Continuing the discussion from Questions about weather vocab in Peace Corps manual:
Yes, that is the etymology! And yes, there are a few words for “cloud”. I often say “sankaba” (lit. “sky-sky”) 
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Ni n y’a mɛn jɛ, n bɛ se ka kelen sugandi dɔrɔn bawo o kɔrɔ dɛ ka kan wa? If I understood correctly, I can just pick one because they have the same meaning?
I assume some have some context specific differences, but I will just ignore that for now… Nka n mana kuma waatiko kan, n bɛ se ka “bi ka san bɛna kɛ sankaba ye” fɔ wa? Like it’s going to be cloudy today or that was supposed to be literally “today’s sky will become clouds”. In English that means just clouds and not rain generally, I think.
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- Yes, for most purposes
- That could work but it’s not something that I’ve heard people say a lot. You could say “Sankaba ka ca bi” (There’s a lot of clouds today") or “Sankabaw bɛna caya bi” (Clouds will be abundant today) as simple options to express the idea of “It’s cloudy” or “It’s going to be cloudy”. In general, people just say “San finna” or “San finna dɔɔnin” but that generally implies rain in the Bambara-speaking context
In other climates where clouds work diffierently, people might understand it differently if they live there and know what you mean 