Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

Thanks to Mrs Rainy Day (lately returned from Tanzania), the most recent addition to our language library is a 64-page, compact phrase book called "English-Swahili" by Aime F. Lacasse and published by Tanganyika Mission Press. Apart from those minimal details, the work is completely free of unessential information: no ISBN number, no price tag, no copyright symbol, no pretentious declaration that it's printed on environmentally-friendly, chlorine-free paper — nothing.

What the booklet lacks in clutter, it makes up for in charm. The Table of Contents ranges from "Agricultural terms" to "X-Ray" and includes such vital lexical fields as "Body (parts)", "Insects (dangerous)", "Objects (common)" and "Week (days)". Here now, a few choice phrases:

Good morning or good day. — Jamba. Shikamoo. (used by inferiors to their superiors. The superior answers: Marahaba.)

Do you speak English? — Unasema Kilingerza?

I was bitten by a... — Niliumwa no ...
mosquito/mbu.
snake/nyoka.
scorpion/ng'e.

Are you married (male)? — Umeoa?
Are you married (female)? — Umeolewa?
Female organ — Uke
Male organ — Uume

Tanzania Socialism is called Ujamaa (familyhood) — Usoshalisti wa Kitanzania huitwas Ujamaa.

It declares also that the principal means of production should be nationalized. — Lilitangaza pia kuwa njia kuu za kuzalisha mali sherti zitaifishwe.

With regard to the latter phrase, which is surely indispensable and should be used upon arrival and departure, life expectancy in Tanzania, according to the WHO, is 45.5 years, and the World Bank says of Tanzania: "Today, almost all transactions with people in every facet of both private and public sectors, involve some sort of bribery."

Meanwhile, if you would like to learn Swahili, the BBC has a wonderful site devoted to world news in the language. Yesterday, for example, one could read: " Waziri wa mambo ya nje wa Marekani, Condoleeza Rice, anatembelea Afghanistan kwa mara ya kwanza wakati akiendelea na ziara yake ya nchi sita za kusini na mashariki ya Asia."