impression can however be a little misleading: the syntactical relationships of sentences are more complex than they appear at first sight. What seems like co-ordination of simple sentences in narrative in fact often conceals subtle forms of subordination through the use of subjunctive, sequences of historic tenses, or conditionals. In this way the fluent speaker can avoid the monotony of a lengthy series of parallel and conjunctive sentences—though this is the form in which such passages tend to appear in English translations. Furthermore, Bantu expression generally is not limited, as is English, by a more or less rigid word-order: because of its structure there are many possible ways in which, by changes in word-order or terminology, delicate shades of meaning can be precisely expressed which in English would have to depend on the sometimes ambiguous form of emphatic stress. All in all, Doke concludes, ‘Bantu languages are capableof remarkable fluency …. They provide a vehicle for wonderful handling by the expert speaker or writer’ (Doke 1948: 285)
Besides the basic structure of Bantu languages in vocabulary and morphology, there are some further linguistic features which add to its resources as a literary instrument. Perhaps most important among these is the form usually called the ideophone (sometimes also called ‘mimic noun’, ‘intensive noun’, ‘descriptive’, ‘indeclinable verbal particle’, etc.). This is a special word which conveys a kind of idea-in-sound and is commonly used in Bantu languages to add emotion or vividness to a description or recitation. Ideophones are sometimes onomatopoeic, but the acoustic impression often conveys aspects which, in English culture at least, are not normally associated with sound at all—such as manner, colour, taste, smell, silence, action, condition, texture, gait, posture, or intensity. To some extent they resemble adverbs in function, but in actual use and grammatical form they seem more like interjections. They are specifically introduced to heighten the narrative or add an element of drama. They also come in continually where there is a need for a particularly lively style or vivid description and are used with considerable rhetorical effect to express emotion or excitement. An account, say, of a rescue from a crocodile or a burning house, of the complicated and excited interaction at a communal hunt or a football match—these are the kinds of contexts made vivid, almost brought directly before the listener’s eyes, by the plentiful use of ideophones:
They are used by accomplished speakers with an artistic sense for the right word for the complete situation, or its important aspects, at the right pitch of vividness. To be used skilfully, I have been told, they must correspond to one’s inner feeling. Their use indicates a high degree of sensitive impressionability
(Fortune 1962: 6, on Shona ideophones)
The graphic effect of these ideophones is not easy to describe in writing, but it is worth illustrating some of the kinds of terms involved. The Rhodesian Shona have a wide range of ideophones whose use and syntax have been systematically-analysed by Fortune (1962). Among them are such terms as
k’we —sound of striking a match.
gwengwendere —sound of dropping enamel plates.
nyiri nyiri nyiri nyiri —flickering of light on a cinema screen.
dhdbhu dhdbhu dhdbhu —of an eagle flying slowly .
tsvukururu —of finger millet turning quite red .
go, go, go, ngondo ngondo ngondo, pxaka pxaka pxaka pxaka pxaka —the chopping
down of a tree, its fall, and the splintering of the branches .
Again we could cite the following Zulu instances:
khwi —turning around suddenly.
dwi —dawning, coming consciousness, returning sobriety, easing of pain, relief.
ntrr —birds flying high with upward sweep; aeroplane or missile flying.
bekebe —flickering faintly and disappearing. khwibishi —sudden recoil,
forceful springing back.
fafalazi
Besides the basic structure of Bantu languages in vocabulary and morphology, there are some further linguistic features which add to its resources as a literary instrument. Perhaps most important among these is the form usually called the ideophone (sometimes also called ‘mimic noun’, ‘intensive noun’, ‘descriptive’, ‘indeclinable verbal particle’, etc.). This is a special word which conveys a kind of idea-in-sound and is commonly used in Bantu languages to add emotion or vividness to a description or recitation. Ideophones are sometimes onomatopoeic, but the acoustic impression often conveys aspects which, in English culture at least, are not normally associated with sound at all—such as manner, colour, taste, smell, silence, action, condition, texture, gait, posture, or intensity. To some extent they resemble adverbs in function, but in actual use and grammatical form they seem more like interjections. They are specifically introduced to heighten the narrative or add an element of drama. They also come in continually where there is a need for a particularly lively style or vivid description and are used with considerable rhetorical effect to express emotion or excitement. An account, say, of a rescue from a crocodile or a burning house, of the complicated and excited interaction at a communal hunt or a football match—these are the kinds of contexts made vivid, almost brought directly before the listener’s eyes, by the plentiful use of ideophones:
They are used by accomplished speakers with an artistic sense for the right word for the complete situation, or its important aspects, at the right pitch of vividness. To be used skilfully, I have been told, they must correspond to one’s inner feeling. Their use indicates a high degree of sensitive impressionability
(Fortune 1962: 6, on Shona ideophones)
The graphic effect of these ideophones is not easy to describe in writing, but it is worth illustrating some of the kinds of terms involved. The Rhodesian Shona have a wide range of ideophones whose use and syntax have been systematically-analysed by Fortune (1962). Among them are such terms as
k’we —sound of striking a match.
gwengwendere —sound of dropping enamel plates.
nyiri nyiri nyiri nyiri —flickering of light on a cinema screen.
dhdbhu dhdbhu dhdbhu —of an eagle flying slowly .
tsvukururu —of finger millet turning quite red .
go, go, go, ngondo ngondo ngondo, pxaka pxaka pxaka pxaka pxaka —the chopping
down of a tree, its fall, and the splintering of the branches .
Again we could cite the following Zulu instances:
khwi —turning around suddenly.
dwi —dawning, coming consciousness, returning sobriety, easing of pain, relief.
ntrr —birds flying high with upward sweep; aeroplane or missile flying.
bekebe —flickering faintly and disappearing. khwibishi —sudden recoil,
forceful springing back.
fafalazi
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