Hi Fred, the Mervyns, Gabe , Manuel et al !
Mervyn Lobo is absolutely right - Muziki is the Swahili word for music and
Ngoma is is a dance and on a wider spectrum- cultural events. As a former
National Serviceman - voluntary armed forces- I can attest to this.
(Goma is a town in one of the Congos- I do not which one).
On Fred's point that there is a no word in the African languagues for
music,
I do not know about that; however, remember after the creation of the
Institute of Swahili Research in Tanzania just after independence in the
early sixties,
the Swahili language has gone thru leaps and bounds.
Many words initially coined were basically "bastardized" English words. A good
example is the English word dispensary. The initial Swahili translation was
dispensari. The new Swahili word is Zahanati. I do not know what
contributed to the "coining" of the new word, and my gut feeling is that it
may have been borrowed from another African or Bantu language
When speaking to the late Father Musso- an Italian priest based in my
birth-place in
Iringa and who was a contributor to the Institute , he told me that they
would borrow words from
any one of the 123 tribes in Tanzania and then attempt to research other Bantu
languages.
He gave a classic example of the initial Swahili word for conqueror was
mshindi- which also
means winner; however, the Wahehe tribe of Iringa who were very warrior-like
have a
word for conqueror. The Institute has co-pted the word in the language. (Father
Musso
was proficient in Swahili, English, the Hehe language and probably Italian)
To this effect, Fred, some african tribal languages may be having a word
for music or pretty close.I am certain that the Institute will probably change
it in the
future. They have to go thru a whole vocabulary and that will take years.
And Gabe is also right. The real "polished" Swahili is spoken along the East
African coastal
belt- Zanzibar, Pemba, Dar es Salaam, Tanga and Mombasa- and the neighboring
coastal towns near Mombasa like Lamu and Kilindini.
However, a lot of the Swahili spoken in Zanzibar- and Mervyn Lobo will agree
with me- is
"laced" with Arabic words. This is probably attributed to the fact that many
Zanzibaris
have Arab "blood" and hence a greater Arab influence.
But the Zanzibaris refer to the market where we buy all our edibles - mainly
fruits,
vegetables and fish- as "marketi". The Swahilli word for market is Sokoni and
the
figurative word is Soko. Merv Lobo could enlighten us on ths anomaly. I do not
know of any similar examples.
Swahili - was initially derived mainly from Arabic with Persian, Gujerati and
some other
languages playing a smaller role . The landscape has probably changed
completely since
the birth of the Institute.
It must also be borne in mind that Swahili has certain expressions that do
not exist
in the English language . A great example is the issue of twins. In Swahili,
the first born
is called Kurwa and the second is known as Doto.
Salaams Nyingi (Best Wishes)
Tony Barros.
Union Township,
New Jersey, USA.
