Calculus-KitweOnLine

A day may come when we have a Bemba word for “calculus”. In the meantime, this highly adaptable language has incorporated new words into everyday use. Counting is one such area. In this lesson we cover how to count in Bemba from 1 to 999,999, the easy way.

If you were to stop someone on the streets of Kitwe and asked them what “Umwanda umo na cimo” means, chances are that not one in ten will be able to tell you. Everyone practically uses the English terms for counting, especially in the urban areas. Thousands of Kwacha are spent in the course of groceries shopping and people are perfectly comfortable talking about “millions”, “thousands” and “hundreds” of Kwacha.

The Bemba words for low counts between 1 and 5 are adjectives. Therefore the prefix determines which choice of word you use, eg. :

             SMALL                           BIG

1           kamo                               cimo

2           tubili                                 fibili

3           tutatu                                fitati

4           tune                                  fine

5           tusano                              fisano

Examples:

                   One small guitar    –      Akalimba kamo.

                   One big guitar           –   Icilimba cimo

6          mutanda

7          cine lubali (“four on one side”)

8          cine konse konse (“four on each side”)

9           pabula (“one short”)

10         ikumi limo

12         ikumi limo na fibili (“one ten and two”)

20         amakumi yabili (“two tens”)

21         amakumi yabili na cimo (“two tens and one”)

22         amakumi yabili na fibili (“two tens and two”)

23        a makumi yabili na fitatu (“two tens and three”)

24         (etc.)

30        amakumi yatatu

40        amakumi yane

50        amakumi yasano

60        amakumi mutanda

70        amakumi cine lubali

80        amakumi cine konse konse

90        amakumi pabula

100      umwanda umo

101      umwanda umo na cimo

102  umwanda umo na fibili

103  umwanda umo na fitatu

104  (etc.)

200      imyanda ibili

300      imyanda itatu

1,000   ikana limo

2,000   amakana yabili

3,000   amakana yatatu

1,000,000   umuntapendwa umo (“One uncountable”)

2,000,000   imintapendwa ibili (“Two uncountables”)

So there you have it. You can now practice and use real Bemba words for counting. There are 72 other Zambian languages out there. We want to do the same for each one of them here on KitweOnLine.

Do you speak any of the other Zambian languages? Work with us to fill in the gaps. Get in touch below. We want to hear from you.

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