Bambara!

So one of the most fun things about my time here in Mali has been learning the local language, Bambara.  In many of my Anthropology classes, I had always been told that "language is a window into culture," and that "language is an essential part of a culture."  I had always sort of believed those things, but still felt that language was somehow also arbitrary, just a set of noises that could be easily exchanged with another set of noises.  However, I've realized just how much knowing Bambara has shaped my experience of Malian culture, how I have learned things that I never could have if I only spoke French.  I also realize how different two unrelated languages can be, and how there is much more to translation than simply replacing each word with its counterpart in another language.

Fun Words:
The words for sun and day are the same (Tile), as are the words for month and moon (Kalo), and year and rain (San).  So, if you say, "two years and three months ago," it is really the same things as saying "two rains and three moons ago."

One interesting thing about Bambara is how much bigger words are made out of smaller words.  For example, the word for bicycle (Nɛgɛso) is made out of the words for Iron (Nɛgɛ) and Horse (So), so it is essentialy Iron-Horse.  Other fun compound words include the words like:
    -Hypocrite (Jijukɔrɔsa) or Snake-Down-in-the-Water
    -A mentally ill person (Dajibɔ) or Mouth-Water-Comes-Out, ie, drooler
    -Bee (Diden) or Honey-Child
    -Fruit (Yiriden) or Tree-Child
    -Condom (Fukulannafama) or Very-Important-Hat

Sometimes what would be a phrase in English is just one world.  So, "store that sells farming implements" becomes "Farming-thing-selling-place" (Senekɛfenfeereyɔrɔ).

Other Fun Facts:
-Bambara is tonal (2 tones - a low tone and normal speaking)
-There are no conjugations or genders
-There are 4 extra letters: ɛ, which is a more open e; ɔ, which is a more open o; ɲ, which is like ny, as in annual; and ŋ, which is like ng, as in angular.
-It also can be written in the Arabic alphabet or in N'Ko, an alphabet inventing just for the Mande languages of West Africa.  Nevertheless, the latin alphabet is by far the most common.

A Window into Culture
One way that languages can be used as a window into a culture is by examining words that care commonly used in one language but do not translate easily into another.

Some words in Bambara that are not in English:
-Jija, roughly "to try one's best"
-Soli, "to wake up early in the morning"
-Sebe, a personality trait, which means serious, hard working and brave.  Perhaps Malians would have a harder time conceiving of someone who could be both lazy and brave, or serious and cowardly.

Some words in English that are not in Bambara:
-Favorite.  Malians are not used to choosing their favorite of something.
-Impress.  Maybe they dont talk about showing off as much as we do.
-Late.  Could explain why Malians are never, never on time.
-Colors.  Traditionally there is just "dark," "light," and "colored" in Bambara.  If you want to say something more specific, like Green, you could say "Healthy Grass-y," but this is uncommon.
-Normal.
-"I wish."  You could not easily say "I wish it wasn't hot here."  If you wanted to, you would have to say something roundabout like "If it was not hot here right now, that would be pleasing to me." Malians are not as wistful as we are.

Reconstructing the Past
Because two major cultures/languages have influenced Malian culture/language, it is possible to "date" the time period that a word, and thus a concept was introduced to Malians.  So, for example, because the words for god, religion, law and date palm are all similar in Arabic and Bambara, we can infer that there was no concept of a monotheistic god, of different religions, or  law before the Arabs showed up and brought Islam to Mali, around 1300 AD.  This is also probably when date palms were introduced to Mali.  Other concepts and technologies, like car, potato, and Christianity are similar to the French word, suggesting that these things were not introduced to Mali until around 1800 AD, when the French started colonizing Mali.

You have to be careful, though: some words that have their origin in other languages are just replacing native Bambara words.  For example, because the days of the week in Bambara resemble the days of the week in Arabic, I always assumed there were no weeks or days in traditional Malian culture.  That was, however, until I learned that there is a traditional six-day week, with many implications: some days are unlucky or lucky, some days require a baby to have a specific name if he is born on that day.  This traditional six-day week is rarely spoken about or used anymore.

So that's Bambara!

Learning a new, exotic language has definitely been one of the most rewarding and challenging parts of my experience here.