Bisi Kura

The preposition and conjunction fo ("until")

In the video, we hear the following sentence (which I have cleaned up a bit):

Ne kɔni donna à kɔnɔ ka inauguration kɛ, ka taa fo Belleville la ka sɔkɔ

"I, in any case, got into it and did the inauguration and went all the way to Belleville and came back"

Let's simplify the sentence a bit for our purposes.

N donna à kɔnɔ ka taa fo Belleville

"I got into it and went all the way to Belleville"

This is a good demonstration of the use of fo (sometimes written fɔ). Here it is functioning as a preposition (that is, it appears before a noun). It can also function as a conjunction (that is, it can link sentences or verbal propositions).

Unfortunately, it cannot be conveniently glossed by a single word in English.

In French, the conventional gloss is jusque which can be translated as "until" in English.

But as you can see from the example above, fo cannot always be translated naturally as "until" in English.

Generally, the possibilities are:

• until
• all the way to
• up to
• except; unless

Let's go through them one by one.

"until"

The word fo can generally be translated as "until" whenever it is used to talk about something going up until a certain point in time.

For instance, as a preposition before specific time:

Bisi tun tɛ Bobo fo 2019

"There wasn't a bus [system] in Bobo until 2019"

It may also appear in front of verb in the infinitive:

N ye bamanankan kalan fo ka sɛgɛn

"I studied Bambara until I tired"

It can also be used as conjunction in front a distinct sentence or clause:

Bisi ma wuli ka taa fo sanji tigɛra

"The bus didn't start up and go until the rain stopped"

Or:

An kumana fo te banna

"We spoke until the tea was finished"

In some cases, the clause that follows fo may include ni ("if/when"):

An tɛ sunɔgɔ fo ni baara banna Lit. "We don't sleep until if the job ends"

"We don't sleep until the job is over"
Or potentially, "We don't sleep unless the job is finished"

In general, you use the optative or subjunctive marker ka after fo when the clause that follows is not something that has already occurred. For instance:

N tɛna wari bɔ fo an ka se sugu la

"I won't take out [any] money until we arrive at the market"

Here's it's worth mentioning a edge case of sorts. Sometimes when a sentence-like clause follows fo and the event has yet to occur, there is sometimes an idiomatic word order variation that is possible. When this happens, the ka appears directly after fo. For instance:

N tɛna wari bɔ fo an ka se sugu la → N tɛna wari bɔ fo ka an se sugu la

Lit. "I will not take [any] money out until to us arrive at the market"

This isn't something that you need to learn to do, but it is something to be aware of.

"all the way to/from"

The word fo can generally be translated as "all the way to/from" whenever it is used as a preposition to talk about something occurring across a distance and up until a specific destination.

For instance:

Adama taara fo Bamakɔ

"Adama went all the way to Bamako"

Or:

À bɔra fo yɔrɔ jan

"She came all the way from a far-off place"

Other informal or formal turns of phrase in English may work better for translation purposes sometimes. For instance:

Bisi nana fo an fɛ

"The bus came clear to our place"

Or:

Ba nana fo bon kɔnɔ

"The goat came all the way up into the house"

"up to"

The word fo can be translated as "up to" when it is used to talk about going up to an amount or up to certain extent.

Here's an example where it functions as a preposition before a number:

An bɛ den kɛ fo naani

"We have up to four children [traditionally]"

There are edge cases with extent that often require other turns of phrase though. For instance, here's an example with an infinitival verb phrase (that is, ka VERB):

Kamalen ye sungurun kanu fo k'à kɛ à muso ye

"The young man loved the woman so much so he made her his wife"

"except; unless"

The word fo can also be used to express "except".

For instance, here's an example where it functions as preposition:

N tɛ foyi dun fo cɛkɛ

"I eat nothing except attiéké"

Or:

N bɛ bolifɛn bɛɛ ta fo bisi

"I take all means of transportation except the bus"

In other cases, it might make sense to translate fo as "unless". For instance, take this example where it acts as conjunction introducing a separate clause:

I tɛ julakan dege fo i ka baara kɛ

"You don't learn Jula unless you work

Alongside expressions for "from"

The turn of fo often figures alongside various turns of phrase that are used to express "from". For instance:

K'à ta sɔgɔma fo wula fɛ, Madu ye bisi bolo

"From the morning until the afternoon, Madu drove the bus"

Lit. "Taking it [from] the morning until…"

Or:

K'à daminɛ nɛnɛ la fo funteni ma, waatiw cogoya caman bɛ yen Ameriki

From cold to hot, there are many climate types in America

Lit. "Starting it [from] cold until hot…"

Or:

Ka bɔ Bamakɔ fo Abidjan, julakan bɛ fɔ

"From Bamako to Abidjan, Jula is spoken

Lit. "Exiting [from] Bamako until Abidjan…"

Also, "must"

Down the road, you will learn that fo also appears an another expression Fo X ka "X must".

In fact, it appears in the video:

Ni développement bɛ na, fo changement ka kɛ.

"If development comes, change must occur"

Let's not dive into that now, but keep in the back of your mind if you run into a use of fo that you can't make sense of.

The verbal prefixes la-, ma-, sɔ-

In the video, we hear the following sentence, which I have cleaned up a little bit:

N'i donna SOTRACO kɔnɔ, à b'i ni lakisi.

"If you get into a SOTRACO, you preserve your life"

In this sentence, we have good example of verbal prefix.

Specifically, it's an example of the verb k'à kisi "to save something" being used with the prefix la- attached to it. The use of la- with kisi creates a near synonym, but arguably one that has a slightly different meaning.

In English, we don't have a similar prefix that we can add to "save" to modify its meaning, but we can understand the nuance between k'à kisi and k'à lakisi as something like this:

À bɛ i ni kisi → À bɛ i ni lakisi
"It saves your life" → "It preserves your life"

Let's take a look at the verbal prefixes of Bambara/Jula. There are, in essence, three of them:

• la- = the causative prefix
• ma- = an elusive prefix that doesn't have a clear modern-day meaning and applies to a limited set of verbs. Historically had a meaning related to being near the surface of something.
• sɔ- = a rare prefix that only applies to four or five verbs in standard Bambara. Historically, it stems from sɔn "heart".

I'll go through them one by one.

The causative prefix la-

The prefix la- is the main productive one in Bambara. It is productive in the sense that it can be applied to almost any verb and add a causative meaning.

In simpler terms, this means that the verb can now be performed on someone or something; they can be made to do something.

For instance, let's take an example with ka wuli "to get up; to rise":

Den wulila

"The child got up"

→

N ye den lawuli

"I made the child get up" OR "I got the child up"

Here's another one:

Bisi taara

"The bus departed"

→

U ye bisi lataa

"They made the bus depart"

There are a decent number of verbs that carry the prefix la- but the meaning change isn't actually a causative one:

• k'à labɛn = to prepare something
  (< ka bɛn = to unite)
• k'à ladon = to maintain something
  (< ka don = to enter)
• k'à ladege = to imitate something
  (< k'à dege = to learn sth)
• k'à lajɛ = to look at something
  (< k'à jɛ = to whiten sth)
• k'à laminɛ = to respond to someting
  ( k'à minɛ = to grab sth)

These can generally be learned as if they were simple normal underived verbs because the meaning is basically baked into them as if they were their own distinct verbs.

The prefix ma-

This prefix modifies the meaning of a verb, but it's generally not possible to predict exactly what the change is.

It often feels like a "lighter" version of the original meaning. For instance:

• ka bɔ "to exit" → k'i mabɔ "to move away [from sth]"
• ka da "to place sth" → k'i mada "to calm yourself"
• k'à sɔrɔ "to obtain sth" → k'à masɔrɔ "to have the time for sth"
• k'à gɛn "to chase" → k'à magɛn "to reach sth; to head towards sth"

In some cases, the difference in meaning is negligible and you can learn them basically as variant forms of one single verb. For instance:

• k'à kɔnɔ "to wait for sth" → k'à makɔnɔ "to wait for sth"
• k'i gɛrɛ "to approach" → k'i magɛrɛ "to approach sth"

In other cases, it gives a more abstract meaning to the verb:

• k'à minɛ "to grab sth" → k'à maminɛ "to reserve sth; to get engaged to a woman"
• k'à jigin "to lower sth" → k'à majigin "to be modest; to lower yourself"

The prefix sɔ-

The prefix sɔ (derived from sɔn "heart" historically) shows up in a handful of verbs:

• k'i sɔdon = to approach

  (< sɔ.don = heart.enter)

• k'i sɔgɛrɛ = to draw near

  (< sɔ.gɛrɛ = heart.approach)

• k'i sɔbɔ = to distance yourself

  (< sɔ.bɔ = heart.exit)

• k'à sɔtiɡɛ = to traverse sth

  (< sɔ.tigɛ = heart.cut)

• k'i sɔminɛ = to put up with sth

  (< sɔ.minɛ = heart.grab)