Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read!
Let me add my voice in historical perspective. -Lugbara would have been easier if the Roman Catholics and Church of Uganda Bible writers sat together to agree on certain things. Catholics write things different from the Protestants. However, it is not yet late to undo the differences. words like ti would be written differently tifa for mouth, ti for cow, tii or tti for giving birth. The debate is good. Asea Hmmm. Before reading this article, I had read another blog about 4 years ago of an American also living in Arua and struggling to learn Lugbara. That one was less dramatic than this one. But I'd also heard of people saying Lugbara is a difficult language to learn. This had actually gotten me thinking: Can't you try to make learning Lugbara easier? I made an outline and soon foxed out, not with After all the grapes are sour but with a barrage of: After all that is a relative statement. All languages are difficult to learn. Try a click language and tell me it is easy. Try the French which is spoken through the nose. . . etc, etc Well, this blog got me updating my draft again based on some of the issues pointed out in it. I am not yet finished. What got me particularly thinking was how to best address the challenge of that apt comparison with Chinese - due to the tonality of the language and the fact that we have several dialects, which makes it a very rich and admittedly confusing language. Allow me another foxing: Who says English or Dutch is not confusing? As an English language teacher myself, I got loads of examples to which I have no explanation or justification apart from saying, Sorry, but exceptions confirm the rule! Why do the English for example say, the singular form of the verb to-be is is and yet when you meet one person (that is singular, for sure) you as How are you? as if there is more than one person you are talking to? And the English have the audacity to say that is Correct English! Don't tell me the word wound in the following sentence has one and only one meaning: The nurse wound the bandage around the wound of the wounded boy. And why should the plural of box be boxes and the one of ox be oxen and not oxes? And why should a driver be a person, yet cooker is a thing for cooking and the person is a Cook and what the cook does is to cook? They also confuse us! But, that's the beauty and uniqueness of languages anyhow. The more reason why people learn languages. On a serious note: As many people have said, the article indeed made me see some things differently. For example, that Lugbara is a visual language. Hmmm. House-stomach! True, indeed. Visual and descriptive. That should make it even easier to learn. Common language teachers, let's do something to make this thing more palatable for those who want to get a different peek into our culture - through the language. The time keeping, I agree is something that is kind of different and often works against us. Not only the Lugbara but Ugandans. Did you read that article of the Teso youth protesting their MPs appearing at 6.30pm for a meeting that was scheduled for 3pm. My foot. We still have something to learn from the positive aspects of other cultures, which may enrich the positives in ours. Overall, it was some good food for thought and rib-breaking. Thank you George. On Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 7:56 AM, Santorino Data boymuked...@yahoo.com wrote: Great piece of writing indeed.This made my morning and now I understand why I spent 6 years in Arua and still struggle to speak the language - confusion just that needs very meticulous attention to detail and context even though I was from across the Lugbara border in Kakwa land Dr. Data Santorino Lecturer Department of Pediatrics and Child Health Mbarara University of Science and Technology Uganda. From: Anyole J anyo...@yahoo.ca To: George Afi Obitre-Gama gobi...@yahoo.com; A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net; A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2013 7:21 PM Subject: Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read! This is a very interesting piece. It is always nice to see things from an out-siders perspective and make sense of things we are usually oblivious to, house-mouth, za-mva, et all! The piece does bring out some things that worry anthropologist too, cultures are gradually getting eroded traditions have been changing here as the pressure of our Western culture pervades and invades. as well, it high lights some issues that continue to plague us, such as time keeping, which has itself not been eroded by the same western culture. Thanks for sharing this, it did make my day that more interesting, got me thinking. One of these days, I'll beat my vernacular teacher a phone Anyole From: George Afi Obitre-Gama gobi...@yahoo.com To: A Virtual Network for
Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read!
Maadera has truly educated. Besides, Language grows with its continual use. Those who find Lugbara confusing only have challenges with intonations as they pronounce the words, which with time is sorted with time. Learning any language requires patience and every human being is equipped with language learning device (LAD), which enables him or her to learn any language. The bottom line is patience. The mistakes and frustrations are part of the learning process. My son over generalized past tense of ever word by simply adding ed at the end and asserted I eated all my food instead of I ate all my food, but this did not discourage him. Am sure he is one of the best English speakers in his class, going by the reports I get. In conclusion, Lugbara is not any different from any other language as far as learning it is confirmed. Those of you who like me grew up in Mvara remember Mr. and Mrs Mc Leo (not sure of spelling of the name) the missionaries based at Emmanuel Cathedral till 1980s spoke very good Lugbara and even preached in Lugbara. All the best for trying to learn our wonderful language. Awadifo. From: Asaf Adebua asaf...@gmail.com To: A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net Sent: Saturday, 27 April 2013, 9:56 Subject: Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read! A VERY LONG TICK TO YOU MAANDERA1 On 4/26/13, Maandera ibmaand...@gmail.com wrote: Hmmm. Before reading this article, I had read another blog about 4 years ago of an American also living in Arua and struggling to learn Lugbara. That one was less dramatic than this one. But I'd also heard of people saying Lugbara is a difficult language to learn. This had actually gotten me thinking: Can't you try to make learning Lugbara easier? I made an outline and soon foxed out, not with After all the grapes are sour but with a barrage of: After all that is a relative statement. All languages are difficult to learn. Try a click language and tell me it is easy. Try the French which is spoken through the nose. . . etc, etc Well, this blog got me updating my draft again based on some of the issues pointed out in it. I am not yet finished. What got me particularly thinking was how to best address the challenge of that apt comparison with Chinese - due to the tonality of the language and the fact that we have several dialects, which makes it a very rich and admittedly confusing language. Allow me another foxing: Who says English or Dutch is not confusing? As an English language teacher myself, I got loads of examples to which I have no explanation or justification apart from saying, Sorry, but exceptions confirm the rule! Why do the English for example say, the singular form of the verb *to-be* is *is* and yet when you meet one person (that is singular, for sure) you as How *are* you? as if there is more than one person you are talking to? And the English have the audacity to say that is Correct English! Don't tell me the word *wound* in the following sentence has one and only one meaning: The nurse *wound* the bandage around the *wound* of the *wounded* boy. And why should the plural of *box* be bo*xes* and the one of ox be ox*en* and not ox*es*? And why should a *driv**er* be a person, yet *cooker* is a thing for cooking and the person is a *Cook* and what the *cook* does is to *cook*? They also confuse us! But, that's the beauty and uniqueness of languages anyhow. The more reason why people learn languages. On a serious note: As many people have said, the article indeed made me see some things differently. For example, that Lugbara is a visual language. Hmmm. House-stomach! True, indeed. Visual and descriptive. That should make it even easier to learn. Common language teachers, let's do something to make this thing more palatable for those who want to get a different peek into our culture - through the language. The time keeping, I agree is something that is kind of different and often works against us. Not only the Lugbara but Ugandans. Did you read that article of the Teso youth protesting their MPs appearing at 6.30pm for a meeting that was scheduled for 3pm. My foot. We still have something to learn from the positive aspects of other cultures, which may enrich the positives in ours. Overall, it was some good food for thought and rib-breaking. Thank you George. On Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 7:56 AM, Santorino Data boymuked...@yahoo.comwrote: Great piece of writing indeed. This made my morning and now I understand why I spent 6 years in Arua and still struggle to speak the language - confusion just that needs very meticulous attention to detail and context even though I was from across the Lugbara border in Kakwa land *Dr. Data Santorino **Lecturer Department of Pediatrics and Child Health Mbarara University of Science and Technology Uganda.*
Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read!
Maadera has truly educated. Besides, Language grows with its continual use. Those who find Lugbara confusing only have challenges with intonations as they pronounce the words, which with time is sorted with time. Learning any language requires patience and every human being is equipped with language learning device (LAD), which enables him or her to learn any language. The bottom line is patience. The mistakes and frustrations are part of the learning process. My son over generalized past tense of ever word by simply adding ed at the end and asserted I eated all my food instead of I ate all my food, but this did not discourage him. Am sure he is one of the best English speakers in his class, going by the reports I get. In conclusion, Lugbara is not any different from any other language as far as learning it is confirmed. Those of you who like me grew up in Mvara remember Mr. and Mrs Mc Leo (not sure of spelling of the name) the missionaries based at Emmanuel Cathedral till 1980s spoke very good Lugbara and even preached in Lugbara. All the best for trying to learn our wonderful language. Awadifo. From: Asaf Adebua asaf...@gmail.com To: A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net Sent: Saturday, 27 April 2013, 9:56 Subject: Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read! A VERY LONG TICK TO YOU MAANDERA1 On 4/26/13, Maandera ibmaand...@gmail.com wrote: Hmmm. Before reading this article, I had read another blog about 4 years ago of an American also living in Arua and struggling to learn Lugbara. That one was less dramatic than this one. But I'd also heard of people saying Lugbara is a difficult language to learn. This had actually gotten me thinking: Can't you try to make learning Lugbara easier? I made an outline and soon foxed out, not with After all the grapes are sour but with a barrage of: After all that is a relative statement. All languages are difficult to learn. Try a click language and tell me it is easy. Try the French which is spoken through the nose. . . etc, etc Well, this blog got me updating my draft again based on some of the issues pointed out in it. I am not yet finished. What got me particularly thinking was how to best address the challenge of that apt comparison with Chinese - due to the tonality of the language and the fact that we have several dialects, which makes it a very rich and admittedly confusing language. Allow me another foxing: Who says English or Dutch is not confusing? As an English language teacher myself, I got loads of examples to which I have no explanation or justification apart from saying, Sorry, but exceptions confirm the rule! Why do the English for example say, the singular form of the verb *to-be* is *is* and yet when you meet one person (that is singular, for sure) you as How *are* you? as if there is more than one person you are talking to? And the English have the audacity to say that is Correct English! Don't tell me the word *wound* in the following sentence has one and only one meaning: The nurse *wound* the bandage around the *wound* of the *wounded* boy. And why should the plural of *box* be bo*xes* and the one of ox be ox*en* and not ox*es*? And why should a *driv**er* be a person, yet *cooker* is a thing for cooking and the person is a *Cook* and what the *cook* does is to *cook*? They also confuse us! But, that's the beauty and uniqueness of languages anyhow. The more reason why people learn languages. On a serious note: As many people have said, the article indeed made me see some things differently. For example, that Lugbara is a visual language. Hmmm. House-stomach! True, indeed. Visual and descriptive. That should make it even easier to learn. Common language teachers, let's do something to make this thing more palatable for those who want to get a different peek into our culture - through the language. The time keeping, I agree is something that is kind of different and often works against us. Not only the Lugbara but Ugandans. Did you read that article of the Teso youth protesting their MPs appearing at 6.30pm for a meeting that was scheduled for 3pm. My foot. We still have something to learn from the positive aspects of other cultures, which may enrich the positives in ours. Overall, it was some good food for thought and rib-breaking. Thank you George. On Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 7:56 AM, Santorino Data boymuked...@yahoo.comwrote: Great piece of writing indeed. This made my morning and now I understand why I spent 6 years in Arua and still struggle to speak the language - confusion just that needs very meticulous attention to detail and context even though I was from across the Lugbara border in Kakwa land *Dr. Data Santorino **Lecturer Department of Pediatrics and Child Health Mbarara University of Science and Technology Uganda.*
Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read!
ama ecoki e'yo 'diyi ki nje Lugbara ti nderi si raya? awa'difo emini woro ambooru tu. Atamva Asea --- On Mon, 4/29/13, David Olema davidol...@yahoo.co.uk wrote: From: David Olema davidol...@yahoo.co.uk Subject: Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read! To: A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net Date: Monday, April 29, 2013, 4:21 AM Maadera has truly educated. Besides, Language grows with its continual use. Those who find Lugbara confusing only have challenges with intonations as they pronounce the words, which with time is sorted with time. Learning any language requires patience and every human being is equipped with language learning device (LAD), which enables him or her to learn any language. The bottom line is patience. The mistakes and frustrations are part of the learning process. My son over generalized past tense of ever word by simply adding ed at the end and asserted I eated all my food instead of I ate all my food, but this did not discourage him. Am sure he is one of the best English speakers in his class, going by the reports I get.In conclusion, Lugbara is not any different from any other language as far as learning it is confirmed. Those of you who like me grew up in Mvara remember Mr. and Mrs Mc Leo (not sure of spelling of the name) the missionaries based at Emmanuel Cathedral till 1980s spoke very good Lugbara and even preached in Lugbara. All the best for trying to learn our wonderful language. Awadifo. From: Asaf Adebua asaf...@gmail.com To: A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net Sent: Saturday, 27 April 2013, 9:56 Subject: Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read! A VERY LONG TICK TO YOU MAANDERA1 On 4/26/13, Maandera ibmaand...@gmail.com wrote: Hmmm. Before reading this article, I had read another blog about 4 years ago of an American also living in Arua and struggling to learn Lugbara. That one was less dramatic than this one. But I'd also heard of people saying Lugbara is a difficult language to learn. This had actually gotten me thinking: Can't you try to make learning Lugbara easier? I made an outline and soon foxed out, not with After all the grapes are sour but with a barrage of: After all that is a relative statement. All languages are difficult to learn. Try a click language and tell me it is easy. Try the French which is spoken through the nose. . . etc, etc Well, this blog got me updating my draft again based on some of the issues pointed out in it. I am not yet finished. What got me particularly thinking was how to best address the challenge of that apt comparison with Chinese - due to the tonality of the language and the fact that we have several dialects, which makes it a very rich and admittedly confusing language. Allow me another foxing: Who says English or Dutch is not confusing? As an English language teacher myself, I got loads of examples to which I have no explanation or justification apart from saying, Sorry, but exceptions confirm the rule! Why do the English for example say, the singular form of the verb *to-be* is *is* and yet when you meet one person (that is singular, for sure) you as How *are* you? as if there is more than one person you are talking to? And the English have the audacity to say that is Correct English! Don't tell me the word *wound* in the following sentence has one and only one meaning: The nurse *wound* the bandage around the *wound* of the *wounded* boy. And why should the plural of *box* be bo*xes* and the one of ox be ox*en* and not ox*es*? And why should a *driv**er* be a person, yet *cooker* is a thing for cooking and the person is a *Cook* and what the *cook* does is to *cook*? They also confuse us! But, that's the beauty and uniqueness of languages anyhow. The more reason why people learn languages. On a serious note: As many people have said, the article indeed made me see some things differently. For example, that Lugbara is a visual language. Hmmm. House-stomach! True, indeed. Visual and descriptive. That should make it even easier to learn. Common language teachers, let's do something to make this thing more palatable for those who want to get a different peek into our culture - through the language. The time keeping, I agree is something that is kind of different and often works against us. Not only the Lugbara but Ugandans. Did you read that article of the Teso youth protesting their MPs appearing at 6.30pm for a meeting that was scheduled for 3pm. My foot. We still have something to learn from the positive aspects of other cultures, which may enrich the positives in ours. Overall, it was some good food for thought and rib-breaking. Thank you George. On Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 7:56 AM, Santorino Data boymuked...@yahoo.comwrote: Great piece of writing indeed. This made my morning and now I
Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read!
Just Charles Male and Maandera have the points. Awa'difo imini. On 4/28/13, Charles Male cdm...@gmail.com wrote: Who says Lugbara is difficult... We Africans all speak English or French because we had no choice if we were to progress follow the paths of our colonisers... English or French was drilled into our heads from early childhood... depending on who our conquerors were (English or French) If Lugbaras conquered the world like the English and French did... the whole world would be speaking and learning Lugbara...as easy as learning English or French.. And as we all know...everyone is getting ready to learn chinese Just think of how wide spread Lugbara is spoken in Koboko... Kakwa had no choice... There were no written books in kakwa... Missionaries used lugbara books... Most teachers in Koboko were lugbara speaking... Most Kakwa who wanted an education migrated to Arua and beyond... I never had any Kakwa language instruction.. But I have had lugbara as a language of instruction as well as a subject.. In fact, I had an option of completing my A levels in UK a few decades ago... and i was required to take a foreign language... My choice was lugbara NOT Kakwa because there were a few lugbaras in London at that time who could guide me... But opportunity to migrate to Canada came so I abandoned England and continued my education in Canada instead... As someone who is fluent in both Kakwa and lugbara and understands Madi, I think kakwa is the most difficult of all the west nile languages... Just ask those who studied in St Charles Lwanga, Koboko... How many returned to their counties knowing more than Adinyo... Even during exile life...the lugbara and madi who were in kakwa or Kuku speaking areas of South Sudan found it difficult to learn Kakwa or Kuku language (which are related)... my 2 cents.. On 4/27/13, Asaf Adebua asaf...@gmail.com wrote: A VERY LONG TICK TO YOU MAANDERA1 On 4/26/13, Maandera ibmaand...@gmail.com wrote: Hmmm. Before reading this article, I had read another blog about 4 years ago of an American also living in Arua and struggling to learn Lugbara. That one was less dramatic than this one. But I'd also heard of people saying Lugbara is a difficult language to learn. This had actually gotten me thinking: Can't you try to make learning Lugbara easier? I made an outline and soon foxed out, not with After all the grapes are sour but with a barrage of: After all that is a relative statement. All languages are difficult to learn. Try a click language and tell me it is easy. Try the French which is spoken through the nose. . . etc, etc Well, this blog got me updating my draft again based on some of the issues pointed out in it. I am not yet finished. What got me particularly thinking was how to best address the challenge of that apt comparison with Chinese - due to the tonality of the language and the fact that we have several dialects, which makes it a very rich and admittedly confusing language. Allow me another foxing: Who says English or Dutch is not confusing? As an English language teacher myself, I got loads of examples to which I have no explanation or justification apart from saying, Sorry, but exceptions confirm the rule! Why do the English for example say, the singular form of the verb *to-be* is *is* and yet when you meet one person (that is singular, for sure) you as How *are* you? as if there is more than one person you are talking to? And the English have the audacity to say that is Correct English! Don't tell me the word *wound* in the following sentence has one and only one meaning: The nurse *wound* the bandage around the *wound* of the *wounded* boy. And why should the plural of *box* be bo*xes* and the one of ox be ox*en* and not ox*es*? And why should a *driv**er* be a person, yet *cooker* is a thing for cooking and the person is a *Cook* and what the *cook* does is to *cook*? They also confuse us! But, that's the beauty and uniqueness of languages anyhow. The more reason why people learn languages. On a serious note: As many people have said, the article indeed made me see some things differently. For example, that Lugbara is a visual language. Hmmm. House-stomach! True, indeed. Visual and descriptive. That should make it even easier to learn. Common language teachers, let's do something to make this thing more palatable for those who want to get a different peek into our culture - through the language. The time keeping, I agree is something that is kind of different and often works against us. Not only the Lugbara but Ugandans. Did you read that article of the Teso youth protesting their MPs appearing at 6.30pm for a meeting that was scheduled for 3pm. My foot. We still have something to learn from the positive aspects of other cultures, which may enrich the positives in ours. Overall, it was some good food for thought and rib-breaking.
Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read!
Yes I believe interest is material when it comes to learning a foreign language. Lugbara language for long has been made complicated by Lugbaras failure to Open Up and learn other languages. Most of our people who lived in Kampala in 1970s did not learn Luganda. Reason was that the Baganda were proud. Most Lugbaras some tine ago could not learn Kakwa, Madi or Alur, reason, some naive superiority complex and defining Arua as the boundary of what they need. If you have interest in learning other languages and you open up to other people, your language begins to grow and with new terms adopted it becomes rich. why should we have one word for example 'ti' to mean, mouth, language, cow, giving birth e.t.c, why should we still call a girl child as 'eza mva' after meat, and not oku mva, since male species are 'agupia mva' and 'tia mva' ndria anva, aua mva, for animals. in Uganda, various events and tabloids are building a certain diction and they have imported words which is bound to remain part of our diction, semantics and create our English. In Uganda today names of places far away mean different things, I do not intend to vulgarize the debate but for example Kandahar, Vuvuzela, mean different things in Uganda. Now because of trade and movements, attitudes are changing, Lubgaras can now speak Kakwa, Madi, Luganda, e.t.c. I am sure as more people speak a dialect of Lugbara which is not typical Vura, Terego, Maracha or Ayivu, we are bound to develop a high breed which cuts across the small counties called tribes in Arua and hopefully our language will become simpler to learn. Sent from my iPhone On Apr 28, 2013, at 11:03 AM, Asaf Adebua asaf...@gmail.com wrote: Just Charles Male and Maandera have the points. Awa'difo imini. On 4/28/13, Charles Male cdm...@gmail.com wrote: Who says Lugbara is difficult... We Africans all speak English or French because we had no choice if we were to progress follow the paths of our colonisers... English or French was drilled into our heads from early childhood... depending on who our conquerors were (English or French) If Lugbaras conquered the world like the English and French did... the whole world would be speaking and learning Lugbara...as easy as learning English or French.. And as we all know...everyone is getting ready to learn chinese Just think of how wide spread Lugbara is spoken in Koboko... Kakwa had no choice... There were no written books in kakwa... Missionaries used lugbara books... Most teachers in Koboko were lugbara speaking... Most Kakwa who wanted an education migrated to Arua and beyond... I never had any Kakwa language instruction.. But I have had lugbara as a language of instruction as well as a subject.. In fact, I had an option of completing my A levels in UK a few decades ago... and i was required to take a foreign language... My choice was lugbara NOT Kakwa because there were a few lugbaras in London at that time who could guide me... But opportunity to migrate to Canada came so I abandoned England and continued my education in Canada instead... As someone who is fluent in both Kakwa and lugbara and understands Madi, I think kakwa is the most difficult of all the west nile languages... Just ask those who studied in St Charles Lwanga, Koboko... How many returned to their counties knowing more than Adinyo... Even during exile life...the lugbara and madi who were in kakwa or Kuku speaking areas of South Sudan found it difficult to learn Kakwa or Kuku language (which are related)... my 2 cents.. On 4/27/13, Asaf Adebua asaf...@gmail.com wrote: A VERY LONG TICK TO YOU MAANDERA1 On 4/26/13, Maandera ibmaand...@gmail.com wrote: Hmmm. Before reading this article, I had read another blog about 4 years ago of an American also living in Arua and struggling to learn Lugbara. That one was less dramatic than this one. But I'd also heard of people saying Lugbara is a difficult language to learn. This had actually gotten me thinking: Can't you try to make learning Lugbara easier? I made an outline and soon foxed out, not with After all the grapes are sour but with a barrage of: After all that is a relative statement. All languages are difficult to learn. Try a click language and tell me it is easy. Try the French which is spoken through the nose. . . etc, etc Well, this blog got me updating my draft again based on some of the issues pointed out in it. I am not yet finished. What got me particularly thinking was how to best address the challenge of that apt comparison with Chinese - due to the tonality of the language and the fact that we have several dialects, which makes it a very rich and admittedly confusing language. Allow me another foxing: Who says English or Dutch is not confusing? As an English language teacher myself, I got loads of examples to which I have no explanation or justification apart from saying,
Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read!
Well said Caleb! Ego and unfounded pride are a killer and very derogative. Shukhran ketir! Bernard Consultant - MolPSHRD GOSS - JUBA Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android ___ WestNileNet mailing list WestNileNet@kym.net http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet WestNileNet is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ___
Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read!
..and again it comes up! Its I think more than a year ever since I last posted asking for help in learning my mother tongue and I wont stop seeking that basic identity that I dont have. If any of you knows of anyone who can or is capable of tutoring me to learn our frequency, please avail yourself and save a son of the soil. This confession comes with utnost pure intent. On Sunday, 28 April 2013, keb...@gmail.com wrote: Caleb, Well said (or written) and on point. Kenneth Amagu S e n t f r o m m y B l a c k B e r r y ® s m a r t p h o n e -Original Message- From: Caleb Alaka calebal...@yahoo.com Sender: westnilenet-bounces@kym.netDate: Sun, 28 Apr 2013 11:58:30 To: A Virtual Network for friends of West Nilewestnilenet@kym.net Reply-To: A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net Subject: Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read! Yes I believe interest is material when it comes to learning a foreign language. Lugbara language for long has been made complicated by Lugbaras failure to Open Up and learn other languages. Most of our people who lived in Kampala in 1970s did not learn Luganda. Reason was that the Baganda were proud. Most Lugbaras some tine ago could not learn Kakwa, Madi or Alur, reason, some naive superiority complex and defining Arua as the boundary of what they need. If you have interest in learning other languages and you open up to other people, your language begins to grow and with new terms adopted it becomes rich. why should we have one word for example 'ti' to mean, mouth, language, cow, giving birth e.t.c, why should we still call a girl child as 'eza mva' after meat, and not oku mva, since male species are 'agupia mva' and 'tia mva' ndria anva, aua mva, for animals. in Uganda, various events and tabloids are building a certain diction and they have imported words which is bound to remain part of our diction, semantics and create our English. In Uganda today names of places far away mean different things, I do not intend to vulgarize the debate but for example Kandahar, Vuvuzela, mean different things in Uganda. Now because of trade and movements, attitudes are changing, Lubgaras can now speak Kakwa, Madi, Luganda, e.t.c. I am sure as more people speak a dialect of Lugbara which is not typical Vura, Terego, Maracha or Ayivu, we are bound to develop a high breed which cuts across the small counties called tribes in Arua and hopefully our language will become simpler to learn. Sent from my iPhone On Apr 28, 2013, at 11:03 AM, Asaf Adebua asaf...@gmail.com wrote: Just Charles Male and Maandera have the points. Awa'difo imini. On 4/28/13, Charles Male cdm...@gmail.com wrote: Who says Lugbara is difficult... We Africans all speak English or French because we had no choice if we were to progress follow the paths of our colonisers... English or French was drilled into our heads from early childhood... depending on who our conquerors were (English or French) If Lugbaras conquered the world like the English and French did... the whole world would be speaking and learning Lugbara...as easy as learning English or French.. And as we all know...everyone is getting ready to learn chinese Just think of how wide spread Lugbara is spoken in Koboko... Kakwa had no choice... There were no written books in kakwa... Missionaries used lugbara books... Most teachers in Koboko were lugbara speaking... Most Kakwa who wanted an education migrated to Arua and beyond... I never had any Kakwa language instruction.. But I have had lugbara as a language of instruction as well as a subject.. In fact, I had an option of completing my A levels in UK a few decades ago... and i was required to take a foreign language... My choice was lugbara NOT Kakwa because there were a few lugbaras in London at that time who could guide me... But opportunity to migrate to Canada came so I abandoned England and continued my education in Canada instead... As someone who is fluent in both Kakwa and lugbara and understands Madi, I think kakwa is the most difficult of all the west nile languages... Just ask those who studied in St Charles Lwanga, Koboko... How many returned to their counties knowing more than Adinyo... Even during exile life...the lugbara and madi who were in kakwa or -- Buchsa All rights reserved. ___ WestNileNet mailing list WestNileNet@kym.net http://orion.kym.net/mailman/listinfo/westnilenet WestNileNet is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The List's Host is not responsible for them in any way. ___
Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read!
A VERY LONG TICK TO YOU MAANDERA1 On 4/26/13, Maandera ibmaand...@gmail.com wrote: Hmmm. Before reading this article, I had read another blog about 4 years ago of an American also living in Arua and struggling to learn Lugbara. That one was less dramatic than this one. But I'd also heard of people saying Lugbara is a difficult language to learn. This had actually gotten me thinking: Can't you try to make learning Lugbara easier? I made an outline and soon foxed out, not with After all the grapes are sour but with a barrage of: After all that is a relative statement. All languages are difficult to learn. Try a click language and tell me it is easy. Try the French which is spoken through the nose. . . etc, etc Well, this blog got me updating my draft again based on some of the issues pointed out in it. I am not yet finished. What got me particularly thinking was how to best address the challenge of that apt comparison with Chinese - due to the tonality of the language and the fact that we have several dialects, which makes it a very rich and admittedly confusing language. Allow me another foxing: Who says English or Dutch is not confusing? As an English language teacher myself, I got loads of examples to which I have no explanation or justification apart from saying, Sorry, but exceptions confirm the rule! Why do the English for example say, the singular form of the verb *to-be* is *is* and yet when you meet one person (that is singular, for sure) you as How *are* you? as if there is more than one person you are talking to? And the English have the audacity to say that is Correct English! Don't tell me the word *wound* in the following sentence has one and only one meaning: The nurse *wound* the bandage around the *wound* of the *wounded* boy. And why should the plural of *box* be bo*xes* and the one of ox be ox*en* and not ox*es*? And why should a *driv**er* be a person, yet *cooker* is a thing for cooking and the person is a *Cook* and what the *cook* does is to *cook*? They also confuse us! But, that's the beauty and uniqueness of languages anyhow. The more reason why people learn languages. On a serious note: As many people have said, the article indeed made me see some things differently. For example, that Lugbara is a visual language. Hmmm. House-stomach! True, indeed. Visual and descriptive. That should make it even easier to learn. Common language teachers, let's do something to make this thing more palatable for those who want to get a different peek into our culture - through the language. The time keeping, I agree is something that is kind of different and often works against us. Not only the Lugbara but Ugandans. Did you read that article of the Teso youth protesting their MPs appearing at 6.30pm for a meeting that was scheduled for 3pm. My foot. We still have something to learn from the positive aspects of other cultures, which may enrich the positives in ours. Overall, it was some good food for thought and rib-breaking. Thank you George. On Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 7:56 AM, Santorino Data boymuked...@yahoo.comwrote: Great piece of writing indeed. This made my morning and now I understand why I spent 6 years in Arua and still struggle to speak the language - confusion just that needs very meticulous attention to detail and context even though I was from across the Lugbara border in Kakwa land *Dr. Data Santorino **Lecturer Department of Pediatrics and Child Health Mbarara University of Science and Technology Uganda.* -- *From:* Anyole J anyo...@yahoo.ca *To:* George Afi Obitre-Gama gobi...@yahoo.com; A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net; A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net *Sent:* Thursday, April 25, 2013 7:21 PM *Subject:* Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read! This is a very interesting piece. It is always nice to see things from an out-siders perspective and make sense of things we are usually oblivious to, house-mouth, za-mva, et all! The piece does bring out some things that worry anthropologist too, cultures are gradually getting eroded traditions have been changing here as the pressure of our Western culture pervades and invades. as well, it high lights some issues that continue to plague us, such as time keeping, which has itself not been eroded by the same western culture. Thanks for sharing this, it did make my day that more interesting, got me thinking. One of these days, I'll beat my vernacular teacher a phone Anyole -- *From:* George Afi Obitre-Gama gobi...@yahoo.com *To:* A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net *Sent:* Thursday, April 25, 2013 4:12:31 AM *Subject:* [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read! A new year, a new language, more
Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read!
Many people I have interacted with describe the Lugbara's as friendly, sociable and honest people but have had difficulty embracing the culture because of the complex language. This is the uniqueness about us which I had not realized. I implore the great anthropologists and linguists hailing from West Nile to document and let our people know Going back to one of my favorite words,odu that has several meanings to the furthest extent you can stretch your mind. You only need to change the intonation andprobably a phrase before or after and odu will mean; Oil, sleep, day of the week/month, a certain wild fruit (commonly eaten by monkeys), leopard, thigh, bad omen, long ago and probably cockroach interesting indeed. Aldo From: George Afi Obitre-Gama gobi...@yahoo.com To: A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net Sent: Thursday, 25 April 2013, 13:12 Subject: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read! A new year, a new language, more confusion Why can't everyone speak English? 16.01.2013 30 °C Learning a new language and culture is like discovering a new world, opening your eyes and mind to completely amazing and strange ideas, some shocking, some fascinating, most unexpected. Since the beginning of the new year, we have a new teacher, Eunice, who is hoping to make us into fluent Lugbara speakers within a few months… Lugbara is the local tribe in Arua, one of the 10 largest tribes in Uganda (out of a total of 34 ethnicities). The Lugbara are a tribe descended from Nigeria to settle here. Their territory extends around Arua and into the Democratic Republic of Congo, so families have been split by the arbitrary political boundaries drawn by the Europeans in Berlin in 1884. Disconcertingly, we seem to be a source of great amusement for most of the ex-pats when we tell them we are taking this time to study Lugbara. “Good luck”, they tell us. They then go on to tell you a story of someone who has been attempting the language for many years and haven’t gotten very far. Some compare the language to Chinese, saying it is one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn. It is quite depressing hearing this, obviously… Additionally, having grown up in Congo and learning Swahili there, having lived in Malawi and Kenya and trying to learn the languages there, while being exposed to various other African languages, it is frustrating to have to start at zero like a baby once again….those languages are nothing like Lugbara! Most whites don’t even bother to learn Lugbara especially since this tribe is only one of 5 in the close vicinity of one another. For example, the Alur are settled on the outskirts of Arua town. Their language is close to the Luo language which we were learning in Kenya. To make it even worse, there are sub-sections of the Lugbara tribe with variations in the way words are said. Whoopee to learning a difficult language which is only spoken by a few and which is nothing like any other language we have ever heard! Eunice, in action, confusing us Eunice is a good teacher, though, having patience with us as we sit on the veranda trying to repeat what on earth she has just said. As a Lugbara, she is also good at turning up late, demonstrating how a Lugbara should act. As Lilian, another Lugbara who works for us says, “Lugbaras is not following time, ha!” and laughs out loud. So, anyway, she is almost an hour late today, but since we live in Africa, you never know what may have happened. It could be a relative has just died and she has to go to the funeral. Despite the issue of time-keeping, which especially bothers Emma, Eunice has been effective at moving us on in the language. Emma and I already feel more confident using some simple phrases and greetings. For example, I was particularly proud when I asked for 10 eggs the other day in the local wooden duka close to our home. “Ife mani augbe mundri”. The word for egg 'augbe' is spoken as though you are swallowing an egg... One of the problems of learning Lugbara is that the same words can mean completely different things. So, for instance, the word for sauce, “tibi”, is the same word for ‘beard’, just with a different tone. Emma wonders if this has anything to do with someone’s long beard dragging in their gravy once upon a time. There are other examples, though the best so far is the word ‘ago’, which if intonated differently, can either mean ‘husband’ or ‘pumpkin’. A phrase like ‘my beautiful fiancée’ can also come across as ‘my beautiful warthog’, so any wannabe suitors need to be pretty careful in this town… Emma also uses a lot of imagination when it comes to remembering the Lugbara phrases or words. So, for instance, the word for peanuts is ‘funo’ (foon-oh). Emma thinks of little peanuts bouncing around and having a lot of fun. It can be a bit of a tentative or weird link at
Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read!
I ENTER FOR ME(Afi) Kirikirisi 'Di ndediniyo .The Piece of the year.Hee. --- On Fri, 26/4/13, burua aldo burua...@yahoo.co.uk wrote: From: burua aldo burua...@yahoo.co.uk Subject: Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read! To: George Afi Obitre-Gama gobi...@yahoo.com, A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net, A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net Date: Friday, 26 April, 2013, 6:11 Many people I have interacted with describe the Lugbara's as friendly, sociable and honest people but have had difficulty embracing the culture because of the complex language. This is the uniqueness about us which I had not realized. I implore the great anthropologists and linguists hailing from West Nile to document and let our people know Going back to one of my favorite words, odu that has several meanings to the furthest extent you can stretch your mind. You only need to change the intonation and probably a phrase before or after and odu will mean; Oil, sleep, day of the week/month, a certain wild fruit (commonly eaten by monkeys), leopard, thigh, bad omen, long ago and probably cockroach interesting indeed. Aldo From: George Afi Obitre-Gama gobi...@yahoo.com To: A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net Sent: Thursday, 25 April 2013, 13:12 Subject: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read! A new year, a new language, more confusion Why can't everyone speak English? 16.01.2013 30 °C Learning a new language and culture is like discovering a new world, opening your eyes and mind to completely amazing and strange ideas, some shocking, some fascinating, most unexpected. Since the beginning of the new year, we have a new teacher, Eunice, who is hoping to make us into fluent Lugbara speakers within a few months… Lugbara is the local tribe in Arua, one of the 10 largest tribes in Uganda (out of a total of 34 ethnicities). The Lugbara are a tribe descended from Nigeria to settle here. Their territory extends around Arua and into the Democratic Republic of Congo, so families have been split by the arbitrary political boundaries drawn by the Europeans in Berlin in 1884. Disconcertingly, we seem to be a source of great amusement for most of the ex-pats when we tell them we are taking this time to study Lugbara. “Good luck”, they tell us. They then go on to tell you a story of someone who has been attempting the language for many years and haven’t gotten very far. Some compare the language to Chinese, saying it is one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn. It is quite depressing hearing this, obviously… Additionally, having grown up in Congo and learning Swahili there, having lived in Malawi and Kenya and trying to learn the languages there, while being exposed to various other African languages, it is frustrating to have to start at zero like a baby once again….those languages are nothing like Lugbara! Most whites don’t even bother to learn Lugbara especially since this tribe is only one of 5 in the close vicinity of one another. For example, the Alur are settled on the outskirts of Arua town. Their language is close to the Luo language which we were learning in Kenya. To make it even worse, there are sub-sections of the Lugbara tribe with variations in the way words are said. Whoopee to learning a difficult language which is only spoken by a few and which is nothing like any other language we have ever heard! Eunice, in action, confusing us Eunice is a good teacher, though, having patience with us as we sit on the veranda trying to repeat what on earth she has just said. As a Lugbara, she is also good at turning up late, demonstrating how a Lugbara should act. As Lilian, another Lugbara who works for us says, “Lugbaras is not following time, ha!” and laughs out loud. So, anyway, she is almost an hour late today, but since we live in Africa, you never know what may have happened. It could be a relative has just died and she has to go to the funeral. Despite the issue of time-keeping, which especially bothers Emma, Eunice has been effective at moving us on in the language. Emma and I already feel more confident using some simple phrases and greetings. For example, I was particularly proud when I asked for 10 eggs the other day in the local wooden duka close to our home. “Ife mani augbe mundri”. The word for egg 'augbe' is spoken as though you are swallowing an egg... One of the problems of learning Lugbara is that the same words can mean completely different things. So, for instance, the word for sauce, “tibi”, is the same word for ‘beard’, just with a different tone. Emma wonders if this has anything to do with someone’s long beard dragging in their gravy once upon a time. There are other examples, though the best so far is the word ‘ago’, which if intonated differently, can either
Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read!
A truly beautiful language and culture, Thank you Aldo and Data for this piece of information. I am proud! to speak this beautiful language and to have a decent from this great tribe in Uganda. Can we have more such inspiring anthropologists to share with us such beauty? Jennifer --- On Fri, 26/4/13, burua aldo burua...@yahoo.co.uk wrote: From: burua aldo burua...@yahoo.co.uk Subject: Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read! To: George Afi Obitre-Gama gobi...@yahoo.com, A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net, A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net Date: Friday, 26 April, 2013, 7:11 Many people I have interacted with describe the Lugbara's as friendly, sociable and honest people but have had difficulty embracing the culture because of the complex language. This is the uniqueness about us which I had not realized. I implore the great anthropologists and linguists hailing from West Nile to document and let our people know Going back to one of my favorite words, odu that has several meanings to the furthest extent you can stretch your mind. You only need to change the intonation and probably a phrase before or after and odu will mean; Oil, sleep, day of the week/month, a certain wild fruit (commonly eaten by monkeys), leopard, thigh, bad omen, long ago and probably cockroach interesting indeed. Aldo From: George Afi Obitre-Gama gobi...@yahoo.com To: A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net Sent: Thursday, 25 April 2013, 13:12 Subject: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read! A new year, a new language, more confusionWhy can't everyone speak English? 16.01.2013 30 °CLearning a new language and culture is like discovering a new world, opening your eyes and mind to completely amazing and strange ideas, some shocking, some fascinating, most unexpected. Since the beginning of the new year, we have a new teacher, Eunice, who is hoping to make us into fluent Lugbara speakers within a few months… Lugbara is the local tribe in Arua, one of the 10 largest tribes in Uganda (out of a total of 34 ethnicities). The Lugbara are a tribe descended from Nigeria to settle here. Their territory extends around Arua and into the Democratic Republic of Congo, so families have been split by the arbitrary political boundaries drawn by the Europeans in Berlin in 1884. Disconcertingly, we seem to be a source of great amusement for most of the ex-pats when we tell them we are taking this time to study Lugbara. “Good luck”, they tell us. They then go on to tell you a story of someone who has been attempting the language for many years and haven’t gotten very far. Some compare the language to Chinese, saying it is one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn. It is quite depressing hearing this, obviously… Additionally, having grown up in Congo and learning Swahili there, having lived in Malawi and Kenya and trying to learn the languages there, while being exposed to various other African languages, it is frustrating to have to start at zero like a baby once again….those languages are nothing like Lugbara! Most whites don’t even bother to learn Lugbara especially since this tribe is only one of 5 in the close vicinity of one another. For example, the Alur are settled on the outskirts of Arua town. Their language is close to the Luo language which we were learning in Kenya. To make it even worse, there are sub-sections of the Lugbara tribe with variations in the way words are said. Whoopee to learning a difficult language which is only spoken by a few and which is nothing like any other language we have ever heard! Eunice, in action, confusing us Eunice is a good teacher, though, having patience with us as we sit on the veranda trying to repeat what on earth she has just said. As a Lugbara, she is also good at turning up late, demonstrating how a Lugbara should act. As Lilian, another Lugbara who works for us says, “Lugbaras is not following time, ha!” and laughs out loud. So, anyway, she is almost an hour late today, but since we live in Africa, you never know what may have happened. It could be a relative has just died and she has to go to the funeral. Despite the issue of time-keeping, which especially bothers Emma, Eunice has been effective at moving us on in the language. Emma and I already feel more confident using some simple phrases and greetings. For example, I was particularly proud when I asked for 10 eggs the other day in the local wooden duka close to our home. “Ife mani augbe mundri”. The word for egg 'augbe' is spoken as though you are swallowing an egg...One of the problems of learning Lugbara is that the same words can mean completely different things. So, for instance,
Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read!
Wao...!! what a wonderful article, this information has brought out so many issues I was searching for the solutions.true, my clan is called Gobiri and in west Africa someone said there is also a tribe called Gobiri and the language is said to be like our own Lug'barathose who are there please tell us more of this and it makes me to understand why some tribes get it a problem to pronounce 'Lug'bara' the way it should be among many other words... Ezati Eric From: Santorino Data boymuked...@yahoo.com To: Anyole J anyo...@yahoo.ca; George Afi Obitre-Gama gobi...@yahoo.com; A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net; A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net Sent: Friday, 26 April 2013, 6:56 Subject: Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read! Great piece of writing indeed. This made my morning and now I understand why I spent 6 years in Arua and still struggle to speak the language - confusion just that needs very meticulous attention to detail and context even though I was from across the Lugbara border in Kakwa land Dr. Data Santorino Lecturer Department of Pediatrics and Child Health Mbarara University of Science and Technology Uganda. From: Anyole J anyo...@yahoo.ca To: George Afi Obitre-Gama gobi...@yahoo.com; A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net; A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2013 7:21 PM Subject: Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read! This is a very interesting piece. It is always nice to see things from an out-siders perspective and make sense of things we are usually oblivious to, house-mouth, za-mva, et all! The piece does bring out some things that worry anthropologist too, cultures are gradually getting eroded traditions have been changing here as the pressure of our Western culture pervades and invades. as well, it high lights some issues that continue to plague us, such as time keeping, which has itself not been eroded by the same western culture. Thanks for sharing this, it did make my day that more interesting, got me thinking. One of these days, I'll beat my vernacular teacher a phone Anyole From: George Afi Obitre-Gama gobi...@yahoo.com To: A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2013 4:12:31 AM Subject: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read! A new year, a new language, more confusion Why can't everyone speak English? 16.01.2013 30 °C Learning a new language and culture is like discovering a new world, opening your eyes and mind to completely amazing and strange ideas, some shocking, some fascinating, most unexpected. Since the beginning of the new year, we have a new teacher, Eunice, who is hoping to make us into fluent Lugbara speakers within a few months… Lugbara is the local tribe in Arua, one of the 10 largest tribes in Uganda (out of a total of 34 ethnicities). The Lugbara are a tribe descended from Nigeria to settle here. Their territory extends around Arua and into the Democratic Republic of Congo, so families have been split by the arbitrary political boundaries drawn by the Europeans in Berlin in 1884. Disconcertingly, we seem to be a source of great amusement for most of the ex-pats when we tell them we are taking this time to study Lugbara. “Good luck”, they tell us. They then go on to tell you a story of someone who has been attempting the language for many years and haven’t gotten very far. Some compare the language to Chinese, saying it is one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn. It is quite depressing hearing this, obviously… Additionally, having grown up in Congo and learning Swahili there, having lived in Malawi and Kenya and trying to learn the languages there, while being exposed to various other African languages, it is frustrating to have to start at zero like a baby once again….those languages are nothing like Lugbara! Most whites don’t even bother to learn Lugbara especially since this tribe is only one of 5 in the close vicinity of one another. For example, the Alur are settled on the outskirts of Arua town. Their language is close to the Luo language which we were learning in Kenya. To make it even worse, there are sub-sections of the Lugbara tribe with variations in the way words are said. Whoopee to learning a difficult language which is only spoken by a few and which is nothing like any other language we have ever heard! Eunice, in action, confusing us Eunice is a good teacher, though, having patience with us as we sit on the veranda trying to repeat what on earth she has just said. As a Lugbara, she is also good at turning up late, demonstrating how a
Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read!
Ezati... Your clan may be related to the Goburi clan in Koboko (Lobule subcounty) just like the Godia clan in Terego are the same clan as the Godria in Koboko, Congo and South Sudan. Charles On 4/26/13, Ezati Eric jili2...@yahoo.co.uk wrote: Wao...!! what a wonderful article, this information has brought out so many issues I was searching for the solutions.true, my clan is called Gobiri and in west Africa someone said there is also a tribe called Gobiri and the language is said to be like our own Lug'barathose who are there please tell us more of this and it makes me to understand why some tribes get it a problem to pronounce 'Lug'bara' the way it should be among many other words... Ezati Eric From: Santorino Data boymuked...@yahoo.com To: Anyole J anyo...@yahoo.ca; George Afi Obitre-Gama gobi...@yahoo.com; A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net; A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net Sent: Friday, 26 April 2013, 6:56 Subject: Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read! Great piece of writing indeed. This made my morning and now I understand why I spent 6 years in Arua and still struggle to speak the language - confusion just that needs very meticulous attention to detail and context even though I was from across the Lugbara border in Kakwa land Dr. Data Santorino Lecturer Department of Pediatrics and Child Health Mbarara University of Science and Technology Uganda. From: Anyole J anyo...@yahoo.ca To: George Afi Obitre-Gama gobi...@yahoo.com; A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net; A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2013 7:21 PM Subject: Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read! This is a very interesting piece. It is always nice to see things from an out-siders perspective and make sense of things we are usually oblivious to, house-mouth, za-mva, et all! The piece does bring out some things that worry anthropologist too, cultures are gradually getting eroded traditions have been changing here as the pressure of our Western culture pervades and invades. as well, it high lights some issues that continue to plague us, such as time keeping, which has itself not been eroded by the same western culture. Thanks for sharing this, it did make my day that more interesting, got me thinking. One of these days, I'll beat my vernacular teacher a phone Anyole From: George Afi Obitre-Gama gobi...@yahoo.com To: A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2013 4:12:31 AM Subject: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read! A new year, a new language, more confusion Why can't everyone speak English? 16.01.2013 30 °C Learning a new language and culture is like discovering a new world, opening your eyes and mind to completely amazing and strange ideas, some shocking, some fascinating, most unexpected. Since the beginning of the new year, we have a new teacher, Eunice, who is hoping to make us into fluent Lugbara speakers within a few months… Lugbara is the local tribe in Arua, one of the 10 largest tribes in Uganda (out of a total of 34 ethnicities). The Lugbara are a tribe descended from Nigeria to settle here. Their territory extends around Arua and into the Democratic Republic of Congo, so families have been split by the arbitrary political boundaries drawn by the Europeans in Berlin in 1884. Disconcertingly, we seem to be a source of great amusement for most of the ex-pats when we tell them we are taking this time to study Lugbara. “Good luck”, they tell us. They then go on to tell you a story of someone who has been attempting the language for many years and haven’t gotten very far. Some compare the language to Chinese, saying it is one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn. It is quite depressing hearing this, obviously… Additionally, having grown up in Congo and learning Swahili there, having lived in Malawi and Kenya and trying to learn the languages there, while being exposed to various other African languages, it is frustrating to have to start at zero like a baby once again….those languages are nothing like Lugbara! Most whites don’t even bother to learn Lugbara especially since this tribe is only one of 5 in the close vicinity of one another. For example, the Alur are settled on the outskirts of Arua town. Their language is close to the Luo language which we were learning in Kenya. To make it even worse, there are sub-sections of the Lugbara tribe with variations in the way words are said. Whoopee to learning a difficult language which is only spoken by a few and which is nothing like any other language we have ever heard!
Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read!
Hi George you have just made my day with this hilarious piece by the dutch lady struggling with Lugbara. It is amazing! She really knows how to write reflections. I would be glad to access her blog if you don't mind. I would like to follow the discourse. Regards. Sam --- On Thu, 25/4/13, George Afi Obitre-Gama gobi...@yahoo.com wrote: From: George Afi Obitre-Gama gobi...@yahoo.com Subject: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read! To: A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net Date: Thursday, 25 April, 2013, 14:12 A new year, a new language, more confusionWhy can't everyone speak English? 16.01.2013 30 °CLearning a new language and culture is like discovering a new world, opening your eyes and mind to completely amazing and strange ideas, some shocking, some fascinating, most unexpected. Since the beginning of the new year, we have a new teacher, Eunice, who is hoping to make us into fluent Lugbara speakers within a few months… Lugbara is the local tribe in Arua, one of the 10 largest tribes in Uganda (out of a total of 34 ethnicities). The Lugbara are a tribe descended from Nigeria to settle here. Their territory extends around Arua and into the Democratic Republic of Congo, so families have been split by the arbitrary political boundaries drawn by the Europeans in Berlin in 1884. Disconcertingly, we seem to be a source of great amusement for most of the ex-pats when we tell them we are taking this time to study Lugbara. “Good luck”, they tell us. They then go on to tell you a story of someone who has been attempting the language for many years and haven’t gotten very far. Some compare the language to Chinese, saying it is one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn. It is quite depressing hearing this, obviously… Additionally, having grown up in Congo and learning Swahili there, having lived in Malawi and Kenya and trying to learn the languages there, while being exposed to various other African languages, it is frustrating to have to start at zero like a baby once again….those languages are nothing like Lugbara! Most whites don’t even bother to learn Lugbara especially since this tribe is only one of 5 in the close vicinity of one another. For example, the Alur are settled on the outskirts of Arua town. Their language is close to the Luo language which we were learning in Kenya. To make it even worse, there are sub-sections of the Lugbara tribe with variations in the way words are said. Whoopee to learning a difficult language which is only spoken by a few and which is nothing like any other language we have ever heard! Eunice, in action, confusing us Eunice is a good teacher, though, having patience with us as we sit on the veranda trying to repeat what on earth she has just said. As a Lugbara, she is also good at turning up late, demonstrating how a Lugbara should act. As Lilian, another Lugbara who works for us says, “Lugbaras is not following time, ha!” and laughs out loud. So, anyway, she is almost an hour late today, but since we live in Africa, you never know what may have happened. It could be a relative has just died and she has to go to the funeral. Despite the issue of time-keeping, which especially bothers Emma, Eunice has been effective at moving us on in the language. Emma and I already feel more confident using some simple phrases and greetings. For example, I was particularly proud when I asked for 10 eggs the other day in the local wooden duka close to our home. “Ife mani augbe mundri”. The word for egg 'augbe' is spoken as though you are swallowing an egg...One of the problems of learning Lugbara is that the same words can mean completely different things. So, for instance, the word for sauce, “tibi”, is the same word for ‘beard’, just with a different tone. Emma wonders if this has anything to do with someone’s long beard dragging in their gravy once upon a time. There are other examples, though the best so far is the word ‘ago’, which if intonated differently, can either mean ‘husband’ or ‘pumpkin’. A phrase like ‘my beautiful fiancée’ can also come across as ‘my beautiful warthog’, so any wannabe suitors need to be pretty careful in this town…Emma also uses a lot of imagination when it comes to remembering the Lugbara phrases or words. So, for instance, the word for peanuts is ‘funo’ (foon-oh). Emma thinks of little peanuts bouncing around and having a lot of fun. It can be a bit of a tentative or weird link at times. She is constantly whispering to me how I can remember a word. Awupi (A-whoopee) is the word for Aunt on your dad’s side. Obviously, this conjures up thoughts of playing a trick with my Auntie Barbara with a whoopee cushion…’Fetaa’ (feta) means gift and so it is remembered by thinking of giving someone a gift of cheese. I often wish I had
Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read!
http://africraigs.travellerspoint.com/129/ On Apr 25, 2013, at 5:39 PM, samuel andema andema...@yahoo.co.uk wrote: Hi George you have just made my day with this hilarious piece by the dutch lady struggling with Lugbara. It is amazing! She really knows how to write reflections. I would be glad to access her blog if you don't mind. I would like to follow the discourse. Regards. Sam --- On Thu, 25/4/13, George Afi Obitre-Gama gobi...@yahoo.com wrote: From: George Afi Obitre-Gama gobi...@yahoo.com Subject: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read! To: A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net Date: Thursday, 25 April, 2013, 14:12 A new year, a new language, more confusion Why can't everyone speak English? 16.01.2013 30 °C Learning a new language and culture is like discovering a new world, opening your eyes and mind to completely amazing and strange ideas, some shocking, some fascinating, most unexpected. Since the beginning of the new year, we have a new teacher, Eunice, who is hoping to make us into fluent Lugbara speakers within a few months… Lugbara is the local tribe in Arua, one of the 10 largest tribes in Uganda (out of a total of 34 ethnicities). The Lugbara are a tribe descended from Nigeria to settle here. Their territory extends around Arua and into the Democratic Republic of Congo, so families have been split by the arbitrary political boundaries drawn by the Europeans in Berlin in 1884. Disconcertingly, we seem to be a source of great amusement for most of the ex-pats when we tell them we are taking this time to study Lugbara. “Good luck”, they tell us. They then go on to tell you a story of someone who has been attempting the language for many years and haven’t gotten very far. Some compare the language to Chinese, saying it is one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn. It is quite depressing hearing this, obviously… Additionally, having grown up in Congo and learning Swahili there, having lived in Malawi and Kenya and trying to learn the languages there, while being exposed to various other African languages, it is frustrating to have to start at zero like a baby once again….those languages are nothing like Lugbara! Most whites don’t even bother to learn Lugbara especially since this tribe is only one of 5 in the close vicinity of one another. For example, the Alur are settled on the outskirts of Arua town. Their language is close to the Luo language which we were learning in Kenya. To make it even worse, there are sub-sections of the Lugbara tribe with variations in the way words are said. Whoopee to learning a difficult language which is only spoken by a few and which is nothing like any other language we have ever heard! Eunice, in action, confusing us Eunice is a good teacher, though, having patience with us as we sit on the veranda trying to repeat what on earth she has just said. As a Lugbara, she is also good at turning up late, demonstrating how a Lugbara should act. As Lilian, another Lugbara who works for us says, “Lugbaras is not following time, ha!” and laughs out loud. So, anyway, she is almost an hour late today, but since we live in Africa, you never know what may have happened. It could be a relative has just died and she has to go to the funeral. Despite the issue of time-keeping, which especially bothers Emma, Eunice has been effective at moving us on in the language. Emma and I already feel more confident using some simple phrases and greetings. For example, I was particularly proud when I asked for 10 eggs the other day in the local wooden duka close to our home. “Ife mani augbe mundri”. The word for egg 'augbe' is spoken as though you are swallowing an egg... One of the problems of learning Lugbara is that the same words can mean completely different things. So, for instance, the word for sauce, “tibi”, is the same word for ‘beard’, just with a different tone. Emma wonders if this has anything to do with someone’s long beard dragging in their gravy once upon a time. There are other examples, though the best so far is the word ‘ago’, which if intonated differently, can either mean ‘husband’ or ‘pumpkin’. A phrase like ‘my beautiful fiancée’ can also come across as ‘my beautiful warthog’, so any wannabe suitors need to be pretty careful in this town… Emma also uses a lot of imagination when it comes to remembering the Lugbara phrases or words. So, for instance, the word for peanuts is ‘funo’ (foon-oh). Emma thinks of little peanuts bouncing around and having a lot of fun. It can be a bit of a tentative or weird link at times. She is constantly whispering to me how I can remember a word. Awupi (A-whoopee) is the word for Aunt on your dad’s side. Obviously, this conjures up thoughts of playing a trick with my Auntie Barbara with a whoopee cushion…’Fetaa’
Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read!
Afi, This is really nice! I had never thought about things like house-mouth, house-stomach, house-buttock and meat-girl. I'm wondering why we used to say We are going to door-mouth *(jotile*) instead of house-mouth as the Dutch lady is saying. Ben On Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 3:12 AM, George Afi Obitre-Gama gobi...@yahoo.comwrote: A new year, a new language, more confusionhttp://africraigs.travellerspoint.com/129/ Why can't everyone speak English? 16.01.2013 [image: sunny] 30 °C Learning a new language and culture is like discovering a new world, opening your eyes and mind to completely amazing and strange ideas, some shocking, some fascinating, most unexpected. Since the beginning of the new year, we have a new teacher, Eunice, who is hoping to make us into fluent Lugbara speakers within a few months… Lugbara is the local tribe in Arua, one of the 10 largest tribes in Uganda (out of a total of 34 ethnicities). The Lugbara are a tribe descended from Nigeria to settle here. Their territory extends around Arua and into the Democratic Republic of Congo, so families have been split by the arbitrary political boundaries drawn by the Europeans in Berlin in 1884. Disconcertingly, we seem to be a source of great amusement for most of the ex-pats when we tell them we are taking this time to study Lugbara. “Good luck”, they tell us. They then go on to tell you a story of someone who has been attempting the language for many years and haven’t gotten very far. Some compare the language to Chinese, saying it is one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn. It is quite depressing hearing this, obviously… Additionally, having grown up in Congo and learning Swahili there, having lived in Malawi and Kenya and trying to learn the languages there, while being exposed to various other African languages, it is frustrating to have to start at zero like a baby once again….those languages are nothing like Lugbara! Most whites don’t even bother to learn Lugbara especially since this tribe is only one of 5 in the close vicinity of one another. For example, the Alur are settled on the outskirts of Arua town. Their language is close to the Luo language which we were learning in Kenya. To make it even worse, there are sub-sections of the Lugbara tribe with variations in the way words are said. Whoopee to learning a difficult language which is only spoken by a few and which is nothing like any other language we have ever heard! [image: Eunice, in action, confusing us] Eunice, in action, confusing us Eunice is a good teacher, though, having patience with us as we sit on the veranda trying to repeat what on earth she has just said. As a Lugbara, she is also good at turning up late, demonstrating how a Lugbara should act. As Lilian, another Lugbara who works for us says, “Lugbaras is not following time, ha!” and laughs out loud. So, anyway, she is almost an hour late today, but since we live in Africa, you never know what may have happened. It could be a relative has just died and she has to go to the funeral. Despite the issue of time-keeping, which especially bothers Emma, Eunice has been effective at moving us on in the language. Emma and I already feel more confident using some simple phrases and greetings. For example, I was particularly proud when I asked for 10 eggs the other day in the local wooden duka close to our home. “Ife mani augbe mundri”. The word for egg 'augbe' is spoken as though you are swallowing an egg... One of the problems of learning Lugbara is that the same words can mean completely different things. So, for instance, the word for sauce, “tibi”, is the same word for ‘beard’, just with a different tone. Emma wonders if this has anything to do with someone’s long beard dragging in their gravy once upon a time. There are other examples, though the best so far is the word ‘ago’, which if intonated differently, can either mean ‘husband’ or ‘pumpkin’. A phrase like ‘my beautiful fiancée’ can also come across as ‘my beautiful warthog’, so any wannabe suitors need to be pretty careful in this town… Emma also uses a lot of imagination when it comes to remembering the Lugbara phrases or words. So, for instance, the word for peanuts is ‘funo’ (foon-oh). Emma thinks of little peanuts bouncing around and having a lot of fun. It can be a bit of a tentative or weird link at times. She is constantly whispering to me how I can remember a word. Awupi (A-whoopee) is the word for Aunt on your dad’s side. Obviously, this conjures up thoughts of playing a trick with my Auntie Barbara with a whoopee cushion…’Fetaa’ (feta) means gift and so it is remembered by thinking of giving someone a gift of cheese. I often wish I had had Emma as a study partner for my IGCSE or IB exams in Holland as I would not have spent so many lost hours staring blankly at walls trying to cram boring information into my struggling mind. Alongside Emma's visual mind, we are also
Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read!
This is a very interesting piece. It is always nice to see things from an out-siders perspective and make sense of things we are usually oblivious to, house-mouth, za-mva, et all! The piece does bring out some things that worry anthropologist too, cultures are gradually getting eroded traditions have been changing here as the pressure of our Western culture pervades and invades. as well, it high lights some issues that continue to plague us, such as time keeping, which has itself not been eroded by the same western culture. Thanks for sharing this, it did make my day that more interesting, got me thinking. One of these days, I'll beat my vernacular teacher a phone Anyole From: George Afi Obitre-Gama gobi...@yahoo.com To: A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2013 4:12:31 AM Subject: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read! A new year, a new language, more confusion Why can't everyone speak English? 16.01.2013 30 °C Learning a new language and culture is like discovering a new world, opening your eyes and mind to completely amazing and strange ideas, some shocking, some fascinating, most unexpected. Since the beginning of the new year, we have a new teacher, Eunice, who is hoping to make us into fluent Lugbara speakers within a few months… Lugbara is the local tribe in Arua, one of the 10 largest tribes in Uganda (out of a total of 34 ethnicities). The Lugbara are a tribe descended from Nigeria to settle here. Their territory extends around Arua and into the Democratic Republic of Congo, so families have been split by the arbitrary political boundaries drawn by the Europeans in Berlin in 1884. Disconcertingly, we seem to be a source of great amusement for most of the ex-pats when we tell them we are taking this time to study Lugbara. “Good luck”, they tell us. They then go on to tell you a story of someone who has been attempting the language for many years and haven’t gotten very far. Some compare the language to Chinese, saying it is one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn. It is quite depressing hearing this, obviously… Additionally, having grown up in Congo and learning Swahili there, having lived in Malawi and Kenya and trying to learn the languages there, while being exposed to various other African languages, it is frustrating to have to start at zero like a baby once again….those languages are nothing like Lugbara! Most whites don’t even bother to learn Lugbara especially since this tribe is only one of 5 in the close vicinity of one another. For example, the Alur are settled on the outskirts of Arua town. Their language is close to the Luo language which we were learning in Kenya. To make it even worse, there are sub-sections of the Lugbara tribe with variations in the way words are said. Whoopee to learning a difficult language which is only spoken by a few and which is nothing like any other language we have ever heard! Eunice, in action, confusing us Eunice is a good teacher, though, having patience with us as we sit on the veranda trying to repeat what on earth she has just said. As a Lugbara, she is also good at turning up late, demonstrating how a Lugbara should act. As Lilian, another Lugbara who works for us says, “Lugbaras is not following time, ha!” and laughs out loud. So, anyway, she is almost an hour late today, but since we live in Africa, you never know what may have happened. It could be a relative has just died and she has to go to the funeral. Despite the issue of time-keeping, which especially bothers Emma, Eunice has been effective at moving us on in the language. Emma and I already feel more confident using some simple phrases and greetings. For example, I was particularly proud when I asked for 10 eggs the other day in the local wooden duka close to our home. “Ife mani augbe mundri”. The word for egg 'augbe' is spoken as though you are swallowing an egg... One of the problems of learning Lugbara is that the same words can mean completely different things. So, for instance, the word for sauce, “tibi”, is the same word for ‘beard’, just with a different tone. Emma wonders if this has anything to do with someone’s long beard dragging in their gravy once upon a time. There are other examples, though the best so far is the word ‘ago’, which if intonated differently, can either mean ‘husband’ or ‘pumpkin’. A phrase like ‘my beautiful fiancée’ can also come across as ‘my beautiful warthog’, so any wannabe suitors need to be pretty careful in this town… Emma also uses a lot of imagination when it comes to remembering the Lugbara phrases or words. So, for instance, the word for peanuts is ‘funo’ (foon-oh). Emma thinks of little peanuts bouncing around and having a lot of fun. It can be a bit of a tentative or weird link at times. She is constantly whispering to me how I can
Re: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read!
I've always tried getting material online to teach me our language go which am an immature novice.i'v so far failed, but my determination is to have a senseof belonging which I can only fully have if I can speak lugbara.if there is anyone out there that can rescue a son of the soil, please, am dying to learn our language. On Thursday, 25 April 2013, Anyole J anyo...@yahoo.ca wrote: This is a very interesting piece. It is always nice to see things from an out-siders perspective and make sense of things we are usually oblivious to, house-mouth, za-mva, et all! The piece does bring out some things that worry anthropologist too, cultures are gradually getting eroded traditions have been changing here as the pressure of our Western culture pervades and invades. as well, it high lights some issues that continue to plague us, such as time keeping, which has itself not been eroded by the same western culture. Thanks for sharing this, it did make my day that more interesting, got me thinking. One of these days, I'll beat my vernacular teacher a phone Anyole From: George Afi Obitre-Gama gobi...@yahoo.com To: A Virtual Network for friends of West Nile westnilenet@kym.net Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2013 4:12:31 AM Subject: [WestNileNet] Learning the Lugbara Language - A bloggers 2 cents-a good read! A new year, a new language, more confusion Why can't everyone speak English? 16.01.2013 30 °C Learning a new language and culture is like discovering a new world, opening your eyes and mind to completely amazing and strange ideas, some shocking, some fascinating, most unexpected. Since the beginning of the new year, we have a new teacher, Eunice, who is hoping to make us into fluent Lugbara speakers within a few months… Lugbara is the local tribe in Arua, one of the 10 largest tribes in Uganda (out of a total of 34 ethnicities). The Lugbara are a tribe descended from Nigeria to settle here. Their territory extends around Arua and into the Democratic Republic of Congo, so families have been split by the arbitrary political boundaries drawn by the Europeans in Berlin in 1884. Disconcertingly, we seem to be a source of great amusement for most of the ex-pats when we tell them we are taking this time to study Lugbara. “Good luck”, they tell us. They then go on to tell you a story of someone who has been attempting the language for many years and haven’t gotten very far. Some compare the language to Chinese, saying it is one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn. It is quite depressing hearing this, obviously… Additionally, having grown up in Congo and learning Swahili there, having lived in Malawi and Kenya and trying to learn the languages there, while being exposed to various other African languages, it is frustrating to have to start at zero like a baby once again….those languages are nothing like Lugbara! Most whites don’t even bother to learn Lugbara especially since this tribe is only one of 5 in the close vicinity of one another. For example, the Alur are settled on the outskirts of Arua town. Their language is close to the Luo language which we were learning in Kenya. To make it even worse, there are sub-sections of the Lugbara tribe with variations in the way words are said. Whoopee to learning a difficult language which is only spoken by a few and which is nothing like any other language we have ever heard! Eunice, in action, confusing us Eunice is a good teacher, though, having patience with us as we sit on the veranda trying to repeat what on earth she has just said. As a Lugbara, she is also good at turning up late, demonstrating how a Lugbara should act. As Lilian, another Lugbara who works for us says, “Lugbaras is not following time, ha!” and laughs out loud. So, anyway, she is almost an hour late today, but since we live in Africa, you never know what may have happened. It could be a relative has just died and she has to go to the funeral. Despite the issue of time-keeping, which especially bothers Emma, Eunice has been effective at moving us on in the language. Emma and I already feel more confident using some simple phrases and greetings. For example, I was particularly proud when I asked for 10 eggs the other day in the local wooden duka close to our home. “Ife mani augbe mundri”. The word for egg 'augbe' is spoken as though you are swallowing an egg... One of the problems of learning Lugbara is that the same words can mean completely different things. So, for instance, the word for sauce, “tibi”, is the same word for ‘beard’, just with a different tone. Emma wonders if this has anything to do with someone’s long beard dragging in their gravy once upon a time. There are other examples, though the best so far is the word ‘ago’, which if intonated differently, can either mean ‘husband’ or ‘pumpkin’. A phrase like ‘my beautiful fiancée’ can also come across as ‘my beautiful warthog’, so any wannabe suitors need to be pretty careful in this
