| 释义 |
Tumbuka, n. (and a.)|tʊmˈbuːkə|
[Of uncertain origin; in Tumbuka, app. lit. ‘be disembowelled’ (see quot. 1932).]
a. (A member of) a group of peoples inhabiting the Nyika Plateau region of northern Malawi and adjacent areas of Zambia; also attrib. or as adj.
b. Any one of the languages spoken by these peoples, a subgroup of Central Eastern Bantu; the language group containing these languages.
1873R. F. Burton tr. Lacerda's Lands of Cazembe ii. 77 From the Mocando's country to the (southern) Aruangôa River, another tribe, the Mutumbuca, is mixed with the Maraves. Ibid. 84 All the resident Muizas and Botombucas who came to see me were exceedingly drunk. 1906A. Werner Natives Brit. Cent. Afr. ix. 208 The languages spoken in British Central Africa belong to the great Bantu family... Those spoken within the Protectorate are Nyanja, Yao, the Lomwe dialect of Makua, Tonga, Tumbuka, Nkonde, and a Zulu dialect spoken by the Angoni clans. 1924― in G. Lagden Native Races of Empire iii. 88 A Nyanja man, if addressed in Yao or Konde, would probably not understand... But a Nyanja and a Tumbuka might understand each other. 1932T. C. Young Notes Hist. Tumbuka-Kamanga Peoples N. Province Nyasaland ii. 28 There probably existed alongside of the locality names a number of descriptive, or perhaps even of nicknames. Of these Tumbuka is perhaps one. No explanation of this name has so far been discovered, but the fact that, as it stands, it means ‘be disembowelled’ might seem to point to some forgotten..incident at its root. 1948M. Guthrie Classification Bantu Lang. iv. 62 In Tumbuka tone is not used at all, but in most of the other groups grammatical tone plays a not inconsiderable part in distinguishing tenses. 1957W. M. Hailey Afr. Survey 1956 iii. 97 Nyanja is the lingua franca throughout Nyasaland..though Tumbuka has also been recently recognized as the medium in the Northern Province. 1974Afr. Encycl. 515/3 Most Tumbuka people are still farmers who grow millet and other cereals. |