As I’m spending my time here in Kolda my biggest prayer request is still my language. There’s a parable here in West Africa that “Slowly, Slowly, you catch a monkey in the bush.” When I say it they seem to get a big kick out of it. I hope they’re laughing at the parable and not at me, but it wouldn’t be the first time. And that’s just what is happening…I’m slowly getting this language. Now that I’m here I have been told that Pulaar is probably the toughest language of West Africa , so yeah, I do mean slowly. There’s only one way to eat an elephant, one bite at a time!!!!! I really do appreciate the prayers for my language and I thought that I would spend this time and just tell you some cool things about this language that make it so “fun” to learn.
NOUNS: A lot of times the singular and plural words are completely different. For example, Man – gorko Men – worbe
ARTICLES: If you look up the translation for the word “the” in the Pulaar-English dictionary you won’t find one – not because they don’t have a word for it, but because they have 23!!!!! Each noun has its own article and you basically have to just remember the article along with the word. And yes, it’s different for singular and plural nouns.
VERBS: In Pulaar, verbs aren’t necessarily conjugated for the subject. Instead, it depends more on when the action occurred. To conjugate, you get the stem of the verb and if it is present tense you add –ii; if it is present negative you add –aani. There is also a past tense and 2 future tenses that both have different negative forms (One of the future tenses is for when you know what will happen and the other is for when you aren’t sure what will happen).
MULTIPLE MEANINGS: There are a lot words in this language that are hard to translate and/or have two meanings. You just have to know the context of what they’re talking about. For example to read and to learn are the same word in Pulaar. Another example is the word Nande which means to hear and/ or understand (because many people in Africa can understand a language but they can’t speak it). The word that I gave you earlier, gorko¸ doesn’t just mean man it also can mean husband if it has a possessor after the word. One of my favorite things about this language is the many words for wash. There’s a different word for washing clothes, washing yourself, washing your hands, and washing your feet. I don’t know why, but I think that’s awesome!!!
As I said before I don’t expect to learn this language over night and I plan to still be taking language classes 6 months from now! As you can see, I almost have to totally re-wire my brain to be able to get this language. So please continue to pray for my language learning. Pray for my teacher. As I start learning more language I will start to bring out my Pulaar New Testament and translating them and using the bible as my lesson plan for learning Pulaar. That’s perty deep…lesson plans of life…I can go on for hours. I will not only share with my teacher but please pray that I will be able to “practice” these stories on my friends and eventually for the many villages and people that I will visit.
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2 comments:
Hey Erik:
Yea, you're in my prayers with the language learning. Funny, to read and to learn is the same word in Wolof, too (jang). As is to hear/to understand (dekk). The biggest difference it seems is that we do all of our conjugating to the pronoun. Had a fun lesson yesterday, past tense. It's a different ending if the verb is static (to need, to want, to miss, etc.) verses action. So not only do you have to think about your audience (I, you, him/her, them, they, our), you also have to think about the type of verb you're using! What was I thinking choosing to live in a foreign country??
Well, wanted to send you my greetings! I'm gonna have to call you one of these days! Love ya, pal!
Roy
WOW.
I thought my spanish class was hard.
I changed my mind. :)
I applaud you, my cousin, for this seemingly impossible task. wow.
love you!!
Kate
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