Naamunaamuna | respondent/naamu-sayer

Dictionary / Dictionnaire Manding missing
1

Entry:
naamunaamuna

Gloss:
respondent; naamu-sayer

Notes:
The person that marks the end of lines when a bard or someone recounts a tale, story, epic, etc.

The form naamunaamuna is listed in works in and about Maninka from Kita.

Variants:
naamuminɛla

1 Like
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There may be a synonym for it. Namunamula (literally means “the yes-yes-er”) was clearly explained by @Coleman.

For the synonym, in Malinké community, they also use the expression “Sera jalo/jali”.

Listen to Boubou Kamassokho, a storyteller living in West Africa Senegal (Kédougou région). He is from the village of Kumuturu, near the border of Mali and Senegal.

His naamunaamula name is Mady and in minute 16, you can hear him saying “seeran jali Mady”

3

Thanks for sharing another possibility :slight_smile:

  • sera/seeran: I recognize the word jeli/jali (‘griot’), but I don’t recognize sera. Or is it seeran as you write later? How do you analyze or understand this word?
  • YouTube clip: I don’t hear the words “seeran jali Mady” anywhere in the 16th minute. Can you be specific about the time code?
  • Malinké community: When you say “Malinké community”, do you mean in Senegal and western Mali or where? I ask because it might help help us understand where the term is and isn’t used.

Also, for the future, keep in mind that this Forum category (#dico:ma-missing) is for submitting words to the AKT dictionary, which is primarily in Bambara/Jula. I added naamunaamuna since I came across it in Maninka/Bambara performance from Mali.

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When I say Malinke community, I meant Senegal and the Kenieba region of Mali. In Senegal, It is mostly spoken in the Sara ya region, which shares border with Mali, near Moussala Machina mine. I misspelled seran and did not check.