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Old 9th April 2004, 10:55
IronMan IronMan is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 28
Hi Jack,

since nobody seems to have replied yet, I'll give it a try. Time to test my Zulu, though I believe it's Xhosa.

Quote:
Tula tula mtanami, tula tula sanaboni, tula tula mtanami,
(Be) silent silent my child, silent silent little baby, silent silent my child

If it was really Zulu it would read "thula". "Tula" in Zulu means "to push s.th. through s.th." (which doesn't make sense here).

I'm not sure about the "sanaboni". The only similar Zulu term I know is "sanibona" which means "hello". On the other hand "sana" (usana) in this context could mean "new-born child" but then I could not make head or tail of "boni" (umboni = someone who sees).

Quote:
Ubab uzobuya sihlale naye, ubab uzobuya sihlale sonke,
Father will return, we shall stay with him, father will return, we shall all stay

Quote:
Halala, sasiphila, kamnandi, halala, mayibuye Afrika
Congratulations, we are still living well, pleasantly, may Afrika heal up

Quote:
Sasidjapolutjoloythina
This is why I think it's Xhosa. AFAIK Zulu doesn't have "dj" and "tj". I have no clue what it means apart from "sasi" (we still ...) and "thina" (we).

Hope this helps a bit. Anyone out there correct me if I got it wrong.

Carsten.
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