We are losing our language

Madam,

I n e a c h a n d e v e r y c o u n t r y t here’s a s pecif i c nat i ve l a nguage used to communicate with each other and in most cases we conclude a person’s country by t he l a nguage t hat per s on speaks. In Eswatini our native language is siSwati. I have been to neighbouring countries and I could hear by the language that this person is a liSwati.

It amazes me when I hear someone s peaki ng s i l ver- t ongued siSwati in other countries, especially South Africa, where most use Zulu as their language. My t eacher once t old me t hat she mistakenly spoke siSwati in America and one man heard her and said ‘ lona wasekhaya’.

So native languages are important such that you can find your people i n f araway places and that is unifying.

LANGUAGE

Our n a t i v e l a n g u a g e h e l p s us connect and communicate with one another. It also helps us understand and appreciate the history of our ancestors and our upbringing. In as much as native languages are important, I have noticed that our language as emaSwati is slowly vanishing or c hangi ng c ompletel y i nt o something new.

This is concerning because the next generation will not find the pure culture language.

Most of t he t i me I l i s t e n t o the radio and there’s a presenter known as ‘ Mdokis’ who corrects people who speak wrong siSwati. He always says ‘ ningasoneli s i Swati s et f u’ and I salute him for that. I have heard someone saying ‘ emambongolo’ i nstead of ‘ t i mbongolo’ ( donkeys). And t here i s t his word which is becoming a norm yet it is very wrong; most people now say tinsita instead of saying labo labanika lusito’.

Wait until you hear someone saying ‘ tiloli’ instead of ‘ emaloli’ and you will understand why I am concerned.

PARENTS

Parents now expect their children to speak English to show t h a t t e a c h e r s a r e d o i n g t h e i r work, but at the same time these children forget about their mother tongue. It may sound ‘ classy’ to speak English but the fact is that we are emaSwati. I strongly believe that children should maintain t heir mother t ongue so t hey can have a better underst anding of t he l anguage. I would l i ke t o a l s o urge t he nation to consider establishing a siSwati newspaper. This will show how vital the language is and keeping it as pure as possible. Yes English makes us to be able t o communicate with people from almost all parts of the world but that doesn’t mean we should neglect our native language. Engabe sisilahlelabani lesiswati setfu?

Nobuhle Matse