u/Angkerlengquba

The linguistic consensus is that languages like Xhosa and Zulu borrowed clicks from neighboring “Khoi-San” languages like N||ng or Ju|’hoan. But does that mean every word in Bantu languages containing a click is Non-Bantu in origin? Or are there native Bantu words with clicks? If so how did they develop?

I’m not talking about mild dissapointment or a fantasy of a child of a particular gender. If you are genuinely torn up about it and vocalize as such you shouldn’t have a kid.

Like obviously across much of the world male baby preference is a greater issue. We’ve all seen the vids of dads having temper tantrums because the smoke is pink or whatever. It comes from the misogynistic view that women and girls are less capable or worthy of certain things, including existing.

But also, as an intersex FtM I don’t think people who want to have only daughters should have children either. Number one, no matter how feminist your pov is you’re still boxing people into gender roles, girl=pure good, boy=dangerous and evil. Number two, there is always a chance your daughter might not want to identify that way. What if you have an intersex child? A trans son? Just a more masculine daughter? You’re setting them up for confusion and self hatred.

Before you have any children you need to have an unconditional love for them, even when they are just thoughts.

A lot of people like to say to interphobes/transphobes/homophobes “I hope you have intersex/trans/gay children!” But I hope they don’t have children at all. You aren’t a punishment for your parents. And also, it’s childish to assume parents who would hate their children for one reason would be any less selective in other regards. Even to their endosex/straight/cis/male children they will just be bad parents.

Ignoring Mozambique for a second, Kenya and South Africa are one of the few African countries that are not completely dysfunctional, so it feels logical to build stronger connections and maybe take some pointers from them.

Pre-Randrianirina we did most of our trade with France or European countries+some of East Asia. Most of relations with Africa were via Françafrique, which didn’t really do much as Francophone Africa is most West Africa and the whole system is sort of falling apart currently with the whole Traoré-Sahel situation. Now some focus has shifted to Russia, which like, really? Swap one crumbling empire for another? Great move.

I feel like things might be better if we focused on bettering ties with nations in Southern and Eastern Africa, or more broadly build ties around the Indian Ocean with like India or Australia or whatever. I think opening up to some Anglophone nations in Africa (Kenya, SA, Nigeria even) might also do us some good. Thoughts?

[a e i u o aj aw ɛj ɔj] ኣ ኤ ኢ ኡ ኦ ኣይ ኣው ኤይ ኦይ

[m n ŋ] ም ን ዕ

[p t t͡s t͡ʂ k] ፕ ት ጽ ጭ ክ

[b d d͡z d͡ʐ ɡ] ብ ድ ች ጅ ግ

[ᵐp ⁿt ⁿt͡s ⁿt͡ʂ ᵑk] ንፕ ንት ንጽ ንጭ ንክ

[ᵐb ⁿd ⁿd͡z ⁿd͡ʐ ᵑɡ] ንብ ንድ ንች ንጅ ንግ

[f s v z h] ፍ ስ ቭ ዝ ህ

[ɾ l j w] ር ል ይ ው

Teraka afaka sy mitovy zo sy fahamendrehana ny olombelona rehetra. Samy manan-tsaina sy fieritreretana ka tokony hifampitondra am- pirahalahiana.

ተራካ ኣፋካ ሲ ሚቱቪ ዙ ሲ ፋሃሜንጄሃና ኒ ኡሉምበሉና ሬሄጫ። ሳሚ ማናን ጻይና ሲ ፍዬሪጬሬታና ካ ቱኩኒ ሂፋንፒቱንጃ ኣም ፒራሃላህያና።

We often see names gain popularity for being featured in television/music/celebrities (think Madison, Tiffany, Brittany, Justin, etc.)

However we rarely discuss the reverse, names which have dipped in popularity for being used in media. If not become less popular, certainly less…respected.

Elsa-[ɛlsə] A shortened form of Elizabeth from German, now associated with gross out humour on youtube.

Ursula-[ɝsələ] A Latin name of a fourth century saint, now associated with the best Disney villain.

Elmo-[ɛlmoʊ] From Italian Erasmo, ultimately from Greek Έρασμος meaning lovely/desired. Now associated with the bargain bin at ToysЯus.

Kermit-[kɝmɪt] From Manx Kermode meaning “son of Dermot” Dermot being a doublet of Jeremiah. Now Kermit is furg.

Bonus; Something tells me Donald is probably not going to see a revival, that or Adolphus.

I’m not talking about older varieties of French. I’m talking about the sort of cultural function of speaking in an older or more formal style in a modern context.

For example, if a character in thine story parleys in a manner like this; utilizing many more advanced terms or utilizing severely archaic forms like “doth, thou, thine, forsooth, verily” it indicates a unique character trait for which they doth possess. Forsooth most commonly it shows an individual is exceptionally pretentious or most truthfully incredibly old fashioned.

Basically the way of talking in pop culture to show like a really ridiculously formal context or incredibly old fashioned way, well beyond what one would use in normal conversation.

Sometimes I feel that using “nous” instead of “on” is sort of over the top or pretentious, but I’m not sure if it’s used that way commonly in media.

Also, how would one translate caveman talk. Like how do french grug explain that fire hot and fire hurt hand?

If you didn’t know there’s a huge debate and drama around immigration from other African countries in South Africa. South Africans allege that other Africans are taking their jobs, damaging the local economy, smuggling people/drugs, and other things. While other Africans allege South Africa is being overly bigoted and violent towards the migrants in their country.

It’s bled into some other places like Namibia and Kenya. Ethiopians, Zimbabweans, Nigerians, and Pakistanis (wildcard) are at the centre of the debate it seems. However there is a (relatively) large Gasy community in SA which seems to be flying under the radar.

My relatives in Cape Town and Réunion are largely anti-immigration from Africa. Which I find ironic because…well…they’re Chinese and Malagasy in places which are not China or Madagascar. But they also have complained about racism and xenophobia in the past. They seem to believe that Malagasy immigrants are quiet and don’t act like as much a “burden” as other groups. Which to me seems hypocritical and bigoted, but I don’t really know the situation on the ground.

How do Madagascar Malagasy people feel? Any other Malagasy in South Africa or abroad generally have opinions or input?

C'est un article un peu ancien, mais intéressant si vous vous intéressez à l'histoire ou à la culture malgaches. Il fait état de populations archaïques présentes à Madagascar bien avant les installations austronésiennes, et qui semblent avoir mystérieusement disparu.

Kind of old article but interesting if you like Malagasy history/culture. Evidence of archaic populations on Mada long before austronesian settlements that seemed to mysteriously disappear.

Madagascar has several ethnic groups, but unlike much of Africa it has been (fortunately) spared from huge waves of ethnic violence or civil war.

I also know each region of the country has its own unique heritage and often times dialect.

I spent most of my life outside Madagascar, my father being Cantonese/Merina and my mother being Betsimaraka.

I only really got the vibe that Antananarivo had special treatment by the government from my grandparents whinging about it, and that the coastal regions were neglected by xyz government. Along with the fact that Asian/Merina features are considered more attractive/preferable by many, so some colourism.

But I never really heard much that the different ethnic groups didn’t get along or ever actually fought, or that things like intermarriage were uncommon/discouraged.

People who still live in the country, would you say my assessment is accurate?

Isabel and Rega seemed to be far more vehemently anti leftist and fascist than Juan which is a weird evolution from the Peronist axis which was originally quite tied to organized labour.

The Montoneros motto was literally “Perón or death” why did Isabel and Rega crackdown so hard on them and did it contribute to the collapse of the elected government in Argentina in 1976?

Madagascar is one of the few African countries with an indigenous national language that is spoken by the majority of its population. Malagasy has been written since the 1500s century and we’ve had a consistent orthography since the early 1800s.

Very easily Malagasy could be the main language of the island. While many would point to the many dialects of the island, other languages such as Greek or Italian have taken a range of dialects and condensed it into a national tongue used by most people.

But, French and to a lesser extent English are still privileged. If you want any important job you need French, Malagasy people use French online and in school, and many parents think French or English is the only way to be successful.

But that’s because you can only be successful with a European language.

Malagasy has more speakers than modern Greek, the difference is that the Greek government values Greek language and culture. They prioritize it in schools, supports Greek films and literature, and support efforts to translate into the language. The idea of Turkish or English being used by Greeks professionally would be ludicrous to Greek people.

Malagasy politicians and the wealthy on the other hand, seem to hate Gasy. They worship French culture and white people. They send their kids abroad, they built their mansions in French styles and wear haute couture, being Malagasy means nothing but a pay-check to them.

There’s also the fact Madagascar is poor. Companies will never translate material into Malagasy because the average Malagasy speaking person is not wealthy enough to buy things like video games or films. We’re not an incredibly small nation, we have about 30,000,000 people, more than Ukraine. But even after being invaded and bombed Ukraine still had a higher HDI than Madagascar. Internationally we’re basically just a resource tile and Indian Ocean stepping stone for France.

Ukrainians also fight tooth and nail to have their language represented and used day to day, to have it dubbed over films and games, and to limit Russian language due to the Imperial conflict between Russia and Ukraine. But Malagasy people can’t do so with French?

This points to a broader part of Malagasy society. Madagascar has a unique culture and society not really seen elsewhere. And luckily, unlike our neighbours, we’ve been sparred from brutal violence or tensions between the different cultural groups. But our leaders don’t value our heritage, in fact I think they see it as actively worse than European Christian culture. As long as we’re being bled dry by our leaders Malagasy culture and language will just die a long quiet death.

I desperately don’t want this to be true, but at our current stage it seems so.

I’ve lived in Réunion (very young), Canada, and the US, along with visiting France and South Africa so I’m curious about other peoples experiences.

Generally people start with some form of “do you like to move it move it?” But after they exhaust any jokes related to the movie most people are clueless. No one really has stereotypes about Malagasy people or pre conceptions about the country beyond “Lemurs and jungle”. Or asking me to say random words in Malagasy and just nodding.

Only time I was genuinely baffled by something was “if Madagascar’s African and Asian, are guys big or little?” Caught me fully off guard, the girl was African too so I can’t even say what prompted it.

But yeah, the fact that people have no idea about the country has two sides I’d say. On the one side it’s nice that there’s not really stereotypes or negative ideas about the place or people, even people who only know “jungles and huts” know they probably shouldn’t say it out loud. But on the other hand it means a lot of people expect me to be like a textbook and teach them all the details and know random facts. Which is bad because I’m incredibly white washed :)

Does my experience track with anyone else’s?

(Not the AJR song) like the song played in movies whenever a character is playing “the world’s smallest violin” to be dramatically comedically sad, like in spongebob. What’s the name?