In the phrase ‘the happy boy’, what is the Bambara word for ‘happy’?
I have found several possibilities:
cɛnin sôn sumalé
cɛnin lafialé
cɛnin dùsu ka di
cɛnin diya
Which is most correct?
Which are incorrect?
What would be the correct spelling?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Hi Gerbmek!
Some of the options you have listed and some don’t work at all as standalone noun phrases. In both cases there are some spelling errors.
As a general note, many words that describe emotions are adjectives in English, but often expressed otherwise in Bambara/Manding.
You haven’t provided any context, but generally, I’d say these ones could work with some spelling changes:
Cɛnin sɔn sumalen
‘content boy’Lit. ‘small-man heart cooled’
Cɛnin lafiyalen
‘content boy’Lit. ‘small-man rested/relaxed’
The other two don’t work as standalone noun phrases.
Thanks Coleman.
How would one use dùsu ka di and diya?
Like this?:
The boy is happy
Cεnin dùsu ka di
Cεnin dùsu ye di ye
Cεnin ka diya
Cεnin ye diya ye
Any help would be appreciated.
I ni ce! I debated moving your question to a new thread since it’s a second question in a way, but I guess it is connected enough to the original subject of “happy”…
All of you responses are wrong except for “Cɛnin dusu ka di” (lit. “The boy’s heart is pleasant”).
If you look up diya and di in the dictionary, you’ll see that diya is a verb and di is a qualitative verb. I’ve made Basic Bambara videos on both of these grammar topics, which I linked to here.
If you review that stuff and still have a specific question then go ahead and make a new thread!