For those of you reading this who are interested in African languages, I'm going to try and explain what I understand about Changana so far and how it's unique and beautiful.
The first thing is that verbs are wicked easy, at least right now. To conjugate the present tense, both in its continuous and definite forms, you just conjugate the "to be" verb for the proper subject (1st-3rd person, singular and plural) and add the infinitive. The "to be" conjugation changes for the different present tenses, and stems change for the past tense (we haven't gotten into other tenses) on the infinitive.
A verb is nominalized by prefixing mu- and changing the ending from -a to -i (all verbs end in -a). Additionally, the giver of an action - or the act of giving a certain thing - is expressed by suffixing -isa to the verb and/or noun. For example, "to learn" is "ku dzonda" where "ku" is literally the "to" in "to learn". So I can say "I am learning" by saying "mina ni dzonda" where "mina" is "I", "ni" is the 1st person singular conjugation of "to be" ("ku va") and the infinitive is used as the present participle.
Then, if I wanted to say "I learn", I just have to change the "to be" conjugation like this: "mina na dzondra". Like many of the romance languages, the subject is optional, so I say "na dzondza". And if I want to say "I learned", I use the original "to be" conjugation along with the -ile suffix replacing the -a ending, thus "(mina) ni dzondile".
And so if I want a noun form, or to say "learner", or "student", I can just take the noun and add "mu-" to the beginning replacing the "-a" at the end with "-i" like this: "mudzondzi". Student is "mudzondzi". Here's the cool part: A teacher "gives" learning (or education", so we can add the suffix "-isa" to the verb like this, "ku dzondzisa" which is "to teach". And teacher is thus "mudzondzisi". Plus, there are no articles, so you don't have to worry about "the" or "a", which of course wreaks havoc on kids when they try to learn when to use articles in English.
As far as pronunciation goes, there are five "clicks" corresponding with each vowel sound which even many native speakers cannot properly do. There is an interesting palatal sound that involves holding part of the tongue on the roof of your mouth while allowing air to escape out the sides. And there is a whistle sound that corresponds with the "sw-" sound which is widely used and difficult to imitate. Also, the "dl" combination of consonant sounds ends up being a guttural "ngl" sound.
But the wonderful thing about learning Changana is that since it's a mother tongue to most people here, they understand even the worst pronunciation, and the strangest grammatical structures. Which is what still frustrates me about Portuguese, as they only understand well, pronunciation and structures like their mother tongue (which makes perfect sense as I understand perfectly what other Americans are saying in Portuguese). And I've received compliments on my pronunciation of Changana, whereas I was derided for my Portuguese - and I feel like they both started at the same level.
I know I won't be able to teach in Changana, but I know my relationships with people around here will be greatly enhanced by learning it, and using it outside of school as much as possible.
What did I do today?
Woke up at 6:30
Worked out
Went to school to see if electricity bill was paid
It wasn't
Came back home to get money to pay bill
Didn't have enough
Went to bank to get more
Used ATM, in English
Continued on to electricity office
Waited for the second time of the day (the first being a half-hour for the secretary at school) and studied Changana
After paying bill, went to try and check Email
Waited again
Went back home and ate breakfast, an omelette on day-old bread
Put together tax information for the IRS and mom
Did my laundry
Went to the market with Jorgito to get a fan and some fruit
Got the fan and the fruit
Tried to get bread but the bread store was closed
Got back and ate lunch
Went to school again to see if I could get my students' numbers
Ended up typing up students' numbers for another professor
Checked and sent Email
Got phone cards for our cell phone
Tried to check Emai again, again there was no phone line, again I waited
Got some snacks and finally more bread
Came back, took clothes off the line, translated some Portuguese
Ate dinner, headed out to see the Canadians
Canadians weren't home, so came back and did some writing and reading
Entertained myself with some logic puzzles
Wrote in my journal.
Peace
John
