Other Gender Matters – Lozi Names

As we saw in a previous posting “Some Lozi Relatives”, gender is not often used to differentiate nouns in the Bantu languages. We saw that in Silozi an unusual case was the pairing in differentiation in colours of hides with different forms for bulls and cows. Another interesting area is with personal names, where a similar pairing can be found, this time using prefixes. Most Silozi names can be given to children of either sex, however, there are a small group of names using the prefixes Si-, I-, Na- and Ka- that also use these as male and female markers. The underlying meaning of these 4 prefixes is “Associated with”, or  “Characterised by”  Si- is the original form but in some dialects the “S” is dropped leaving only I- as the prefix eg. Simboela (Southerner) with the dialect variant of Imboela.

MALE FORM                      FEMALE FORM         MEANING

Ilukui                                      Nalukui                       (Awesome one)

Imutulo                                   Namutulo                    (Northerner)

Imwaka                                   Namwaka                    (Born at New Year)

Silishebo                                 Nalishebo                    (Born during famine)

Silukena                                  Nalukena                     (Cleansed one)

Silwendo                                 Nalwendo                   (Habitual traveller)

Simasiku                                 Namasiku                    (Born at dawn)

Simangolwa                            Namangolwa               (Born in the evening)

Simboela                                 Namboela                    (Southerner)

Simbula                                   Nambula                    (Born in the rains)

Simonda                                  Namonda                    (Born 1^st Q of moon)

Simwinji                                  Namwinji                    (Born in daytime)

Sindila                                      Nandila                       (Born en route)

Siyoto                                       Nayoto                       (Soft things)

As usual with language and human organization nothing is ever simple. There are always exceptions. The following names beginning with I- are strictly male with no female form

Ifunga                                 (Planner)

Ikacana                               (Small one) (Namucana: Female Equivalent?)           

Ikafa                                   (Immortal one)

Iluuka                                  (Returnee)

Ingombe                              (Cattle Owner)

Isilabo                                  (Paddle Owner)

However, the following names beginning with I- are female only names!

Ilinanga                               (Born in the drought)

Ilitongo                               (Landowner)

Iñutu                                   (One who doesn’t curse me)

Inoonge                              (One associated with complaints

 

The following names beginning with Na- are strictly female:

Nakwinji                              (One at the bottom of the pile)

Naliyeya                               (Pensive one)

Naluca                                  (The wee one)

Namakau                              (Owner of many hoes)

Nañalelwa                             (Suffer)

Nañunyi                                (One associated with firewood)

And finally to complete the confusion the following are marked as female but are used by both sexes:

Nalilungwe                          (Born at dawn)

Nalumango                          (Stingy one)

Nalumino                             (Cursed one)

Nakubyana                           (One who eludes you)

Namitondo                           (Born with help of herbs)

Namukulo                            (Born at the forest edge)