Text repertoires in Zambia: sound and language

Text repertoires in Zambia: sound and language. We will look at four ways people in Chibale use(d) sounds and sound patterns in language and use(d) language to notate patterns of sounds.

Transliteration of sound patterns in nature – People interpret sound patterns in nature, especially from birds, as messages in the Lala language.

Sound symbolism – The Lala language contains a large number of words and stems that refer to the sound, and through that often also to other characteristics, of an object or phenomenon.

Oral notation – People notate sound patterns, especially in music, in the Lala language using sequences of syllables, nonsense words, words, or whole sentences.

Conveying the unsayable – People may communicate through sound patterns what they cannot say in words.

Here we examine each topic in more detail and give examples.

Transliteration of sounds in nature

Text repertoires in Zambia: sound and language. Interpreting sounds in nature, especially bird sounds, as if they were utterances in ciLala was a sport in the first half of the 20th century. Before that it may have been one of the ways to gather information from and about the mpanga. This is not unlike omens in the mpanga: not all phenomena in the mpanga portend something, but some do.

The southern ground hornbill

An important bird in this respect is the southern ground hornbill (mung’omba), a large bird of prey that mainly hunts on the ground.

Contrary to the results of the research into the cultural beliefs and practices around the southern ground hornbill by Coetzee, Neel & van Rensburg (2014), people in Chibale do not usually judge mung’omba negatively. For instance, the lion fears the mung’omba, therefore it is safe where you find mung’omba: mung’omba cibusa ca bantu (the mung’omba is the friend of human beings).
When, in the mpanga, you come upon a mung’omba barking (kukuwa) uu! uu! uu!, you should return. It is a bad omen. A ‘bad omen’ may sound negative, but it is a warning against something bad. This omen also plays a role when people refer ‘to tempt fate’ with barking like the mung’omba (kukuwo mung’omba). For example, when the parents complain about the burden of having twins, it is called barking like the mung’omba. They will bring upon themselves the bad omen of the barking mung’omba and one or two of the twins will die.

Music example 83

An example of a call and response pattern between two southern ground hornbills.

This is just one example of the sounds of the mung’omba: they are rather varied.

Transliterating the sounds of the southern ground hornbill

Here are some examples of what one can hear in these sounds.

Nafwa, nafwa mpepo
Bula, bula iceketi ufwale / uifimbe

I’m  dying, I’m dying of the cold
Put on, put on a jacket to dress yourself / to cover yourself

The mung’omba are usually in pairs. Here the first utters the first line and the second the second, the second call being lower than the first call.
The next example also is by a mung’omba pair.

Umwana, umwana alya katete
Kalye, kalye wakunya mailo

The child, the child has eaten a small grasshopper
Let him eat, let him eat: he’ll excrete it tomorrow

Both are part of the game of finding witty ciLala transliterations of the mung’omba’s call.

Transliteration of the call of the southern ground hornbill in other areas

Text repertoires in Zambia: sound and language. The last one can also be found in Doke²Doke (1927:545). for the Lamba region in the first quarter of the 20th century. He brings it as a Lala song of the mung’omba. He also includes the captions of the sounds for each animal in the ‘song’. This seems to indicate that Doke was not aware that the calls of the mung’omba were transliterated here in ciLamba. That could be an indication that already in that time the transliteration of the calls of animals were not well-known anymore in the Lamba region.

Nkanga nkanga nkango mulomo ucuma

Warming, warming, still warming my beak till it is dry

This transliteration is part of the story of the mung’omba who deludes a nature spirit and the lion.³Also in Doke (1927:Story 147).

In the Iringa region in Tanzania, the hornbill pair says Iki iki kyekiki – Ughu ughu ghwe nkota (What is this? – This is a medicine).⁴Sanga (2006:100). There the birds ‘make sounds’ (kikuta), while the person that imitates bird sounds is ‘singing’ (ikwimba).

Transliterations of the call of the thrush and the mwanga

Text repertoires in Zambia: sound and language. There are two other birds we have found transliterations for. The mwanga (English name not known) and the pwele (thrush). Here, too, the relationship with the birds is not negative: they warn people against harm.

Mwebati mwanga takwata mbwa – tendeke, tendeke

You say the mwanga has no dog – I have one, I have one

When you find the mwanga uttering this, you should leave immediately because the dog is a lion.
The mwanga also was aware that Mapunde (Ngoni) were coming to raid the country and warned:

Mama ee, mwafwa ku Mapunde

Mama ee, you die because of the Mapunde

Song 167

Song sung by a man who just became a father, brought by Sitifini Nunda and the people from Milombwe, 1981.

Text of Song 167 ∵ It nearly hit me

Cati cimpume
Kuleya naleya ne kapwele

It nearly hit me
I, the pwele, dived away

The first line of this song⁵Also in Lambo (1945, 332) for the Congo part of the Lala region. is a transliteration of the call of the pwele (thrush). The second line is about the thrush diving away when boys try to hit it with a stone.
This song is sung by the father after a successful delivery. This successful delivery has allowed him to escape what nearly hit him, as difficult or unsuccessful deliveries are blamed on the father’s misbehaviour.

Mwali besu, mwali besu
E kale nkalya; naye umusha afwale nkofilo?

You were ours, you were ours [our slaves]
That was long ago; can a slave put on a hat?

The first line and the first half of the second line are transliterations of the calls of the mwanga and the pwele respectively. To the latter a phrase is added as a quip. The hat refers to the head feathers that the pwele can ruffle up.

Transliterations of the call of the thrush in other areas

The thrush (pwele) also figures in the Lamba saying Akale aka lilile pwele – Long ago when the thrush sang.⁶Doke (1927:284). As ‘akale’ is a transliteration of the pwele’s call, a better translation may be: ‘Long ago’ sang the thrush.

Conclusion

We see that the transliterations of bird calls are either a game or an interpretation of a message the bird, or more broadly the mpanga, has for the humans.

Sound symbolism

Text repertoires in Zambia: sound and language. The Lala language contains a large number of words and stems that refer to the sound, and through that often also to other characteristics, of an object or phenomenon. Here we give a few examples of these sound ideophones (onomatopoeia).

Nswanswa refers to the crackling of dead leaves and also to a jumble of leaves and stalks. It occurs in Proverb 178.
Lilo especially when repeated refers to the sound of crying or mourning. It occurs in Music example 63.
Popo refers to the sound of the woodpecker and also to an ignorant person. It occurs in Song 128.
Like in other Bantu languages, the sound word sometimes is preceded by -ati (it says, it sounds like, it goes like). This occurs in Song 168: the trap did ‘wuu’.

Song 168

A story song sung by Mika Mwape Chungwa, 1986, as an example of a story song that could be sung at a ritual.

Text of Song 168 ∵ Hurry, hurry

Oral notation

Text repertoires in Zambia: sound and language. Oral notation may be used to memorise a pattern or communicate it when no suitable musical instrument is available.

Drum patterns

One of the drum patterns for Mashabe is rendered by a phrase: nyinankoshi cilupaula (the mother hartebeest goes staggering). The two other drum patterns are rendered using the syllables ti, bi, li, mbi and ndeng: Music example 48.

The three variants of the Ciwila kace are notated with a number of syllables and nonsense words: Music example 66.

The patterns of the three drums of the cimbilingoma are notated with a number of syllables and nonsense words: Music example 2.
Oral notation can also be used to demonstrate how a drum pattern should not be played: Music example 1.

Nsangwa patterns

The ubiquitous pattern 2-against-3 is notated as kutaila or citaila which both mean give ritual gifts: Music example 47.

Oral notations of two nsangwa patterns used as text for a song accompanied by nsangwa: Song 98.

Bellows patterns

The patterns of the five bellows used to smelt iron are rendered using the syllables tu and ku: Music example 58.

Ilimba patterns

The ilimba ikulu pattern is notated as icibanda cikosale nkwa (the nature spirit makes cloth out of tree bark).⁷Two intriguing songs use this pattern as their first line.
Icibanda cikosale nkwa – Insalu kaciposa
The nature spirit makes cloth out of tree bark – It throws the (modern) cloth away
and
Icibanda cikosale nkwa – Cibanda cabandabanda
The nature spirit makes cloth out of tree bark – It dances the bandabanda style.

Mankubala patterns

With the mankubala the situation is slightly different. The player singing a song while playing the mankubala sits on a raised platform in the middle of a field. People in other fields, because of the distance, can hear the mankubala pattern but do not hear the singing (clearly). So, they have to guess what he is singing based only on the mankubala pattern. In Music example 84 we first hear only the mankubala pattern and then we hear it with the text.

Music example 84

A fragment of a mankubala song played on the mankubala by Mika Mwape Chungwa, 1985.

Text of Music example 84 ∵ A safe mushitu to play in

Kumushitu kwali bakolwe
Kulawama kusalako

In the thick grove where the baboons live
It’s good to play there

Though mushitu can be dangerous, they are not when baboons live there.

Conveying what cannot be said

Text repertoires in Zambia: sound and language. The Lala language offers many possibilities to convey things that one cannot speak about or that one does not want to say directly to the point. Think of proverbial and secret language but also of singing a text. Yet there are situations that are so socially charged that the use of language itself becomes impossible. In that case, one can resort to the use of an instrumental pattern. This pattern has an intended message in ciLala that is only conveyed by playing the pattern, nothing is said. It is then hoped that the receiver will pick up the intended message.
Instruments that could be used for communication without direct words were the mankubala, the iron smelter’s bellows, the ngolwa, the mutole or singing softly without words. One can also try to convey the unspeakable by talking in one’s sleep.

Examples

The son-in-law plays a bellows pattern to convey his grievances to his father-in-law in Music example 57 and in Story 4, below the music example.

The son-in-law plays the ngolwa to convey his grievances to his father-in-law in Story 5.

Mankubala songs can be used to express grievances too. This socially not accepted expression can be made by the, mostly young, player because nobody can hear what he is singing, due to the distances between the fields: the message has to be deduced from the mankubala pattern. For example, the mankubala song above might be brought by the player because he thinks that for young people things are much better in another village (at least in that of the baboons) than in his own village.

As we see in other places on this site, communication in Chibale can be as demanding as it is engaging. In the case of the mankubala, we first have to transliterate the distant pattern into language –which is certainly not unambiguous– and then we have to figure out how the player –whom we know, otherwise it gets very difficult– means it.

And a last way to convey the unsayable, in this case without patterns. Two sons-in-law talk in their sleep to convey their grievances in Story 3.

Conclusion

Text repertoires in Zambia: sound and language. There is a space between language and other sound utterances by humans, animals and objects. It can be used to gain or give more information than language in the narrow sense can provide.