I was more surprised when a beautiful woman asked me if I slept with two or four legs...Michel wrote:One of the things I love when I'm in Africa is that people ask you how your night was.... whether it was peaceful. Can you imagine asking your colleagues if their night was peaceful? I started doing it. People look funny but I love this question. Reply with hɛrɛ dɔrɔn- peace only. Then your day must have been started perfect!
The difference between the endings -w and -lu is that one is a definite, the other an indefinite, article. With "muso" (woman), adding -w pluralizes it, making it women. But it refers to a specific set of women. Adding -lu refers to all women, or womanhood. (If you speak French, it is like the difference between les and des.)Michel wrote:At the end of the words it's just adding an 'w'. Like you mentioned in 'denw' and in jenbefolaw' one jenbeplayer is already a 'jenbefola' with an -a at the end. Jeli plural becomes jeliw.
And -lu? I sometimes hear 'jenbefolalu' for plural?
In cases where the word ends in a vowel sound, such as den (pronounced "de", where the e is nasalized), the plural can be pronounced either as one or two syllables. As two syllables, it would be "denu" (where the n is pronounced). As one syllable, it would be "deu" (where the "eu" glide is nasalized and the n isn't pronounced). The one-syllable pronunciation is much more common. The two-syllable pronunciation would be mainly for singing.Michel wrote:I think a 'w' at the end of a word is always almost an -u. Look at your mouth when you pronounce 'jenbefolaw'. Because of the 'n' at the end of 'denw' it's a bit difficult, so more clear it's an -u sound, more like 'denwu'.
and what was your answer, bops? it would be funny if you had said 4, sometimes 6.bops wrote:I was more surprised when a beautiful woman asked me if I slept with two or four legs...
thanks for that, bops. that clears up a lot!The difference between the endings -w and -lu is that one is a definite, the other an indefinite, article. With "muso" (woman), adding -w pluralizes it, making it women. But it refers to a specific set of women. Adding -lu refers to all women, or womanhood. (If you speak French, it is like the difference between les and des.)
For example:
muso = woman
musow = these women/those women
musolu = women in general, womanhood
what's the reason for this variation in pronunciation?bops wrote:In cases where the word ends in a vowel sound, such as den (pronounced "de", where the e is nasalized), the plural can be pronounced either as one or two syllables. As two syllables, it would be "denu" (where the n is pronounced). As one syllable, it would be "deu" (where the "eu" glide is nasalized and the n isn't pronounced). The one-syllable pronunciation is much more common. The two-syllable pronunciation would be mainly for singing
This reminds me of when I was in Bamako and I hired a private instructor to teach me Bambara. First of all, the guys in Sarr's troupe were pretty miffed that I felt I needed to hire an outsider to teach me what I could learn for free by speaking with them. I tried explaining that language instruction is a skill, etc. etc. but it didn't fly. They were very concerned that I was being ripped off. This came to a head one evening when I came back from my lesson. I should say that when I was in middle school my Spanish teacher taught us how to say "The elephant is big" ("el elefante es grande"), and so imagine my delight when I learned enough verbs and nouns in Bambara to be able to translate this sentence into that language, on my own, without the teacher's help. Furthermore, I taught myself-myself- how to also say some other phrases, such as "The water is wet." I came back to the compound quite pleased because at last they would see how my lessons were paying off. I told everyone my new sentences.rachelnguyen wrote:
"Is that a person or a hoe?"
