Nature
Lesson 5 of 13≈ 14 min
The archipelago told in words
Shikomori is spoken on an archipelago: sea, rain, wind, sun are daily realities. The matching vocabulary is rich, old, and shows dialect variants often radically different from island to island.
A good moment to memorise some cross-dialect pairs: madji (Ng) / maji (Nz, Ma) for water, nyumba and ɗago (Nz, Ma) for house.
Nature vocabulary
| Shikomori | Dialect variant | English |
|---|---|---|
| ardhwi / ntsi | — | earth, country |
| bingu | wingu | sky |
| madji (Ng) | maji (Ma) | water |
| moro (Ng/Nz) | mdro (Ma) | fire |
| bahari | — | sea |
| mulima | milima (pl.) | mountain(s) |
| muro | miro (pl.) | river(s) |
| jua / juwa | — | sun |
| mwezi | — | moon, month |
| vua | — | rain |
| upepo | — | breeze, light wind |
| mtsanga | — | sand |
| nyumba (Nz, Ma) | ɗago (Nz, Ma) / ɗaho (Ng ?) | house |
| mlongo (Nz) / mulango ~ mlango (Ma) | — | door |
| shisiwa | masiwa: archipelago (collective) | island / archipelago |
| mwiri | miri (pl.) | tree(s) |
Listening
- bahari (sea)
- madji / maji (water)
- jua (sun)
- nyumba / ɗago (house)
Three words, several dialects
The word for « house » is the emblematic example of dialect variation in shikomori — and it shows that one dialect can have two words:
- nyumba and ɗago (shiNdzuani, Anjouan): Ahmed-Chamanga gives both, with dagoni « at home » (1992, pp. 17-18)
- nyumba and ɗago (shiMaore, Mayotte): the Nisusoma shimaore booklet gives nyumba « house » and dago « town, village; home » (2019, pp. 20, 39, 44)
- ɗaho (shiNgazidja, Grande Comore?): probably the Grande Comore form, but no shiNgazidja source of the project gives it yet — to be confirmed
You'll meet this again for « person » (Module 2.6) and many other concepts in Module 5.
Practice
Convert madji (Ng) into shimaoré.
Source (NG)madjiTargetWhat is the plural of mulima (« mountain »)?
Plural: ___.
Mini-quiz
What does upepo mean?
upepo = ___.
On to family
Family and humans in the broad sense — the 1/2 class par excellence, and another famous dialect triplet: mndru / muntru / mutru (« person »).