World Peace with an Š in Northern Sotho in a Daily Dose of Peace
A Daily Dose of Peace. Each week, I focus on Love, Joy, and Peace in the world languages. January’s fourth week focuses on Southern Africa’s Northern Sotho in Europe.
“Š”, “š” or “S With Caron”
Pronounced Sh, sh, Sh
like trying to calm a baby penguin or a friend
“Š”, “š” or “S with caron”
as in the Northern Sotho expression
of South Africa
“Khutšo e be teng lefatšeng”
may peace prevail on earth
“lefatšeng” is earth
or sometimes written “lefats’e” world
“Khutšo” is peace in North Sotho
“Kgotso” in Sotho of South Africa
“Khotso” in the Sotho of Lesotho
The grapheme Š or S with caron
is the same sound as the Turkic letter Ş
or the Romanian letter Ș (S-comma).
originated with the 15th-century Czech alphabet
adopted into the Croatian, Assyrian Neo-Aramaic,
Bosnian, Belarusian, Latvian, Lithuanian,
Montenegrin, Slovak, Slovene, Karelian,
Sami, Veps, Sorbian and some forms of Bulgarian
In Macedonian and Serbian
Š is represented by the Cyrillic “ш”
Georgian to represent შ
the Persian equivalent to ش.
Sumerian and Akkadian ʃ
ʃ Semitic languages
transliterating shin of Hebrew שׁ
Š occurs in Finnish and Estonian
only in loanwords
and used in Native American languages
Lakota, Cheyenne, and Moose Cree
African languages
Songhay and Northern Sotho
where we say
“khutšo e be teng lefatšeng”
may peace prevail on earth
South African Penguins
A sunny but cool winter’s day
on the beach at the southern tip of Africa
penguins waddled back and forth
as children ran along the boardwalk
trying to get the best first view
of these funny black and white creatures
Originally Published in Peace Poetry Dictionary, The Meaning of Peace and Calm in 5000 Languages on January 25, 2021.
