susu language thread

[bubudi]

what words and phrases do you know in soussou? put them here, the good with the bad! don't forget to include the english meaning!

here's a few to start:

arabakhidi - hello
inuwali (wonuwali) - hello/goodbye/thanks (plural)
iyo/aha - yes
awa - ok
dundurunti - slowly
wontanara - all of us together

[bubudi]

sosoxui* - susu language (* - x is a guttural h like scottish 'loch').
sangban - djembe drum
papa - susu djembe like drum only somewhat smaller
bote - susu bass drum skinned on one side, played vertically with a stick in the dominant hand and a bell suspended in the air by the non dominant hand. the player wears metal rings on the bell hand that allow rapid bell patterns and rolls on the bell.
tolonyi - bell
dundun - the dununba drum, or all the dunun in ballet style.

pronouns:
n - i/my
i - you/your
a - he/she/his/her
muxu - we/our (not including person you're talking to)
won - we/our (including person you're talking to)
wo - you/your (plural)
e - they/their


greetings:
i kena (wo kena) - good morning to you (plural)
tana mu xi? - did you sleep well?
tana yo mu xi - i slept well
i xili di? - what's your name?
n xili lamine - my name is lamine
i fenyen - good afternoon
tana mu fenyen? - did you have a good day?
heri fenyen? - did you spend the day in peace?
tana yo mu fenyen - i had a good day
i nunmare - good evening
i koe - good night
won na temui - see ya!
won tina - until tomorrow
won nunmare - until evening

numbers:
1 keren
2 firin
3 saxan
4 naani
5 suli
6 senni
7 solofere
8 solomasaxan
9 solomanaani
10 fu
11 fu nun keren
20 moxonyen
30 tongo saxan
100 keme
200 keme firin
1,000 wulu keren
1,000,000 miliyon keren

[Garvin]

Nice post Bubudi. I was wondering if you could edit that and include the phonetic spelling to help with pronunciations. I'm thinking specifically of the pronouns...

For example is "e" pronounced "eh" or "eeeeee" is "a" pronounced as "ay" "aye" or "ah" etc... Been around a lot of susu speakers, but never keyed in on anything other than hello, goodbye and some of the numbers.

Thanks.

[bubudi]

thanks!

the vowels are completely phonetic in that they are pronounced much as they would be in italian or spanish.

however, i haven't distinguished between long and short vowels. there is a long 'o' and a long 'e'. i didn't want to complicate things. if you look at the peace corps susu manual, you'll see how difficult it can be to read when you complicate it.

[bops]

n xili fode - my name is lamine

Umm... this actually means "my name's fode"

[bubudi]

good find, i've edited that so they both read 'lamine'.