Commentary about "dugawu" and "amiina" as Arabic loanwords

[Christy]

Continuing the discussion from Benediction and Amiina:

Dugawu

@coleman

I don’t know of any other words for “benediction” besides dugawu , duba , etc. This could be because the concept of a benediction in West Africa originally comes the Islamic tradition and therefore from the Arabic “d-3-a” (دعا) .

Could be… or it got lost over the years. It’s pretty sad that there aren’t any Bambara alternatives listed in the dictionary for ‘benediction’… as if to say that there wasn’t a way to say something of that nature in Bambara in the past.

Amiina

I am saying that “amiina” is not at all Bambara. That’s why I asked about Bambara alternatives. It’s not a grey area. For me, as long as the dictionary is clearly pointing out the fact that it’s a loanword and providing the origin of said word then it’s not truly Bambara no matter how natural it may be to its users. Again, this isn’t about religion it’s about the language and the two are separate. And even though loanwords do exist it’s pretty sad that there aren’t ANY Bambara alternatives listed in the dictionary for ‘amiina’.