My first Bambara lesson

[rachelnguyen]

Hi Carl,

Here is the link to the mp3s. You can order the book through this site, too.

Still haven't gotten the actual book yet. Will keep you posted!

http://languagelab.bh.indiana.edu/Bambara-Intro.html

[bubudi]

yes, those are the same audio files as posted in the other thread. check it out, there were a lot more resources for bambara posted there.

[rachelnguyen]

Hi Bubudi,

I niche. The lexicon is especially helpful. I had come across the french bambara version, but hadn't found one in English... FAR more helpful for me, LOL. Now I just need to find one for my iphone!

I have been practicing every day since my lesson on Friday and am already pretty on top of the greetings. It really helps to have the recordings, especially for the plural words that add the w on the end. I am sure I would not get the pronounciation right without hearing it repeatedly.

Eg. Muso v. Musow. den v. denw. Ce v. cew.

Good stuff.

R

[bops]

The lexicon is especially helpful. I had come across the french bambara version, but hadn't found one in English... FAR more helpful for me, LOL. Now I just need to find one for my iphone!

You can download those MP3s from the Univ. of Indiana's website. Right-click and choose Save target as (or Save link as). Save them in a folder on your hard drive. Once you have downloaded all the files, just drop them onto iTunes.

[rachelnguyen]

That will be very helpful!

[rachelnguyen]

Cool freeware program alert!

There is a qwerty version of a Malian keyboard that gives you all the characters.

Here it is:

http://www.tavultesoft.com/keyman/downloads/keyboards/details.php?KeyboardID=465&FromKeyman=0

I really wanted a paper version of a dictionary, so I tried to cut and paste some of the entries from the online lexicon into word and discovered that it couldn't handle the special characters.... I am hoping that this new program will make it possible to do that. And now I will be able to type the characters, too, I think. I'll let you know how it works once it is installed.

[rachelnguyen]

Ok, this is cool. It is a trial version and I don't know how much it costs... but it does all the characters you need for Bambara.

Check it out:

ɲ
ŋ
ɛ
ǝ
ɓ
ɗ
ɔ

The documentation is in french... but you can download a pdf of the character map.

Umm. Does browsing around the internet for Bambara stuff make me an official Bamanankan geek?

[michi]

Umm. Does browsing around the internet for Bambara stuff make me an official Bamanankan geek?

I'm afraid it does...

Michi.

[rachelnguyen]

Guilty as charged. I found some Bambara tee shirts online and might have to get myself one.

In the mean time, let me update you all on the Bamanakan progress:

The book from the University of Indiana finally arrived. (Beginning Bambara)

It is quirky, but very helpful.

First, the helpful- It has a ton of exercises, grammar notes, general culture stuff and is an all around perfect book for a geek like me.

Now, on to the quirky- It was type written back in the 70s on a Smith Corona and has never been converted, so it looks like old fashioned typewriter font, which is a little tough to read. Also, because it was done on a standard typewriter, all those fancy characters are replaced by standard letters with lots of accents. Another very weird thing is that all the translations and information notes are in English, but the directions for the exercises in the book are in French. So, really, if you didn't know French, it would be a little tricky to know what to do with the exercises. Luckily, I do know French well enough to get the gist of it. But that seems like a very strange mistake.

The book was about $30 shipped media mail (read excruciatingly slow). I think it is going to be a very helpful tool for learning Bambara.

[bubudi]

cool. i wonder if there are any other good books for learning bamanakan.
how are you getting around the grammar? does the book make that any easier? i find it easy to understand the grammar when listening/reading, but speaking/writing requires you to really think that way.

[rachelnguyen]

Hey Bubudi,

I haven't come across anything else. I think this is basically it unless there are books for Francophones out there. (Which wouldn't suprise me.)

I have really dug in yet, but there seems to be very good information about grammar in this book. It is not my strong point, even in English, never mind French and Bambara. But this seems to explain things fairly well.

R

[rachelnguyen]

Sure enough, if you go to Amazon.fr and search for bambara, there is a ton of stuff. So, if your french is good, it might be worth a try.

[8aardav8]

I am available to teach Bambara lessons on Skype. I've studied in Mali and speak Bambara well. I can help clarify things found in that Peace Corps book, and I'm good at explaining grammar. Anyone who's interested, just send me a message any time.

[rachelnguyen]

Wow, what a nice offer!

[8aardav8]

I got a message from bubudi that I should use the forum rather than skype. That's fine. I plan to post on this forum and answer questions, but I was talking about actual Bambara lessons over skype. For specific questions, lets use the forum, for sure.