Oshikwanyama/mEumbo

Chapter 11

mEumbo
OMUKWANYAMA TA TI: ~ Nekwa litoka oye ngaa nyoko. ~ If your mother is poor, she is still your mother. (You have to accept people as they are.)

Exercise 1
''Label the drawing on page 65. Try your hand at drawing more common homestead scenes and objects!''

Grammar Corner: Subordinate Subject Concords

Consider the English phrase, “People who go to the store”. The important part of the phrase is the noun, “people”. The verb that appears in the phrase is subordinated to the noun by the word “who”. In Oshikwanyama, this subordination is made by using a different subject concord: not Ovanhu otava i kofitola, but Ovanhu tava i kofitola.

For almost all of the subject concords, just drop the initial o and there you are: otashi => tashi, ova => va, etc. So, when you want to describe nouns that do something, or generally want to emphasize the noun and not the action, use the subordinate subject concord.

The only irregular subordinate subject concord is for the third person. For present tense, rather than oku => **ku it is e. For past tense, rather than okwa => **kwa, it is okwa => a

Some examples:

Grammar Corner: In / On / At, Part Two

When mo, po, and ko are used in the subject of a sentence, they have their own subject concords.

For example:

You will undoubtedly discover many more as you listen to native speakers. Po is also useful for expressing the ideas of “just” and “about to.” For example, Opo nda lya /Opo nda li means “I just ate”, and Otu li pokumana means “We’re about to finish, yo.”

Grammar Corner: Subjunctive Verbs 

Consider the following sentences:

These sentences express desires that something occur. We already know how to express a desire to do something using hala. When the subject of the sentence (I, the teachers, etc.) wants someone else to do something, the second part of the sentence – the part that tells what the subject wants to happen – requires a special subjunctive voice in Oshikwanyama.

To use the subjunctive voice, we use a subjunctive concord and change the final vowel in the verb to an e. Listed below are the subjunctive concords for people:

Thus, the sentence “Do you want me to eat?” is translated as Owa hala ndi lye? “Rebecca wants Johanna to pound mahangu.” is Rebecca okwa hala Johanna a twe omahangu.

For other kinds of nouns, use the object pronoun as the subjunctive concord:

The dress is for oomeme, so we use the possessive prefix to link the two nouns together.

English words like “let” and “should” often indicate a desire that something occur: “Let’s go”, “Should we buy?”, etc. Again, in Oshikwanyama, we use the subjunctive voice. The prefix na- is often added to the concord for emphasis.

Note: If you are in a group of more than two people, instead of -e, you must end the verb with -eni. “Let’s go!” is then Natu yeni! “Let’s eat!” is Natu lyeni!

OMUKWANYAMA TA TI: ~ Ino londa omukwa neenghaku. ~ Don't climb a baobab with shoes. (Don't enter a difficult situation ill-prepared.)

Quick Tip (for the grammar fiends)

Comparing the list of subjunctive concords with the list of personal subject concords, you may notice a pattern: the present continuous concord is – with some exceptions due to vowel changes and contractions – formed by adding the prefix ota- or oha- to the subjunctive concord. Hence, ame ohandi nu; fye ohatu nu; and so on.

In fact, the subjunctive concords listed above may be considered the true subject concords, while pre- and post-fixes such as ota mark things like verb tense and aspect. The same, of course, is true for all noun classes. This understanding of subject concords can be very useful in discovering Oshikwanyama language patterns. See also the final grammar corner, “Making it Simple”. ''

Exercise 2
''Translate the following sentences into Oshikwanyama. Use correct subjunctive forms.

Example: I want you to buy me a beer ? Onda hala u landele nge obiila. ''


 * 1) The principal wants the learners to pass (pita).
 * 2) He does not want them to fail. (dopa).
 * 3) Paulus wants Shaalu to fetch water.
 * 4) Let’s (two people) go to Oshakati!
 * 5) Let’s (large group) buy some meat!

Grammar Corner: Verb Extensions

As you recall, we form the passive voice by removing the verb’s final vowel and appending -wa. This -wa can be considered a verb “extension” – it extends both the verb and its meaning. There are a number of other extensions that can change the meaning of a verb. Some of them are given in the table below, along with brief explanations and an example. Interested readers should consult A Reference Grammar of Oshikwanyama (Fivaz 2003) for more information.