Home › Glossary › Letter M

Mbira

Musical Instrument
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A Zimbabwean thumb piano used in spiritual and ceremonial contexts

Detailed Definition
The mbira appears in poetry as a sacred instrument of ancestral communication and ritual healing; its interlocking patterns evoke the spirit world, cyclical time, and communal memory, often symbolizing the deep connection between music, land, and identity in African lyrical traditions.
Example
Example in poetry:
Shona poets call the mbira “the voice of ancestors in metal tongues”; Its plucked keys open spirit worlds; “Mbira plays—grandfather walks through wall”; In resistance verse, the mbira’s buzz defies silence: “Colonizers banned drums, but not mbira’s whisper.”
Additional Notes
The mbira (or thumb piano) is a Zimbabwean lamellophone with metal keys mounted on a wooden soundboard, often played in spiritual bira ceremonies; its interlocking, cyclical patterns invoke ancestral spirits—poets can reference it to explore trance, memory as vibration, or the instrument as bridge between living and dead in Shona cosmology.
Also Known As
Kalimba thumb piano sansa
Skip to main content