Quick Language Lesson

Dumela is the all-around greeting. No conversation or interaction in Botswana begins without it. It can be changed when addressing man or woman (dumela-rra or dumela-mma, respectively), but it's always there. What dumela means, literally, is "believe in", as in "I believe in you, sir or ma'am." But it's also "believe" like "I belive you are a person, a friend, a brother, standing in front of me." I think the closest verb I know to "dumela" would be "to grok".

Setswana has no word for "to be". It seems to be one of those "I think, therefore I am" deals, where to state beingness would be redundant.

Setswana has no articles, either, like "the" or "a". "I am writing a book" translates to "Ke kwala buka", where ke=I, kwala=write, and buka=book. So don't be surprised if I start dropping articles.

Oh, and prepositions vary based on context, not English meaning. For example, "Ke tswa mo Botswana" means "I originate from Botswana", but "I originate from America would be "Ke tswa ko Amerika", because Botswana is here and America is not. However, if one of you Americans at home wanted to state your origins, you would say, "Ke tswa mo Amerika." Are you confused? I am. I have enough trouble with prepositions in English. THough, not as confused as a couple of University of Botswana students were when I tried to explain health insurance and the American health care system. "You mean HIV patients have to pay for their own treatment?"

Pronunciation is fun, too. "If you don't know how to pronounce 'ngwao', step on a cat." -Matts

This led to a lot of meowing among the class. I personally have had a lot of practice with the "ao" sound from reading the Ender series.

We also learned that the names of trees all start with "mo", like "morula", the source of all sorts of fun that comes out of "Amarula".

I've got really sore intercostals from all those aspirated consonants, like "kgh", "tlh", and "th". ("Th" is pronounced "t-h", not "th". Well that made a whole lot of sense.)

Here are some Setswana phrases I've found very useful:

Ee/Nyaa - Yes/No
Ga ke utlwe - I can't hear you
Bua gape - Speak again
Buela ka bonya - Speak more slowly
Ga ke tlhaloganye - I can't understand