Ila language

Ila
Lundwe
Native to Zambia
Native speakers
 106,000 (2010 census)[1]
Dialects
Ila
Lundwe
Sala
Language codes
ISO 639-3 Either:
ilb – Ila
shq – Sala
Glottolog ilaa1246  (Ila)[2]
sala1266  (Sala)[3]
M.63,631–633[4]

Ila (Chiila) is a language of Zambia. Maho (2009) lists Lundwe (Shukulumbwe) and Sala as distinct languages most closely related to Ila. Ethnologue reports that Sala is mutually intelligible with Tonga. Ila is one of the languages of the Earth included on the Voyager Golden Record.[5]

Some sounds [6]

Tonality and stress

We are told that quasi-musical pitch or tone is important as in many other languages, and is used to distinguish words from another. Stress is demonstrated by contrasting aze with stress on the first syllable ( = "with him") with aze with stress on the second syllable (= "he also").[8]

Some words and phrases

Some comparisons

Bemba: IMFIFI - darkness; Kisanga: mfinshi - darkness; and Bulu (Ewondo): "dibi" - darkness.

Ideophones or imitation words

Words in English such as "Splash!", "Gurgle", "Ker-putt" express ideas without the use of sentences. Smith and Dale [10] point out that this kind of expression is very common in the Ila language:

You may say Ndamuchina anshi ("I throw him down"), but it is much easier and more trenchant to say simply Ti!, and it means the same.[11]

Some examples:

Class prefixes

As in many other languages, Ila uses a system of noun classes. Either the system as presented by Smith and Dale [12] is simpler than that for Nyanja,[13] ChiChewa,[14] Tonga,[15] or Bemba,[16] or the authors have skated over the complexities by the use of the category "significant letter":

The locatives form a special category:

Thus:

The Ila verb system

The root is the part of the verb giving the primary meaning. To this can be added prefixes and suffixes: many elements can be united in this way, sometimes producing long and complex polysyllabic verb words. For example, from the root anga, "to tie", we can derive such a form as Tamuchinakubaangulwilanzhi? meaning, "Why have you still not untied them?"

Prefixes can show:

Suffixes can show:

Here are some of the forms of the verb kubona, "to see". (Note that there are also negative forms, e.g. ta-tu-boni, "we do not see", that there is also a subjunctive mood, a conditional mood, a jussive mood and the imperative. Many subjunctive forms end in -e.

The root of the verb is in two forms:

The above English renderings are approximate.

Certain suffixes add new dimensions of meaning to the root. Although these follow some logic, we again have to feel a way towards an adequate translation into English or any other language:

These can be used in composites: e.g. langidizha - to cause to look on behalf of.[19]

Oral literature

A text given by Smith and Dale,[20] Sulwe Mbwakatizha Muzovu ("How Mr. Hare managed to scare Mr. Elephant") presents what might be called a "classical fabliau", with animals talking like people, just as in the Fables of Aesop or the Brer Rabbit stories in the African Diaspora.[21] Is it fanciful to see the model for the mischievous, resourceful Brer Rabbit in the Sulwe of this story? It seems that slaves destined for the southern United States were captured and purchased in this area of Zambia.[22][23] There is at least a statistical possibility that the Brer Rabbit cycle, with its use of ideophones or sound imitations, had an origin in the Ila language.

References

  1. ↑ Ila at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Sala at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Ila". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Sala". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  4. ↑ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  5. ↑ http://re-lab.net/welcome/lang.html
  6. ↑ Smith & Dale, as above.
  7. ↑ e.g. D.V.Perrott, Teach Yourself Swahili, English Universities Press, London, 1969.
  8. ↑ Smith & Dale, as above.
  9. ↑ Smith & Dale, as above.
  10. ↑ Smith & Dale, as above.
  11. ↑ Smith & Dale, volume 2, page 293.
  12. ↑ Smith & Dale, as above.
  13. ↑ Thomas Price, The Elements of Nyanja for English-Speaking Students, Church of Scotland Mission, Blantyre (Malawi), 1959.
  14. ↑ ChiChewa Intensive Language Course, Language Centre, Lilongwe, 1969
  15. ↑ C.R.Hopwood, A Practical Introduction to ChiTonga, Zambia Educational Publishing House, Lusaka, 1940, 1992.
  16. ↑ Grammar notes in Rev. E. Hoch, Hippocrene Concise Dictionary: Bemba: Bemba - English, English - Bemba, Hippocrene Books, Inc., New York, 1998.
  17. ↑ Mukanda wa Leza (The Bible in KiSanga/Sanga, southern Congo D.R.), Trintarian Bible Society, London SW19, 1991.
  18. ↑ Lyndon Harries, A Grammar of Mwera Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg, 1950.
  19. ↑ All these notes on verbs adapted from Smith & Dale, as above.
  20. ↑ Smith & Dale, as above.
  21. ↑ Joel Chandler Harris, Uncle Remus, or , Mr. Fox, Mr. Rabbit, and Mr. Terrapin, George Routledge, London, circa 1888.
  22. ↑ Smith & Dale, volume 1, page 39.
  23. ↑ Hugh Thomas, The Slave Trade: The History of the Atlantic Slave trade 1440-1870, Picador, London, 1997. page 706: "From...Ambriz and Benguela...500,000 slaves were probably shipped during the...era 1800-1830;...and...over 600,000 may have been shipped after 1830..."

External links

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