iimbongi

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English

Scrabble Score

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Meaning

noun

"[…] Mbutuma and Manisi are both "traditional" iimbongi, but Manisi's oral poetry is more historical than Mbutuma's – so that the bearer of a tradition is an individual creative artist even though he shares attributes with other participants in the tradition. […] Few Xhosa iimbongi today are untouched by urbanization, literacy, and exposure to mass media. How have these forces affected the tradition? To what extent can modern iimbongi be considered traditional?"

Borrowed from Xhosa iimbongi, from iim- + imbongi.

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