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.