Collection · 3 of 13 greeting situations in this preview
How a day is greeted
Morning through evening, a visitor at the gate, the royal house, Christmas and the new year, and the poetry inside ordinary speech.
Doorways summarised from Professor Petrus Angula Mbenzi’s Oshiwambo forms of greeting.
Greetings through the day
The day is cut into speech: morning to about nine, late morning to eleven, afternoon, and evening. Each window has its own greeting.
Greeting a visitor, and the one who returns
A visitor the house does not know waits in the ehale, the passage yard, until someone comes out to greet them. Someone back from a long absence is asked: Mwa galuka? — Are you back? — and then whether they have come back safely.
Royal house and ceremony
The author’s greeting study separates ordinary speech from ceremony, from the royal house, and from the poetic register people use when ordinary words are not enough.
The author’s paper covers 13 greeting situations. The others will be added as he releases them.