"Mun tɛ?" and/or "Jɔn tɛ?"

Language / Langue Bambara/Jula-English
1

Hi Coleman! :slightly_smiling_face: Concerning don and tɛ never changing regardless of the noun, can one say ‘mun tɛ’ or ‘jɔn tɛ’ in Bambara? :thinking:

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I ni ce, Christy!

I think that your example sentences are questions. For instance:

Mun tɛ?

“What isn’t it?”

And:

Jɔn tɛ?

“Who isn’t it?”

Both of those sentences strike me as possible, albeit not so frequent. Just like in English, both sentences could be used in unique situations where you were quizzing someone.

For instance, imagine that a teacher was trying to quiz students about a new word that they learned: “jakuma”.

[Teacher points at a dog and asks…]
– Mun tɛ?

[Students respond]
– Jakuma tɛ.

Otherwise, I found an example of this kind of sentence in Bambara Reference Corpus:

Panosolɛri tɛ taa mun kɔ? Ewoliyɛni tɛ munumunu ni mun tɛ?

“A solar panel doesn’t function without what? Evoline [NOTE: I’m guessing on this noun; I’m not sure if this a brand or a chemical or what] doesn’t run if there isn’t what?”

SOURCE

Hope that helps!

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