Reafcu N°18 Vol 6

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IMPACT OF BORROWING WORDS FROM ENGLISH INTO

KILUBA LANGUAGE”, CASE OF KABONGO LUBA TERRITORY

BONDO WA BONDO Fils

ABSTRACT

A language can also has the scientific attitude of borrowing some foreign
words from one language to another language. It is as the case of the present
investigation of kiluba language which borrowing many English words, they
are coming to guide the luba people to forget their appropriate luba terms.
These words came into English thanks to colonizers and the miss
understanding of the English words into kiluba. This makes a modification of
a language. To search well the data two methods helped as collective and
descriptive methods, two techniques allowed us to have good data we
consider the questionnaire and the interview.
At the end, in dealing with this topic is to show our readers how English
comes to predominate the kiluba language with some words.

INTRODUCTION

Luba people of Kabongo territory speak a language called “kiluba” it is well

known as the mother tongue in this milieu. It is classified in the class of Bantu
language. Professor PHINE YUMBA, in a course of linguistique compare
Bantu L1 ACA (2016) ISP KAMINA, Said that MALCON GUTHRIE
classified the kiluba in class 33 the symbol is L33. But the English is an Indo-
European language spoken by those people of Angland, American, ect.This
language is learned at secondary schools with English teachers and some
people like English study it to different English centers.

What pushed us to deal with the present investigation is to find some English
words in the kiluba language modified a language. Luba language and in the
list of these are some words missed the English tonality, pronunciations,
spellings, variations, or orthography and the meaning.
The aim of the present research is to show our readers that the way the
English words come to appear in the luba language with a modification.
Luba people forget the equivalent of these words .The words have lost the
appropriate origin .Some caused a problem to the natives of the English
language to understand the pronunciation of them. The borrowing of words
from English into kiluba allows as simply to give the light of the scientific
opinions. The arrival of white men caused a problem before uneducated black
men to understand, to communicate freely, but the communication stayed
through gestures, and words pronounced can find the solutions to multiples
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preoccupations. It is at this level the black man came to lose the originality of
some luba words.
The English words well pronounced by the natives and (were) will be miss
pronounced by the luba natives and interpreted in the manner the message
can be well understood. English comes to take a deep place in the scientific
plan, economic, agricultural, social, commercial and religious, the borrowing
of words do not stop, it is this which gives the survive to the English
language. It is from this plan many African’s continent countries speak
English.
What concerning us is the borrowing words that is to say English words miss
pronounced in the Kabongo muluba Territory case. It is in singular because
the tonality, pronunciation, spelling, orthographs, with other luba territories
.There is the influence of kiluba language in the speaking of some borrowed
English words .Another aspect is about the borrowed words added prefix,
suffix to the stem words. This change the tonality, pronunciation, spellings,
orthographs, and meanings.
- How the English words are in the kiluba language?
- Are them keeping the same origin?
- What are the elements change the spelling, the pronunciation,
ortograph, the meaning to the borrowed words?
They are in kiluba language because the time of colonization white people
engaged young boys to help them. When white man called a young man as
“boy” for him, understood the word “boy” as “mboyi” with the interpretation
“slave” and the word became in kiluba with the same meaning (pejorative).
No, they are not keeping the same origin as in English language but some
words keeping the same originality, spelling,meanings, orthographs, and
pronunciation ect.
The elements changing these words are: prefix, suffix, tonality, pronunciation,
spelling, orthography and sense.
To get well the data only two methods and two techniques which helped us
.The word method defined in OXFORD Advanced learner’s
dictionary.(1948 , P.939.), as a particular way of doing something also as the
quality of being well planned and organized . Whereas C.T. BILLY
ILUNGA MISHINDO, in a course theory of English interpretation and
translation L1 A.C.A., (2016), ISP/ KAMINA, argues that a method is one of
a way dealing with the entire text or the smallest unites of the language.
Generally speaking, only collective, descriptive method helped us to research
to have the exact data. Collective helped us to collect the data as well as
possible, again descriptive method helped us to describe each English
borrowed word into kiluba language. And about the techniques, two
techniques were put into a consideration such as questionnaire, and the
interview. The interview helped us to ask the informants about the English
words borrowed in kiluba, the descriptive method also guided us to describe
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these borrowed words, the questionnaire helped to elaborate a list of questions

to find the English words which are in KILUBA language.

I. INFORMATION ON THE WORDS BORROWED FROM

ENGLISH TO KILUBA

Def: By the definition borrowing is something that borrowed especially: a

word or phrase adopted from one into another. Meriam-webster .Com.
Dictionary, Meriam-webester, https:/www. Meriam –webster .com. /
Dictionary / BORROWING. Accessed 26 Jun. 2021.

N° ENGLISH WORDS KILUBA WORDS KILUBA MEANINGS

01 span spano LUFUNGU, fungula, fungulo
02 Motor car Motoka Kya kusela bintu, nansha bantu
03 CUP kopo Kitomenwa mema, etc
O4 Match match Makayo a bulundu
O5 Becket mbekeshi -
O6 machete Mashete -
07 bandit bandit ntahanganyi
O8 Boy Mboy UMPIKA
O9 POMP mpopi Kalume ka nkinga
10 lamp Lampi -
11 tank tanki -
12 soap SOAP -
13 scissors SCISORS DITEFU
14 saddle sandale
15 Torch toloshi -
16 Blanket Bulengeshi -
17 Scoot skutu -
18 Slip slipe
19 Bonus bonise lufuto
20 Toilet twalete Kajibo kambala
21 jacket jacket -
22 Betake matako
23 avocado avoka -
24 goal golo kabi
25 corner corene -
26 coach kotche
27 Win wina KUWINA, kuwanya
28 penalty penality -
29 telephone telefone

30 football footbollo -

SUFFIX AND PREFIX

A. SUFFIX

KREMER, MARION, (1997: P.67), a person reference and gender in

translation: a contrastive investigation of English and german. Turbingen:
gunter narr, said that in linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after
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the stem of the word. Common examples are the case of endinds, which
indicates the grammatical case of the nouns, adjectives, and verbs endings,
which form the conjugation of verbs. An inflectional suffix is sometimes
called a disinence or a grammatical suffix endind. Inflection changes the
grammatical properties of a word within its syntactic categories.

A. 1. DERIVATIONAL

Derivational suffixes can be divided into two categories:

Class–changing derivation and class–maintaining derivation. Particularly in
the study of Semitic languages, suffixes are called afformaitive, as they can
alter the form of words, Indo-European studies, a distinction is made between
suffixes can carry grammatical information or lexical information.
E.g. the Span = Spano (o) is a suffix which comes to modify the English word
becomes as a luba word.

B. BPREFIX

ACCORDING TO KAISER, STEFAN; ICHIKAWA, YASUKO,

KOBAYASHI, NORIKO; YAMAMOTO HILOFUMI, (2013:PP.29-31), a
comprehensive grammar, a prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem
of the word. When it is added the end of the word it changes the meaning of
word. For example:
MALENGESHI ‘’ ma’’ it is a prefix plural in kiluba but which is “blankets’’
in English
ANALYSIS OF DATA WITH COMMENT AND VARIATION OF
ENGLISH WORDS IN KILUBA.
All the above words are used in English and kiluba languages and some of
them are miss pronounced in kiluba and other not . Some are missing
appropriate meanings in kiluba. They put complications in two languages.

In addition, this borrowed words modified kiluba with prefix and suffix added
to the stem word. They indicate sometimes the singular, plural or diminish in
kiluba the value of object or person, place etc.
For example:”Ka”, a luba prefix used to diminish the value.

- Person: muntu- kamuntu: a little person.

- Object: toloshi- katoloshi: a small torch
- “Toloshi” there is no precision, it is as “torch”, small or big.
- “Ma”,”Bi”, and “Ba“: indicate the plural of words in kiluba.
E.g: ma benkeshi: beckets
Bijakete: the jackets (pejorative)
Majakete: the jackets (plural)
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Ba boyi: the boys (plural)

N.B: The prefix “Tu” is used in kiluba with the plural but with a certain
diminish.
We come to analyze them kiluba prefixes change the tonality ,
pronunciation, orthograph , spelling of certain words, It is depending upon
the gender , plural and singular.It is not only prefixes and again suffixes
change the way of speaking kiluba words

E.g Kiluba English

Spano: Span
Sopo soap
pompi pomp
lampi lamp
tanki tank
The word « tank » is the instrument which did not exist in luba tribe and it
came with white men, there is no luba equivalent of this word. But luba
people pronounce it as “tanki”. Another case is at the level of the word
“scissors” there is a modification or omission of certain letters in kiluba sense
and it is called as “sizo”, in stade of “scissors” in English.
“Saddle”, it is again modified in kiluba with the letter “n” added in the
middle .It is “sandale” in kiluba.
E.g: sizo udi kwehi? Where is the scissors?
Twaya ku tanki let’s go to the tank.
It was when a white man said about saddle for black man understood as
“sandale” and this word becomes as a luba word .When you ask one of luba
people to give the exact luba equivalent of this word , he faces a greatest
problem to find it.
“blanket” at the time ago ,black man understood its pronunciation in front of
white man as “bulengeshi” , the word becomes forever as a luba word with
certain modifications .
E.g: kasongo umpe bulangeshi Kasongo, give me a blanket.
This word becomes as a luba word, it is modified at all and it is missing a
bit the English pronunciation , orthograph , spelling but the same meaning
because of adding and moving of different letters across the word. It is
spelled different from the origin but it sounds a bit alike as it is the English
word.
“Goal” this word becomes as a luba word, and some luba people using it in
their mother tongue as “golo”.
E.g: MPUTU Trésor scored two goals to V. Club. MPUTU Trésor
bawina V.Club ma golo abidi
“Coach” The same word coach is again used in kiluba by many people. There
is no change in the pronunciation, spelling, meaning, but the change occur at
the level of orthograph.
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E.g: Koach IBENGE bafwe IBENGE Coach died.

“Football”: this word means in kiluba again as “bulundu”, luba people use the
same word football as it is a luba word. There is modification in the word but,
the word keeps the same pronunciation, spelling and meaning.
E.g Abahote futubolo mihya they bought a new football.
“Betake” this English word becomes as a kiluba word with a modification
of “ma” this word becomes matako in kiluba.
E.g: Abamukuhila ku matako they beat him on the betake.
“Penalty “is a football language, today it becomes as a luba language. People
use it the period of the football match .The word keeps the same sense in
spelling pronunciation meaning in kiluba as it is in English, but a bit
change in the orthograph.
E.g: Abawina ku ma penalti. They scared thanks to the penalties.
“Telephone”: it becomes a luba word. It keeps the same pronunciation,
meaning, spelling, but a change is at the level of the orthograph.
E.g Umpe yobe telephone Give me your telephone.
“Win” this word becomes a kiluba word with a modification of the prefix
“ba” and suffix “a” as the verb.
E.g Bawina mu bumi . He wins in the life.
“Corner” this word his used again in kiluba as “kona” with a modification in
the spelling, orthograph but the same meaning and pronunciation.
E.g: Umpe spano wa kona Give me the corners span
N.B: we remark that English comes to dominate the kiluba language bit by
bit because there are some English words which are used in kiluba but
missing their own equivalent.
English words are into kiluba language it is thanks to watching television,
listening to the radio, meeting tourist natives strangers of the English
language, miss understanding, miss pronunciation of some English words
from one language into another. A language can dominate another thanks to
miss translation or interpretation of some words. All these contribute to the
manner of borrowing words from the first language into the second language
or from the second into the first. To have a list of English words considered
as the data of our investigation we did a survey with a elaborated list of
questions to the grown up luba people, and below we show some names of
people we asked questions about this investigation.
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INFORMANTS

N° Names &post-names sex qualificati function address Birth dates

on
O1 MATAMBA M D6P TEACHER KALALO 1972
KABWATA JEAN
PIERRE
02 MABOLE MBAYO F D6P TEACHER KALALO 1979
MARCECILLE QUARTE
R
03 MUNYUNGU M D6P TEACHER LUBYAY 1987
NSHIMBA WILLY QUARTE
R
04 KABEYA M L2 HOSPI NURSE KALALO 1997
MATAMBA
NTALAJA
HONORABLE
05 NUMBI NSHIMBA M L2 FLA ASSISTAN LUBYAI 1968
ARTHUR T
06 NUMBI BANZA M L2FLA TEACHER KAFWA 1986
DEDALE NKUMBA
07 ILUNGA M A2 TEACHER LUBYAI 1987
KALOMBO
INNONCENT
08 MUSAO M L2 ASSISTAN LUBYAI 1975
LUNKAMBA JEAN T
09 KABANGE M D6P CULTIVAT KINA 1998
ESTHER OR
10 ILUNGA WA M D6P TEACHER KINA 1988
MUTOMBO

INTERPRETATION AND COMMENT OF THE CHART OF

INFORMANTS

By the way of the interpretation of above the chart, we went to see many
people about the English words borrowed in kiluba, yes of course, they helped
us with them. The above names mentioned in the list are those names of
people to whom we asked the questions on the impact of the English words
borrowed in kiluba language, and each group answered accordingly as the
followings:
Firstly, we went down kalalo quarter with a survey about our field of
investigation, this group answered to our preoccupation, and accepted that
kiluba has many borrowed English words and cited some of them such
“match”, “soap,” “toilet,” ” betake”etc.
Another group of LUBYAI had the same questions, it accepted that in kiluba
there are again many English words used in kiluba in which we do not know
their own equivelents.
We did not stop, we went down KAFWA NKUMBA quarter, this group faced
the same preoccupation, and the answer was the same to the first goup.
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About KINA quarter, this group said that these English words used in luba
language are already missed the English tonality, pronunciation, spelling, etc.
Apart from the data collected, we come to analyze that LUBA people are
mistaken according to the way borrowing English words into KILUBA. They
have lost even the appropriate kiluba words of these English words used.

CONCLUSION

After analyzing what and what about our present investigation , we conclude
that kiluba has borrowed many English words in which missed the prefixes
and suffixes modified them in the way of the pronunciation, orthograph ,
spellings, tonality, and meanings, etc. . The English comes to dominate the
kiluba with some words. The football language comes to put some English
words into KILUBA. It is said about the borrowings of English words into
kiluba because of luba people are very interested in the English.

SUGGESTIONS

The analysis of data allows us to suggest as the followings:

Luba people must remember the appropriate words of all KILUBA words
used as the English words, they can return to their own culture (ancient
pronunciation) as it was the time of the ancestors.
Parents should explain all children the English words used in kiluba as the
borrowings words, they can also look their kiluba equivalents as it is already
lost in their speaking.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A. BOOKS

1. KAISER , STECHIKAWA, YASUKO, KABAY, al. a

comprehension grammar , 2013
2. KREMER, MARION, a person reference and gender translation: a
contrastive investigation of English and german, 1997, Turbirgen:
gunternan.

B. DICTIONARIES

1. OXFORD ADVANCED LEARNER’S DICTIONARY, 1948

C. COURSES

1. C.T. BILLY ILUNGA MISHINDO, theory of the English translation

and interpretation, L1 A.AC.A. 2016, ISP/KAMINA
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2. PRO.PHINEE YUMBA, linguistique compare bantu, L1. A.C.A.

2016, ISP/KAMINA
D. WEBSITE INTERNET

1. Meriam –webster.com. Dictionary, meriam –webster,

https:/www.meriam-webster.com./dictionary/ borrowing .accessed 26
jun. 2021.

E. APPENDICES

1. What is borrowing?
2. Can kiluba language borrows some English words?
3. How they are coming into kiluba?
4. When they started to use them?
5. What do stem words to change the way of pronunciation,
tonality, meanings, spellings, and orthograph?
6. What is a stem?
7. Define a prefix and a suffix?