Tonga Troubles

July 15, 2009

Okay, so somewhere along the way I was naïve enough to think that learning an African language wouldn’t be THAT hard. Maybe it was because I minored in English in college (that’s a language?) Maybe because I learned to speak Afrikaans in South Africa when I was a kid? Maybe it’s because my Dad learned to speak Venda in Zimbabwe and I’m way smarter than he is (I’m kidding Dad I love you).

But really, for some strange reason I just thought that Tonga was a pretty primitive language so it would probably be somewhat easy to learn. I stand corrected.

 So here’s my attempt to explain to you how learning Tonga is proving to be challenging and hopefully spur you on to praying that James and Marci suddenly have tongues of flame appear over their heads and just rattle off the gospel in Tonga. First there’s the guy that has helped me the most in learning Tonga. His name is Marvelous Simaunga. With a name like that he has to be awesome right?

 So Marvelous and I sit across from each other in the front yard and start going over phrases in Tonga. I was encouraged not to just learn vocabulary words but to try and start using words in full sentences right from the start. Well here’s the first problem. Tonga started off as one language but somewhere down the line it evolved into two similar languages: plateau Tonga and valley Tonga? Why did this happen? I don’t know but I’d like to give the guy that started plateau Tonga a piece of my mind.

So a session of language learning goes something like this:

Me: “What’s the word for head?”

Marvelous: “Mutwe”

Me: “okay so how do you say wash?”

Marvelous: “samba”

Me: “So how would I say I washed my head”

Marvelous: “Ndi samba mutwe wangu”

(literally translated – I wash head that’s mine)

Me: “uhhhhh say that again?”

Marvelous: “Ndi samba mutwe wangu”

(so after a few times of just listening I attempt to say it and finally get it kind of right)

Me: “So I can use this with other words”

Marvelous: “yes”

Me: “So I can say Ndi samba chakulya wangu?”  ( I wash my food ? )

Marvelous: (laughing)

Me: ……?

Marvelous: “no you would say Ndi sanzia chakulya wangu”

Me: “what does that mean”

Marvelous: “to wash”

Me: “sanzia?”

Marvelous: “yes, sanzia”

Me: “but what does “samba” mean?”

Marvelous: “to wash”

Me: ……..

Marvelous: “You use Samba just for your body, if you’re washing body parts, but if you’re washing something else you would use Sanzia”

(It’s at this point I’m thinking I’d like to punch the guy that came up with Tonga)

 So then I start writing down a few vocabulary words to use in sentences and its at this point I realize that Tonga has been changed a bit by the English language. First of all there are words in English that simply don’t exist in Tonga. Example – the word for automobile is “motoka”. Tonga people never had an automobile until white people came with them and they heard them calling them motor cars so the word “motoka” was introduced. Many Tonga’s don’t realize this is an English word, they really thing the Tonga word is “motoka.” Next example of this involves the way many Zambian’s mix up their “r” and “l” sounds (see previous blog entry on the “cobla” for more information)

Me: What is the Tonga word for door?

Marvelous: doolo

Me: doolo?

Marvelous: Yes, doolo

(I’m thinking “man that sounds like dooro with the “l” and “r” sounds swapped?)

Me: so if I wanted to say “open the door”

Marvelous: “jula doolo”

 A little later I’m told that the Tonga word for spoon is “ispunu” and the word for shoes is “mabbusu” (sounds a lot like “boots” like the kind worn by early English settlers)

Anyway, hopefully you can see that we need lots of prayers. The last Tonga phrase that I will leave you with is one I’ve just recently learned and I’m anticipating that I will use it almost as much as the greeting, it goes like this; “Mundijatile ndiciiya kwambaula muChitonga.” (literally – You me forgive I am learning Tonga)