Question Words

Up until now, we've learned a lot of different constructions that allow you to say a bunch of things about yourself as well as the people and things around you. But we haven't explicitly taken any time to dig into the words used to form questions.

In this chapter, I'll cover the following:

• using intonation to form questions
• the general yes-no question marker wa
• the question words equivalent to "who", "when", "what", "where", "how" PLUS "which" and "how many/much"

Intonation

The simplest way to ask a yes-no question in Bambara, and in Manding in general, is to simply change one's intonation to a rising one.

For instance, let's say your friend Adama was over to visit. When it was time for him to go, you might announce to your mom and dad:

Adama bɛ taa.

'Adama goes/is going.'

On the other hand, if your mom and dad noticed that Adama was getting his things together, they might ask the same thing, but with a rising intonation at the end of the sentence:

Adama bɛ taa? ⬆

'Adama is going?''

This can also apply to other kinds of sentences. For instance, a qualitative verb construction:

Adama ka kɛnɛ? ⬆

'Is Adama healthy?'

Or a presentative sentence:

Mobili don? ⬆

'Is it a car?'

Question marker wa

To formally mark a yes-no sentence as a question, you just need one word: wa. For instance, if take our example from before, we could say something like:

Adama bɛ taa wa?

'Is Adama going?'

Notice, in this case, that the word wa does the work of what in English is done by inverting the word order: instead of "Adama is going?", we say "Is Adama going?" In Bambara, you don't need to make any change in word order.

We can add wa to any yes-no question. For instance, if a political leader appeared on television saying nonsense, you and a friend might have an exchange like follows:

– Fatɔ don wa?
– Ɔwɔ, fatɔ don.

– Is it/he a crazy person?
– Yes, it/he is a crazy person.

Formal question words

If you want to ask questions that can't be answered with a simple "yes" or "no" then you need to learn the formal question words that are equivalent to things like "who", "what", "when", etc. Here, I will give them to you one-by-one in no particular order via examples using basic grammar that we've already covered.

jɔn 'who'

Let's start with jɔn ('who') and take an example like one that we had in an earlier chapter.

If someone knocks at your door, you might call out:

Jɔn don?
who it.is

'Who is it?'

And your friend could answer:

Musa don
Musa it.is

'It's Musa'

This first example highlights something important. In Bambara, formal question words (sometimes called "wh-question" words by English-speaking linguists) always appear in the same location as the word that they replace. There's no need to switch things around like in English when we say "Who is it?" but answer with "It is Musa."

mun 'what'

Next, we have mun ('what').

If you and a friend stopped at a food stand for a little refreshment, they might ask you:

I bɛ mun dun?

'What do you eat?'

(as in, 'What will you have?')

And you could answer:

N bɛ kini dun

'I eat rice'

min 'where'

Next, we have min ('where').

For instance, if you were getting ready to ride into town, a friend might ask:

I ka nɛgɛso bɛ min?

'Where is your bike?'

And you could answer:

À bɛ kɛnɛ ma

'It is outside'

(kɛnɛ ma is a two-word expression used to express the idea of 'outside'; literally, it means something close to 'towards the clearing/daylight')

di 'how'

Next, we have di ('how').

For instance, if you told a friend you were going into town, they might ask:

I bɛ taa di?

'How are you going?'

(lit. 'You are going how?')

Or they might use a common equivalent, cogo di, which combines di with the noun cogo ('manner; way'):

I bɛ taa cogo di?

'How are you going?'

(lit. 'You are going manner how?')

In either case, you could answer:

N bɛ taa nɛgɛso la

'I am going on bike'

(as in, 'I am going by bike')

joli 'how many/much'

Next, we have joli ('how many/much').

For instance, if you were playing soccer with some friends and needed to divide yourselves up into teams, you might ask:

An ye mɔgɔ joli ye?

'How many people are we?'

(lit. 'We are how many people?')

And your friend might tell you:

An ye mɔgɔ segin ye

'We are eight people'

(as in, 'There are eight of us')

jumɛn 'which'

Next, we have jumɛn ('which').

For instance, if on a hot day, your friend surprised you and brought out some cold drinks, they might ask you:

I bɛ jumɛn ta?

'You take which?'

(as in, 'Which one do you want to have?')

And you, naturally, would answer:

N bɛ ɲamakuji ta

'I take the ginger-juice'

(as in, 'I'll have the ginger-juice')

tuma jumɛn 'when'

Finally, we've got the expression tuma jumɛn, which literally means 'which time', and is the typical way of expressing the English question-word of 'when'.

For instance, if you weren't getting along with a friend too well, but they wanted to make amends, they might ask:

An bɛ kuma tuma jumɛn?

'We talk when?'

(as in, 'When shall we talk?')

And you, of course, since you are sad about having temporarily lost a friend, could say:

An bɛ kuma sini

'We talk tomorrow'

(as in, 'We'll talk tomorrow)

► munna 'why'

And then, as a bonus, there's the question word munna, which literally means 'on what' (< mun + na 'what + on') and is the typical way of expressing 'why'.

For instance, if you had just finished a trip to Mali and were getting ready to leave, one of your new friends might ask:

I bɛ taa munna?
you PRESENT go why

'Why are you going?'

There are a lot of different words and expressions that are used as equivalents of the 'because'. One of simplest and most common is bawo:

N bɛ taa bawo n ye dunan ye

'I am going because I am a foreigner/guest'

Summary

Ayiwa! We covered the following:

• Yes/no questions can be formulated by adding a rising intonation the end of a sentence just like in English.

• Yes/no questions can also be made using the question marker word wa at the end of a sentence. For instance:

I ka kɛnɛ wa?

'Are you healthy?'

• Formal question words jɔn, mun, min, (cogo) di, joli, jumɛn and tuman jumɛn take the exact place of the noun that they replace. For instance:

– I bɛ bɔ min?
– N bɛ bɔ Burkina

– Where are you from?
– I am from Burkina.

• The question words jumɛn ('which') and joli ('how many/much') appear after the noun. For instance:

– I bɛ kan jumɛn fɔ?
–N bɛ tubabukan fɔ.

– Which language do you speak?
– I speak French.