| 释义 |
Chichewa, n. and a.
Brit. |tʃɪˈtʃɛwə|, U.S. |tʃəˈtʃɛwə|
Plural unchanged
Forms: 19– Chicewa, 19– Chi-Chewa, 19– Chichewa, 19– Ci-Cewa, 19– Cicewa, 19– Cichewa
[‹ Chichewa Chicheẘa > n. Compare earlier Chewa n. and adj.
The word is spelt Chicheẘa in Malawian English; ẘ denotes a voiced bilabial fricative in Chichewa.]
A. n. The Bantu language of the Chewa people; (also, esp. in Malawi) the group of Bantu languages comprising this language, Nyasa, and Manganja, = Nyanja n. 2.
1937Language 13 50 Two basic moods are to be recognized in Chichewa: indicative and imperative. 1942B. Bloch & G. L. Trager Outl. Ling. Anal. 56 In Chichewa, a Bantu language of central Africa, the base /-nthu/ ‘individual’ has the inflections /muunthu/ ‘person’ and /bhaanthu/ ‘persons’. 1977Jrnl. Amer. Folklore 90 235 Texts in Cicewa, English, and various other African languages deal with the singers' girl friends, their mother,..and the President of Malaẘi. 2003Africa News (Nexis) 1 June Students said they would love to speak Chichewa freely but the rule forbade them from doing so.
B. adj. Of or relating to this language or group of languages. Cf. Chewa adj.
1937Language 13 114 The Chichewa numerals constitute a quinary-decimal system. 1956J. B. Carroll in B. L. Whorf Lang., Thought, & Reality 80 (note) Whorf intended to allude to the Chichewa verb system, which is extremely sensitive to the causative aspects of acts. 1988Jrnl. Biogeogr. 15 142 Dambo is a Ci-Cewa (Bantu) word of Zambian origin meaning valley meadow land. 2003Times Union (Albany, N.Y.) (Nexis) 29 June s3 The Chichewa word for white people is Muzungus, zungus for short. |