Stories

  1. How English loanwords are quietly reshaping Setswana verbsThe constant churn between languages is something every speaker feels, whether they are sipping a flat white in a Melbourne laneway café or chatting with…
  2. Setho in Setswana Culture: A Word Carrying Ubuntu and Shared HumanityIn the rich lexicon of Setswana, few words travel as far emotionally as setho. The term denotes a person, a human being, yet it also carries the weight of…
  3. Translating educational materials for Setswana learnersSouth African families who arrived in cities like Melbourne and Brisbane during the skilled-migration wave that began in the early 2000s brought their…
  4. Tagging Setswana Corpora For Better DictionariesA Setswana corpus is more than a large collection of written and spoken language. It is a structured record of how speakers use words in context: which forms…
  5. Why Go Tsaya (To Take) Has Multiple Meanings in TranslationThe Setswana verb go tsaya is often introduced to English-speaking learners as “to take”. That gloss is useful, but it is only a starting point. In real…
  6. Creating a Dictionary for Setswana Sign Language: A Feasibility StudyA dictionary for Setswana Sign Language would be more than a collection of hand movements and definitions. It would be a record of how Deaf Setswana-speaking…
  7. The Etymology of Motho and Its CompoundsThe Setswana word motho means “person” or “human being”, yet its history reaches beyond a single dictionary definition. It belongs to a broad family of words…
  8. How Corpus Evidence Can Reveal Gender Bias In Setswana Language UseA corpus is a structured collection of real language, gathered from newspapers, books, broadcasts, social media, interviews, school materials and other…
  9. Translating Song Lyrics Without Losing The SongTranslating song lyrics is a creative and analytical task. A successful version must carry across the central meaning, emotional force, imagery and cultural…
  10. Setswana weather words from pula to seetseWeather vocabulary gives a language a practical way to describe the world and a cultural record of how communities experience it. In Setswana, words for rain,…