Saturday, June 21, 2008

Besmear One's Mouth

So, I've been busy. I've been writing business plans and grant proposals, and plotting and scheming on how to turn youth into plotting and scheming entrepreneurs, and, of course, computer solitaire. This is all good, and I feel productive (except for the computer solitaire, but it does promote problem-solving skills), but I haven't had much time or will to study the language.

Oh, it's so easy not to study. Most people know English. Although Northern Sotho is spoken by 4 million people, all of them live in one general region in South Africa, it doesn't count for another language when applying to Johns Hopkins PhD program in international development, I'm not good at learning languages, etc., etc. However, what I learned in Japan, and again learning kiSwahili in Kenya and Tanzania, is that nothing gives you more insight into another culture than by learning the language. Plus, everyone at the office is bugging me to learn it. So, I'm learning. Or, as they say, "Ke a ithuta."

I found this great website that has an online Northern Sotho dictionary, with some audio files attached to some words (http://africanlanguages.com/sdp/ for those of you who are interested), so I was going through the "hl" words trying to find a good audio example. It's a tricky, lispy sound that I often confuse with the tricky, lispy sound of "tl" and I wanted to tell the difference. As I was going through my dictionary, I found the word "hlamukela" meaning to besmear one's mouth. Now, my English has gone to hell, but I can't ever remember using the word "besmear" even though I vaguely know what it means. But to besmear one's mouth? What does that mean? So, I enter the word in the handy-dandy online dictionary and find this: "besmear one's mouth and hands with fat when eating."

This is now my new favorite word.

And, you know what, it does say something about a culture that has a word that means to besmear one's mouth and hands with fat when eating. I don't know how much the word is used, but that word exists. And what it means about the culture is that people eat with their hands and eat a lot of meat, meat with fat that can be besmeared. And yes, I have experienced that result. I live here after all. I just didn't know there was a word for it.

4 comments:

Rosetta Kastama said...

Oh, my gosh! Brian and I laughed out loud when we read your story about "besmear." An OED your reach? It could tell you about lots of archaic words. For instance, what does "besmirch" mean? Is is related to "besmear?" Is the "smirch" in that word related to "smirk?" Probably not, and I'll quit now.

Rosetta Kastama said...

Uh-oh. Just saw an error in my previous comment. It should read: "An OED could tell you about lots of archair words." That's what I get for trying to write and edit when I'm supposed to be working!

Rosetta Kastama said...

Uh-oh. Just saw an error in my second comment. It should read: ..."archaic," not "archair." Once again, that's what I get....

Rosetta Kastama said...

Hi, Ronda! I'm reading Puddin' Head Wilson by Mark Twain. One of the characters is an upright citizen of "Old Virginia" and must keep his family name "unsmirched." I recommend the book for many reasons; he uses old words and new ideas, often in ways that surprise and refresh me. For instance, the only difference between a cat and a lie is that a cat only has nine lives.