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How do you pronounce Mbu?
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 3:33 pm
by CoreyK
I never really thought about it. I've always thought of it as "Em-boo", and I don't think I've ever actually said it out loud - certainly not to anyone capable of correcting me.
Just curious
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 3:36 pm
by Boxermom
Ma-boo is how I say it.
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 3:36 pm
by indie
i think i may have asked this question before and from recollection i think its um-boo.
i could just have a totally bad memory tho! lol
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 3:39 pm
by manutius
I say muhboo, she says tuhmaytah, lets call the whole thing off
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 4:35 pm
by HRPuffersnStuff
I just say M-B-U cuz I'm a dork.
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 4:43 pm
by kass
I think I recall in another thread someone saying its uhmboo
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 5:23 pm
by Peregrine
HRPuffersnStuff wrote:I just say M-B-U cuz I'm a dork.
I think that is my default as well...that and moo-boo...no logical explanation...just stuck in my mind...one more reason I don't deserve to have one....
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 5:57 pm
by Pufferpunk
It is Swahili for rock. Umbu
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 6:26 pm
by RTR
indie, kass, and PP got it. Good old Swahili word for rock - a fish which vanishes when it is over gravel substrates, no small thing for a hefty fish. Similar to mbuna, literally rockfish, because they live in/on/with the rocks in Lake Malawi and not elsewere in the lake.
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 6:32 pm
by Boxermom
Yes, its similar to mah-boona.
Mah-boo.
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 7:05 pm
by Pufferpunk
So the cichlid is pronounced um-buna?
Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 7:27 pm
by RTR
Yup, right in one!
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 1:53 am
by CoreyK
Haha, fair enough, I'm glad I know now.
Although I can't imagine using the word in a sentance terribly often
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 4:02 am
by messy_da_legend
RTR, Isn't it Tanganyika not malawi? I didn't know they were in Malawi too
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 10:34 am
by RTR
T. mbu is in Lake Tanganyika, but the mbuna are in Lake Malawi.
The mbuna are Cichlids, not puffers. Their speciation/distinct localized varieties is so pronounced there in large part because the rocky areas are discrete and discontinuous, being separated by grassy or reedy areas where the mbuna do no establish, and which are too large for the smallish mbuna to cross without major risk. That gives the lake many micro-ecologies for developing major distintions between isolated populations.
T. mbu is too large to need or use rock crevases for protection, and its reticulation/markings are no concealment over algae-covered boulders. I don't remember or think that it has been established in Lake Malawi, or is even in the watershed feeding the lake.
HTH