`zebra'

[Larry Trask]

On Tue, 20 Apr 1999, Ralf-Stefan Georg wrote:

> Since the derivation of 'zebra' ultimately from Amharic seems to have
> gained some popularity here recently (I apologise if I've not been
> following the discussion attentively; I cannot exclude that everyone
> mentioning it was in fact rejecting it), I might ask knowledgable readers
> to point me to an Amharic dictionary *with* /zebra/, /zäbra/, or /ze:bra/
> in it. In exchange I could offer to name some *without* it.

I was the one who first drew attention to the proposed Amharic origin,
from a reported Amharic <zebra:> `zebra'.  This is the etymology given
as "probable" in Partridge's _Origins_; Partridge attributes this to
Webster's New International Dictionary, 2nd ed.  I did cover myself by
saying something like "this looks good if the Amharic word is real."

> For the alleged "Congolese" source, I can only throw in that some oblique
> sources accessible to me narrow this down to an unnamed language "from
> Angola", one source giving the language name of /Bunda/. However, I've been
> unable to locate this language so far, neither on the map, nor in one of
> the language lists for Bantu lgs. available to me. I suspect that this lg.,
> if it exists, may be known by some alternative name to specialists. Maybe
> someone knows more about this.

I've just checked the Ethnologue page on Angola, at
http://www.sil.org/ethnologue/countries/Ango.html

This reports a Bantu language called Mbunda or Chimbunda, spoken in both
Angola and Zambia.  It also mentions a second and quite distinct
language called Mbunda or Gimbunda, which is apparently spoken in Zaire
and Zambia, but not in Angola.

I note also that the site reports another Bantu language for Angola,
called Luchazi, with an alternative name Ponda, and still another Bantu
language, called Mbundu or Bondo, among many other things.  The
Africanists have my deepest sympathy in trying to cope with this
dizzying blizzard of alternative names.

Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK

larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk