Colors

Colors in Bambara (and Manding in general) work a bit differently than in English.

Asking what color something is

Oddly, one of the most common words to talk about color these days is kulɔri, which is a loanword from the French couleur.

The other option that one sometimes hear is to use the word ɲɛ (which is often pronounced and written ɲa in Jula and Maninka). It literally means something close to "appearance; look", but can be used to discuss color.

You can use these words in "Equative" sentences like this to ask what color something is:

À ye kulɔri/ɲɛ jumɛn ye?
It is color which?

"What is color is it?"

How can we say what color something is?

There are a few different constructions that we must use depending on the color and its underlying part of speech (e.g., "qualitative verb", "adjective", etc).

Colors with qualitative verbs

In English, we often talk about the colors of things in a way that lines up with "Qualitative Verbs".

That is, we say things like:

The hat is blue

But this isn't generally possible in Bambara/Jula.

This is because only three of the color words have possible qualitative verb forms that can be used be describe the color of something:

• fin = black
• bilen/wulen = red
• jɛ/gwɛ = white

These can be used with ka/man like you would expect with qualitative verbs:

Fugula ka fin

'The hat is black'

Or:

Dulɔki man bilen

"The shirt isn't red"

(NOTE: I say that these forms are "possible'" because in my experience, some people shy away from using these qualitative verbs (and use adjectival forms [which you will learn about below] instead.)

Colors with derived adjectives using -man

For most colors, they are expressed with adjectives. Remember, in Bambara (and Manding in general) adjectives are words that describe a noun and go right after the noun. For instance:

fini kura
cloth new

'new (piece of) clothing'

As you may recall from our chapter on "Adjectives", some adjectives are "derived" from other root forms by adding -man. This can be done with both fin 'black' and bilen/wulen 'red'. For instance:

Fugula ka fin → fugula finman

"The hat is black" → "black hat"

Or:

Dulɔki man bilen → dulɔki bilenman

"The shirt is red" → "red shirt"

So the adjectival form of the colors that we have seen thus far is:

• fin → finman 'black'
• jɛ/gwɛ → jɛman/gwɛman 'white'
• bilen/wulen → bilenman/wulenman 'red'

Sentence structure with colors as adjectives

People often use the derived forms with -man (e.g., finman, bilenman/wulenman, jɛman/gwɛman) to describe the color of things. But to do so, they need to use a different kind of sentence structure.

You can't say:

Fugula ka finman

Because finman is not a qualitative verb.

Instead you can use it and the other -man color words in these kind of sentences:

• Presentatives (e.g., with don/tɛ)
• Equatives (e.g., with ye/tɛ...ye)

Let's take finman as our example.

You can use finman in a "Presentative" sentence to say something like this:

Fugula finman don

"It's a black hat"

This is a common way of discussing the color of things. For instance, here's an exchange:

– MUSA: Ɲɛ jumɛn don? [Holding up a hat]
– SIRA: À finman don

– MUSA: What color is this? (Lit. "Color which it.is?")
– SIRA: It's black (lit. "It black it.is")

You can also put the colors into "Equative" sentences (e.g., with ye/tɛ...ye). For instance:

– MUSA: Nin ye kulɔri jumɛn ye? [Holding up a black hat]
– SIRA: O ye finman ye

– MUSA: This is which color? (as in, "What color is this?")
– SIRA: That is black

ASIDE: Adjectives become nouns

Let's take a closer look at Sira's sentence since I don't want it to trip you up.

O ye finman ye

"That is black"

I have translated it as "That is black".

But you may recall from our chapter on "Equatives", that such constructions are normally used to "equate" one noun with another. For instance, N ye kalanden ye "I am a student" or Sogo ye dumuni ye "Meat is food".

So what's going in Sita's sentence of O ye finman ye?

No, the underlying rules of Bambara aren't being broken. Instead, what's happening is that finman is technically (or underlyingly) a noun meaning "black one" (as in, "the/a black thing").

This is because of a feature of the grammar of Bambara (and Manding in general): adjectives can often be used as nouns without any formal marking (that is, an ending that shows the conversion from adjective to noun). Without going into further detail at this time, here's an example to show you what I mean:

– FAKƐ: Jakuma jumɛn bɛ tulon kɛ? Finman walima bilenman?
– DENMUSO: Finman bɛ tulon kɛ!

– DAD: Which cat is playing? (The) black (one) or (the) red (one)?
– DAUGHTER: (The) black (one) is playing!

Colors with derived adjectives from -ma or -lama

Other colors are also expressed with derived adjectives. That said, they come from a slightly different ending -ma, which attaches to nouns (as opposed to -man, which attaches to qualitative verbs).

When the suffix -ma is added to noun, it basically adds the meaning of "having the trait of".

For instance:

• bula 'ball of indigo dye' → bulama 'blue' (Lit. "having the trait of an indigo ball")
• nɛrɛmugu 'African locust bean tree powder' (which is edible and yellow) → nɛrɛmuguma 'yellow'
• bin-kɛnɛ 'fresh grass' → binkɛnɛma 'green'

You may also encounter these adjectives with another related suffix: -lama.

• bulalama 'blue'
• nɛrɛmugulama 'yellow'
• binkɛnɛlama 'green'

The meaning in most contexts is basically the same. The preference between forms with -ma or -lama seems to be one of regional preference. In written Bambara texts, colors with -ma seem to be more prevalent, so I'd say that you should use those.

In any case, these adjectival forms of color with -ma or -lama are used the same ways as those with -man. That is, in presentative or equative sentences. For instance:

Kulusi bulama don

"It's a blue (pair of) pants"

Or:

MADU: Nɛgɛso ye ɲɛ jumɛn ye?
SARA: À ɲɛ ye nɛrɛmuguma ye

MADU: What color is the bike?
SARA: It's color is (a) yellow (one)

Semantics and French loanwords

You may find that the use of colors is Bambara (and Manding in general) is quite different from that of English, French or other Western languages.

For instance, people often use bilen/wulen and its related forms to refer to "red" in the broadest sense. I've heard it used to refer to things that — as an American who grew up speaking English — I'd generally call "orange", "brown" or "yellow".

Similarly, people often use fin and its derivates to refer things that are "black", but also things that are "grey".

To my mind, these usages point to the ways that how we carve up the color spectrum is partially a learned social behavior. Nobody that speaks Bambara is confused by the distinctions between the colors. But, in my experience, they often rely on context and a fewer number of "named colors" in day to day life.

When it comes to discussing colors in more nuance, you will often hear people appeal to French loanwords:

• orange = orange
• rose = pink
• violet = purple
• vert = green
• jaune = yellow
• gris = grey
• brun = brown

This practice can be attributed French's official role in the region and in particular its use in schooling.