Mun kosɔn i nana lɔgɔ lɔ?

Intro

In the following video, I ask people in the town of Soubakaniédougou, Burkina Faso about their attendance and activities in the weekly market.

(Strictly speaking, the market isn't weekly in Soubaka. It's every 5 days. The term lɔgɔkun/dɔgɔkun in Jula/Bambara literally means 'market-head' and it refers a market cycle. It is commonly used for 'week' in the modern 7-day sense. But contextually and depending on how long the market cycle is in a particular town, the term can refer to different lengths of time.)

The location is noteworthy for me. I lived in Soubaka (as the town in commonly called) for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer between 2009 and 2011. But the video was filmed eight or so years after that time. Between the two, I had been back to visit a handful of times for roughly a week or two on each occasion.

The people interviewed are a mix of different kinds of people:

• Out-of-town vendors that I had never met who typically work a regular circuit of regional markets that they travel to most days
• Townspeople that sell goods and services (e.g., a tailor, a cafe-kiosque owner, a barber, etc) in town, but that aren't necessarily in the marketplace proper (they are within a 1 minute walk though)
• Locals that live in town or in the surrounding area and have come to do an errand or two at the market

It's also worth noting that at the time of filming, Soubaka's market had recently moved to an new marketplace (financed by an international donor country) with various fancy concrete stands and overhangs for shade. The old marketplace — just across the street from the new one — was still used by some people though.

The video is roughly two question segments of Episode 11 of Na baro kè.

Watch

Watch the video without the subtitles. If they are on, click on the little "CC" symbol and turn them off.

Watch and Read

Now turn on the subtitles in Bambara/Jula (click on the little "CC" button) and read along.

If you are lost, you can also switch it into English and then re-watch in Bambara/Jula.

And remember, you can also slow down the video to make it easier to follow along. I recommend 75%. Click on the little gear symbol.

List of Selected Grammar Points

• Use of X bɛɛ ni à bɛɛ for emphasis
• Use of ka to as "to cause" to express "which is why", etc.

Grammar Points Explained

• Use of X bɛɛ ni à bɛɛ for emphasis

  In this video, we hear the following:

  N yɛrɛ setɔ bɛɛ n'à bɛɛ le ten.

  "This is me and the whole me showing up like this"

  Lit. "I myself arriving all and it all thus"

  Let's simplify and expand it:

  N setɔ bɛɛ ni à bɛɛ le ten

  The first thing to note is that le in this sentence is the topicalization particle le (de in Bambara), but it's functioning a bit like the presentative copula lo (don in Bambara).

  This happens sometimes. In fact, in some Manding varieties like Maninka, the presentative copula identical with the topicalization particle (e.g., Muso le "It's a woman" VS Muso le nana "The woman came").

  Historically, the two are related. The copula lo (and don in Bambara) actually likely comes from a fusion of the emphatic marker le with another grammatical word (mu) that no longer exists in standard Bambara or lingua franca Jula, but can be found in Mandinka (as spoke in the Senegambia region).

  Here is how the historical change looks in Jula:

  le + mu → lo + mu → lo

  And in Bambara:

  le + mu + → de + mu → do + mu → do

  For our purposes, let's change the sentence into standard Bambara by replacing le with don:

  N setɔ bɛɛ ni à bɛɛ don ten

  Now let's focus on the turn of phrase bɛɛ ni à bɛɛ. Literally it means "all and its all". In this case it acts like a determiner that modifies the participle noun phrase N setɔ:

  N setɔ bɛɛ ni à bɛɛ don ten

  Roughly, "This is me and the whole me arriving like this"

  Lit. "Me arriving all and its all it.is"

  In theory, it could be simplified by using only one bɛɛ:

  N setɔ bɛɛ don ten

  Roughly, "This is the whole me arriving like this"

  Lit. "Me arriving all it.is'

  By adding another bɛɛ via the expression à ni à bɛɛ ("and its all"), there is an additional emphasis:

  N setɔ bɛɛ ni à bɛɛ don ten

  Roughly, "This the whole complete me arriving like this"

  Lit. "Me arriving all and its all it.is thus"

  The end meaning must translated idiomatically, but it can be understood as intensification of the determiner bɛɛ that I think can be captured here by the turn of phrase "me and the whole me":

  N setɔ bɛɛ ni à bɛɛ don ten

  Roughly, "This is me and the whole me arriving like this"

  Lit. "Me arriving all and its all it.is"

• 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."