Languagle #82: Ganda
Abaagalana tebafunda
"Those who love each other are never short of room."
What it means
Love makes room. People who are fond of each other always find space, whether in a crowded house, a bed or a bench. Said when friends or family cheerfully squeeze in together.
How to say it
a-baa-ga-LA-na te-ba-FOON-da
Double vowels are long. Luganda is tonal, which the spelling doesn't show.
Word by word
- Abaagalana a-baa-ga-LA-na: those who love each other (-agala, love; -ana, each other)
- tebafunda te-ba-FOON-da: are never cramped (te-, not; -funda, be narrow)
Where it was found
In Luganda a proverb is an olugero. This one is from an online collection of more than 200 Luganda proverbs with English translations.
Similar sayings
- Danish: Hvor der er hjerterum, er der husrum. Where there's room in the heart, there's room in the house.
How to recognise Ganda
Luganda uses the Latin alphabet with ŋ, and is full of double vowels (aa, ee) and double consonants (bb, gg, kk). Words start with prefixes like aba-, omu- and eki-. Swahili, which shares the region, rarely doubles its consonants.
About the Ganda language
Ganda, or Luganda, is a Bantu language spoken as a first language by around 6 million people, mainly in the Buganda region of central Uganda, which includes the capital Kampala, and as a second language by millions more. Its prefixes do a lot of work: one person is a Muganda, the people are the Baganda, their kingdom is Buganda and their language is Luganda. It is tonal, and written in the Latin alphabet, with doubled letters for long sounds.