Languagle #39: Afar
Missili missila ceelam meqeh, baxi abba ceelam meqe.
missili missila ceelam meqeh, baxi abba ceelam meqe
"As it is good for a son to resemble his father, it is good for one proverb to resemble another."
What it means
A proverb about proverbs. Quoted on Qafar Radio's own Afar-language proverbs page as the traditional Afar justification for answering one saying with another. Afar oral debate works by matching missila (proverbs) to each other, so likeness between sayings is itself a virtue.
How to say it
mis-si-li mis-si-la hhee-lam me-'eh, ba-di ab-ba hhee-lam me-'e
Hh is a breathy h from deep in the throat (Afar c), and ' is a tight catch in the throat (Afar q). The x in baxi is a d with the tongue curled back.
Where it was found
A traditional Afar proverb. The text and English translation come from Qafar Radio's Afar and English pages.
How to recognise Afar
Afar is written in a Latin alphabet with double vowels (aa, ee, oo) and the letters c, q and x used for sounds English doesn't have: c and q for sounds made deep in the throat, x for a d with the tongue curled back. Somali, its neighbour, also uses c, q and x, but for slightly different sounds. Many Afar words end in -h.
About the Afar language
Afar is a Cushitic language, part of the Afroasiatic family, spoken by the Afar people in the Horn of Africa: in the Afar region of Ethiopia, in Djibouti and in Eritrea. Much of Afar country lies in the Danakil Depression, one of the hottest places on Earth. Afar is written in a Latin alphabet devised in the 1970s, known as Qafar Feera.
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