Gambian Studies No. ELEMENTARY MANDINKA BY DAVID P. GAMBLE SAN FRANCISCO JULY 1987CONTENTS: Introduction ia Orthography iit Greetings 1 Demonstrative Pronouns 2 3 Personal Pronouns 4 Possesive case 5 Noun endings ~ the -o ending 6 Plural of nouns 7 Gender 7 Noun formation & 10 Verbs- Imperative form 1-13 Verbal tenses - "To be" etc 14-16 Past Tense and Completed Action 17-19 Auxiliary verbs 20- 21 Exhortations 22 Passive Voice and Impersonal usage 23 Causative verbs 2% Verbal nouns 25 Questions 26- 27 Adjectives 28- 29 Adjectival forms 29- 31 Numerals 32-33 Adverbs 34 Emphatic words 35 Prepositions 36- 37 Words showing place, motion to, etc. 38- 40 Words indicating time 41-43 Indefinite pronouns Mdm 45 Emphasis ~ the word le 46 Conjunctions 47-50 Various words and phrases which connect sentences 51-52 Relative Clauses 53 Fo and ko 54 Miscellaneous idioms and phrases 55-58 Reduplication 59 Idioms involving parts of the body etc. 60 PART TT- MANDINKA TEXTS Greetings 62- 64 Children's Songs etc. 65- 66 Terms of Respect 66 Terms of Abuse 67 Prayers 68 Comparisons 69 Proverbs 70- 75 Riddles 76- 80 Songs Sung to Small Children al iIntroduction This present work is essentially a revision of the Elementary Mandinka Sentence Book (Revised Version), issued in 1955 through the Research Department of the Colonial Office in London. This 1955 version itself superseded Notes on Mandinka, Banjul: Government Printer, 1949; and Elementary Mandinka Sentence Book, Banjul: Secretariat, Dec. 1951, and August 1954. Since 1955 various unapproved reproductions have continued to be made in The Gambia, so the work has apparently continued to be of use to those Learning Mandinka. ‘The major changes in the present version are: 1) Essential tones ~ low, ~ high are indicated, where similar words are differentiated by tone. 2) Vowel length is shown by the doubling of the vowel in the case of long vowels - aa in contrast to a, ee in contrast to e, etc. 3) Diphthongs such as ai, ei, of, uf, etc, have been eliminated, the sounds being changed to ayi, eyi, oyi, uwo, etc. For ease in typing, however, I have retained ny instead of and ng in place of y . Readers should have little difficulty in adapting to either form.conee Ps Orthography as in hat aa as in_ hand let ee fate sit ii seat jy = it hot 00 low shoe uu good uw = uu ch as in chapter as in jar (Corresponds to di-,dy- in some French scripts) as in garden as in house as in we as in yes Other consonants correspond to normal English usage (b,d,f, h, k, 1, m, n, ‘) ny as in Kenya, onion , 4 in Spanish ng as in singer, bring. This sound also occurs initially. in phonetic script. Other double consonants which occur are mb, mf, mm, 11, nj, nd, nt. Tones * high tone “ow tone1 Greetings 1 A. Kayira (katra) be ? Are you at peace ? B. Kayira dorong. Peace only. A. Suu-mool' lee 2? How (where) are the people at home ? Bl i be jee. They are there. A. Kor! tana nte ? T hope there 4s no trouble ? Bl Tana ate. There is no trouble. AL Barak’ Alla ! Thanks be to God ! ‘or Alhandulilayi. 1, Also heera be ? 2! One generally hears mool' instead of moolu before lee, 1a, etc. Vocabulary: Alla (Arabic) God baraka " "blessings be is (continuous sense, with verbs) dorong only i they (cf. £ you (sing.) jee there (cf. je to see) kayira (Arabic) peace kori to hope lee? where ? ool people Ree is not (cf, te negative of be = is not) (| fite 1 (emphatic form) sdu home tana trouble Sentence words haan no haa) yes (in reply to a question) haa de ) yes indeed yéo yes (indicating agreement with the speaker) aii? really?Demonstrative pronouns nying this that nying musoo this wonan nying kidoo this gun nying bungo this house nying siiseewo this fowl wo kiinoo that bird wo bungo that house wo musoo that woman wo tumoo that time 1 kana wo ke don't do that kana wo foo don't say that al kana nying ke don't do this (plural) wo mu bambango le ti that is a bush cat (wild cat) haani, nying mang ke (4) no, this is not a bush cat ‘banbango ti wo mu mun ne ti? ) what is that ? mun ne mu wo ti? ) wo le mi (2) that's it wo taalingo banta le that tale is finished wo mang jamfa baake that was not very long nyin ne? mu fi taa ti this is mine wo le mu f taa ti that is yours wo can be used to refer to the last character or place mentioned in a narrative: a ye musu-keebaa tara he met an old woman siloo kang, on the road wo ye loo nyining... she had gathered wood. biring a bota wo le to.. when he left that (place).. 1. Note that the object always precedes the verb. 2.0 mu is mu....ti is (in descriptive contexts, he/she/it is a. in contrast to is in verbal action, he is going, abe tan. ) le is an emphatic word. After ng and n it changes to ne.) 3. nyin ne - contraction from nying + le. The negative of mu is mang ke (lit. has not become).Vocabulary al, ali banbango bang, banta biring bo bungo foo haani, kana kang ke kidoo Kiinoo le 100 mang mu... tt mung, mun! musu-keebaa = le ning siloo siiseewo taa taalingo tara to ‘tumoo you (plural) bush cat, wild cat to finished, finished when, since to come from house to say do not to do gun bird an emphatic particle firewood not what woman, wife old woman to look for road, path fowl possessive form (mine, yours, his) tale, story to meet to, from timePERSONAL PRONOUNS Simple form Emphatic form I 4, 6, fe ate you f ite (he (she a ate Gt ve a, a, fg ntolu, ntelu you (pl.) al, alii altoli, altelu they i Ttelu The possessive form adds The reflexive form adds la/aa sing. -fango pl. ~fangolu ny fina nyself fi fango ate fango your tla yourself £ fango ite fango his, her,it a la himself ete. a fango ate fango our Ana ourselves A fangolu your alla yourselves al fangolu their Tia themselves fangolu In the case of the first person: m is used before words beginning with the letters b and m. ng is used before vowels e-g- ng'ee je T saw you n is used before ye, etc. ‘There are tonal differences between: the first person singular and plural. (Where Mandinka are talking to non-Mandinka, they may use the emphatic forms to avoid any misunderstanding.) and between the second person singular and the third person plural. e.g. fi be taa Tam going & bee benta jee we all met there {be taa? are you going ? i bee taata they all wentPossessive case (a) The possessor precedes the object possessed and the particle la (or na after n) Njundu 1a muroo lee ? £ la naafoo lee ? £ la bukoo lee ? a 1a maanoo la muraadoo la luntango na bungo na bankoo Pa Dembo la musoo wuluuta bukoo An Arabic book is kitaaboo. is inserted between them. where is Njundu's knife ? where is your hat 7 where is your book ? her rice his affair your stranger my house ny wife our country Denbo's wife gave birth is often used for a European book, magazine ete. (b) With parts of the body, kinsfolk, mental attributes, and a few other words such as too_ (name), the personal pronoun or noun is used alone without any la. fi singo fda a buloo faa baa baring kotoo teeri DEN BV hakiloo kijoo Dy Ai too messes my foot your mouth his hand your father my mother my maternal uncle ny elder brother my friend my sense, ny mind my spirit my soul, my life ny name is... In the case of musoo, woman, wife, the situation is variable, the la_ sometimes being added, sometines omitted « £ 1a musoo © musu a la musoo your wife your wife his wifeNoun endings ‘The ending -o is roughly equivalent to the word the a taata farce to she went to the rice swamp ‘a be bungo kono he is in the house a taata kolongo to she went to the well When the noun stem ends in a short vowel, the addition of the o results in dropping of the stem ending, and a lengthening of the 2 to 00 fara rice swamp faroo the rice swamp When the noun enés in -ng, 9 is added. bung house bungo the house kolong well kolongo the well In compound words, the 9 is added only to the last word. fara-buloo tract of rice swamp banta-faroo upper edge of rice swamp siisee-kiloo hen egg. When an adjective is used, the 0 is added to the adjective. bete good A teeri betoo my good friend When a noun ends in aa, or 00 the o is not added. kolong-daa well mouth bung-daa house door a too his mane baa to to the river With long vowels, ee, 4, ut ano plus a glide (w or y) are added. siisee siiseewo fowl nyeewo fish Saatee saateewo town sau ~ sive home stu siwo horse siist - stisiyo smoke fii = ftyo water (Im some languages -uv is used for the long wu.” It seens to be unnecessary to write suuwo, or jiiyo.) and