I've Heard it Both Ways

One of the problems inherent in living in a country in which neither of the languages you speak happens to be your first language is that words occasionally get jumbled up. For example, every day I go to the marche (market) and buy bread (2 of them to be specific). So I go and say Ne-y beoogo (good morning), yika laffi (did you wake up well), zakramba (your family), yinsa (the body), tumda (work), and so on and so forth. Sometimes I play a game to see how long I can get this introduction to run. Anyway, next I say Mam data burri yiibu (I was two things of bread). However, depending on how with it I am in the morning sometimes burri (bread in moore) gets switched with pain (bread in French). So then everyone laughs because the white guy has mixed up the two and then they remind me what the word actually means. Now here’s the kicker- sometimes if I say pain they say no its burri and sometimes if I say burri they say no its pain. My question is always- if it’s understood both ways, what’s the problem? Or sometimes I say pain isn’t a moore word just to prove my point. In any case, it’s interesting as to who says what word, when they say it, and particularly why they choose that word. I haven’t quite figured out the why they tell me different words for bread on different days but I think that’d be an enlightening answer.

There are also other bits of French that make its way into the CSPS as well. During baby weighings I frequently here people say Biiga kilo yaa soma (you’re baby’s weight is good). However kilo is a french word that is made its way stealthily into moore because, well, everyone seems to understand it. I believe the word for weight in moore is actually boka but don’t quote me on that.

It’s interesting to see how language changes and how phrases from different languages just  become part of accepted word rhetoric  or better yet- how language doesn’t change and people just give up. Here this manifests itself as any words that came into use as soon as the French came. This includes such words as: computer, cell phone, electricity, yogurt- all that just goes with the French term and the beat goes on.

But, on a more helpful note total immersion is definitely the way to go if you want to learn a new language quickly.