How do I pronounce "Namibia"

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16 February 2006, 06:36

Lorenzo

Nu-mu-biah-uh-hu-uh ????

You gringos are completly crazy....

16 February 2006, 06:42

scruffy

16 February 2006, 07:00

Charles_Helm

quote:
Originally posted by Lorenzo:

You gringos are completly crazy....

L

And your point is?

And as for crazy, who is thinking about selling a Mauser 10.75x68!!!

16 February 2006, 07:05

Lorenzo

16 February 2006, 07:15

Collins

I'm glad you asked...

www.m-w.com

Is Webster's dictionary online... click the little speaker icon and it will pronounce the word for you... even some foreign stuff.

16 February 2006, 07:20

Collins

Namibia
One entry found for Namibia.
Main Entry: NaÂ·mibÂ·ia
Pronunciation: n&-'mi-bE-&
Variant(s): or formerly South-West Africa or 1884-1919 German Southwest Africa
Usage: geographical name
country SW Africa on the Atlantic; until 1990 a territory administered by South Africa which captured it from Germany in World War I capital Windhoek area 318,321 square miles (824,451 square kilometers), population 1,511,600
- NaÂ·mibÂ·ian /-bE-&n, -by&n/ adjective or noun

16 February 2006, 07:42

Aspen Hill Adventures

Better yet, pronounce Windhoek!

16 February 2006, 07:47

Michael Robinson

Having hunted there for a month, I'm surprised that no one has suggested:

"Heh'-vun!"

As for the capital, it's "Vin'-took". Although, "Wind-hook" is probably more common these days.

16 February 2006, 07:49

Lorenzo

Ann,
Tha's a good one !
When I was there I thought they were refering to another city

It was something like VINDHOK which means corner of wind of something similar.

And Charles...maybe I'm not so crazy...

16 February 2006, 08:30

ALF

16 February 2006, 08:33

T.Carr

Pronounce Gaborone (the city in Botswana) or Lesotho (the country).

Regards,

Terry

16 February 2006, 09:22

Jaco Human

Try this one Onseepkans, yes it is a town.

16 February 2006, 12:35

bulldog563

Don't know how to type phonetically but Gabarone is pronounced Ga buh rone or Gabs for short.

Pandamatenga is a good one.

Bloemfontein also.

Johanesburg(sp?) would be a good one if not so well known.

16 February 2006, 12:42

Saeed

A friend runs a Hi Fi store.
He told me one customer called and asked to listen to a hi end system on the phone

16 February 2006, 14:09

ghundwan

quote:
Originally posted by Lorenzo:

It was something like VINDHOK which means corner of wind of something similar.

And Charles...maybe I'm not so crazy...

L

Windhoek directly translated "Wind Corner"

"Windhoek Lager" probably is the best beer around!

Cheers

16 February 2006, 16:34

Die Ou Jagter

OK how about Hluhluwe.

16 February 2006, 16:57

patrkyhntr

Imfalozi?
Modimole?

16 February 2006, 17:56

kayaker

windhoek - vind-hook with emphasis on a 'harsh' -d almost like a 't' but not quite!

Hluhluwe - the 'hl' in zulu is pronounced by pressing your tongue into the top front of the roof of your mouth and making a 'kind of hiss' sound. Most people with no training or lessons in zulu as non-mother tongue speakers simply pronounce it like an english 'sh' (as in 'show').
In other words, phonetically spelled shlushluwe. This not quite correct, but perfectly accpetable!
(my 5 years of Zulu lessons is paying off!)

16 February 2006, 19:27

Wink

Strangely enough, I was married in Ouagadougou (wah-ga-dou-gou), my wife is from El Kouif (Algeria) my children were born in Djibouti and lived the first few years of their lives in Djibouti and Antananarivo (Madagascar) and I spend a lot of time in places like Lokichoggio (Kenya), Mbanza Ngungu (Congo)and Ampasimanolotra (Madagascar). I know my alphabet soup better than most. By the way, two of my favorite name places are Bimbo (just south of Bangui in the Central African Republic) and Pussy (a village on the road between Albertville and Moutiers in France).

16 February 2006, 19:30

Kurick1

Just remember that W sounds like a V, V sounds like F, and D sounds like d when in the middle of the word, but if it's at the end it's prounounced as a T. Visser in english equivalant would be Fisher. I just purchased another CD book combo from Amazon. The Colloquial Afrikaans is very good, the other one is very good for practice. I bought a couple of translation dictionaries also. I'm starting to go through the written excercises now. Am still enjoying learning the language. Did you get the link for the pics?

16 February 2006, 19:59

MacD37

quote:
Originally posted by Aspen Hill Adventures:
Better yet, pronounce Windhoek!

It is pronounced VIN DOAK

16 February 2006, 20:04

cjw

That dictionary is pretty cool.

I went to the Makgadikgadi Pans in October and had no idea how to pronounce it. Once you hear it, it's easy to pronounce. Now spelling it is a little harder.

16 February 2006, 20:21

Customstox

Four people died in the state of Washington in 2005 trying to prounounce the name of the town Puyallup. Two from fights and two from being horribly tongue tied. One was in stable condition until he tried Humptullips. The doctors said it was just too much strain on his heart after what it had gone through. Washington folk are an easy lot to confuse.

17 February 2006, 05:21

Eland Slayer

How about this one: OkandukaSeibe. It's the place I'm booked for in '07 in Namibia for 14 days. I don't know if the last part is pronounced "See Bee" or "Sih Bee". Just a quick thanks to Robert Johnson and Atticus for posting Dirk's info so I could get in touch with him. I can't wait for the hunt! I'm going to try for Kudu, Gemsbok, Hartebeest, Mtn. Zebra, Burchell's Zebra, Springbok, Impala, Blesbok, Warthog, Duiker, Steenbok, Klipspringer, Damara Dik-Dik, Jackals, Baboons and maybe Eland and Leopard.

17 February 2006, 05:54

Jorge400

Since you are going to Namibia, you might want to learn a little Herero in case you have one as your tracker.

mopane - omatati (because everything will be next to a mopane tree)

elephant - onjo
lion - ongaeama
leopard - ongua
kudu - omarago
gemsbok - undono
springbok - omenya
zebra - ongoro

Now for the tough ones:

eland - ongarangombe
ardvark - ombangimbangimba

17 February 2006, 07:17

Eland Slayer

Jorge400 thanks for the Herero lesson. Got anymore? I would really like to try and learn a little bit so I could make friends with the trackers.

17 February 2006, 15:46

wazza

Try this one in Afrikaans:

tweebuffelsmeteenskootmorsdoodgeskiedfontein.

Translates to:

two buffalo killed with one shoot fountain.

17 February 2006, 18:33

Jorge400

quote:
Originally posted by Eland Slayer:
Jorge400 thanks for the Herero lesson. Got anymore? I would really like to try and learn a little bit so I could make friends with the trackers.

I have another half dozen or so animal names in my journal. If you are hunting in the northwestern portion of the country, there is a greating they all use in the morning. I could not find it last night, but I will try to dig it out this evening.

17 February 2006, 19:57

Charles_Helm

quote:
Originally posted by Jorge400:
I have another half dozen or so animal names in my journal. If you are hunting in the northwestern portion of the country, there is a greating they all use in the morning. I could not find it last night, but I will try to dig it out this evening.

I kept trying to get "hyena" down since the big topic of discussion was usually whether the fresh tracks were leopard or hyena. I understood it there but did not get it into my long-term memory.

And since you taught everyone some English I could get by with "good morning" instead of actually learning something.

The real problem I had was that a week or so after you left I found myelf speaking broken English with some Afrikaans mixed in -- mostly grunts and ja's on my part. When I realized what I was doing I went back to speaking complete sentences.

I did almost teach Gert some Spanish curse words, but I managed to stop myself first. No need to corrupt him!

17 February 2006, 22:15

Jorge400

quote:
Originally posted by Charles_Helm:
quote:
Originally posted by Jorge400:
I have another half dozen or so animal names in my journal. If you are hunting in the northwestern portion of the country, there is a greating they all use in the morning. I could not find it last night, but I will try to dig it out this evening.

I kept trying to get "hyena" down since the big topic of discussion was usually whether the fresh tracks were leopard or hyena. I understood it there but did not get it into my long-term memory.

And since you taught everyone some English I could get by with "good morning" instead of actually learning something.

The real problem I had was that a week or so after you left I found myelf speaking broken English with some Afrikaans mixed in -- mostly grunts and ja's on my part. When I realized what I was doing I went back to speaking complete sentences.

I did almost teach Gert some Spanish curse words, but I managed to stop myself first. No need to corrupt him!

I'm pretty sure I have herero for hyena since it came up a lot when we were out. Especially when pre baiting for you. I'll post it tonight.

I had to laugh after teaching Eliah and Matthew so say "get-it bo'" after each time Thorsten would have to really goose the Landcruiser to get it out of the riverbed.

Next time, I'm going to leave them asking "how's yur mommer an em?"

18 February 2006, 00:18

Charles_Helm

quote:
Originally posted by Jorge400:
Next time, I'm going to leave them asking "how's yur mommer an em?"

It's a classic, but somehow I think it will be a new one for them...

18 February 2006, 05:52

Jorge400

quote:
Originally posted by Eland Slayer:
Jorge400 thanks for the Herero lesson. Got anymore? I would really like to try and learn a little bit so I could make friends with the trackers.

Here's what else I have:

hyena - ombungu (Sound familiar Charles?)
giraffe - ombahe
jackel - ombanje
ostridge - ombo
impala - onguetoo

There is a greeting that might come in very helpful. I'm can't remember exactly how it goes, but it is a 4-part greeting where one says the intial greeting and the one you are greeting repeats it to you. Then you say the second part of the greeting which the person also repeats. My notes are somewhat unclear, but I believe the intial greeting is "mirra" and the second greeting is "kitego".

I'm sure I have butchered the spelling or the greeting alltogether. Maybe Vaughan Fulton will see this and clarify.

18 February 2006, 06:03

<Hunter Formerly Known As Texas Hunter>

In Texas we have a town spelled Mexia but its not pronounced that way. And, then there's Refugio. I guess we speak a foreign language too!

18 February 2006, 06:12

Eland Slayer

Texas Hunter, I know EXACTLY what you're talking about. Mexia is actually pronounced "Meh-Hee-Uh" and Refugio, you'd think it was missing an "r" in there somewhere the way you pronounce it. For everyone who doesn't live in Texas, just change the "g" in Refugio to an "r" and you should be alright.