Mahe a linotši
I just couldn't help putting this up for those of you who speak or are learning Sesotho. It's a PowerPoint document that you need to download (ho theohelisa) and run through your favourite anti-virus program, just for good measure. Or just open it online. And enjoy. U tla e fumana atereseng e latelang: http://r.masilo.free.fr/tse_ling/mahe.a.linotsi.pps

4 comments:
Hey, what does "Sefako sa Menoaneng" mean? Does it mean a man named Sefako is from a village called Menoaneng? Where is that at then? I didn't ever hear of it.
What about "nkejoane"? what does that mean?
please respond to jeff.t.mcdonald@gmail.com if you have the answer
Hi Jeff.
Well, you are close but not quite right. If it was a man named Sefako, it should have been `Sefako oa Menoaneng'. `Oa' is a sort of a pronoun in Sesotho that shows a person (equivalent to s/he - Sesotho does not different btn man and woman). Whereas `sa' is also pronoun-like more or less like `it'. But in Sesotho we have lots of this non-person pronouns like `tsa', `ea', `la', even `oa', etc, depending on the prefix of what is talked about.
Menoaneng is a place in this context. In Sesotho, a word that has `eng' as a suffix means a place. Therefore, it can be a village. `Menoana' are fingers. However, the whole phrase may be figurative, and actually have a totally different meaning from any of the individual words. It really does not make sense to say `fingers` hailstorm' or does it? That is the literal translation of your phrase.
nketjoane (note the t before j) is usually used in figurative speech. I believe it means a small frog - from `nketu', a frog. I hope I am right here.
Awa!
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