Page 26 - SoMJ Vol 74 - No 1, 2021

16 The Society of Malaŵi Journal

Following the sounds /s/, /z/, /f/, /v/, a final /i/ or /u/ in Chichewa tends to be
only weakly pronounced. Koelle often omits it: mbṓz (mbúzi) ‘goat’, ndṣā ́ f
(ntchafu) ‘thigh’.

Accent
An accent over a vowel indicates what Koelle heard as the prominent syllable.
Normally he puts this on the penultimate syllable, even in a toneless word, e.g.
tsā ́ ndṣa (dzanja) ‘hand’. However, occasionally he marks the antepenultimate
when it has a high tone: sín·ān·ga (síng’anga) ‘doctor’, dṣikọ ́ n·gōno (chikóngono)
‘elbow’, mbálāmi (mbálame) ‘bird’. There are also a few words where he writes
an accent on the antepenultimate even when it does not have a tone, e.g. Márāwi
(Maláŵi), perhaps because the unreduced /a/ sounded to him as if it were accented.
He also occasionally writes an accent on the first part of a rising diphthong: búāto
(bwató) ‘canoe’.

Consonants
In consonants, Koelle had difficulty distinguishing between the sounds /s/ and /z/.
For the latter he sometimes writes ‘s’ and sometimes ‘z’: mbṓz (mbuzi) ‘goat’ but
búlōs (buluzi) ‘lizard’.
/ts/ and /dz/ were both written ‘ts’; and sometimes /ts/ was written with just
/s/: tsísé (tsítsi) ‘hair’, mā ́ ·tse (madzí) ‘water’. In one word, dzū́lo (dzulo)
‘yesterday’, a ‘z’ is written.
/pf/ and /bv/ were also confused: pfū́pa (fúpa) ‘bone’, mpfū́la (mvúla) ‘rain’.
/c/, /ch/, and /j/ were all written with ‘dṣ’: dṣā ́ la (chala) ‘finger’, ndṣā ́ f
(ntchafu) ‘thigh’, tsā ́ ndṣa (dzanja).
For the most part, Koelle did not hear the difference between aspirated and
unaspirated consonants. So ‘p’ is written for both /p/ and /ph/, ‘t’ for both /t/ and
/th/, and ‘k’ for both /k/ and /kh/: pā ́ se (phazí) ‘foot’, ntī́ti (nthiti) ‘rib’, kṓsi·
(khosi) ‘neck’. However, there are a very few words where he notes the /h/:
mphā ́ sa (mphasa) ‘mat’, ńdhū́n·gọ (nthúngo) ‘spear’, khọ ́ndo (nkhóndo) ‘war’.
Initial /w/ and /ŵ/ are both written ‘w’: wóyēla (wóyéra) ‘white man’, wánna
(ŵaná) ‘children’. But /w/ after a consonant was written with ‘o’ or ‘u’: boẹ ́nts
(bwenzí) ‘friend’, kī́n·gūẹ (chingwe) ‘rope’.
/ŋ/ (as in ‘sing’) is written with a dot after the ‘n’: sín·ān·ga (síng’anga)
‘doctor’. In one word, perhaps in error, he writes /ŋ/ as ‘gn’: gnọ ́ma (ng’oma)
‘drum’. Between vowels, the nasal consonants are sometimes written double:
wánna (ŵaná) ‘children’, mulómmo (mlomo) ‘mouth’. ‘ń’ and ‘ḿ’ are syllabic
sounds: ńtu (mtú) ‘head’, ḿpfe (mví) ‘arrow’.

(chimwemwe) ‘smile’, dĭa (dya) ‘eat’, kámŏa (kamwa) ‘mouth’, and this may be what
Koelle intended to print.