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Suggestions for an Amended Spelling and Word Division of Nyanja
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 August 2012
Extract
Most of the problems of Nyanja orthography are simple and capable of a straightforward solution. What is needed is a revision and clarification of the existing rules and usages rather than any basic reform. The need for such revision has long been felt in Nyasaland as well as in Northern Rhodesia.
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- Copyright © International African Institute 1950
References
page 200 note 1 The only official rules ate entitled Chinyanja Orthography Rules 1931, Circular No. 30 1932Google Scholar, of issued by the Secretariat in Zomba. This document is a single foolscap sheet containing twelve brief clauses. The title of this circular is abbreviated hereafter to Orthogr. 1931Google Scholar.
The Northern Rhodesia Rules of 1936 are a copy of the Nyasaland document, except that the adoption of the velar nasal sign is recommended in Clause 2. This ruling, however, has never been given effect.
page 200 note 2 An inter-territorial language conference to discuss Nyanja spelling reform was held at Lilongwe in 1947, but its findings have not been published. I am indebted to Miss K. Smith (of the Secretariat, Zomba), who took a leading part in the discussions, for allowing me to see a copy of the correspondence and minutes.
page 200 note 3 The Nyanja group consists of three main dialects: Maŋanja, spoken in the Southern Province of Nyasaland; Cewa in the Central Province of Nyasaland and the Eastern Province of Northern Rhodesia; and ‘Lake’ Nyanja on Likoma Island and along the P.E.A. lakeshore. An analysis of the distribution of these dialects is contained in my article ‘The Nyanja-speaking Population of Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia, A Statistical Survey’, African Studies, vol. ix, no. 1, March 1950.Google Scholar
page 201 note 1 The general principles for writing an African language are laid down, accompanied by a specimen text in Nyanja, in Memorandum I of the International African Institute. Foran introduction to the principles of Bantu word division the reader is referred to Guthrie's, MalcolmBantu Word Division, International African Institute, Memorandum XXII, 1948Google Scholar; and to an earlier study by Doke, Clement M., The Problem of Word-Division Bantu, Salisbury, S.R., 1929.Google Scholar
page 201 note 2 For a convenient numbering of the classes in Nyanja, and for an explanation of the general terminology used in this paper, see my article on ‘The Parts of Speech in Nyanja’, special issue of The Nyasaland Journal, vol. iii, no. i, 1950.Google Scholar
page 202 note 1 See Price, T., ‘The written representation of inter-vocalic glides in Nyanja’, African Studies, vol. iii, no. 2, June 1944.Google Scholar Nearly half of Orthogr. 1931 is taken up with this subject.
page 204 note 1 Until more is known about the exclamatory particles in Nyanja, some latitude should be allowed in the spelling of them. That their phonological system differs from that of other parts of speech is proved conclusively by Hill, Trevor in his thesis The phonetics of a Nyanja-speaker with particular reference to the phonological structure of the word, London University M.A. thesis, 1948.Google Scholar
page 205 note 1 It is interesting to find that in the Northern Cewa of Kasungu the w of uwu and awo is clearly articulated, so that once again no distinction (other than tonal) is made between the pronunciation of awo (those) and ‘awo’ (their). But this does not alter the necessity for distinguishing between awo ‘those’ and ao ‘their’ in an orthography intended for all the dialects.
page 206 note 1 The neighbouring language of Nsenga at present employs this symbol. Some of the older ‘Lake’ Nyanja texts printed at Likoma also employed W, but in the later texts this symbol has been abandoned because, as in Cewa, the two varieties of w have only a limited spread within the dialect area.
page 206 note 2 In ‘Lake’ Nyanja the distinction between aspirated and unaspirated consonants is, if anything, even more significant than in the Cewa or Marjanja dialects, yet no attempt is made to differentiate between them in writing. As if deliberately to confuse the issue ch is used for both varieties of c, as against p, t, k for the double varieties of these three consonants. Thus uci (honey) and uchl (smoke) are spelt ‘uchi’, whilst -ponya (throw) and -phonya (miss) are both spelt ‘-ponya’.
If these and other minor anomalies were put right there is no reason why texts written in ‘Lake’ Nyanja should not have a wider circulation than at present.
page 208 note 1 Sec Doke's, C. M.A Comparative Study in Shona Phonetics, Johannesburg, 1931, pp. 86–9.Google Scholar
page 212 note 1 Some authorities argue that all these shortened forms should be debarred from ‘standard written Nyanja’, yet these forms are just as essential to Cewa as ‘don't you?’ and ‘won't you?’ are to colloquial English writing.
page 213 note 1 The Parts of Speech, op. cit., p. 24.
page 215 note 1 See Tucker, A. N., ‘The Spelling of African Place-Names on Maps’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, vol. xii, parts 3 and 4, pp. 824 et seq.Google Scholar
page 215 note 2 On the subject of special symbols in place-names, Dr. Tucker suggests that the spelling on local signposts and district maps should be allowed to differ from that on international maps. Op. cit., p. 827, n. 1. But this is the only case in which latitude is permissible.
page 216 note 1 The Cewa honorific A, signifying Mr. and in certain contexts Mrs. or Miss, corresponds to Ce in Maŋanja. It is here proposed that A and Ce should be written with capitals and regarded as separate words, despite the fact that by etymology they are probably mere prefixes.
page 217 note 1 The text is taken from an unpublished story by Mr. Lester L. Nkomba. The author is a Nyasaland teacher born at Maonde village, near Chief Kachere's court in the Dedza district.
page 217 note 2 This passage is taken from a set of manuscripts collected by the Rev. Fr. Harry Cikuse. The author of this extract is a schoolboy whose home is in the Mlanje district of Nyasaland.
page 217 note 3 The story is entitled Munthu ndi Mηkhwele (The Man and the Monkey) and is taken from Esopo, a small text printed at Likoma in 1944.
The transcription into the amended orthography was made with the help of Mr. A. E. Zimba, a teacher whose home is at Madimba on Likoma Island.