New Writing
If I Lose My Voice, Will You Still Understand Me?
2010-06-21 12:20:54
If I Lose My Voice, Will You Still Understand Me?
A loaded question, especially when asked by speakers of minority languages. It was posed by an artist who wants to incorporate the words in different ways with paintings or prints that focus attention on issues of lost or marginalized languages.
Ju/'hoan San is an endangered "click" language of Namibia and Botswana. Here are the Ju/'hoan San words for this sentence:
Ka mi koara dohm re a ciniha ku tsa'a mi?
Dam Debe, a Ju/'hoan librarian in Tsumkwe, Namibia, emailed this careful explanation of terms and concepts:
"The sentence is as follows.
Ka mi koara dohm re a ciniha ku tsa'a mi?
If I don't have a voice do you still hear me / understand me?
Dohm means voice / throat
Koara dohm = means no voice / voiceless / to have no say.
The idiom Koara dohm means you are near death, or that you sometimes make mistakes which can cause you problems.
Koara tzi means to quit / stay quit.
Koara dhari means to have no tongue / language."
Before computer and internet technology, this exchange between the native speaker and the English-speaking artist who asked the question would have taken months, and might have involved many intermediaries. This comment on one of the world's most phonetically complex languages was transmitted instantly by email by Dam, a native speaker of Ju/'hoan. Thus the potential exists for the poetry, art, and diverse languages of the global world to be increasingly interactive. Surely better mutual understanding can only follow.
Submitted by Dr Megan Biesele, Director of the Kalahari Peoples Fund, who works with Dam Debe and other trainees on a transcription project in Namibia.
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Dam Debe