ba indodo," which read
literally would be "children-his-man.
The voices of the verbs are rendered
thus: The active is the simple root, as
"tenga," buy. The passive ends in
IVA" as ''tenwa'-be bought The
causative ends in lisa" as ''tengisa"-
cause to buy The relative ends in
ELLA as "tengela'-buy for, and the
qualitive ends in "eka," "tengeka'-to
be purchasable. Adverbs are formed
from adjectives by prefixing the let
ters "ka,'' as "mnandi'-sweet; 'ka-
mnandi," sweetly
A few common phrases in engaging a
Kafir servant might be spoken thus:
do you want work?" ~ va funa |
umsebenzi nap
who is your chief?" "Ubani inkosi |
yako?"
How much money do you want?" "U
funa imali ingaki na?"
Il will give you fifteen shillings"
'Ngi va ku ku nika ishumi- nesihlanu"
Il will give you fifteen for the first
month, and afterward 1 will give you
twenty if I see that you know how to
work"
'Ngi va ku ku nika ishumi- mi-nesihlanu
ngenyanga yokuqala, enva ngi va ku ku
nika amashumi amabili una ngi bone IL
va kwaZi ukusebenza-"
DO you agree? u va Yuma nap
"All right" Ka lungile"
1t is an infallible rule, in speaking
Zulu, to place the accent on the antep-
enultimate syllable, without regard to
the value or Importance of that sylIa-
BILE.
While the majority were from Liberia
and the west coast of Africa, originally. |
many of our colored citizens come from
races which originally spoke this curl
Gus language; yet probably there is not
an African in New York who has re-
tanned single word of it-New York
Times.