While the official language of Benin is French (génial! Je l'ai pratiqué!), a large portion of the population primarily speak other indigenous languages, including Fon and Yarouba.
The Fon people group make up the majority of southern Benin, and their language has its own alphabet:
The Fon language (or Fongbe) is also a TONAL language, meaning that the same sound can have a different meaning if spoken in a high tone or a low tone.GBETA GBƐ Ɔ BI TƆN EE ƉƆ XÓ DÓ ACƐ E GBƐTƆ ƉÓ KPODO SISI E ƉO NA ƉÓ N'I LƐ KPO WU E WEXWLE
*gulp*
For now, I'll just stick with the basics and fall back to my bumbling French.
Yes = "Eeen"
No = "Eho"
In my experience, these two words can get you through almost any pushy market negotiation. Numbers help with that too:
Dokbo, we, aton, ene, atoon, aizen, ten-we, tan-ton, ten-ene, woO!
Hello = Mi Kwabo
Thank you very much = A houanu kaka
White person = Yovo
I can't figure out if the "kaka" part is "thank you" or "very much"...so I guess I'll be the stupid Yovo wandering around the streets yelling, "KAKA!" to people all the time.
I believe, "Gbo se a!" is the Fon equivalent of "Azafady" (Malagasy for "sorry/excuse me"). I fully expect everyone on the ship to still say Azafady all the time, though. It really becomes an ingrained habit!
The other language that is fairly common in the region is Yorouba, a language which originates in Nigeria. The modern written form of Yoruba was actually developed by missionaries while translating the first Yoruba bible.
Some basic Yoruba:
Hello =Ẹ n lẹ
Yes = Bẹẹ ni
No = Bẹẹ kọ
Sorry = Pẹlẹ
My hovercraft is full of eels = Ọkọ afategun-sare mi kun fun ẹja arọ
Well, I think that's all I'll ever need to know, right?
In other news, my departure date is a month away! I am close, but not quite at my fundraising goal, so my parents & some friends have offered to put on a fundraising brunch in Peterborough! Here's the deets:
Dogbe (goodnight) for now!
No comments:
Post a Comment