Plurals

Thus far, we have learned how to say many things about nouns—where they are, how they look, etc—but we haven't looked formally at how to make them plural.

In this chapter, we'll cover a few things related to pluralization—including when not to do it:

• how to form plurals
• how to not use them with numbers and other quantifiers
• other times not to use plurals

How to make plurals

To make singular noun and make it plural in Bambara and Jula, you simply need to add one thing onto the end of the word: -w.

So, for instance, we might have a word like:

sira
'road; path'

To make it plural, we would tack on -w like so:

siraw
'roads'

Note that the use of the letter W to mark plurals is an orthographic convention—the pronunciation, in any case, is an [u] sound (with an underlying low tone that is relevant for words like du ['courtyard'], where the final vowel is already a u or a closed o sound).

This system applies to all nouns that can or should be pluralized. There's no need to memorize or learn any irregular forms like in English or other Western languages. So, you can now easily say things like:

Cɛw bɛ Bamakɔ.
'The men are in Bamako.'

Or (if you heard a bunch of noise coming from outside and someone asked Mun don? [What is it?]), you could respond:

Denw don!
'It's children!''

Numbers and quantifiers

In English when we use a noun with a number, we make it plural so that the two agree (e.g., Two men). In Bambara, you do not need to do this. The simple fact of having a number greater than one next to the noun is enough to signal that the noun is plural.

So, for instance, we can speak of:

muso + kelen
woman + one

'one woman'

Or we can speak of:

muso + saba
woman + three

'three women'

Note how muso remained the same despite the fact that I added the number three (saba) to it, whereas in English, we naturally switch from "one woman" to "three women".

This dynamic also applies with determiners related to quantity like bɛɛ ('all') or caman ('numerous'). For instance:

Fɛn bɛɛ ka di
'All things are nice'

Or:

Sɛnɛkɛla caman bɛ Mali la.
'There are a lot of farmers in Mali.'

Other times not to use plurals

Similarly, there are other instances where an English speaker might want to use a plural noun, when, in fact, in Bambara and Manding in general, it's unnecessary.

This sometimes happens with the word mɔgɔ ('people'), for instance. In Bambara, we naturally say:

Mɔgɔ + ka + ca
Person + is + numerous

'People are numerous' (as in, 'There are a lot people!')

There's no need, in this case, to say Mɔgɔw ka ca.

You'll run into other cases like this too, but it's not worth laying them all out now. Just listen carefully and try to sound like those around you!

Summary

Ayiwa! We covered the following:

• Nouns are made plural by adding -w to them:

so → sow 'houses'

• The pluralization marker -w is pronounced like the letter u:

cɛw
[cɛu]

• If a noun is part of noun phrase with a number or a determiner or adjective related to quantity, it doesn't get pluralized:

cɛ saba
'three men'

Or:

fɛn bɛɛ
'all things'

• Other words and contexts also do not require that a noun be plural:

Mɔgɔ ka ca!
'People are numerous!'