ukuphika is to refute/deny

ukuphikisa is to disagree

to argue is ukuxhabana

thank you Izihlahla

the spelling I have come across is 'ukuxabana'

also ukuphikisana: to dispute with, compete with, vie with, argue

x and xh are my most common spelling mistake

This seems to be a bigger issue so I pored over my dictionaries and this is what I think:

"deny" in the sense of "negate; disclaim":
-phika, -phikisa

"deny" in the sense of "refuse, reject, decline":
-ala

"argue" in the sense of "wrangle":
-xabana, -phikisana

Examples:

Government denies knowledge: Uhulumeni uphikisa ulwazi
Access denied: Kwaliwe ukungena
The north wind and the sun argued who was the stronger of the two: Umoya wasenyakatho waxabana nelanga ukuthi yikuphi okumandlakazi kwakokubili.

NB, the translation of the last one was the reason why I included "argue" in the first place.

What do you guys think?

Carsten.

Yes that sounds feasible to me at this point in my knowledge of the language

I've put it in the database this way.