Foli Nafa

Intro

In the following video, people in Bamako, Mali respond to my questions about the nafa ('benefit; utility') of greetings.

The video itself is a single "question segment" from Episode 1 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/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

• Passive voice
  (NOTE: Being moved from Warimisɛn)
• Expressing "like; as if" with i n'à fɔ, i ko, komi, etc
  (NOTE: Being moved from Ouaga)
• Adjuncts (AKA "Circonstants")

Grammar Points Explained

Let's dive into the core grammar points.

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 "like; as if" with i n'à fɔ, i ko, etc

In the video, we hear the following sentence which is half in Jula and half in French:

À bɛ i n'à fɔ, c'est la même famille en quelque sorte.

"It's as if it's the same family in some kind of way"

Within the first half of this sentence, we have a common use of the turn of phrase i n'à fɔ, which can generally be glossed as "like" or "as if" in English.

À bɛ i n'à fɔ …

"It's like"

If we expand out the contraction in it and break down the the expression's word individually, we can get at its literal meaning:

i na à fɔ

Lit. "you will say it"

There isn't a clear English turn of phrase that works in a similar way using a verb related to speaking.

But it's a little bit like the expression on dirait (que) (Lit. "one would say [that]") in French, which can often be translated as "it looks/seems like" in English.

This multiword expression is basically a grammatical part of speech. It can play the role of both preposition or conjunction.

As a preposition before a noun for instance:

Bobo tɛ i n'à fɔ Ouaga

"Bobo isn't like Ouaga"

Or as a conjunction before a whole clause:

À kɛra i n'à fɔ Bobo ka di ka tɛmɛ Ouaga kan!

"It seems like Bobo is more pleasant than Ouaga!"

You can express English expressions like "It seems like…", "It sounds like…", "It looks like…" using i n'à fɔ as part of a variety larger constructions using the verb ka kɛ (Lit. "to occur" or the situative copulas bɛ/tɛ.

For instance with ka kɛ:

À kɛra i n'à fɔ i tɛ taa Bobo

"It seems/sounds/looks like you don't go to Bobo"

Or:

À ma kɛ i n'à fɔ n fa ma taa Ouaga abada

"It's not like my dad didn't ever go to Ouaga"

Or, for example, with bɛ/tɛ

À bɛ i n'à fɔ i tɛ taa Bobo

"It's like you don't go to Bobo"

(as in, "If I didn't know better, I'd say that you don't go to Bobo")

Or:

À tɛ i n'à fɔ n tɛ Ouaga dɔn

"It's not like I don't know Ouaga"

The expression i n'à fɔ has a sister phrase that functions and can be used in essentially the exact same way: i ko (Lit. "you say").

Bobo tɛ i ko Ouaga

"Bobo isn't like Ouaga"

At other times, speakers of Bambara and Jula will simply use the French loanword comme directly:

À bɛ comme …

"It's like …"

This loanword is often pronounced and written as komi.

In yet another case, you may also encounter the hybrid form ikomi, which appears to fuse i ko and komi (from Fr. comme) together:

À bɛ ikomi …

"It's like / as if …"