Back in 2014, I posted a couple of short videos by Nelson Sebezela about Xhosa clicks; now here’s How to pronounce Zulu Clicks with Sakhile from Safari and Surf. It covers a little more ground, including p and hl as well as x, c, and q; comparing the two is useful (Sebezela gives more detailed information on how to make the sounds), but I still can’t say q for the life of me. Thanks, Bathrobe!
Unrelated: somebody had the bright idea of putting together “Пространственная диагностика глуши” [Spatial diagnostics of the hinterlands], a map of “ближайшие к Москве местности, характеризуемые русскими литераторами как глушь, захолустье” [the closest places to Moscow that were characterized by Russian writers as the hinterlands, the back of beyond], each dot labeled with the name(s) of the writers who so designated it; it’s funny and enlightening, and can be seen as Figure 20 on p. 39 of this pdf. I saw it in a different format on somebody’s Facebook feed, but didn’t want to link to that swamp unless I had to.
Also somewhat unrelated, but an article on comparative genetics and linguistics of the SE Bantu, including Zulu, just came out. They claim that both trees, DNA based and language based, match almost one to one in this case, and the distances corresponde very well to the actual geography, just as dates of branch separation, to actual history. Of course it may help that these peoples have similar, and relatively recent, history, around one millennium give or take.
The flow of the genetic material from the Khoe-San was mostly with the females.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22207-y.pdf
It doesn’t seem to be exactly the same thing in the two videos (and perhaps the two languages), but it always seems to be laminal and postalveolar, like [ʃ]. In the first video the tongue flips all the way to the bottom of the mouth, so it’s way louder than in the second video where that doesn’t happen.
Edit: I love how [ʃ] looks like a single uninterrupted letter in this font. I mean [ ʃ ].
They claim that both trees, DNA based and language based, match almost one to one in this case, and the distances corresponde very well to the actual geography, just as dates of branch separation, to actual history.
Very interesting, thanks!
Defining the hinterlands is like defining upstate New York. Everyone sets the bounds somewhat differently. Upstate may be a real place, but it has a lot in common with “somewhere over the rainbow,” which is defined by imagination, not mapped boundaries.
All places are like that, I think. But perhaps that is just because I have been reading Avram Davidson obituaries.
Upstate may be a real place, but it has a lot in common with “somewhere over the rainbow,” which is defined by imagination, not mapped boundaries.
And then there’s Poughkeepsie…
(Apparently one of the accepted definitions of “upstate New York” places the boundary exactly at Poughkeepsie. There are other options, mostly further south.)
There are plenty of theories that Upstate doesn’t begin until significantly north of Poughkeepsie. No one theory is self-evidently correct, of course. The best functional justification for a more northerly boundary is to exclude the areas (however rural) that are close enough to NYC that a material concentration of wealthy NYC residents own weekend houses there, which affects both the real estate market and other aspects of local life.
upstate
The various West African words usually translated as “bush” in English (e.g. Kusaal mɔɔg*) are similarly vague in application. The Twi word for “European”, oburoni, is probably etymologically “bush person.”
The UK cultural equivalent is perhaps “north of Watford.”
* Mid tone. I earnestly advise you not to confuse it with the low-tone Mɔɔg “Mossi kingdom.”
The Mossi states successfully fought off the Songhay empire and the jihads of precolonial times and once sacked Timbuktu. You don’t want to be dissing the Mossi.
A few seconds ago I was defending the idea of a swamp as a nice place to live in (in a conversation in Russian) Then I opened this thread and even found it funny how my swamp can be seen as глушь…. until I read the line “didn’t want to link to that swamp unless I had to.“.
I earnestly advise you not to confuse it with the low-tone Mɔɔg “Mossi kingdom.”
Or indeed the high-tone Mɔɔg ‘early musical synthesizer’.
Ah, no: high tone is not possible with words of this segmental shape (unless the next word has a low tone and is not susceptible to tone spreading, of course, but that goes without saying.)
I expect you’re thinking of the high-low falling tone. It can be hard to hear the difference in isolation, as the high tone itself becomes a falling tone before pause. However, the Mossi are well-known regionally for their love of prog rock. Pink Floyd were (famously) big in Upper Volta (especially Asida Barato, always a particular favourite in the savanna zone.)
You don’t want to be dissing the Mossi
But… you just did that, telling us the Mossi kingdom is not a high-tone place.
The low tone is iconic, reflecting the overwhelming manliness of the Mossi realm. Not for the Mossi is the soprano chirrup of high tone.