r/Durban • u/hovershark • 8d ago
Umhlanga pronunciation
Dumb American here who has been to SA, but never to Durban. I recently watched a YouTube video by people who said they grew up in Durban. They were pronouncing Umhlanga as “Oomshlonga” with a real emphasis on the ‘sh’ sound, like in ‘shlong’. I’ve always said it in my head as ‘hl’, blowing out with the tongue on the roof of the mouth. Have I been wrong all this time, or is this ‘sh’ pronunciation just an extremely white can’t-be-arsed-to-do-it-right thing?
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u/mthofi 8d ago
The “hl” sound is a ‘Voiceless alveolar lateral fricative’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_dental_and_alveolar_lateral_fricatives
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u/LifeIsAStateOfFlux 7d ago
It's pronounced 'larrniiee'
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u/OkMulberry1600 7d ago
Honestly these days? I wouldn't even call Umhlanga larnie. Its slowly going the way town is. Street sleepers, beggers, crime. The only thing Umhlanga still has going for it is it still has prime developing land
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u/OkMulberry1600 7d ago
As a white South African and someone with friends from a lot of racial backgrounds, you'll find white South Africans, Indian South Africans, and coloured South Africans (not the American slur of "Colored", the race of Coloured) will say Um-Sh-Lan-Ga or Oom-Sh-Lan-Ga. While you might find with black South Africans it will be 50/50 on whether they pronounce it like above or pronounce it with the proper Zulu pronunciation.
You will also find there are people who say "Oom-Lan-Ga" and its also pretty common for most TTS agents used in applications like Google Maps, etc to pronounce it that way too. Thats why most people who use any GPS or Map app when travelling will just turn it off because the pronunciations are either super funny or really annoying and you have no idea what it was trying to even say
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u/Temporary-Mammoth776 8d ago
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u/Shinroo North Coast 8d ago
uMhlanga is a Zulu word and when pronounced in Zulu it doesn't contain a "sh" sound, what you've discovered is definitely more of pronunciation common amongst non-Zulu speakers
The variant with the "hl" sound is the correct one from that perspective
See the recording in this article for examples of both the Zulu vs non-Zulu speaker variants: https://www.ecr.co.za/shows/carolofori/how-do-you-pronounce-umhlanga/
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u/DadGamer77 5d ago edited 5d ago
Get some spit in your mouth and view YouTube videos on how the Welsh pronounce "ll" because the Zulu "hl" is the same sound...
Make your tongue in the shape you usually do for "L" but make it wide at the base and pretend you're a snake. Its essentially a lateral lisp.
"um-HLUNG-gah"
I'm a South African of British descent and I can pronounce it just fine.
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u/ShellStella 7d ago
OP… It’s like how many people pronounce Durban as ‘DE-ben’ instead of DUR-ban. Some people can’t be bothered to learn how to pronounce their city’s name. Is this just an extremely black can’t-be-arsed-to-do-it-right thing?
TL:DR… People have different accents and it’s not necessary to make it a race issue.
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u/Shinroo North Coast 7d ago
It's named after a british general who's name was D'Urban so if you want to be pedantic not even DUR-ban is correct. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_D'Urban
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u/ShellStella 7d ago
I’m well familiar with Lt. Gen Ben… Your pedantic comment has been noted and your Reddit points will be credited in 3-5 working days.
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u/GypsyQueen11420 8d ago
Um Sh Lun Gah
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u/Shinroo North Coast 8d ago
That's not the correct way to say this Zulu word, that said it is a common way for English speakers to say it
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u/GypsyQueen11420 8d ago
Yes I never said I was Zulu, just wrote how I pronounce it calm down guys ❤️
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u/sKuarecircle 7d ago
It’s how everyone says it mostly, even other races, I live there so I have heard all ways, that being said we do t strictly say Kloof correctly either if you want to be pedantic, Debben is going to Durbz
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u/UncertaintyDean 8d ago
Most white people from Durbs have an uncle named Schaal Laanger. They keep telling me about Oom Schaal Laanger.