In this episode of Basic Bambara the podcast you'll learn how to say "hello" at any time of the day and how to say "hello" back.
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Transcript
Note: This episode was produced for the ear and designed to be listened to. It was transcribed by Coleman and may contain errors.
Coleman: Aw ni tuma! Welcome to the first episode of the podcast version of Basic Bambara, a project from An ka taa, my iniative to create language media and resources for speakers and learners of Manding. I’m Coleman and today we’re gonna do a lesson on greetings.
Um so I’m lucky enough today to have a guinea pig with me. Her name is…
Cinzia: Cinzia! Hi!
Coleman: Hi Cinzia! Uh so Cinzia, how are you feeling about learning a bit of Bambara?
Cinzia: I’m super excited about that!
Coleman: Do you have any experience learning Bambara?
Cinzia: No, no experience.
Coleman: Alright, well, let’s jump into it. So, uh, today, we’re gonna learn greetings and there are four times of day that you are gonna greet and we’re gonna cover all of them. Alright, so the main thing you need to know is that
to greet in the morning- we’ll start with the morning, ok- you’re gonna say, i ni sɔgɔma.
Cinzia: “I ni sɔgɔma”
Coleman: Ɔnhɔn. Alright, so one more time i ni sɔgɔma.
Cinzia:I ni sɔgɔma.
Coleman: Ok, so do you hear that there we have i ni?
Cinzia: Uh-huh.
Coleman: Ok, so i ni… so in the morning you have i ni… sɔgɔma. And i ni [sɔgɔma] literally means ‘you and morning’. I ni plus sɔgɔma means ‘you and the morning’.
Cinzia: Why “you and”?
Coleman: It’s just the way that you greet in Bambara. So in Bambara in general, it’s like, “Why do we say in French bonjour which means ‘goodday’. It’s just as an abritrary thing that people do. And in Manding, and in Bambara, when you greet, you say “You and the morning”. Alright, so now when we want to meet in the middle of the day- ok, so it’s like normally around noon, you’re gonna say,
i ni tile.
Cinzia: I ni tile.
Coleman: I ni tile.
Cinzia: I ni tile.
Coleman: Ɔnhɔn. Alright, so if you said that word tile slowly, it’s gonna sound like that tile.
Cinzia: Tile.
Coleman: Ɔnhɔn, but when you say it fast, tle.
Cinzia:Tle.
Coleman:Ɔnhɔn, so as a whole greeting together, [it is] i ni tile.
Cinzia: I ni tile.
Coleman: Ok, so you see have that first part i ni which is the same that we already learned for morning. So it’s gonna be “You and…” tile. Tile means ‘the sun’, or ‘the day’. So i ni tile would
be ‘hello’ or ‘goodday’.
Cinzia: Haha. I ni tile.
Coleman: Alright, any questions? How are you feeling?
Cinzia: Haha! Ok. It makes sense.
Coleman: Ɔnhɔn. Alright. So after that, it’s pretty simple. We’re just gonna do the same thing. So to say uh- to greet in the afternoon uh- we’re gonna say- we’re gonna do the same format but with wula. Ok, so the word
for afternoon is wula.
Cinzia: Wula.
Coleman: Ɔnhɔn. So i ni wula is the afternoon greeting.
Cinzia: I ni wula.
Coleman: I ni wula.
Cinzia: I ni wula.
Coleman: Ɔnhɔn, alright, and the last one: same format, i ni but this time with su. Su just means ‘night time’. Alright, so i ni su…
Cinzia: I ni su.
Coleman: …means ‘hello’ in the evening or at the night time when the sun is down and it’s totally dark out. Alright, so do you remember the four greetings?
Cinzia: I totally forgot the first one. The morning.
Coleman: Ɔnhɔn, so it’s gonna be i ni sɔgɔma.
Cinzia: I ni sɔgɔma.
Coleman: Ɔnhɔn, and what about at midday?
Cinzia: I ni… tila
Coleman: I ni tile. Tile. Ɔnhɔn, good! And what about in the afternoon?
Cinzia: I ni for sure, haha!
Coleman: It’s definitely with i ni but it’s gonna be… i ni wula.
Cinzia: I ni wula.
Coleman: Ɔnhɔn, one more time: i ni wula.
Cinzia: I ni wula.
Coleman: Ɔnhɔn. Alright and then uh what about at night time?
Cinzia: I ni… so
Coleman: Oh! Almost! It’s I ni su.
Cinzia: I ni su.
Coleman: Ɔnhɔn, alright. Ok, so we have the four greetings: i ni sɔgɔma,
Cinzia: I ni sɔgɔma.
Coleman: I ni tile.
Cinzia: I ni tile.
Coleman: I ni wula.
Cinzia: I ni wula.
Coleman: Ani [and] i ni su.
Cinzia: I ni su.
Coleman: There you go! Alright. But when people greet you, right, we normally answer them. We don’t just- they don’t just say hi and we walk away. You’re normally gonna respond, right?
Cinzia: Yeah.
Coleman: Ok, so how do we respond to these greetings? There’s gonna be two different ways to respond to all four of them. The two different greetings depend on whether you are or identify as a man or a woman.
Cinzia: Mm.
Coleman: So, uh, if you greet someone for any of those times, if you are a man or identify as a man, the response is gonna be nba.
Cinzia: Nba.
Coleman: Ɔnhɔn, so you Cinzia will probably not be using nba very often.
Cinzia: Uh-huh.
Coleman: But it’s good to know. Um, but if you’re a woman the response will be nse.
Cinzia: Nse.
Coleman: Ɔnhɔn, so for any of those: nse. Let’s say that I greet you in the afternoon. I ni wula!
Cinzia: Nse!
Coleman: Ɔnhɔn! Perfect! And, uh, what happens if you greet me at night time?
Cinzia: I ni su.
Coleman: Nba! Alright. So, nba and nse are the two ways that you are going to respond to any of the greetings. The one thing that is important to remember is that normally if someone greets you in the
morning and uh- for instance, they say "I ni sɔgɔma“, You’re gonna respond…
Cinzia: Nse.
Coleman: Ɔnhɔn, but you can also then add the same greeting they used to greet you. So it’s like someone is saying, “Good morning” and you’re gonna say [back], "Nba, good morning!” Or if you’re a woman,
"Nse, good morning!” So nba and nse is just a call and response. It’s like acknowledging that the person greeted you. So, for instance, greet me in the middle of the day.
Cinzia: I ni… tile.
Coleman: Ɔnhɔn, yeah, i ni tile. So say it one more time.
Cinzia: I ni tile.
Coleman: Nba! I ni tile.Alright, or if I greeted you at night time, "I ni su!"
Cinzia: Nse! I ni su.
Coleman: "Nba!" You see? So they nba and nse goes back and forth between us so when I first greet you, you use it. And then when you greet me back, I’m gonna use it. Ok?
Cinzia: Alright.
Coleman: Let’s do it one more time. _I ni su!
Cinzia: Nse, i ni su!
Coleman: Nba! The last thing will cover, uh, before wrapping things up is just the all-purpose greeting. If you’re like, “This is so complicated! There’s four different ways to greet?!” There’s a magical solution, which is kind of like ciao in Italian; you can use it anytime regardless of what’s going on. Uh, you can just say i ni ce.
Cinzia: I ni ce.
Coleman: So you have that same structure: I ni… plus something else, and it’s gonna be [all together], i ni ce.
Cinzia: I ni ce.
Coleman: Alright, so i ni ce, it’s like saying saying ciao in Italian. It just means ‘hi’. Regardless of what time of day it is. Or it means ‘thank you’. So that’s very helpful as a first lesson because now you
can greet somebody, no matter what, and if they do something nice to you, you can thank them, which would be how, Cinzia?
Cinzia: I ni ce.
Coleman: Nba! Alright, so you see, even with that one, you’re gonna use the response nba or nse just like [with] all the other greetings. Ayiwa! Thanks for listening to this episode of “Basic
Bambara”. If you like what you heard, think about sharing this episode or follow “An ka taa” on SoundCloud. Otherwise, you can always find us as ankataa.com. And otherwise, say tuned for a potential future
episode that will expand on greetings. K’an bɛn! Á ni ce!
Cinzia: Á ni ce!