Have you ever tried saying 3 consonants at the same time? Welcome to the complexities of Ikinyarwanda. Which, phonetically by the way, is pronounced itch-in-yah-rg-wand-ah (yeah, i know).
Between our two language classes a day, we are constantly trying to reposition the way we say Ks, RWs, NT, MW, and so many other combinations of letters. Here is a layman's guide to these sounds for the fun of it.
K - make a K sound. Feel how your tongue hits the back of your mouth, almost your throat? Now try to make a K sound while hitting the roof of your mouth instead. It will end up sounding like a mix between a K and "ch".
RW - just add a g in between R and W. I don't know why. Just do it.
NT - Throw the idea of a T right out the window. This combination is pronounced n-hoo. Nturuka becomes n-hoo-roo-kah.
MW - To be perfectly honest, I can't even make this sound yet. Google it.
IN ADDITION, whenever you have a word that ends with a vowel and the next work starts with a vowel, you just drop the first vowel. Just for the fun of it? An example would be Ufite imyaka. The words separately are pronounced oo-feet-eh im-yah-kah. But put together they are oo-feet im-yah-kah. Sometimes a Rwandan will say 4 words but it sounds like 1 because of this and leads to my utter confusion.
ON TOP OF ALL THAT, the entire sentence changes based on what noun is being used so 4 different words could be conjugated at one time.
WHO KNOWS! THIS IS THE HARDEST LANGUAGE I'VE EVER LEARNED.
Between our two language classes a day, we are constantly trying to reposition the way we say Ks, RWs, NT, MW, and so many other combinations of letters. Here is a layman's guide to these sounds for the fun of it.
K - make a K sound. Feel how your tongue hits the back of your mouth, almost your throat? Now try to make a K sound while hitting the roof of your mouth instead. It will end up sounding like a mix between a K and "ch".
RW - just add a g in between R and W. I don't know why. Just do it.
NT - Throw the idea of a T right out the window. This combination is pronounced n-hoo. Nturuka becomes n-hoo-roo-kah.
MW - To be perfectly honest, I can't even make this sound yet. Google it.
IN ADDITION, whenever you have a word that ends with a vowel and the next work starts with a vowel, you just drop the first vowel. Just for the fun of it? An example would be Ufite imyaka. The words separately are pronounced oo-feet-eh im-yah-kah. But put together they are oo-feet im-yah-kah. Sometimes a Rwandan will say 4 words but it sounds like 1 because of this and leads to my utter confusion.
ON TOP OF ALL THAT, the entire sentence changes based on what noun is being used so 4 different words could be conjugated at one time.
WHO KNOWS! THIS IS THE HARDEST LANGUAGE I'VE EVER LEARNED.