Entry:
séwa
Gloss:
be happy; rejoice; be glad
Notes:
Potentially more Maninka?
Variants:
sáwa; sɛ́wa
Sounding very close to séwa, I just found the lyrics of Oumou Sangare’s song entitled SEYA. They translate it as “Joy”:
But in Ankataa’s Dictionary,
“joy” is dàamu
and
“be happy” is nisɔndiya, from which “nisɔn” is the noun, ‘happy.’
Would be interesting to understand how all these are used in real life situations…
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I ni ce, Boka!
Oumou Sangaré speaks a specific variety of Manding from Wasulu that has a number of differences from standard Bambara. This variation of sewa being seya looks like one of them!
The definitions in the AKT dictionary are not definitive fixed definitions for all situations. Translations are always contextual.
And one last thing:
- This is wrong. Nisɔn means ‘heart’.
Otherwise, if you have a specific question for a situation where you want to say “joy” or the like, then post it as its on topic 
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