Surun

Expressing "because of X" with X kanma and X kosɔn

In the video, we hear:

[…] i ka feere yɛrɛ bɛ tiɲɛ à kanma yɛrɛ.

"[…] your selling even falls apart because of it even."

Let's boil this down:

I ka feere bɛ tiɲɛ à kanma

"Your selling falls apart because of it"

In this sentence, we have the compound postposition kanma (which is sometimes written kama).

It is a compound postposition because it comes from two words originally: kan ("neck") and ma (roughly, "at; to").

It can generally be translated "for". Like all postpositions, it follows nouns.

For instance:

À nana warimisɛn kanma

"He came for change"

In practical terms, it can also often be translated into "because" in English (but with nuance of "for the purpose" behind it). For instance:

N y'à san kanu kanma

"I bought it because of love"

(as in, "I bought it for love")

This has led to a situation where kanma is sometimes used in a way where this original meaning of "for" is lost. This is the case of our original example where the vendor does not mean that sales fall through for the purpose of the change problem, but rather, they fall apart because of the change problem:

I ka feere bɛ tiɲɛ à kanma

"Your selling falls apart because of it"

Part of the reason that this seems to happen is that kanma has a closely related counterpart kosɔn that is a closer fit with 'because of'. It can often be translated as "due to" as well. For instance:

I nana mun kosɔn?

"You have come because of what?"

In theory, if you came because you were looking for change, you would respond with kanma:

N nana warimisɛn kanma

"I came for change"

But in practice, people will often respond back with kosɔn:

N nana warimisɛn kosɔn

"I came because of (or 'due to') change"

In any case, both can be used to ask questions that express something like "why" in English.

Mun kosɔn?

"Why?"

Lit. "Due to what?"

Or:

Mun kanma?

"Why?"

Lit. "What for?"

Expressing "To each, their X" with Bɛɛ n'i ka X

In the video, we hear the following sentence:

Bɛɛ n'i ka faamucogo don

"All (people) and their way of understanding it is"

(as in, "To each, their own way of understanding" or more colloquially, "Everyone has their own way of understanding [so-and-so]")

If we boil this sentence down to its basic grammar, we have the following:

Bɛɛ ni i ka X

"All and their X"

Notice that in this sentence, the word i does not translate to "you" or "your" in English. Instead it translates best as "they" or "their".

This is because i is being used as a generic pronoun that like bɛɛ ('all') refers to people in general.

This usage of i shows up occasionally. It's particular prevalent in proverbs or general statements about people in general that that involve the word bɛɛ beforehand. Many of them involve the same sentence structure of out initial sentence:

Bɛɛ n'i ka X

The most faithful-to-English translation for this structure that I can think of is something like "To each, their X" (e.g., "To each, their own"). This can sound a bit old-fashioned, but the meaning behind it is something like this: "Every person has their X", where X can be any noun.

For example:

Bɛɛ n'i hakilila

"To each, their opinion"

Or:

Bɛɛ n'i faso

"To each, their homeland"

(NOTE: In some cases, you may hear or see this expression pronounced with na instead of ni. For instance, Bɛɛ na i faso instead of Bɛɛ ni i faso.)

Use of ka to as "to cause" to express "which is why"

In this video, we hear the following:

Fɛn min y'à to n ma se ka don lɔgɔ la…

"The thing which caused it (that) I wasn't able to enter the market…"

In this sentence, we have a special, but common usage of the verb ka to ("to leave; to remain; to let").

Let's shorten the sentence and translate it more or less literally:

Fɛn min y'à to…

"The thing which let it…"

(as in, "This is why…")

Let's remove the remove the relative from the sentence and specify the potential fɛn ('thing') that prevented someone from entering the market:

Sɛgɛn y'à to n ma se ka don lɔgɔ la

"Fatigue let it (that) I wasn't able to enter the market"

A more idiomatic way to translate this use of ka to in English is something like "caused it (that)" or, better yet, "made it such (that)":

Sɛgɛn y'à to n ma se ka don lɔgɔ la

"Fatigue made it such (that) I wasn't able to enter the market"

This meaning of ka to shows up in other kinds of sentences too, but you may need to translate them differently in English. For instance, in this sentence, you could simply skip over it in a way:

Mun de b'à to denw tɛ sunɔgɔ waati dɔw la?

"What causes it (that) children don't sleep sometimes?"

(as in, "Why don't children sleep sometimes?")

Or here:

(Kɔngɔ bɛ den na.) O de y'à to à ma sunɔgɔ

"(The child is hungry.) That's why he/she didn't sleep."

OR

"(The child is hungry.) Which is why he/she didn't sleep."