
TŠHEMA TŠHEMA
The recently launched Botswana government initiative, aimed at the economic empowerment of the informal sector is rapidly gaining both momentum and public approval. It is one from a barrage (or “mokgokolosa”, as President MEK Masisi prefers) of programmes aimed at improving the lives of Batswana. One thing that really bothers me about it though is the spelling: Chema Chema!
For a long time, efforts have been made to emphasise that the Setswana alphabet does not include the letter ‘C’, and instead an accented s (š) is to be used in combination with a T to spell the sound that the original Setswana orthography used a C for. The sound is not very common and its most regular occurrence is in the Setswana word for dog: ntša (initially spelt nca). The aspirated form would just be written with an H immediately following the accented S [ntšha is preferred spelling of ncha (meaning new)].
It is worthwhile to point out that many southern dialects do use the sound however, in the place where “Standard Setswana” would use a normal TS sound. For instance, while it is more common to hear people say “setswalo”, Barolong refer to a door as “setšwalo” (secwalo). We also still have names spelt Chwene (Tšhwene – rather than Tshwene), and a personal favourite: Kebalokecoe (Kebaloketšwe – as opposed to Kebaloketswe).
A lengthy discussion on the evolution of Setswana orthography can be accessed from here.
But it is not just in the far South where the C problem exists. The capital town of Bakgatla is called Mochudi. And this is its official name. No effort has ever been made to spell it as Motšhudi – let alone Motshodi, as Standard Setswana would have it. One may go further to point out that although it is now within Bakgatla territory, the same Mochudi it is named for, was in fact a Bakwena chieftain.
Prior to our independence in 1966, this territory was known as Bechuanaland Protectorate under British colonial rule. The name was carried forth from that of the Crown land, which has since been incorporated into South Africa’s Northern Cape and North West provinces, better known at the time as British Bechuanaland. Bechuanaland got its name from being the land of the Bechuana, quite clearly. What some may not be aware of is that this was not a result of mispronunciation on the part of the British, as they had captured the name correctly from the native speakers of the language, who referred to themselves as Becuana (Betšwana) – yes, with an E rather than an A.
My question now to all the Setswana language authorities is why do we continue to put up this unwinnable fight against the letter C? What real benefit is there to not having it in our alphabet? As it is, it is difficult enough dealing with accented vowels (mme [but], mmê [mother], etc). This so much of an inconvenience that the emphasis on using the ê and ô is limited only to lower primary education. The sheer amount of effort required to even type these characters on a standard “English” computer is overwhelming.
And it is not just the C that is targeted: for some reason, the SH combination, when on its own (as in “mashi” [milk]) has also received persona non grata status, and the Š is called in once again to play the super-substitute role. Mashi is now spelt maši, but we still TSH for tshipi [iron].
An alternative to using the C that was once proposed was the combination “TJ”, to give ntja (dog), ntjha (new), etc. This did not catch on much with Setswana, but appears to have made its way into the standard orthography of Ikalanga – the largest minority language spoken in Botswana.
I suppose we can still consider TJHEMA TJHEMA then, if Tšhema Tšhema is too problematic.
