Indulgences

1. Magwinya

   Magwinya (fat cakes, fried dough balls)

   Usage

   Puffy fried dough, a standard snack bought in shops. Eaten plain or with a savoury side

   Grammar Note

   Setswana Wikipedia explains them as dikuku tse di mafura ("fatty cakes") and says Tonota is known as the land of manyonyomane (magwinya). The dictionary also glosses dikuku as fat cakes

2. Dikuku

   Dikuku (cakes)

   Usage

   A general word for cakes and sweet breads. It can mean shop cakes or fried fat cakes

   Grammar Note

   Kuku is a loan from English cake and dikuku is its plural. The dictionary (Matumo) glosses dikuku as fat cakes. The singular is kuku

3. Morula

   Morula (marula fruit)

   Usage

   A wild fruit whose inner kernel is eaten too. It fruits around February to April and is also used for drinks at home

   Grammar Note

   The dictionary (Matumo) writes morula nuts. Setswana Wikipedia uses morula for both the fruit and the tree. It is a mo- class noun with plural merula

4. Motsoko

   Motsoko (tobacco, snuff)

   Usage

   The word for tobacco and snuff. Shops more often write English cigarettes

   Grammar Note

   The English-Setswana side of the dictionary (Matumo) gives motsoko for both tobacco and snuff. Setswana Wikipedia mostly has it in go goga motsoko, "to smoke"

5. Go goga motsoko

   Smoking (literally "to draw tobacco")

   Usage

   Smoking. In Botswana it is restricted by law and prohibited in places such as aircraft

   Grammar Note

   Setswana Wikipedia records a 1992 law banning smoking and says Air Botswana was the first company to follow it on domestic flights. Go marks the infinitive, turning a verb into a noun

6. Dilekere

   Dilekere (sweets, chocolates)

   Usage

   Used for sweets and chocolates, given to children or as small gifts

   Grammar Note

   The plural of lekere. In Setswana Wikipedia it appears only for gift sweets and Halloween treats, so evidence is thin. The English-Setswana side of the dictionary gives chocolate as lekere ya tshokolete

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