Equatives

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

Alright, we've done a lot of basic expressions around greetings, introductions, etc. Now it's time to get back to some of the fundamental grammar elements of Bambara.

In this chapter, we're going to look at equatives, which allow you to say things like this proverb:

Ko bɛɛ ye waati ye

'All things are a question of time'
(lit. 'All affairs are time')

Specifically, I'm gonna cover:

• How equatives are different from presentatives with don/tɛ
• Affirmative equative constructions
• Negative equative constructions
• How equatives can mix with presentatives

Using Equatives

Earlier, I covered how to use presentative constructions to say things like:

So don.

'It's a house.'

Or:

Den tɛ.

'It's not a child'

These examples like all presentative constructions are used to "present" or "identify" something that is either in one's immediate context (e.g., a house that you and a friend are looking at) or is already under discussion (e.g., a person that you ran into last night). For this reason, we can generally translate them with "It is/isn't [X]."

The equative, on the other hand, is used for situations in which you need to state that some thing (e.g., a person, place, idea, etc.) is equivalent to another thing.

For instance, we can already say something like Kalanden don ('It's a student') or Dugu tɛ ('It's not a town'), but what happens if we wanted to say something like "I am a student" or "Mali is not a town"?

In this case, we need to use equative constructions!

Affirmative

Let's look at the basic structure of an affirmative equative construction through a simple example:

N ye kalanden ye.
I EQU student EQU

'I am a student.'

The underlying structure of an equative then is easy:

[X] ye [Y] ye

'[X] is [Y]'

The important thing to remember is that both [X] and and [Y] are nouns or things that stand in for nouns.

They can be proper nouns. For instance:

Awa ye muso ye.

'Awa is a woman'

Or they can be common nouns:

Sɛnɛ ye baara ye.

'Farming is work.'

(NOTE: In Jula as spoken in Côte d'Ivoire [but not so much in Burkina Faso], people often say* bɛ...ye instead of ye...ye. For instance, Awa bɛ muso ye instead of Awa ye muso ye. This is basically a question of regional preference. The underlying grammar is the same. My recommendation to you is that you use the "standard Bambara/Jula" form ye...ye but that you remain aware of the variation. In this course, I won't use the Ivoirian Jula form.)

Negative

Ok, so we can say that "[X] is [Y]", but what if we want to say "[X] is not [Y]"?

In this case, we only need to make one simple change. We change the initial ye to tɛ.

So let's take a sentence like:

Adama ye kalanden ye

'Adama is a student'

When negative, this sentence would become instead:

Adama tɛ kalanden ye

'Adama is not a student'

Just like with affirmative sentences, you can use this with common nouns too. For instance, you could say something like:

Ji tɛ dumuni ye.
Water EQU.NEG food EQU

'Water isn't food.''

► Presentatives and equatives can intermingle

While presentatives and equatives are distinct, they can, for English speakers, often translate to the same thing.

This is typically the case when words like "this/that" (nin/o) or "he/she/it" (à) are involved.

For instance, if you were introducing your friend John to someone, you could say something like:

Amerikika don.

"He's an American."

(lit. "It's an American.")

Or:

À ye amerikika ye.

"He's an American."

(lit. 'He is an American.')

Because of this, presentatives and equatives can often intermingle in a single exchange.

Imagine a situation, for instance, where you are sitting with some friends and you are trying to learn the names of different types of chairs since, to you, they look different; some like stools, some like armchairs, etc.

In this context, things might play out like this:

You ask (using an equative):

Nin ye mun ye?

'What is this?' (lit. 'This is what?')

And your friend responds (with a presentative):

Sigilan don.

'It's a chair.'

Then you point and ask about another chair:

O dun?

'And what about that?'

And here your friend responds (with an equative):

O fana ye sigilan ye.

'That also is a chair.'

Alright, so in this example, your friend has not helped you figure out the different names that one could use for different kinds of sitting devices.

But they have shown you the way that presentatives (e.g,., with don/tɛ) and equatives (e.g., with ye/tɛ ... ye) intermingle in speech.

What's important to see is that one could have just as easily swapped things around and retained the same meaning:

– Mun don?
– Nin ye sigilan ye.
– O dun?
– Sigilan fana don.

So, presentatives and equatives are clearly used for distinct purposes:

• Use the presentative [X] don/tɛ to identify or present nouns in sentences like "It is/isn't [X]".
• Use the equative [X] ye/tɛ [Y] ye to state that one noun is equal or equivalent to another noun in sentences like "[X] is/isn't [Y]".

But know that in practice (and based off of regional preference and context for one construction over the other), they can intermingle when using words like nin/o ('this/that') and à/ale ('he/she/it') are involved.

► Two useful sentences

With the equative construction you can start to ask interesting questions about people.

"Where are you from?"

For instance, you can use the special "conglomerate" word yɔrɔ-jumɛn-ka (which literally means 'which-place-er') to ask the equivalent of what in English would be "Where are you from?":

I ye yɔrɔ-jumɛn-ka ye?

'You are a which-placer?' (as in, "Where are you from?")

(NOTE: English does something kind of similar to yɔrɔ-jumɛn-ka with the word "whatchamacallit"; it comes from the expression"what you may call it", but has become a single word.)

This is a typical way expression used to ask where someone is from. To answer, you can simply parrot back the same language. But you need to replace yɔrɔ-jumɛn (lit. 'place-which') with a location. For instance:

– I ye yɔrɔ-jumɛn-ka ye?
– N ye Amerikika ye.

– You are which-placer?
– I'm an American.

Down the road, you'll see that there's another way to ask where someone is from (using the verb ka bɔ; see "Verbs in the Present"), but this expression is a great place to start!

"What do you do?"

Similarly, you can use equatives to ask people what they do for work (baara):

I ka baara ye mun ye?

'What is your work?'

(NOTE: The ka in i ka baara ('your work') is a possessive marker that you will learn about in "Possessive Noun Phrases".)

Sometimes, people respond to this question not by parroting back the exact same structure (i.e., "My work is farming", but by saying something directly about themselves (i.e., "I'm a farmer"). For instance:

– I ka baara ye mun ye?
– N ye sɛnɛkɛla ye

– What's your work?
– I'm a farmer

Of course, there are many other ways to respond appropriately, but for now that's a good way to handle things if someone asks about your work!

Summary

Ayiwa! We covered the following about equatives:

• They are formed like this:

NOUN + ye/tɛ + NOUN + ye

• They allow you to say that a noun is or is not equal or equivalent to another noun (e.g., "Coke is a drink"; "Bamako is not a country")

• They are distinct from presentatives, which you use to say the equivalent of what can often translate as "It's [X]" or "That is [X]".

• They can intermingle with presentatives in interaction.