Warimisɛnko bɛ cogo di?

Intro

In the following video, people in and around the Halles de Bamako market in Mali respond to a single question that I asked them:

Warimisɛnko bɛ cogo di?
'How is the affair of change?'

Note that by "change", I mean the issue of "small change" as in smaller denominations of money.

The video itself is a single "question segment" from Episode 2 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 & Read

Now turn on the subtitles in Bambara (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.

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

• Expressing "You can't get/find it" with sɔrɔ ('obtain') in the passive voice
• Expressing "need; must" with Fo X ka
• Expressing "to the point that" with fo to express "until; to the point that"
• Comparative constructions to express "more than" or "-er" with qualitative verbs and(ni) X ye
• Expressing 'because of X' or "for X" with X kanma
• Expressing "the same" with kelen
• Using O bɛ à sɔrɔ to express "It so happens", etc

Grammar Points Explained

• Expressing "You can't get/find it" with sɔrɔ ('obtain') in the passive voice

  In the video, we heard the following sentence:

  Ni mɔgɔ nana hali kɛmɛ fila di i ma, mugan sanni ou bien bi naani sanni, à tɛ sɔrɔ.

  "If someone comes and gives you even 1,000 CFA, (for) a 100 CFA purchase or a 200 CFA purchase, it [small change] can't be found"

  It's quite long. Behind it though is something that is simple and wide-spread: the use of the passive voice.

  Let's take a simpler version of the sentence:

  Warimisɛn tɛ sɔrɔ!

  "Small change can't be had/found!"

  Lit. "Small change isn't gotten/obtained"

  The passive voice is applied in Bambara simple by dropping the direct object from a construction with a verb that is underlyingly transitive.

  For instance, take a sentence like:

  N bɛ wari sɔrɔ

  "I earn money"

  If you drop the direct object wari from it, you end up with a sentence with the passive voice applied to the subject:

  N bɛ sɔrɔ

  "I am earned"

  (as in, "I must be earned", for instance)

  This sentence is grammatically sound, but it's not something you will likely hear often.

  Instead, you will likely hear passives with sɔrɔ that focus on things that one seeks, looks for, gets or obtains. Such as, small change for money for instance!

  In this case, the subject is the thing that one looks for, etc. For example:

  Warimisɛn tɛ sɔrɔ

  "Change isn't earned/obtained/found"

  (as in, "Change can't be found around here")

  The implied "doer" or "performer" of the action of obtaining (sɔrɔ) is people in general (mɔgɔw). But you can make it explicit even when using the passive voice:

  Warimisɛn tɛ sɔrɔ mɔgɔw fɛ

  "Change isn't obtained by people"

  The active voice equivalent would be:

  Mɔgɔw tɛ warimisɛn sɔrɔ

  "People don't obtain change"

  Here's a few other examples. I have put the implied "doer" in parentheses to make it clear that it's a passive construction.

  Or:

  Baara tɛ sɔrɔ Bamakɔ (mɔgɔw fɛ)

  "Work can't be found in Bamako (by people)"

  Lit. "Work isn't obtained in Bamako"

  Or:

  Dumuni bɛ sɔrɔ lɔgɔfiyɛ la (mɔgɔw fɛ)

  "Food can be found at the marketplace (by people)"

  Lit. "Food is obtained at the marketplace"

  You can use also the passive voice in the perfective:

  Warimisɛn ma sɔrɔ (mɔgɔw fɛ)!

  "Change wasn't found (by people)!"

  As in, "I went looking for some change and I couldn't find any!"

  For more info about the passive voice, see Verb Types and Light Verb Constructions.

• Expressing "need; must" with Fo X ka

  In the video, we hear the following:

  Ni mako donna warimisɛn na, fo i ka wuli ka yaala ka se i sigiɲɔgɔn ma […]

  "If you need change, you have got to get up and walk and go up to your neighbor […]"

  Within this longer sentence, there is a simple grammatical construction that you can see more easily if we boil things down:

  Fo i ka wuli

  "You must get up"

  or

  "You have got to get up"

  Here, you can see a special construction using the grammatical words fo and ka that can be used to express of "must", "need" or "got to".

  The basic structure is fo + SUBJECT + ka + VERB. For instance:

  Fo n ka warimisɛn ɲini

  "I must seek / look for change"

  (as in, "I've got to find some change")

  In this case, ka is generally analyzed as being the same predicate marker ka that one uses in optative/subjunctive construction like An ka taa! (Let's go!) or I ka kalan kɛ (You should study), etc.

  You can also change the subject as you wish. For example:

  Fo feerekɛlaw ka warimisɛn ɲini!

  "The sellers/vendors need to seek money"

• Expressing "to the point that" with fo to express "until; to the point that"

  In the video, we hear the following sentence:

  Parce que warimisɛn tun bɛ sɔrɔ Musa tile la fo an b'an tulon kɛ à la

  Because change was found back in Musa's day to the point that we would play in it

  "Musa" in this case refers to Moussa Traoré, a military dictator who ruled Mali from 1968 to 1991.

  Within this sentence, there is a special usage of the preposition fo which is typically glossed as 'until'. (In French, it is almost more easily translated with jusqu'à as you might see in the following examples.)

  In basic sentences, this meaning is clear. For instance:

  N ye sanni kɛ fo n ka warimisɛn banna

  "I made purchases until my change was out"

  In the case of the sentence from the video, it is the same word and usage, but the English translation is trickier. The expression "to the point that" fits better.

  Parce que warimisɛn tun bɛ sɔrɔ Musa tile la fo an b'an tulon kɛ à la

  Because change was found back in Musa's day to the point that we would play in it

  You can use fo in a variety of other ways.

  For example, in a sequential verb construction where it is followed by ka VERB:

  N ye warimisɛn ɲini fo ka sɛgɛn

  "I sought change to the point of tiring)"

  Or with places:

  Jitigi taara warimisɛn ɲini fo dugu kɔnɔ

  "The water vendor went and sought change all the way in town"

• Comparative constructions to express "more than" or "-er" with qualitative verbs and(ni) X ye

  In the video, we hear:

  Warimisɛnko, Bamako yan, bi, à ka gɛlɛn ni fɛn bɛɛ ye.

  "The matter of change, here in Bamako, today, it is more difficult than all (other) things"

  This can be boiled down to a simpler sentence:

  Warimisɛnko ka gɛlɛn ni fɛn bɛɛ ye

  "The matter of change is more difficult than all things"

  (Roughly, "The matter of change is difficult more than all things")

  This sentence is an example of one kind of comparative construction that allows you to say that something is "more" something than another (e.g., "more expensive", "more fun", but also "taller", "bigger", etc.)

  The underlying construction is (ni) X ye and it appears after qualitative verbs (e.g., ɲi, bon, jan, etc).

  Let's look at the fuller form first. For example:

  N ka jan ni i ye
  I AM TALL ni YOU ye

  "I am taller than you"

  Notice that there is no change to jan ('tall'). Instead you simply place ni ... ye around the thing which is "less" tall.

  The use of ni in this kind construction is optional. You can drop it if you like and the meaning is identical. For instance:

  N ka jan i ye
  I AM TALL YOU ye

  "I am taller than you"

  Here's another example:

  Bɔbɔ ka di (ni) Bamakɔ ye

  "Bobo is nicer than Bamako"

  You can also use this construction in negative constructions with qualitative verbs. For instance:

  To man di (ni) cɛkɛ ye

  "Tô isn't tastier than attiéké"

  Or:

  I ka warimisɛn ka ca (ni) ne ta ye!

  "Your small change is more abundant than mine!"

  (as in, "You have got more change than me!")

  Note that Bambara/Jula does not have a direct grammatical equivalent to "less than" (what linguists might call a "lesser degree comparative"). Instead, you would talk around it. For instance:

  I ka warimisɛn ka dɔgɔ (ni) ne ta ye

  "Your change is smaller than mine!"

  (as in, "You have less change than me!")

• Expressing 'because of X' or "for X" with X kanma

  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 "the same" with kelen

  In the video, we hear the following lament from a small-time market vendor:

  Ɔ, butikibatigi ninnu b'a daminɛ waa fila, waa saba la.
  I y'à dɔn, an tɛ kelen ye.

  "Well, these big shop owners start it [their price] at 10,000 or 15,000.
  You know, we aren't the same"

  Within this quote, there is a basic sentence:

  An tɛ kelen ye

  "We aren't one" → "We aren't the same"

  This is a good example of the common use of kelen ('one') to express the idea of "same".

  It can be used in a range of different kind of constructions. For instance:

  Kelen don!

  "It's the same!" or "They are the same" (depending on the context)

  Lit. "It is one!"

  Or:

  O ko kelen bɛ an fɛ Ameriki

  "We have this same problem in the US"

  Lit. "That one affair is at our place in America"

• Using O bɛ à sɔrɔ to express "It turns out", "You will find that", "It may be that", "Perhaps", etc.

  In the video, we hear the following:

  […] premier premier, warimisɛnko, à ka nɔgɔn. O b'a sɔrɔ, wari bɛ yan.

  […] originally, the affair of change, it was easy. It so happened, there was money

  Within this sentence is an idiomatic turn of phrase with the verb k'à sɔrɔ ("to obtain sth") that is very common, but can be tricky to translate in one way.

  Let's boil the sentence down to something simpler using fɔlɔfɔlɔ instead of the French loanword premier:

  Fɔlɔfɔlɔ, o b'à sɔrɔ, wari bɛ yan

  "In the past, it so happened, there was money"

  The expressions o b'à sɔrɔ of course literally means "That obtains it". As an idiomatic verbal expression, it can often used to express things like:

  • "as it happens"
  • "it so happened"
  • "it turns out"

  Try replacing those in our example sentence and see which one you think works best.

  (NOTE: If you know French, you find it helpful to think of O b'à sɔrɔ as being close to "il se trouve que" or "il s'est trouvé que", etc.)

  Here's another example from a proverb:

  "N bɛ taa n bɛɛnkɛ ka misiw gɛn", o b'à sɔrɔ: fɛn tɛ i fa fɛ.

  (If you say) “I'm going to hunt my uncle's cows.” It may turn out: your father has nothing.

  As you can see from the above translation, there can be a nuance of possibility instead of certainty. As such, in other cases, it might be worth translating o b'à sɔrɔ with other turns of phrase such as:

  • "it may be that"
  • "it so happened that"
  • "perhaps"

  Here's a few other more complicated examples that I found through some online searching. I am leaving them for reference; I will not break down here.

  One:

  A ka ca a la, nin taamasiɲɛ ninnu caman bɛ ban u yɛrɛ ma, a bɛ kɛ a tigi hakili la ko fosi tɛ a la, nka o bɛ a sɔrɔ bana ma ban.

  "Many of these symptoms usually resolve spontaneously, feeling normal, but (it turns out that / as it happens / this doesn’t mean) the disease has not gone away."

  Two:

  Tuma dɔw la cɛ ni muso dɔw bɛ a ɲini ka den sɔrɔ, nka muso tɛ se ka kɔnɔta. O bɛ a sɔrɔ u fila dɔ la kelen ye kona ye.

  "Sometimes a couple tries to have a baby, but the woman cannot get pregnant. It turns out that one of the two is an infertile/childless person."

  Three:

  Adama ko : ni Ala ye mɔgɔ o mɔgɔ dako ɲɛ nin cogo la , ka i cɛ ɲɛ , o bɛ a sɔrɔ jinɛw ka nɔɔrɔ bɛ i fɛ

  "Adama said: ‘If God determines someone’s fortune this way, and makes them beautiful, it may turn out that they have the charm of the jinn."