The Swahili word nymba [ˈɲu.ᵐbɑ] looks and sounds a bit like the English word number, but actually means house.
It comes from Proto-Bantu *njʊ̀mbá (house) and is related to words such as nyumba (house) in Chichewa, Mwani and Tumbuka, and enyumba (house) in Kabwa [source].
Swahili words derived from nyumba include: nyumbani (home, at home, in the house), chumba (room) and kijumba (small house, cottage), which are diminutives of nyumba, jumba (mansion, large building), an augmentative of nyumba, uchumba (courtship, engagement), mchumba (lover, fiancé(e), partner), nyumba ya uzazi (womb, uterus, lit. “birth room”), nyumba ya dawa (pharmacy, drugstore), and unyumba (marital relations, married life) [source].
The word namba also exists in Swahili, means number, and was borrowed from English. It is a form of nambari (number), and appears in expressions such as namba hasi (negative number), sio na namba (numberless), and nambari ya simu (phone number) [source].
A new song came to me the other day. I’d been thinking of writing something in a made up language, and spent some of last week speaking to myself in made up words. The words were all open syllables (consonant plus vowel) and most were two syllables.
I wrote the song down and sent it to my singer-songwriter friends. One of them put it into Google Translate, which identified the language as Chichewa, a Bantu language spoken mainly in Malawi.
These are the original words with their Chichewa meanings (according to Google Translate):
Oba mmta uku kitu (Bow and find something)
Tika kuta dupa fu (Tika walls dupa fu)
Fitu mmdu bapi kati (What is the difference between)
Taku mipa untu li (Taku barrels)
Oba mmba undu fitu (Be very serious)
Tepu pimi mmdu ku (Tape pima mmdu to)
Kata tifu uko kibi (Cut off live)
Bifu bafu taku ni (The bath tub taku is)
Kula tupa muta pitu (Eating discarded)
Katu tiku lafu lu (We are already dead)
Lipa lupa pula puli (Pay the pula plum)
Talo tilu lopa mi (So this is the story of my life)
I then played around with the words until they all meant something in Chichewa, and came up with the following:
Oba mpa katu kitu (Pray for nothing)
Tuka kuta taku du (Exit the walls)
Fitu mbu bapi kati (Where’s the mosquito repellent)
Tala mipa untu li (Color your bodies)
Oba mba undu fitu (Pray now and then)
Tafu pima ndu ku (Find out how to)
Kata tifu uko kibi (Cut off live)
Bifu bafu tata ni (The master bath complex is)
Kula tupa muta pitu (Eating discarded)
Katu tiku lafu lu (We are already dead)
Lapa lupa pula puli (The family is raining)
Talo tilu lopa mi (So this is the story of my life)
So I accidentally managed to write a song in a language I don’t know at all. It may be mostly nonsense, but it’s sort of meaningful nonsense.
Do any of you speak Chichewa? If so, is this a good translation?
Have you ever written some nonsense like this, and found that it meant something in a language you don’t know?
This sounds like something from the brilliant YouTube channel Translator Fails, on which songs, and sometimes other things, are put through Google Translate too many times and become thoroughly mangled. Here’s a recent example:
