The meaning behind the names of the months in bantu languages

Abstract

Though some Bantu names of the months seem to be meaningless when taken separately, the majority is generally loaded with a lot of information if one understands the circumstances under which they have been given or the context from which they have been taken. They convey, not only information on the sequence of the periods or the seasons of the year, but also knowledge pertaining to the microcosm of the speakers of a given language, that is, the environment, the flora, the fauna, the economy and the culture of the community speaking that language. This paper discusses the meaning of the names of the months as revealed by both what people say about them, their etymology, and the morpho-syntactic structure. While some names of the months consist of Noun Phrases, others are Verbs, Verb Phrases or Sentences which clearly describe some events happening in those months. This study deals with the following three languages in detail: (i) [tSiluba], spoken in the two Kasai provinces of the D.R.C i.e. the Democratic Republic of Congo, (ii) [lOzi] (or [silOzi], spoken in Zambia, Botswana and Namibia), and [tswana] (or [sItswana], spoken in Botswana, South Africa and Namibia). Due to space limitations, the following languages are only referred to in the concluding remarks: (i) [sIsUt^hU], (ii) [kaOndE], (iii) [lamba], (iv) [lunda], (v) [luvalE], (vi) [tONga]1, (vii) [tONga]2, (viii) [uNga], (ix) [bEmba], (x) [luNgu], (xi) [sOli], and (xii) [tSiSiNga]

Introduction

Calendars from different civilizations are not unanimous about the number of months in a year. For example, ancient civilizations (namely Greek, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Roman) which are at the origin of Western culture had the number of months indicated in the bottom row of Table 1

Table 1: Number of the months in the calendars of ancient civilizations

12 months Like Egyptian

	Greek & Babylonian	Egyptian	Roman1	Roman2	Roman3	English Equivalents
1	X	X	X	Januarius	Januarius	January
2	X	X	X	Februarius	Februarius	February
3	X	X	X	Martius	Martius	March
4	X	X	X	Aprilis	Aprilis	April
5	X	X	Quintilis	Maius?	Maius	May
6	X	X	Sextilis	Junius	Junius	June
7	X	X	Septem	Quintilis	Julius	July
8	X	X	Octavus	Sextilis	Augustus	August
9	X	X		Septem	Septem	September
10	X	X		Octavus	Octavus	October
11	X	X	Novem	Novem	Novem	November
12	X	X	Decem	Decem	Decem	December
13	& Intercalary month
No. of Months:	12 months of 29/30 day months + 1 intercalary	Solar Calendar of 12 months	10 months	12 months including the 2 renamed ones in bold types	12 months

Dividing the duration of the year (i.e. 365 ¼ days) by the 29½ days which the moon takes to complete its revolution around the earth reveals that the moon turns 12.38 times around the earth during a single year. This means that the year counts 12.38 lunar cycles, not exactly 12 months as the Gregorian calendar tends to suggest. In Stoddard’s (1965: 100) opinion, the Gregorian calendar came as an attempt by Pope Gregory XIII to cancel the excess of 12 minutes in the Julian calendar accumulated over every 128 years totaling 1 day. This accumulated over many years totaling an excess which made the vernal equinox fall on March 11^th instead of March 21^stin the 16^th century.

To correct this deficiency, Pope Gregory XIII canceled the ten extra days that had accumulated over the centuries by proclaiming that the day following October 4^th, 1582 should be called October 15^th, 1582. To prevent this excess from accumulating in the future, the Gregorian calendar ignored leap years in century-beginning years that were not divisible by 400.

The present World Calendar retains 12 months of 30 or 31 days, with additional Year Days and Leap Days. Because of the discrepancy between the number of the months in European calendars and that of the lunar cycles in a year, in the following sections of this paper, I will use the term “lunar cycles” instead of “months” and numbers to indicate their sequence in the year. This enables us to get around the difficulty of translation because some lunar cycles cut across two successive months.

Bantu Calendars

Originally, Bantu-speaking communities seem to have had lunar calendars. This is noticeable from the fact that Bantu people carefully observed the lunar phases, the changes occurring in their environments, and what their communities used to do during certain times of the year. Some Bantu languages count thirteen lunar cycles in their calendars while others have only twelve, as indicated in Table 2. Hence, numbers have been used in the first column as a hint at the sequence of these lunar cycles in the year with ‘the approximate equivalent of January’ as the starting point (i.e. as No. 1) instead of inaccurately claiming that they are equal to the names of the European months, as we are well aware that the number of the lunar cycles differs from that of the European months.

Therefore, the lists of [kaOndE], [lamba], and [lunda] names adopted from Chaplin (1967) have been rearranged taking into account his warning that “October seems to be considered the renewal point of the natural cycle for several areas, so this has been chosen to begin each list, unless the contrary is indicated”.(Op. cit.: 147). This paper uses the I.P.A. transcription to show pronunciation for sake of uniformity instead of ordinary spelling which may mislead uninformed readers since the languages in question here uses different spelling conventions.

Table 2: Names of the months in seven Bantu languages

	tSilubà	silOzi	sItswana	sIsUt^hU	kaOndE	lamba	lunda
1	tSjO:NO	sOpE	firiq^hUN`	p^hIrIkUN`	kubOmukata	inkubO/inkubOkulu	kabENgElE kalambalamba
2	lwi:Si	jOwa	tñ^hakUlE	tñ^hakUla	kisaka	akabENElE-ntaNga / akalusafja-manika	filintwa
3	tSisa:Na	ljatamai	mUpitñwE	tñ^habubIlI	mulOmbOla	iwENgElE-likulu/sEba-patSulu	kabENgElE nsafjamanika
4	lwa:baa	luNgu	mUranaN`	mIsa	kapEpOkatSE	itSisika	kuntansOkE
5	lumu:Nulu	kandaO	mUts^hEXanON`	mUtsEanON`	kiSikana	kapjantOtO	tSikOkamakwi
6	kaSipu-NkEnzE	mbuwana	sIEtEbUsiXU	p^hupjanE	kapjantOtO	nkumbinkumbi	kapEpO
7	kaSipu-mpu:mpu:mpu	mujana	p^hukwi	p^hupu	makumbikumbi	kasabwa/akasakO-kanduba / itSibwEla-musi	tSipEpO
8	tSimu:Nu muluma	sukulu	p^hatwE	p^hatU	kasalakanduwa	ikuNgulu ljamitOndO / indZEkEla/akapalala	kabElESi
9	tSimuNu mukaZi	muimunEnE	lwEtsE/pUanE	lwEtsE	kaiaia	akasuba-katSE	kasOkakanduba
10	mudila-ntO:NOlO / lO:Sa matu	jEnda	p^halanE/mUsEtñ^ha	mp^halanE	ntundwE	ntEntSEntEntSE	laNgaSE
11	kaswa:baNa	ndZimwana	NwanatsElE	puluNwana	kapandE	baNgasjE/amalEkanO-na-lEsa	tSipalala
12	ka:bitE:nda	NululE	sIdimUn`t^hUlE/mUrulE	tSiswE	kuvumbi	umwEE-masuku	kapundumilimO
13	tSiswa munEnE	sikwEtikwEti			kakubOkatSE	akakubO

Meaning of the Names of the Lunar Cycles in Bantu Languages

Names of the Lunar Cycles in [tSilubà]

In the [tSilubà] language, the year consists of 13 lunar cycles which are named as indicated in Table 3 though, in his dictionary, De Clercq (1960) unsuccessfully reduces them to 12 by attempting to equate the concepts of lunar cycles to that of calendar months.

Table 3: The Names of the lunar cycles in [tSilubà]

Sequence	Names	Sequence	Names
1^st	[tSjO:NO wa mina:Na]	8^th	[tSimu:Nù mulùma] / [tSimu:Nù wa maSìka]
2^nd	[lwî:Si]	9^th	[tSimu:Nù mukàZì]
3^rd	[tSisa:Na Nkàsu]	10^th	[mudila ntO:NOlO] / [mudila ntO:NOZi]
4^th	[lwa:baa Nkàsu]	11^th	[kaswà:bà:Nà]
5^th	[lumù:Nùlù]	12^th	[kaswà:bitE:nda] / [ka:bitE:nda] / [kaswà ma:nsE~:nsà]
6^th	[kaSipuNkE~:nzE~]	13^th	[tSiswà munE~nE]
7^th	[kaSipumpù:mpù:mpù]

Indeed, a look at these names in E.M Willems’ dictionary clearly shows how unsuccessful his attempt to translate was with some names of lunar cycles. He uses the French word ‘lunaison’ which corresponds to ‘lunar cycle’ without realizing that if on the one hand January starts exactly the same day with [tSjONO wa minaNa], the 1^st lunar cycle, 12 lunar cycles will be completed on the 359^th day of that year, leaving us with 6 days before the year ends. In 5 years, the accumulation of those 6 days will amount to another full lunar cycle. But if on the other hand a year had exactly 12 lunar cycles, the following [tSjONO wa minaNa] (1^stmonth of the year) would fall 6 days before the next calendar year and the 12^th lunar cycle (if this were the last one) would end 12 days before that calendar year does. Therefore in 5 years we would end up with [tSjONO wa minaNa] (which is translated as January, according to De Clercq) falling in December. This resembles the situation of the extra 10 days which Pope Gregory XIII attempted to correct by proclaiming that the day following October 4^th, 1582 should be called October 15^th, 1582.

The foregoing names of the [tSilubà] lunar cycles may be explained as follows.

I. [tSjO:NO wa mina:Na]: Literally, [tSjO:NO] of drought. This lunar cycle coincides with the period of the short dry season which normally lasts ± one months, i.e. it may be a little shorter or longer depending on meteorological conditions.

II. [lwî:Si]:This word is the augmentative of [dî:Si](i.e. edible caterpillar). During this lunar cycle, caterpillars are abundant. [lwî:Si] is announced a few weeks before by butterflies which swarm out the sky probably in search of where to lay eggs from which caterpillars will come.

III. [tSisa:Na Nkàsu]: From the phrase [kusa:Na Nkàsu] meaning to gather hoes. This is when people start getting their hoes ready for field work. Gathering hoes is reminiscent of the traditional practice according to which one villager could invite fellow villagers to come and help him/her cultivate after which s/he would reward them with food and drinks.

IV. [lwa:baa Nkàsu]: From the phrase [kwa:baa Nkàsu] meaning ‘to distribute hoes’ [lwa:baa Nkàsu] therefore means ‘the one that distributes hoes’. Sometimes, it is referred to as [lwa:baa màkàlEÙ:NEÙ] (i.e. the one who distributes power), or [lwa:baa] for short. In Lubà traditional society, farmers used to hold real power because they were able to manipulate other members of the community by asking for favors in exchange of field produce. The substitution of [Nkàsu] (i.e. ‘hoes’) with [makalENE] (i.e. ‘power’) stresses the metaphorical sense of the hoe as a symbol of power in this ethnic group.This is evidenced by other names of praises which people call the hoe, e.g. [lukàsu lwà:kudimina wa:djà pawà:fwà lwà:kwEla mu NOmbà] meaning ‘the hoe is the one which cultivates for you so that you can eat and when you die it is also the one that people will use to burry you’.The name [lwa:baa Nkàsu] also refers to the fact that field work is so popular this time of the year that one has the impression that hoes have been distributed to everybody.

V. [lumù:Nùlù]: From the verb [kumu:Nula] which is synonymous with [kutu:Nula], meaning ‘to remove maize from the ear’. The name [lumùùlù] alludes to the fact that this is the time of the first maize harvest of the year.

VI. [kaSipuNkE:~nzE~]: [kaSipu] is the diminutive of [muSipu] (i.e. dry season) and [NkE~nzE~] maybe from the verb [kwEnza] which means ‘to do/happen’ or [NkE~nzE~] / [NkE~nZE~] (= opening of the tunnel of a mouse or a hole in the roof through which sunrays penetrate). [kaSipuNkE~nzE~] means the opening of the dry season or that the dry season has just started.

VII. [kaSipumpù:mpù:mpù]: The ideophone [mpù:mpù:mpù] which has been added to the diminutive of the word for “dry season” refers to the winds which are frequent this time of the year making the weather cool, dry and dusty.

[tSimu:Nù mulùma] / [tSimu:Nù wa maSìka]: Literally, ‘hyena of cold’ or ‘male hyena’. Though hyenas are rare in the present Lubà-Kasai habitat, they are known as animals living on the eastern mountains of Kivu and in cold plateaux. This lunar cycle is the coldest time of the year.

IX. [tSimu:Nù mukàZì]: Literally, ‘female hyena’. This is an indication that the Lubà society is male dominated in that ‘male’ comes first and is associated with strength, good luck and many good things. These people, for instance, widely believe that while one leaves home for a journey, meeting a woman/girl in the first place is a bad omen as compared to meeting a man/boy which is believed to bring good luck. This feminist viewpoint explains why this lunar cycle whose name means the female hyena comes after [tSimu:Nù mulùma](i.e. the male hyena which is the 8^th lunar cycle) and why it is not so cold as the latter, i.e. [tSimu:Nù mulùma].

X. [mudila ntO:NOlO] / [mudila ntO:NOZi]: From [kudila] (= to cry/weep) and [ntO:NOlO] / [ntO:NOZi] (= a cicada). Very often after the dry season bush fires have destroyed vegetation, new buds start sprouting from trees constituting the source of sap which these transparent-winged insects live on. This lunar cycle forms the transition between dry and rainy season. The whole region is dominated by the shrill sounds of cicadas.

XI. [kaswàbà:Nà]: From [kaswà] (diminutive of [n~swa] = winged termites) and [kuba:Na] (= to begin). This lunar cycle is characterized by famine as people have finished all their previously harvested food. Fresh vegetables are rare and even the edible flying termites are still too young for harvest, i.e. they have just begun their life cycle from eggs.

XII. [kaswà bitE:nda] / [ka:bitE:nda] / [kaswà ma:nsE:~nsà]: All these three names are pleonastic as they contain both [kaswa] (diminutive of [n~swa]) and [bitE:nda] / [ma:nsE~:nsà](= termite larvae). In [ka:bitE:nda], [kaswà] is clipped and the remaining [ka] is prefixed to [bitE:nda]. This is when people start harvesting prematurely these insects to complete their deficient diet.

[tSiswà munE~nE]: From the noun [tSiswà] (augmentative of [n~swa]) and the adjective [munE~nE] i.e. great. This lunar cycle is characterized by abundance of flying termites.

Names of the Lunar Cycles in [silOzi]

Some of my informants affirmed that though the following names are used in present [silOzi], what they mean is not so clear to all present [silOzi] speakers because they were borrowed from [silujana], the ancestor of [silOzi] which was a close relative of [tSiluba] and [lunda] while in its present form [silOzi] is a Sotho-Tswana language.

As in the preceding case, Chaplin (1967: 152-153) acknowledges that [silOzi] counts thirteen lunar cycles which are named as indicated in Table 4.

Table 4: The Names of the lunar cycles in [sIlOzi]

Sequence	Names	Sequence	Names
1^st	[sOpE]	8^th	[sikulu]
2^nd	[jOwa]	9^th	[muimunEnE]
3^rd	[ljatamai]	10^th	[jEnda]
4^th	[luNgu]	11^th	[ndZimwana]
5^th	[kandaO]	12^th	[NululE]
6^th	[mbuwana]	13^th	[sikwEtikwEti]
7^th	[mujana]

These lunar cycles have respectively the following meanings:

[sOpE]: Firstlunar cycle which is wrongly supposed to be named thus as it corresponds to the first month of the European year. The truth is that this name is a verb which has been taken from the phrase [sOpE tuti mu ndila] meaning ‘to spread excreta on the path’. This corresponds to the time of the year when food is so abundant that children eat too much and defecate anywhere.

[jOwa]: From the phrase [jOwa tukanda] combining the verb [jOwa] ‘to swim’ and the plural diminutive noun tukanda ‘small pools’. The whole phrase means ‘to swim in small pools’. This is the time when fish can be seen swimming in small pools.

[ljatamai]: Contracted form of the clause [a ata mei]in which -ata means ‘be abundant’ while mei or mai means ‘water’. The whole clause means ‘water is abundant’. This is the time of flood waters.

[luNgu]: From the verb [uNgumana](= to be still). This is the time when river waters give the impression of standing still because of flooding.

[kandaO]: From the verb [andaUka] (= get split or divided). In this lunar cycle, flood waters recede and leave dry patches here and there.

[mbuwana]: From the phrase [mbuwan’O maijwa]. The verb [kuwana] means ‘to change’, while [maijwa] refers to ‘days’). When the days change because of occasional clouds. This time coincides with the winter solstice during which the days become shorter than the nights.

[mujana]: This is the corrupted form of [mwijana]from [mwi]meaning ‘sun’ and [ana], the diminutive suffix.This is the time of little sun.

[sikulu]: From the phrase [sikulu mEbO]. The verb [sikulula] from which [sikulu] comes means ‘to make something change direction’ while [mEbO]refers to‘winds’). It is the time of strong winds

[muimunEnE]: From the Noun Phrase [mwi munEnE] in which [mwi] / [lijuwa] means ‘sun’ while the adjective [munEnE] means ‘big’). This is when the sun is very sharp.

[jEnda]: From the phrase [jEnda wa kamwi ni mbula],which in fact is the praise name for this lunar cycle, means ‘go alongside with rain’. This is when the sun and the rain go together, referring to the mixed weather conditions of this lunar cycle.

[ndZimwana]: From the noun [ndZimO] meaning ‘agriculture/cultivation’ and the diminutive suffix [ana] which implies ‘smallness’. This is probably the month of cultivation when very little food is available because the unprocessed food that remained in granaries (e.g. maize, sorghum, and others) has been used as seed.

[NululE]: From [NululE] which refers to ‘a kind of dark-brown and winged insect’ usually seen in December in the Lozi habitat. These insects which were referred to earlier as winged termites are called [nswa] or [nSwa] respectively by the Luba, the Shona, and other Bantu speakers. According to my informants, some ethnic groups (e.g. [baluba], [bajEji], and others) eat these insects while the [lOzi] people do not. In [tSiluba] these insects gave their name to the 11^th, the 12^th and the 13^th lunar cycles.

[sikwEtikwEti]: A short lunar month added to December. The reduplicated form [kwEti-kwEti](from [kwEti] / [kwEli]which means ‘moon’) carries the implication of oddness or shortness, and there is a lot of confusion around this lunar cycle. People wonder when exactly it occurs, whether it really occurs, and whether it should be seen as occurring at the end of the year or the beginning.

Names of the Lunar Cycles in [sItswana]

The following account on the [sItswana] names of the lunar cycles is inspired by Mogapi (1991: 194-195). In contrast with the foregoing two languages, [sItswana] has twelve lunar cycles which are as follows.

The following account attempts to explain what these names mean.

i. [hiriq^hUN`]: This name is obtained by compounding [hiri] (taken from the name [lIp^hOi la mUfiri] / [lIp^hOi la kUfiri] which designates ‘a desert dove’) and the stem [q^hUN`], from [diq^hUN`] which means ‘twigs’. This is the time when the doves are busy collecting twigs [diq^hU`ana] to build nests to start laying eggs.

ii. [tñ^hakUlE]: From the name of a tree called [mUtñ^hakUla] whose leaves are used traditionally to wipe the anus after defecation. This tree, in its turn, takes its name from the verb [tñ^hakUla] which means ‘to wipe the anus’. This time of the year, the [mUtñ^hakUla] tree leaves are green and healthy.

iii. [mUpitñwE] / [mUpitñO]: From [XU pitñaXana] (= to become fat/dense/ thick/bushy). This is when sorghum grains become compact and fat to fill the ear, leaving no space between them.

iv. [mUranaN`]: [mUranaN`] is a species of beans. This is when people enjoy eating fresh [mUranaN`] beans as they are being harvested.

v. [mUts^hEXanON`]: From [ts^hEXa] (= laugh) and [nON`] (= birds), hence the literal meaning ‘the one who laughs at birds’. During this time of the year, kaffir-corn/sorghum in fields is ripe. It is so dry and hard because of strong sunshine that people compare its exposed grains to the teeth of a laughing person. They believe the kaffir-corn plants are now laughing at birds which can no longer harm them as they used to do when the grains were still immature and soft.

vi. [sIEtEbUsiXU]: From [sI] (= the negative marker), [Eta] (= to go), and [bUsiXU] (= night), hence the etymological sense ‘don’t go out or visit at night’. The weather is very cold during this lunar cycle. People are discouraged from visiting others at night either because the cold weather conditions often make the available hospitality infrastructure insufficient as everybody needs it (e.g. blankets and shelters) or because of the possible hazards due this cold weather.

vii. [p^hukwi]: From [XU fukua] / [XU kukua] (= to bud / sprout). This is when some trees which become leafless because of winter cold start budding.

viii. [p^hatwE]: From the verb [XU p^hatñ^hUla] (= pull apart / split). It is the time during which strong winds rid trees of their leaves.

ix. [lwEtsE] / [pUanE], rarely: [lwEtsE] is the perfective form of the verb [lwala] meaning ‘to be sick’. This is the lunar cycle which comes immediately after winter. The clouds start to appear here and there in the sky and condense so that it may rain. Tswana people say ‘maru a lwala / a tlhola pula’ which means figuratively that the clouds are predicting (or warning about) the coming of rain. In a more poetic translation one may say, the clouds are pregnant with rain.

x. [p^halanE] (sometimes called [mUsEtñ^ha]): In the name [p^halanE], the noun stem[p^hala] (= impala) is suffixed with the diminutive morpheme [anE] to mean ‘young impala’. This is the lunar cycle during which impalas (i.e. [dip^hala], in [sItswana]) give birth. It is also called [mUsEtñ^ha] after a species of acacia tree which starts blooming this time of the year.

xi. [NwanatsElE]: This name is a corrupted form of the sentence [Nwana itsElE t^hEtñwa] which means ‘children help yourselves to [t^hEtñwa]’. The latter are berries of the brandy bush called Gravia flava (Matumo, 1993: 394). This lunar cycle is characterized by abundance of wild fruits and berries. Hence, children are invited to help themselves.

xii. [sIdimUn`t^hUlE]: From the sentence, [sIdimU n`t^hUlE] (= spirits/ancestors help me get this load off my head). The full praise name for this lunar cycle which is [sIdimUn`t^hUlE wa mUrula] stresses the abundance of the [mUrula] plums this time around.

Concluding Remarks

In surveying the etymologies of the names of lunar cycles in several Bantu languages one may realize that those names can be categorized as follows:

(i) those which denote people’s lifestyle, i.e. what they do or should not do, what they believe, where they go, etc. during that time of the year,

(ii) those which describe the weather conditions such as rain, sun, heat, clouds, floods, winds, etc…

(iii) those referring to periods of the year when the flora is flamboyant or becomes extremely generous by contributing to food abundance,

(iv) those denoting the fauna, i.e. animals which appear, become numerous, reproduce that time of the year or what they do,

(v) and finally, those which are unclassified because they could not fit in any of these categories.

These categories should not be seen as an attempt to separate the meanings represented. The categories are indeed inter-related because the weather has an impact on the flora which sustains the fauna and human activity interferes with the previous components in several ways.

Nevertheless, these categories shed some light on the way every language names its lunar cycles, as explained below. By coding every lunar cycle in the languages examined, I came up with statistics which have enabled me to formulate the following general trends in the nomenclature of lunar cycles.

In [tSilubà], for example, the situation is as follows:

Table 2 shows that most names of lunar cycles in [tSilubà] come from the fauna. One should not expect the total value of frequency to reflect the number of the lunar cycles. It rather reflects the number of names of lunar cycles found in the language taking into consideration the fact that some months have more than one name. As regards the other languages which I have not described in this article because of space restrictions, a good number of lunar cycles are named after the prevailing weather conditions in [silOzi], [kaOndE], [luvalE], [tONga]2, [uNga], [lunda], [bEmba] and [luNgu]. In [sItswana], [sIsut^hU], [lamba] and [sOli], it is rather the flora which prevails. In [tONga]1 people’s lifestyle is predominant. In [tSiSiNga], people’s lifestyle, the flora and the weather conditions equally share the lead.

Moreover, the following similarities and differences have been remarked in comparing the nomenclature of the lunar cycles in the languages examined:

(i) In connection with food security, several languages indicate their time(s) of famine (e.g. [kaswabaNa](11^th) in [tSilubà]) as well as those of food abundance (e.g. [sOpE](1^st) in [silOzi]).

(ii) In connection with the prevailing weather conditions, several languages issue warnings to their speakers about good and bad times such as floods ([ljatamai](3^rd) and [luNgu](4^th) in [silOzi], [nsafja manika / kabENgElE kakalamba](13^th) in [bEmba] and [mukazi maziba](12^th /

1^st) in [tONga]1 and 2, downpours (e.g. [kuvumbi](12^th) in [kaOndE], [SindE / ikanda NgOmbE](2^nd) in [tSibEmba], drought [ntundwE](10^th) in [kaOndE], [laNgaSE] (10^th) in [bEmba], sharp, harmful sunshine [ulusuba lukalamba](9^th) in [bEmba], [lusuba kakalamba](10^th) in [tSiSiNga], strong winds [patwE](8^th) in [sItswana], [kapEpO kakalamba](4^th) / [itSikuNgulupEpO](5^th) in [bEmba], heavy cold [sIEtEbusiXU](6^th) in [sItswana], [kaSipu mpumpumpu](7^th) and [tSimuNu wa maSika](8^th) in [tSilubà], [Sika munEnE](5^th) in [luvalE], [ganda pati](6^th) in [tONga]2 and excessive heat [mui munEnE](9^th) in [silOzi].

(iii) As regards peoples’ lifestyles, lunar cycle names in some languages tell what their speakers eat, what they do for a living, what they should do or should not, what they believe, where they go and where they cannot go during certain periods, etc.

(iv) Sometimes the same name is used in different languages for different but contiguous lunar cycles or with different meanings. This may be explained by the fact that some ethnic groups which are supposedly from the same origin have now migrated to different environments (e.g. Batswana and Basotho).

(v) With regard to the number of the lunar cycles in the year, Bantu languages seem to have had lunar calendars with initially 13 months which some have reduced to 12 under the influence of Western civilization and the misleading attempt to equate every European name of the month with a local name or to translate them from one language into another.

References

Chaplin, J.H. 1967. “Vernacular Month Names from Zambia”. In African Studies, Vol. 26, No. 3.

De Clercq, A. Mgr. 1960. Dictionnaire Tshiluba Français. Revue et augmenté par E.M. Willems.Imprimerie de la Société Missionnaire de St. Paul : Kinshasa

Jalla, A. 1982. Silozi-English Dictionary (Revised & Enlarged by the Literature Committee of the United Church of Zambia, NECZAM): Lusaka

Matumo, Z.I. 1993. Setswana-English-Setswana Dictionary. Macmillan: Botswana

Mogapi, K.1991. Ngwao ya Setswana. L.Z. Sikwane Publishers: Gaborone

O’Sullivan, O. 1993. English-Silozi Dictionary. Zambia Educational Publishing House. Lusaka.

Sechelo, M. 1909 & 1910 “The Twelve Lunar Months among the Basuto”. Reprinted from Anthropos, Vol. IV (1909), No. 5, 6; Vol. V (1910), No. 1.

Stoddard, G.D. (ed.) 1965. Understanding the Universe. (The Home Library Encyclopedia. Vol. 1). Parents’ Institute: New York.