Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-30T20:29:09.289Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The ‘Mbugu’ anomaly

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

A. N. Tucker  and
M. A. Bryan
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The people known to both Africans and Europeans as Mbugu (Wambugu, Vambugu) live in the western Usambara mountains in Tanzania among the Sambaa. Their language, long known as posing a linguistic problem, is usually-described as having a non-Bantu lexicon and a Bantu grammatical structure. However, the actual linguistic situation is somewhat more complicated than this, as our researches (A.N.T. 1965, M.A.B. 1959) now show.

Type
Articles
Information
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , February 1974 , pp. 188 - 207
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1974

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Main sources of information: Meinhof, C., ‘Linguistisohe Studien in Ostafrika. x. Mbugu’, MSOS, IX, 3, 1906, 294–323Google Scholar. Copland, B. D., ‘A note on the origin of the Mbugu, with a text’, Z. Eingeb. Spr., XXIV, 1933–1934, 241–5Google Scholar. Green, E. C., ‘The Wambugu of Usambara’, TNR, 61, 1963, 175–89Google Scholar. A file, kindly lent by Mr. E. C. Green; the writer, apparently not English, is anonymous (referred to here as ‘File’). Undated.

2 The similarity of the names Mbugu and Mbugwe may, or may not, be fortuitous.

3 Although the Burungi, south of the Mbugwe, are separated from them by the Gorowa, whose speech is closely akin to Iraqw, and the Bantu-speaking Laŋgi, this may not always have been the case.

4 Meyer (Across East African glaciers) in 1888 also found some Mbugu in Ugweno who, though no longer living as an independent tribe, retained their tribal name; he comments on their physical resemblanco to the Mbugu of Usambara.

5 op. cit.

6 A descendant of the Kilindi ruling dynasty of Usambara.

7 We have never come across this name.

8 Variously labelled ‘Bantoid’, ‘Hamitic’, ‘Sudanic’, ‘related to Maasai’, ‘perhaps influenced by Burungi’, etc.

9 Rather than to Sambaa, the language of the people among whom they now live.

10 See Lake Jipe on map, p. 189.

11 As in German.

12 But occurs in the Iraqw Group languages.

13 cf. the adjective -giru ‘large, big’.

14 Iraqw he, Burungi heedi.

15 cf. verb gwa ‘steal’.

16 Iraqw däsi/dasu. For another n:d correspondence, see ‘nose’, under Classes 9/6.

17 Galla harka.

18 Iraqw, Burungi aɬa.

19 Iraqw ɬahaŋw, Burungi ɬeheŋ.

20 Iraqw xa'ano/xaa'i, Burungi xa'imo/xa'i, Galla muxa.

21 Probably = food—but see ‘food’ under Classes 7/8.

22 Iraqw fara.

23 Burungi tlaflya; Iraqw tlafi ‘thundercloud’.

24 See ‘Miscellaneous’, p. 207.

25 Somali ‘iid ‘sand’.

26 cf. Guthrie *-càŋgà ‘sand’; in some languages, including Sambaa (ʃaŋga), = soil; in sagala isaía = country.

27 Massai ol-día.

28 Galla óxokaani.

29 Iraqw, Burungi ila, Somali il.

30 Iraqw ilwa, Burungi iliba.

31 Iraqw, Burungi aara ‘goats’ (pl.), Somali áɬɖi ‘sheep/goat’; the Iraqw singular is le'i.

32 See ‘Miscellaneous’, p. 207, for Meinhof's ‘sheep’.

33 Probably two different kinds of spear.

34 Iraqw tla’ano/tla”‘e, Burungi tl’‘u/tl’‘e.

35 The plural might be expected to mean ‘days’ (Copland has ma'aze ‘days’). But ‘daytime’ is recorded as mu'aðέ; B. has ama for ‘day', but A.N.T. has ‘amá = night (Meinhof gives ama = day; night (in counting)). Iraqw tsee'ama ‘sun’, Burungi amasi ‘night’.

36 Iraqw, Burungi ma'ay.

37 This is the word for ‘beer’ in Swahili.

38 Iraqw kwaɬaɬi/kwaɬu, Burungi kwaɬa/kwaɬaɬu ‘bead’.

39 Iraqw ga (but pl. mara).

40 See under ‘Miscellaneous’, p. 207.

41 Burungi tsaaqwa ‘wind’.

42 Somali (dial.) minan ‘house’, (arch.) min ‘bridal house’.

43 Somali , Burungi (Meinhof) xabi.

44 Burungi oŋ/omeeri.

45 Iraqw duŋga, Burungi uruŋga.

46 Iraqw lohi.

47 Probably ‘skin for sleeping on’, cf. Sambaa ŋkiŋgo.

48 Informants from Magamba and Same respectively.

49 Burnngi taant-.

50 Cl. 16 ‘place’ prefix + gi, cf. kigi ‘thing’.

51 See ‘sun’ under Cl. 5/6, and p. 196, n. 35.

52 Iraqw wäk.

53 Iraqw, Burungi ko'an.

54 Iraqw ká ‘this’ (gender 3, mostly plural nouns), Burungi ka'a ‘that’ (gender 1 ?).

55 Iraqw án, aní, aníŋ.

56 Iraqw kuŋgá (masc).

57 Iraqw kín (genders 1 and 3).

58 See also -ta under ‘Miscellancous’, p.206.

59 Iraqw gwaa-, Burungi gwa-.

60 Iraqw ‘ay, Burungi ag-.

61 Iraqw huu-, Burungi hu-.

62 Burungi taant-.

63 Burungi ra'i (noun) [meinhof].

64 Somali sεεɔ.

65 Iraqw, Burungi qaas-.

66 Iraqw o(o).

67 Iraqw isa'.

68 Iraqw matlo.