yuh see tek wunna minds outta de gutter, it's Sunday morning. I'm just passing thru before heading off to church tuh wish wunna a happy day. If you going to church, get there safe and mek something outta de service. If you don't go to church, maybe you should consider going. It ein so bad, and all Christians ein de same.. so go and check it out fuh yuhself and see wha happen.
Having a pretty good weekend so far, went to a lil fete on Friday night and got into a interesting conversation. I circulate in an international community, so our circle of friends hail from about 4 countries in Africa, the Caribbean, India and one or two middle east countries to name a few.
Anyhow Friday night fete, was the African-Caribbean pòsse. While at the table we got into a conversation about languages, how we are adjusting to learning the spanish. Which is harder to learn spanish or english ect. That wasn't the interesting thing as all of us had our views and ideas about the spanish language. But we all agreed we speak it to the level we feel comfortable, moving around the society and most of us are pretty good with the spoken language. The written was another story.
But during the chat, we focused on Africa and the many languages they have. Do you know that in Nigeria they speak 250 different tribal languages? Amazing isn't it? and most astonishing is that people from the same village or area, depending on their tribal languages, might not be able to communicate with each other. There is no, one official western or African language. So it's all hit and go. Although most people in Lagos and the other big cities might know english, many people in the villages and country side don't speak any english.
I also learned that in Tanzania, they speak over 150 different tribal languages, but Swahili is the official mother tongue . just imagine !!! Another interesting fact we discovered was that there is one small west African country where spanish is the spoken language ( the Africans in the crowd couldn't remember the name of the country) Just nice little convrsations with interesting tidbits. Well the west indians in the crowd just sit in amazment and awk, all we had to say, well we all does speak one language, but it's we different accents and dialects dat mek it sound like we got a lotta different languages, especially when we start adding we own names and words tuh things....golden apple, pompecetee, sour apple prickely dunks....all mean de same fruit, ackee, ginipe, chinipe...same thing.....
Oh also in the conversation was a woman from india. Bet you didn't know that if you see an Indian woman with a red patch/coloring in the part in her hair, that means that she's married and don't look, she off limits. Also if she's wearing a red rubber bracelet also means she's married.
Anyhow ah gone fuh today...enjoy and blessings
5 comments:
Never knew about the indian tradiitons.I often see indian women with a red dot in the middle of their forehead.Do you know what it means? Just yesterday a friend was telling em that he his surprised when he hears Africans speaking perfect french.I seem to think some African countries speak French as a first language too.
It's 2 bad about de real-life Babel-dynamics that disjoint communication in Africa, but like Kami said, French is a staple for many. It seems Africans who speak French tend to speak very well (esp. from d'Ivoire, Senegal, an' such). Mi good friend speaks very elegantly--no nasal screech--an' his grammar is impeccable--his English now, that's de challenge; but ah guess he speaks that relatively well too, considerin' some other ESL or even native speakers.
Hi Campfyah. You teaching me something about the languages there. I know alittle about the Indian tradition so i had heard about the red. French seems to be a foundation language. Many of our English words are derived from French.
I'm a bit suprised about the spanish in africa statement though unless its like in one of those countries up near spain like algeria or morocco cause when dem had dat treaty of amm wha um name ta divide de world i thought spain din get nunna africa. amm treaty of Tordesillas. seriously doah dat word tordesillas soun like sumting ya duz get in a combo at taco bell. yea gimma two tordesillas an a beef chimichunga an a coke.
Abeni, I was told that the red and other color dots on the forehead was just for fashion.
The various languages surelya re amazing. A good few African countries use French as their mother tongue. Togo, Ivory Coast, Zambia (I think) and some more
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