Transcription exercises

The fragments that follow relate to the two tales published with the 1988 article: Mntru maskini na imauti (Anjouan tale, Ahmed-Chamanga) and Hadithi ya Ibunaswia (Grande Comore tale, Jean-Luc Sibertin-Blanc). They have not yet been compared with the tales' pages: read them as fragments to be checked.

Aside from the conversion to 2019, the vocabulary itself takes a reading effort: these are traditional tales, with a richer vocabulary than previous lessons.

Goal: apply rules 6.1-6.2 on living text.

Original text:

Haya t'uka mhwene masikini akasa milila mfua wala kukasipara. Arongo a-Mwalangu Mwene-Mngu, halini ri'lo masikini...

Rough translation:

« There was a poor man who had suffered, going neither to eat nor to sleep. He said to God — If I am poor… »

A few elements:

• masikini (poor) — Arabic loan مسكين, stays masikini in 2019 (no implosive)
• Mwene-Mngu (God, « the Master-God ») — already 2019-compatible
• milila mfua (to eat) — dialect form, poetic vocabulary

Most of the text needs no conversion since it contains no native b/d, no nb pre-nasal. Common case.

To be checked: the tale's title writes maskini (and mntru, the 1988 spelling of muntru), the fragment writes masikini.

Original text:

Mwongoni mwa usiku pva'a mndru, halawu. Halafu, hukan mdzaya hakna mapesa, hende hata wende hahundu mdruaho yakwe...

Rough translation:

« In the middle of the night there was a man, poor. He was hungry, had no money, and went off to his in-laws' house… »

Elements to note:

• pva'a — pv is shiNgazidja; the apostrophe marks a vowel onset, written with a dieresis in 2019 (exact form to be confirmed)
• mndru — preserved (shiNgazidja)
• mdzaya — the 1988 article writes « hunger » ndzaya, with the pre-nasal ndz: mdz is not a pre-nasal in 1988 or in 2019. The fragment's spelling is to be checked.
• mdruaho — same remark: the pre-nasal is ndr; after a syllabic m, 1988 writes mndr (as in mndru). Spelling to be checked.

No major conversion for this fragment either — it's largely 2019-compatible.

These two examples illustrate an important truth: most 1988 texts are already compatible with 2019. Differences concern only a minority of words — those containing a native b or d (turned into ɓ or ɗ) or an nb pre-nasal (turned into mɓ or mb depending on word and dialect), plus a few rare gaps (np → mp, onset apostrophe → dieresis).

In practice, transcribing a 1988 tale to 2019 typically requires changing 5-10 words per page — no more. And they're often the same: baba → ɓaɓa, banga → ɓanga, daho → ɗaho, nbuzi → mɓuzi (Ng) or mbuzi (Nz), etc.

Once the list is memorised, you'll read the older texts almost as if they were already in the 2019 norm.

You now know how to:

• Identify a 1988 text (undistinguished b/d, nb instead of mɓ or mb, ad-hoc circumflexes)
• Decide which b/d are implosive (etymology, dialect, dictionary)
• Convert divergent spellings, flagging those still to be confirmed
• Recognise the Kamar-Eddine system (adapted Arabic script)

Pre-2009 Comorian literature is accessible to you. Ahmed-Chamanga's tale collections, Alifube poems, early literacy textbooks — all become readable.

Last module coming: culture and oral literature. Proverbs, tales, cultural vocabulary, and the vocabulary of the Soilihiste Revolution.