It’s great for beginners getting started in a language and invaluable for intermediates looking to fill in gaps in their vocabulary and pronunciation. Available as a desktop site and app, uTalk is awesome for learning key words and phrases, especially if you want to use it for travel purposes. Want to have fun whilst learning African language like Swahili and Zulu? Struggling to find decent Swahili and Zulu language resources? I recommend getting uTalk. So, now that you know the meaning behind the lyrics and character names, why not watch the movie again? Some of the story’s elements also pull from Masai tradition, which has its own language and so, “The Lion King” is less a product of one nation than of pan-Africanism and of universal values. The lyrics ‘Asante sana, squash banana, we we nuga, mi mi apana’ means ‘thank you very much, squash banana, you’re a baboon and I’m not’.Īs the Genius annotations explain, it’s notable that the opening of the song is sung in Zulu, a language of South Africa, while all the characters’ names in are in Swahili, a language of eastern and southeastern Africa. When Rafiki’s learn’s Simba is still alive and see him in the fields he sings a song repeatedly. While Sarabi, Simba’s mother, means ‘mirage’.įor the hyenas, Shenzi means ‘savage’ and Banzai means ‘to skulk’ or ‘lurk’.Īll other names are real Swahili names. Rafiki, the mandrill, is another Swahili name meaning ‘friend’. Here is a list of other names and their meanings: Timon’s name may also possibly derive from Shakespeare’s tragedy Timon of Athens which would be another Shakespeare reference in a film which derives its plot from Hamlet. Instead, Timon is a historical Greek name meaning “he who respects”. Timon is one of the few characters whose name has no meaning in Swahili. In Swahili, Pumbaa means to be foolish, silly, weak-minded, careless, negligent. What Do the Characters’ Names Mean?ĭid you know that each of the characters names have their own meaning?Īs with many characters in Lion King, Pumbaa’s name derives from the East African language Swahili. The speaker at this point would thus be a young Masai man prior to his initiation. The lion, in this instance, can be seen as symbolic of adversity as ‘The Lion King’ is based on the Masai tradition of having the young men kill a lion when they come of age. The loosely translated line ‘There comes a lion’ the speaker of this sentence is speaking to an adult male whom he respects and refers to as ‘baba’, which means ‘father’ but in Zulu culture, it is seen as respectful to refer to one’s betters as mother or father. The translation of this song might sound pretty underwhelming but there’s more to it. The song’s intro goes…Ī lion and a leopard come to this open placeįrom this point, the song segues into English lyrics which you probably know by heart. The opening lines start out in Zulu before switching over to English. While the song has some distinctive lyrics, unless you speak the lingo, the meaning is virtually lost. The dramatic first scene of the film reaches emotional heights with the accompaniment of Elton John’s ‘The Circle of Life’. While the phrase is commonly heard in Zanzibar and Kenya, it is uncommon amongst native speakers of Swahili in Tanzania, who prefer the phrase “hamna shida” in the north and “hamna tabu” in the south. It is formed by the words Hakuna (‘there is not here’) and Matata (plural form of ‘problem’). Roughly translated, ‘Hakuna Matata’ means “no worries”. The most iconic phrase coined by the film is without a doubt ‘ Hakuna matata’, this expression is taken from the African language Swahili. Let’s start with the ones you kind of already know. Related: 44 Best Movies to Watch on DisneyPlus for learning languagesĪfter reading this post you’ll have a newfound appreciation for the film after knowing the meanings behind the characters’ names and meaning behind those catchy lyrics. ![]() We all know the movie so well, yet at the same time, so much is lost in translation. Apart from learning what ‘Hakuna matata’ means, do you know which language it’s from? or what ‘Simba’ means? What about the translation for the opening lines of ‘The Circle of Life’?ĭisney’s 1994 classic, ‘ The Lion King’ included so many African cultural and linguistic references, but sadly most of them were lost on the average film-goer.Īfter visiting South Africa, I became more interested in African languages, including Afrikaans and the Khoisan clicking language. This led me to want to explore the meanings behind many of the terms used in the Africa based movie, The Lion King.
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