Greetings Extended

► [NOTE: The text includes sections that are absent from the video.]

In "Greetings" we learned greetings in their most basic form. In this chapter, we're going to cover greetings extended. That is to say, we're going to unpack some of the things that are frequently (or almost always) said after the very basic greetings like i ni sɔgɔma or i ni wula, etc.

Specifically, we're going to cover three things:

• Hɛɛrɛ sira/tilenna?: 'Have you spent the night/day in peace?'
• So-and-so dun?: 'How is so-and-so?'
• Hɛɛrɛ: 'Peace' (a general response)

Have you spent the day/night in peace?

In the first lesson, we learned basic exchanges that go like this:

– I ni wula!
– Nba! I ni wula!

– Good afternoon!
– Nba! Good afternoon!

This basic exchange is possible, but greetings will almost always go on much further. The most typical way that greetings get extended is by a question about how someone has passed the night or the day.

In the morning (that is, whenever you greet someone with sɔgɔma), the question that someone will often ask you is:

Hɛɛrɛ sira?
'Has the night passed in peace?'

This expression comes from hɛɛrɛ ('peace') and the verb ka sì ('to pass the night'; see the note below). The exact details of what is going on grammatically (and therefore what the sentence literally means) need not worry us for now. Let's just say that it idiomatically means, 'Did you pass the night in peace?' or 'Did you sleep well?'

(NOTE: The verb itself is si, but in Manding, one cites verbs with the infinitive marker ka. This is just like in English where we say to go, to run, etc., even though the verbs are technically just go, run)

Hɛɛrɛ sira? can appear either directly after a response like Nba! I ni sɔgɔma or it may simply take its place like this:

– Aw ni sɔgɔma! (to multiple people)
– Nse! Hɛɛrɛ sira?

– Good morning!
– Nse! Did you pass the night in peace?

A similar expression is used in the same way for the three other times of day (e.g., tile, wula, su):

Hɛɛrɛ tilenna?
'Did you pass the day in peace?'

As you can see it involves the same word hɛɛrɛ ('peace') plus a verb, ka tilen, which means 'to pass the day.'

This gives us the following extended greeting questions for the different times of day:

• sɔgɔma = Hɛɛrɛ sira?
• tile / wula / su = Hɛɛrɛ tilenna?

(NOTE: You may also hear both of these questions with an optional word wa at the end (e.g, Hɛɛrɛ sira/tilenna wa?). It's simply a formal way of marking a sentence as a question. You will learn more about it in "Question Words".)

How is so-and-so?

After this initial extended greeting, people will often ask you about someone else in your social circles. They often do so with the following expression:

So-and-so + dun?
'And so-and-so, (how are they?)'

What I mean by so-and-so here is simply the name or role of whatever person they are asking about. It could be things, for instance, like:

• I cɛ: your husband
• I muso: your wife
• Denmisɛnw: the children
• Aminata: Aminata (a woman's name)
• Malikaw: the people of Mali (from X-ka 'person from X')
• etc.

Dun (or do as it is often pronounced in Jula and Maninka; see the note below) is technically a contrastive particle; it's a word that serves to draw our attention to some new topic of discussion. For our purposes though, we can just think of dun as meaning 'and,' but with a larger implied meaning that is something like 'And what about so-and-so? How are they?'

This question is not just for one person to use in a greeting. If someone asks about your wife, husband, friend or brother, etc., don't hesitate to ask them about someone that you know that they are close with or see!

(NOTE: Because dun is sometimes pronounced like do, it can be a easy to mix it up with don, the presentative copula, ['it is'], which is covered in "Presentatives". They are not the same and their meanings are completely different.)

"Peace": A general response

How does one respond to the two extended greeting questions that we just covered?

As you can imagine, just like with the question "How are you?" in English, there's a range of different ways to respond (e.g, "Alright", "Good", "I'm doing well", etc).

Here I want to offer one simple option for starters since we've already seen it in this lesson and because you can generally use it as an all-purpose response during greetings:

Hɛɛrɛ!
'Peace!'

While "peace" is just a simple noun, it works just fine on its own as a response to either Hɛɛrɛ sira/tilenna? or WHOEVER dun? Take the following as example of how it works in practice:

– I ni tile!
– MUSO: Nse! I ni tile! Hɛɛrɛ tilenna?
– Hɛɛrɛ!
– Denmisɛnw dun?
– Hɛɛrɛ! I cɛ dun?
– Hɛɛrɛ dɔrɔn!

– Goodday!
– "Nse!" Goodday! Is the day passing in peace?
– Peace!
– And the children, (how are they)?
– Peace! And your husband?
– Peace only!

► Other responses, other questions

Depending on where you are and who you are with, the word hɛɛrɛ may not be the most typical way to respond to questions. In fact, as you'll notice, people often switch between a range of different responses.

Below are a few of the most common ones with simplified translations.

Don't worry about the grammar of the expressions for now. You will be able to unpack their exact meaning soon. What's most important for now is that they roll off your tongue as canned responses in any greeting exchange that you have with someone.

All-purpose responses

These responses can be used regardless of who or how many people someone is asking about.

• Tɔɔrɔ si tɛ = 'There isn't any suffering'
• Hɛɛrɛ dɔrɔn = 'Peace only'

Shifting responses

Other responses require that you adjust the pronoun of the expression to fit the person or people that are being asked about.

Here's a few very common ones that you may hear or find fun to use:

• Tɔɔrɔ (si) tɛ ___ la = 'Suffering isn't upon BLANK'
• Hɛɛrɛ bɛ ___ la = 'Peace is upon BLANK'
• ___ bɛ hɛɛrɛ la = 'BLANK is in peace'
• __ ka kɛnɛ = 'BLANK is healthy'

For each one of these expressions, you need to fill in the blank with the appropriate pronoun based off the question that someones asks you.

Here's a sample dialogue to show you what I mean:

– I muso ka kɛnɛ?
– À ka kɛnɛ!
– Denw dun?
– Tɔɔrɔ si tɛ u la!

– Is your wife healthy?
– She is healthy!
– And your children?
– There's no suffering upon them!

And here's a simplified list of pronouns to get you started (you'll learn more about the different forms that each pronoun can take in "Pronouns"):

• n or ne: I
• i or e: you
• à: he/she
• an: we
• aw: you all
• u: they

(NOTE: The expressions Tɔɔrɔ tɛ X la and Hɛɛrɛ bɛ X la can sound and be written "contracted" when the word following tɛ or bɛ starts with a vowel. For instance, Tɔɔrɔ tɛ à la → Tɔɔrɔ t'à la or Hɛɛrɛ bɛ u la → Hɛɛrɛ b'u la. This kind of thing is common when two vowels meet across word boundaries as you will see later.)

Extended question variations

Similarly, people won't always stick to using just Hɛɛrɛ sira/tilenna? and ___ dun? to ask questions during greetings.

In some cases, they may use a variation of something that you know:

• I sira di?: How did you pass the night?
• I tilenna di?: How did you pass the day?

In other cases, they may ask questions that are helpful to know even before we cover the grammar behind them:

• Hɛɛrɛ bɛ?: Is there peace?
• ___ ka kɛnɛ?: Is BLANK healthy?
• ___ bɛ di?: How is BLANK?

All of these questions can be answered using one or another of the responses that we covered above.

► Second-nature response and the ritual of greeting

A final note on greetings: as you can see they are much more involved than what would be taught in a basic English or French class.

Without going into the cultural side of why this is (but you can explore it in Episode 1 of Na baro kè), what's important for you now is not to focus on mastering the meaning and grammar of all these questions and responses. Instead, you should work to turning all of the elements of greetings into second-nature responses that are part of a broader ritual of greeting.

It won't matter much if you misplace a response here or there (by messing up the pronouns for instance). It will matter though if you are able to participate fluidly in the back-and-forth ritual elements of greetings in Bambara, and Manding in general.

Summary

Ayiwa! That's hardly the end of greetings, but you now have the essentials to at least sound semi-credible while you continue to pick up words and find your preferred way to respond to questions about your life, loved ones, etc. Here's what we covered:

• Two types of questions that are part of greetings that extend beyond "hello":

  • Hɛɛrɛ sira/tilenna? 'Has the day/night passed in peace? '

  • SO-AND-SO + dun? 'And so-and-so, (how are they?)'

• How to respond to these extended greeting questions:

  • Hɛɛrɛ 'Peace'
• A range of other possible responses and question variations:
  • All-purpose responses (e.g., Tɔɔrɔ si tɛ, etc)
  • Shifting responses (e.g., __ ka kɛnɛ, etc) and the pronouns needed to respond correctly
• Question variations (e.g., I sira di? instead of Hɛɛrɛ sira?, etc)
• Other common questions that come up in greetings:
  • Hɛɛrɛ bɛ?: Is there peace?
  • ___ ka kɛnɛ?: Is BLANK healthy?
  • ___ bɛ di?: How is BLANK?