カラクラン

📗 A (very) SHORT OUTLINE of NEAPOLITAN GRAMMAR

🟢 Trying to condense Neapolitan grammar in a 10-picture Instagram post was HARD!!

🟢 There will be an ITALIAN and ENGLISH version of this post available for DOWNLOAD in PDF format for free!!

🟢 I will also post a LONGER and more DETAILED version of this grammar in TEXT format!!

尽くす　(つくす)　to exhaust, to run out

This verb can be combined at the end of other verbs to add the nuance of doing something entirely.

出尽くす　でつくす　to be all out

立ち尽くす　たちつくす　to stand stock still

焼き尽くす　やきつくす　to burn to nothing

～ずくめ

A suffix that comes from  尽くす is ～ずくめ, which expresses entirety when attached to nouns and noun compounds.

いいことずくめ　full of good things

今年はいいことずくめの一年でした。

ことしはいいことずくめのいちねんでした。

This year was full of good things.

悪いことずくめ　わるいことずくめ　full of bad things

今年は悪いことずくめの一年でした。

ことしはわるいことずくめのいちねんでした。

This year was full of bad things.

ごちそうずくめ　nothing but eating

旅行している間にずっとごちそうずくめでした。

りょこうしているあいだにずっとごちそうすくめでした。

During my trip I did nothing but eat.

新記録ずくめ　しんきろくずくめ　entirely new record

今年の野球チームが新記録ずくめだった。

ことしのやきゅうチームがしんきろくずくめだった。

The baseball team this year had nothing but new records.

黒ずくめ　all black, black from head-to-toe (but not used with other colors!)

黒ずくめの服装をするのが好きだ。

くろずくめのふくそうをするのがすきだ。

I like wearing all black clothes.

～づくし

Another suffix that comes from 尽くす is ～づくし, which is added to nouns to express the idea of “all kinds of ~.” Usually this suffix is used with nouns related to dining.

きのこづくしの料理　きのこづくしのりょうり　cooking with all kinds of mushrooms

お魚づくしのコース　おさかなづくしのコース　a set course featuring a variety of fish

- (feminine, second declension) library

leabhar - book ciúin - quiet bí ciúin! - be quiet! cárta leabharlainne - library card foireann na leabharlainne - library staff

Fuair sí leabhar ar iasacht ón leabharlann.

She borrowed a book from the library.

Btw the word leabhar is really hard for me to pronouce and I mess up every time I try to say it aloud xd

le jeu d'échecs = les échecs

le jeu de société - board game

le jeu de réflexion - puzzle game

l'échiquier = la planche = le tablier - chess board

la case - square

la case claire - white square

la case sombre - black square

le réglement - the rules of a game

jouer à tour de rôle - to take turns

les pièces - chess pieces

le roi - king

la dame - queen

la tour - rook

le fou - bishop

le cavalier - knight

le pion - pawn

en face = ci-contre - in front of

le coup - move

le coup legal - legal move

C'est ton coup. - It’s your turn.

la pièce à longue portée - a piece which can move as many squares as needed

se déplacer en diagonale - to move diagonally

capturer et retirer une pièce de l'adversaire - to capture and remove the opponent’s piece

la partie - a game of chess

l’ouverture - chess opening

le gambit dame - queen’s gambit

le roi est en échec - the kind is in check

l'échec et mat - checkmate

mater quelqu'un - to checkmate someone

être mis(e) échec et mat - to be checkmated

le roi est en prise - the king is in checkmate

le camp des blancs - white side

le camp des noirs - black side

le roque - castling

le petit roque - king side castling

le grand roque - queen’s side castling

la prise en passant - when a pawn captures a piece by moving diagonally behind it

la promotion du pion - when a pawn is promoted to a different piece

le pat - stalemate

la partie nulle = le match nul - draw

la perte au temps - timeout

la tricherie - cheating

échiquéen(ne) - related to the game of chess

jouer en famille - to play with family

jouer entre amis - to play with friends

jouer dans des lieux publics - to play in public spaces

jouer en club - to play in a club

jouer en tournoi - to play in a tournament

jouer par correspondance - to play remotely

jouer entre ordinateurs - to play across computers

jouer au niveau amateur - to play as an amateur

jouer au niveau professionnel - to play professionally

Follow me for more!

PS It’s the second time I’m making this because Tumblr deleted my post when I was minimizing the browser, it all disappeared and I was already done by then ☠ so there may be some typos since I’m typing this in anger 😩 I’mma go play some chess now 😌

*please note that the information below isn’t celebrated by everyone in the same way. Some customs are more common in northern China rather than southern China and vice-versa.

How to wish someone a Happy Chinese New Year:

1. 新年快乐！Xīnnián kuàilè! - Happy New Year! (This can be used one the first day of the lunar calendar as well as the Gregorian calendar).

2. 新春快乐！Xīnchūn kuàilè! - Happy Spring Festival!

3. 新年好！Xīnnián hǎo! - Hello! (This is how you greet people during Chinese New Year).

When greeting or wishing someone a Happy Chinese New Year, many Chinese people wish their family and friends things like: “I hope you have a happy and healthy family,” “I hope you get a job promotion,” “I hope you have good fortune and pockets overflowing with gold.” Here are some examples:

4. 恭喜发财！Gōngxǐ fācái! - Wish you a successful and prosperous year! (This saying is known well because of this Chinese New Year song you can watch here).

5. 阖家幸福! Hé jiā xìngfú - Wish you a happy family!

6. 事业有成! Shìyè yǒu chéng - Hope you have a successful career!

You can watch this YouTube video or read this article to learn more about how to wish someone a Happy Chinese New Year!

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What is Chinese New Year?

Chinese New Year, also known as lunar new year or the spring festival, celebrates the first day of the new year on the lunar calendar. In 2021, this holiday falls on Friday, February 12!  This holiday is the most important holiday to those who celebrate this - its importance can be comparable to how Americans celebrate Christmas.

People have been celebrating Chinese New Year for about 3,500 - 3,900 years. It’s exact origins are unknown, but this tradition is believed to have started in the Shang Dynasty (1600-1049 BC) when people would make sacrifices to the gods and their ancestors towards the end of a year. However, the tradition was recorded and official during the Han Dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD) when Emperor Wu began using the lunar calendar. He chose to follow this calendar because it would let him know when second new moon after the winter solstice was.

Now, many Southeast Asian countries and people besides the Chinese celebrate Chinese New Year such as: Koreans, Vietnamese, Tibetans, etc. However, it is common to not see Japan celebrate Chinese New Year.

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Why do I keep hearing about the Year of the Ox/Cow?

Just like in western culture, there are zodiacs in eastern culture that the Chinese follow. There are 12 zodiacs, and these zodiacs follow a cycle of 12 years. Each new year represents one of the zodiacs. 

In order, they are: Rat/mouse, Ox/cow, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig.

2021 is year of the Ox/Cow - 2020 was year of the Rat/Mouse - 2019 was Year of the Pig… and so on. 

Because each zodiac has its own characteristics, they define a year. Chinese zodiac scholars have said in 2021, Year of the Ox, will be a flip-around positive change. They believe this year will be lucky and that it will be a good time to focus on love and relationships. People who are born in years of the Ox are known to have a lot of endurance, be calm and confident, but are also stubborn.

Just like in western culture, these zodiacs are believed to affect personality, fortune, etc, and instead of getting your zodiac by your birth month, you get your zodiac by your birth year. If you are interested in your Chinese zodiac, you can type in your birthday on this calculator and read about it.

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What happens during Chinese New Year and how long do you celebrate it for? Lantern Festival?

On average, Chinese New Year is celebrated for about 15-16 days (from about New Year’s eve to the first full moon). Preparations start seven days before New Years because stores and restaurants close and people travel to be with their families. Most students are also on their big break during this time - they get off from school around the beginning of january and go back after Chinese New Year. It should also be noted that Northern China and Southern China celebrate the new year differently.

During the preparation period, people go shopping for food and decorations. They also clean the house very well. If living in a different city than one’s family, many people will travel back to their hometown to celebrate with family.

During the New Year’s Eve period, the house is decorated with New Year’s decorations, and there is a reunion dinner with family at the host’s house. Out of all the dinners you have during the year, it is incredibly important you don’t miss this dinner, which is why there are so many issues with travelling during this time. At this dinner, you eat many lucky foods such as dumplings and fish. Also during this time, the older generations will give younger generations something called 红包, which translates to “red envelope.” These envelopes are filled with money and are only given on very special occasions such as new years and weddings. Friends give these to each other, but it is not common at all for a younger generation to give one to an older generation person. There is a custom where families stay up late to “watch over the new year,” which is called 守岁. Late at night, people also like to go to temples to hear the first bells of the new year ring because they believe it will drive away bad luck.

On Chinese New Year’s Day, fireworks go off, families cook and eat large meals together, sacrifices are made to ancestors, etc. (Fireworks are especially important because they believe it will make your business more successful.) One popular tradition you might know of is the dancing lion/dragon parades where people wear a dragon costume and parade through the city. Dragons are very representative of Chinese culture and are thought to bring luck to a community. Lions are a symbol of protection.

For about a week after the first day, most people go visit family and friends. A lot of times people will visit the other side of their family. For example, someone will spend most of the time with their mother’s side of the family during the new year, then during this week, they will go visit relatives of the father’s side.

After that week, most people go back to work. This is around day 8-10. Businesses, restaurants, and stores reopen, and many people leave their hometown to go back to jobs in the city.

Day 15, the final day of Chinese New Year, is the Lantern Festival. On this day, the first full moon of the new year happens. To celebrate, people will light more fireworks, revisit family, eat sweet dumplings (called tangyuan), and participate in the Lantern Festival. People release lit lanterns into the sky to honor dead ancestors. This is called 元宵节.

You can read more here.

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What foods are eaten during Chinese New Year, and what do they represent?

During Chinese New Year, many special foods are eaten, and these are foods that are considered to be lucky and to bring fortune into the new year.

1. Dumplings - represent wealth. Dumplings take hours to make and involve family help. They’ve been eaten for at least 1,800 years and are especially popular in northern China. It is said that the more dumplings you eat during the new year, the more money you will make.

2. Fish - represents prosperity and success. The word “fish” in Chinese sounds like the word “surplus” in Chinese.

3. Glutinous Rice Cake/Nian gao - represents success in your work (more money, better position). 

4. Spring rolls - represent wealth. They get their name because they are most often eaten during the Spring Festival which is CNY. This dish is more popular in eastern and southern China.

5. Oranges, tangerines - represents luck and fortune. This is originally a Cantonese custom, but many people grace their tables with citrus fruits. The word for “tangerine” sounds similar to the word for “good fortune” in Chinese.

6. Longevity noodles - represents longevity. These noodles are longer than usual to represent a person’s long and happy life. This is more commonly eaten in northern China. *It should be noted that these are mostly eaten on birthdays but can be eaten during the NY as well.

7. Sweet rice balls/tang yuan - togetherness in family. This food is eaten during the Lantern Festival, the last day of Chinese New Year. The shape and pronunciation is associated with closeness of the family.

8. Snacks - represent a sweet and pleasant life. Any sweet snack like dried fruit, candy, tanghulu is eaten during this time.

When it comes to food during Chinese New Year, there are superstitions about how foods should be prepared and what makes them lucky. You can read more about them here as well as here.

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What kinds of decorations are put up in houses during the new year? What do the colors represent?

1. Spring/door couplets - These couplets originated in the Shu era. As seen in the picture below, you post these on doors in couples - in Chinese culture, even numbers are seen as good luck. On many of these couplets are written wishes or poems for the new year. Each couplet should have the same rhythm and the same number of words.

2. Paper cutting - Translated as “window flower,” these intricate, red paper cutting pieces are placed on windows and often represent the zodiac of the new year or other symbolic animals such as fish, dragons, and phoenixes.

3. Upside down characters/Fortune - Many Chinese people during the new year hang up positive characters such as Fu, which means happiness and good fortune. It is written in calligraphy on a red piece of paper and then put upside down on doors and windows. It is hung upside down because the people want the good fortune to fall down onto them.

4. Red lanterns - These lanterns push away bad luck and are seen during both the Spring and Autumn Festival. They can be hung on trees, outside houses, etc. There are also many styles - they can come in many shapes and have symbols written on them.

5. Kumquat trees - As said before, citruses represent good luck and fortune. People place kumquats and citrus fruits on their tables or decorate their homes with small kumquat trees.

You can read more about decorations here as well as here.

Common colors seen during Chinese New Year are red and gold, but green can also be found.

The color red is not only dominate during Chinese New Year, but it is also very representative of Chinese culture as well. Red signifies fire, good fortune, and happiness. It is representative of good luck, keeps the holiday very joyous, and scares away bad spirits.

Gold or yellow is considered to be a very beautiful color. Gold symbolizes wealth, riches, and prosperity.

Green represents money, harmony, and growth. 

Though these are the most common colors, it should be noted that a color combination of green and red is considered to be tacky in Chinese culture. 

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What do people wear during Chinese New Year?

On the first day, it is traditional to wear new clothes and new accessories as it symbolizes new beginnings. However, there are people who like to wear sentimental accessories to respect and remember their ancestors.

Some people like to wear traditional Qipao/Cheongsam, Tang Suits, and Hanfu, but many people stick to western clothes like skirts, dresses, and pants. There is also a tradition of wearing lucky, red underwear for New Years.

Tang suits are the most popular to wear during the New Year, Qipao is also popular, but it is often too cold to wear during the winter months. Many people are starting to wear Hanfu again to celebrate the new year, but it isn’t widely accepted yet to wear during the new year.

During the new year, people wear a lot of red and gold. It is important to NOT wear mostly white and/or black. These symbolize death, and white is worn at funerals. Anything that is bright, bold, and upbeat should be fine to wear, but you should go for something that is red.

*If you want to wear something that is traditional Chinese for New Years, please make sure you know about cultural appropriation and know how to wear these properly.

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As there is so much information about Chinese New Year, I cannot possibly tell you all about it in one post. It is truly something that you must experience in your lifetime. It is very beautiful, fun, and there are so many things to do and celebrate. I ask you that you please research this more and look at all the beautiful pictures of food, lanterns, fireworks, etc. 

ことわざ are Japanese proverbs, and I have listed some basic proverbs, their equivalents in English, and a rough translation of the meanings of the Japanese phrase. 

There is a test for ことわざ (of course there is) called the ことわざ能力検定 (ことわざのうりょくけんてい) and while mostly younger kids take it, there are some foreigners among the ranks. For the time being, try one or two of these out the next time you speak with a native Japanese speaker!

当たって砕けろ

あたってくだけろ

go for broke

instead of doing nothing, try your hardest, even if you smash through the target

頭隠して尻隠さず

あたまかくしてしりかくさず

don’t bury your head in the sand

even if a pheasant sticks its head in a bush, it’s bum is still sticking out

雨降って地固まる

あめふってじかたまる

after the rain comes the rainbow

the earth hardens after the rainfall

石の上にも三年

いしのうえにもさんねん

patience is a virtue

sit on a rock for three years (and you will eventually warm the rock)

石橋を叩いて渡る

いしばしをたたいてわたる

better safe than sorry

tap a stone bridge as you cross

急がば回れ

いそがばまわれ

make haste slowly

if you are in a hurry, use the more roundabout (but safer) path

一年の計は元旦にあり

いちねんのけいはがんたんにあり

start a new year plan on New Year’s day

a one-year plan should start on the first of the year

一寸の虫にも五分の魂

いっすんのむしにもごぶのたましい

even a worm will turn

even a 3cm bug has a 15mm soul 

一石二鳥

いっせきにちょう

kill two birds with one stone

two birds, one stone

犬も歩けば棒に当たる

いぬもあるけばぼうにあたる

(original meaning, negative) don’t stick your nose where it doesn’t belong

(current meaning, positive) seek and ye shall find

a walking dog gets hit by a stick

上には上がある

うえにはうえがある

there’s always someone better

there is a top above the top

魚心あれば水心

うおごころあればみずごころ

scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours

a fish is mindful of the mater, which is mindful in return

嘘つきは泥棒の始まり

うそつきはどろぼうのはじまり

a liar is a thief in the making

lies are where a thief begins

絵に描いた餅

えにかいたもち

pie in the sky

mochi drawn in a picture won’t feed your hunger

縁の下の力持ち

えんのしたのちからもち

an unsung hero

a strong person working under the floor (out of sight)

鬼に金棒

おににかなぼう

adding wings to a tiger (something already strong becoming stronger)

a demon with a metal staff

鬼の目にも涙

おにのめにもなみだ

even the heartless are human

JSTOR still isn’t free, that’s a bummer, but here are the websites I use to get eBooks! If you’d like to support an author you admire, that’s fine, and if you’d like to go through the library system, that’s fine too. I’m just a vigilante weirdo who hates long wait lists and encouraging a garbage publishing system! Also, we’re all stuck inside so we might as well pirate.

add more if you know of any more!

mobilism, this is where i got most of my ebooks from! you should also download an ebook reader onto your phone and your computer, depending on where you want to read. i recommend moon reader for your phone and calibre for your computer. you will need to sign up to get access to the downloads/forums but they don’t send any annoying emails, and the free trial for premium is pretty great!

Z-Lib: also really great, but they have a download cap of five per day. you can get more if you share a post to facebook or donate a small amount. very rarely disappoints and if i can’t find something on mobilism or vk, i know i can find it here.

Lib-gen, i don’t use it that often but it’s very good. real quick, just to make sure it worked well and had sort of Obscure Offerings, I looked up a book I’ve been hunting down (the novelization of the Batman: Knightfall arc …) and it was there! Amazing!

Transcript/translation:

[for context: it’s an old game show where you can call in and get 250+ euros for a correct answer. The question asks for animals with ONE H in their name]

Moderator: Taken. Solution please.

Caller: I’d say guinea pig. [ger: Meerschweinchen]

Mod: Gui-nea pig. How many Hs does guinea pig have!? HOW MANY HS DOES GUINEA PIG HAVE????? I’m ready for the loony bin. I’M READY FOR THE LOONY BIN!!! MY VOICE IS FAILING!!! I’m about to kick something! Do you want to rile me up??? Guinea pig, elephant [ger. Elefant], dachshund [ger. Dackel], horse [ger. Pferd]! What solutions are you giving me?? Hippopotamus [ger. Nilpferd], or what? No wonder all solutions are still open if you’re sitting in front of your TV and spout nonsense!!

*cut*

Mod: Taken. Solution please.

Caller: The hawk? [ger. Habicht]

Mod: Hawk. Sadly no, but good answer. 3, 2, 1, next! At least hawk has an H, at least this caller got it righ-

*6 ½ hours later screen*

Mod: HAWK!!!!! HAWK HAS TWO HS!!! I ONLY JUST REALISED, I’m ALREADY JUST AS STUPID! JUST AS STUPID!! TAKEN, SOLUTION PLEASE! - OH GOD! - HELLO???

Caller: The cow. [ger. Kuh]

Mod: THE COW!! How many cows does the H have? How many cows does the H have???? ARGH, how many cows does the H have, sheesh, am I completely out of my mind? HAWK!!! DACHSHUND, I ALSO HEARD. EEEEEE ELEPHANT! Hippopotamus. All this rubbish!!

*cut*

Mod: *takes the vase* This thing is made of clay. THIS THING’S MADE OF CLAY! Taken, solution please!

Caller: The ferret. [ger. Frettchen]

Mod: Ferret. I won’t do it. I won’t do it. I won’t do it. I won’t throw down the vase.

*cut*

Mod: I HAVE TO FLIP OUT HERE! I HAVE TO FLIP OUT HERE!! (echoing) I HAVE TO! THERE’S NO OTHER WAY. TAKEN, solution please.

Caller:

Mod: Yeah, you’re scared now.

Caller: Ox. [ger. Ochse]

Mod: Yeah, yeah, call me an ox…

上个月，除了学习HSK6的词和做Duolingo的练习以外，我就没再多学习了。这是因为我的重点是日语。但是这个月我想集中学习中文。

首先，我想要学习繁体字。这是因为我要一边看Youtube上台湾的视频，一边读繁体的字母。我想要从这些视频里学到在课本不能学到的一些口语的生词。这样，我不但会提高我的听力，而且会学到日常生活中用得到的词。我也打算多看我正在看的电视剧。我会把学到的生词写下来。

＿員

公務員【こうむいん】civil servant

会社員【かいしゃいん】office worker

教員*【きょういん】teacher

店員【てんいん】store clerk

駅員【えきいん】train station employee

銀行員【ぎんこういん】bank employee

郵便局員【ゆうびんきょくいん】post office employee

客室乗務員【きゃくしつじょうむいん】flight attendant

＿師

教師**【きょうし】teacher

医師【いし】doctor

美容師【びようし】beautician, hairdresser

調理師【ちょうりし】cook

漁師【りょうし】fisherman

看護師 【かんごし】nurse

＿士

弁護士【べんごし】lawyer

介護士 【かいごし】caregiver

保育士【ほいくし】nursery teacher

運転士【うんてんし】driver

＿家

政治家【せいじか】politician

作家【さっか】writer, author

画家【がか】artist, painter

音楽家【おんがくか】musician

作曲家【さっきょくか】composer

建築家【けんちくか】architect

* 教員 is a role in a school. (teaching staff)

** 教師 is as an occupation.

ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

ᕦ( ᐕ )ᕡᕦ( ᐕ )ᕡᕦ( ᐕ )ᕡᕦ( ᐕ )ᕡᕦ( ᐕ )ᕡ

ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Here are some resources for Arabic dialects of the Gulf. 

Languages of Africa — 15, Jumada al-Awwal, 1442 AH

— Guhooni, a Cushitic language of Kenya

What is the language called in English and in itself?

• Just like the last time I wrote about this language, the name of the language is pretty much the main reason for starting off with this language. For those familiar with Cushitic languages, hearing the name “Dahalo” might be familiar. You’d expect it to be, it is an exceptionally interesting member of Cushitic. That being said….. that name is offensive. The term, per the anthropologist Dan Stiles, comes from an Aweer word for “worthless people” (I had to add this to the Wiki page, actually)—they typically refer to their language as “numma guhooni” (IPA: [numma guʜoːni]) which essentially means “lips of the people”. It would be better if going forward this language would be renamed in English, and in the broader world of academic literature, but this is not at all an uncommon issue with nomenclature in regards to languages in Africa and as time goes on things like this become more easily sorted. So in English, the speakers are called by what is essentially a slur, but the speech community themselves would not normally refer to themselves with this term and the Aweer term for the people and their language is better than that of neighboring Swahili; but you’re going to need the grammar of the language to find that one out. I’d rather not reiterate a word that is even more dehumanizing than the name the language is normally known by.

Where is the language spoken?

• Guhooni is spoken, if speakers remain, around the mouth of the Tana River in Kenya. It has been speculated that given their traditional reliance on hunting elephants they may have lived further inland at some point and this will be relevant when discussing the classification of the language. Tom Güldemann’s 2020 book “The Languages of Hunter-Gatherers” has a pretty good map of the 3 languages with clicks in East Africa, which of course includes Guhooni and includes an approximation of what percentage of the basic vocabulary of Guhooni uses clicks:

How many speakers does it have?

• That’s a great question. I’d like to know as well; there hasn’t been a proper count of speakers since the 90’s and at the time it was assumed to be less than a couple hundred, 400 at the most. As far as I’m aware, Mauro Tosco hasn’t contacted the community since the last count; which is concerning because in the area where the Guhooni live, primarily amongst Swahili-speakers, there is a view that the Guhooni are “parasitic” in the sense that they will worked as hired labor and buy from farmers, but themselves have not as of the mid-90’s (i.e the last report of their whereabouts) taken up farming for themselves—which as noted by Tosco has led to the association of Guhooni-speakers with socially negative attitudes such as drunkenness and being all around of lower status within society; of course this is a large reason as to why the ethnic community may one day, if not already, choose to not pass on their language in a substantive fashion.

Which language family does it belong to? What are some of it’s notable relatives?

• Okay, so this is where things get interesting. Guhooni is indeed a Cushitic language with a substrate from an unknown, non-Cushitic language that predated the shift to speaking a Cushitic language. This is of course obvious because of primarily the phonology of the language—it’s rather large phonemic inventory which includes various lateral and non-pulmonic sounds not found in other Cushitic languages is rather telling and much of the basic vocabulary is clearly not Cushitic. This of course doesn’t influence the overall classification much; Guhooni is a member of Lowland East Cushitic of uncertain status making it a somewhat close relative of Somali, Afar, and the Oromoid languages although the question of where it belongs is one worth answering. Guhooni was originally thought to be a member of South Cushitic albeit that theory is no longer relevant to our understanding of the language and a promising proposal by Mauro Tosco regarding its relationship with another relic Cushitic language in Kenya, Yaaku, was lost in publication purgatory. I had actually contacted him myself a few months back (just before writing the original version of this post actually) and he doesn’t exactly recall what he suggested either, so it’s likely the hypothesis will have to be entirely brought back anew. Being a closer relative of Yaaku would also make Guhooni a closer relative of the Dullay languages of Ethiopia’s Omo Valley and would complicate the picture of Cushitic classification more than it already does but that’s a topic for another day where it won’t bore anyone to death.

Does it have a writing system?

No.

What are some grammatical features?

Like almost all Cushitic languages Guhooni’s basic word order is SOV, the language has some tonality that plays a morphophonology function, and has some cool reduplication to form plurals—Cushitic languages on average have diverse ways of creating plurals but Guhooni’s common usage of reduplication is fairly tame. But sticking to the topic of plurals leads one down the route of examining gender in Cushitic languages being that most of the languages exhibit gender polarity, which is essentially where in this case nouns change gender from masculine to feminine when made plural. Due to the influence of primarily Swahili, a Northeast Coastal Bantu language, Guhooni has gradually lost gender distinctions grammatically and as noted by Tosco, quoting an earlier observation by Elderkin (1976) “Gender in [Guhooni] is natural” i.e nouns interpreted as specifically being feminine will be used as subjects in sentences with 3rd person singular verbal forms that themselves are still marked with gender—being that the 3rd person singular verbal forms still retain vestiges of gender distinction. This also bleeds into plural marking strategies because while at first glance the indigenous lexicon indeed is treated the same way as it is in other Cushitic languages, forming plurals from loanwords is limited to primarily 3 strategies: partial reduplication, suffixation, and more rarely change of the final vowel. The relative structural decay of Guhooni also adds to the confusion regarding classification but not in a way that completely hinders the affair, just to the point where there’s not an entirely clear idea of what Guhooni was entirely like prior to intensive contact with Swahili.

What are some phonological features?

• So this is why people talk about Guhooni a lot—anyone familiar with the stereotype that languages in Africa have clicks? Guhooni isn’t helping in this regard. Guhooni has clicks, all of which are prenasalized; and that’s not even really what I would consider to be the most interesting part of the inventory. Guhooni also has the affricate ejective [c͡ʎ̥ʼ] which is a phoneme only found elsewhere in East Africa in Hadza. Like other languages in East Africa that either predate the Bantu expansion or even that of Cushitic presumably during or sometime before the Savannah Pasotral Neolithic, Guhooni has a number of lateral sounds including fricatives, of which those pronounced on the alveolar ridge are rather rare in Africa but unsurprisingly not rare amongst languages which employ phonemic clicks. Guhooni just does, a lot. A full phonological breakdown of the language could easily span 50 pages and the existing phonetic study of the language is around that long give or take. The full phonemic inventory of Guhooni is as follows:

What do you personally find interesting about the language?

• I think I kinda already explained why but it’s Guhooni? That’s enough of an explanation even if you’re vaguely familiar with the language. It’s interesting enough that I have contacted Mauro Tosco regarding the language just to find out what is probably the most important classification proposal is indeed lost…. but nonetheless when I get around to a thesis it’ll probably be something along those lines. Guhooni isn’t just a relic but it is to a degree a time capsule—to the historical linguist is a gold mine of information on the Pre-Bantu linguistic landscape of what is now Kenya. Guhooni’s word for bone also looks almost exactly like that of Hadza; so make what you want of that but it’s like the tip of an iceberg: i.e Guhooni [micc͡ʎ̥ʼo] ~ Hadza [mic͡ʎ̥ʼa]. In a probable future, I’d love to perhaps resurrect Tosco’s proposal just because of the weight of its ambition; Guhooni is a single language, yes, but it’s place within Lowland East Cushitic is one of paramount importance given the context of its historical background and origin.

Extra stuff:

If you want to hear Guhooni, UCLA posted their recordings of the language on their YouTube channel and there’s even a story. I also have a folder, aptly named Guhooni, on my one drive. The Wikipedia page is also reliable as an entry to the language, I myself have contributed to it and I’m sure as more data, if ever, comes out it’ll be added over time. As is tradition, why not a great word?