1.1 EXCHANGING GREETINGS The word you will probably hear most as you begin to speak Lingala is mbote (m-BOH-teh), which means ‘hello’. It can be used at any time of day or night and is most properly followed by the person’s name, such as ‘Mbote Jenny’ or ‘Mbote Helena’, although it just as often stands alone as a greeting. Once you’ve mastered mbote, you can then move on to other parts of a standard greeting, such as asking how things are going or how the person is. The most common question to ask how things are is ‘Sango nini?’ (SANG-go NEE-nee). Sango means ‘news’ and nini means ‘what’. So you’re basically asking the equivalent of ‘what’s new?’ There are a few standard replies. The most common one is ‘Sango te’ (SANG-go teh). Again, sango means ‘news’. And te, as you will come to see, means ‘no’ (or a negative). So the reply is essentially ‘nothing new’ or ‘not much’. This is a good thing, not someone with a problem. Another common reply is ‘Sango malamu’ (SANG-go mah-LAH-moo). Malamu, meaning ‘good’, is a very common and useful Lingala word that you will encounter often. So, the reply is ‘news good’ or ‘things are good’. Once you’ve broken the ice with mbote, and maybe a sango or two, you might be asked how you are. Without getting into too much verb work too soon, this can be handled pretty easily if you know the Lingala forms for ‘you are’, which is ozali (oh-ZAH-lee), and ‘I am’, which is nazali (nah-ZAH-lee). Most commonly, you will be asked: ‘Ozali malamu?’ (oh-ZAH-lee mah-LAHmoo?), which means, ‘are you good?’ or ‘are you well?’ Provided you are, in fact, good and/or well, the reply is simply: ‘Nazali malamu’ (nah-ZAH-lee mah-LAH-moo), which means ‘I am good.’ If you are not good and/or well, you can be brave and say ‘Nazali malamu te’ (nah- ZAH-lee mah-LAH-moo teh), which means ‘I am not good’ (literally ‘I am good not’), but you can probably see that it will inevitably lead to a host of follow-on questions in Lingala about you being not good and/or well that you might not want to tackle yet. Probably best to stay positive at this point. Finally, it’s always polite to return the favour and ask how the other person is. You can, of course, ask ‘Ozali malamu?’ (oh-ZAH-lee mah-LAH-moo), which means, ‘are you good?’ or ‘are you well?’ But you can also streamline things and simply ask ‘Na yo?’ (nah yoh), which means ‘and you?’ or ‘Boni yo?’ (BOH-nee yoh), which means ‘how are you?’ You will probably hear ‘Nazali malamu’ (nah-ZAH-lee mah-LAH-moo) as a reply. GREETINGS Kinois typically use a standard set of questions and responses when meeting and greeting people: Mbote! – (m-BOH-teh) – Hello! Mbote na yo! – (m-BOH-teh nah yoh) – Hello to you! (when saying hello to just one person) Mbote na bino! – (m-BOH-teh nah BEE-noh) – Hello to you! (when saying hello to more than one person) Ozali malamu? – (oh-ZAH-lee mah-LAH-moo) – Are you well? Nazali malamu – (nah-ZAH-lee mah-LAH-moo) – I am well Sango nini? – (SANG-go NEE-nee) – What’s new? Sango te – (SANG-go teh) – Nothing new Sango malamu – (SANG-go mah-LAH-moo) – Things are good Na yo? – (nah yoh) – And you? Boni yo? – (BOH-nee yoh) – How are you? 1.2 INTRODUCING YOURSELF After the pleasantries are exchanged, you’ll often be asked about your name. Most commonly, you’ll hear ‘Kombo na yo?’ (KOM-boh nah yoh?) – which literally means ‘name have you?’ The appropriate response is ‘Kombo na ngai’ (KOM-boh na n-GUY) and then your name. So, the appropriate reply will be ‘Kombo na ngai Marge’ or ‘Kombo na ngai Ted Allen’. INTRODUCTIONS ‘Kombo’ is the key to speaking about names: Kombo na yo? – (KOM-boh nah yoh) – What is your name? Kombo na ngai … – (KOM-boh na n-GUY) and then your name – My name is … 1.3 BASIC PRONUNCIATION Lingala pronunciation is fairly straightforward and consistent. Although there tends to be a slight stress on the second syllable of verbs, there are no overly strong accents at the beginning or end of most words. But for the most part, it’s not necessary to worry too much about stressing or emphasising one part of a word or another. I’ve included stresses on the second syllables of a lot of words in the pronunciation examples because it can often be difficult to approach new and strange multi-syllable words, and because people starting out often tend to place too much stress at the beginning or end of words, which isn’t really appropriate for Lingala. Similarly, the vowel and consonant pronunciations also tend to be straightforward and consistent. Vowels are typically ‘short’: a – ‘ah’, as in ‘mama’ e – ‘eh’, as in ‘egg’ i – ‘ih’, as in ‘it’ o – ‘oh’, as in ‘boat’ u – ‘oo’, as in ‘chute’ And the consonants are typically ‘hard’: c – as in ‘cap’ g – as in ‘girl’ Double consonants – mb-, ng-, etc. – require a slightly more acquired touch. In each case, you’ll want to pronounce the first letter, but this needs to be done very quickly and softly. The second consonant is the dominant partner in the pair. It looks harder than it is. Have a few tries and listen to others and you’ll soon pick it up. NAME GAME 1 If you’re using this book, chances are you’re a mundele (mun-DEL-ee). And you and a collection of your ex-pat friends are mindele (min-DEL-ee), the plural form. Although different Kinois – and different Congolese – ascribe different meanings to the word, the term mundele generally refers to a person viewed as being foreign, white, and wealthier, better-educated, bettertravelled and having better chances in life than most Kinois. Obviously, depending on individual circumstances, this may or may not be the case. I’ve always been a bit intrigued by the term. I’ve had many discussions about it with Congolese friends and colleagues from a variety of backgrounds. Almost without exception, they maintain that mundele is neither pejorative nor racist. It’s a word that doesn’t really translate, they explain. Don’t be offended. But it still never fails to jar me a bit when I’m called one. And, despite the reassurances, it certainly sounds unpleasant and racist when someone spits the word out at you when you’ve done something that they don’t like. Still, I try to take my friends’ and colleagues’ explanations to heart and to learn embrace life as the mundele that I will apparently always be to most Kinois. It’s just the way it is. NAME GAME 2 In addition to mundele and mindele, there are also other terms to describe individual subsets of foreigners living in Kinshasa. Lebanese and Chinese expats are commonly referred to by their cultural group names – ‘Lebanois’ and ‘Chinois’. And Belgians are often referred to as les nokos (lay NO-kos) – or ‘the uncles’. A Kinois friend once explained the nokos-Belgian reference when I was asking about how modern Congolese view Belgians in light of the many of the brutal aspects of the colonial period. ‘We call them uncles because they are like family that you might not really care for that much, but who have always seemed to be around,’ he said with a wry smile. ‘Like it or not, we’re sort of attached to them. We’ll sometimes even root for them if they’re playing football on the television.’ 1.4 GETTING STARTED – The first verbs and words Now that you’ve mastered the pleasantries and have a sense of how to pronounce some of the words you’ll be encountering, it’s time to start looking at the basic building blocks necessary to actually start speaking Lingala. Unlike a lot of languages, Lingala uses a fairly simple and direct approach. The verbs are wonderfully regular, the conjugations approachable and the vocabulary often fairly predictable. And there are no articles – no ‘le’, ‘la’ and ‘les’ – to gum up sentences and frustrate speakers. To my ear, Lingala sentences often sound a bit like Russian ones: ‘I take car’ or ‘You eat meal now.’ 1.5 THE FIRST 10 VERBS You can go a long way in speaking Lingala simply by learning 10 of the most common (and in my experience, some of the most useful) verbs. Every Lingala verbs begins with ‘ko-’, which indicates that it’s the infinitive form. And almost every verb in Lingala ends with ‘-a’, which also indicates that it’s the infinitive form. This will probably look and seem a bit unsettling at first, since the beginning and end of all of the verbs will obviously be the same when you begin practicing. But you will soon come to appreciate this reassuring regularity when you start to conjugate, particularly with using the future and past tenses. SO, THE FIRST 10 LINGALA VERBS TO LEARN ARE: . kozala – (koh-ZAH-lah) – to be . kozala na – (koh-ZAH-lah nah) – to have . kolinga – (koh-LING-gah) – to want, to like . kosala – (koh-SAH-lah) – to work, to make . kosomba – (koh-SOM-bah) – to buy . kokanisa – (koh-kan-NEE-sah) – to think, to hope . koloba – (koh-LOH-bah) – to speak . koyeba – (koh-YEH-bah) – to know . kokoka – (koh-KOK-kah) – to be able to . kosengela – (koh-sen-GEH-lah) – to have You may find it helpful to look past the initial ‘ko-’ and to instead concentrate on the second syllable of each of the verbs (which will form the root, as you’ll see in a minute) and the rest of the verb as you start to become familiar with them. 1.6 THE FIRST 10 WORDS And just as with the verbs, knowing a few of the more commonly used words can get you a long way when you start speaking Lingala. Initial conversations often seem to revolve around work, family, what you’ve done, are doing or are going to do, or what you want. Accordingly, this list looks at some of those areas and introduces a few key words. So the 10 words you’ll want to know from the beginning are: mwasi – (MWAH-see) – wife/woman mobali – (moh-BAL-ee) – husband/man ndeko – (n-DEK-oh) – brother/sister ndako – (n-DAK-oh) – house mosala – (moh-SAH-lah) – work mbuma – (m-BOO-mah) – fruit ndunda – (n-DOON-dah) – vegetables mayi – (MY-ee) – water malamu – (mah-LAH-moo) – good mabe – (MAH-beh) – bad PLEASE AND THANK YOU Draw from it what you may, but there isn’t really a commonly used word for ‘please’ in Lingala. Happily, there is one for ‘thank you’, although the exact pronunciation and spelling seems to depend on who you ask. The word I’ve learned for ‘thank you’ is botondi (boh-TON-dee), although you’ll frequently see and hear it presented as natondi (nah-TON-dee) or natondi yo (nah-TON-dee yoh). Either variant seems to work. For ‘please’, the form is more closely aligned with the French ‘s’il vous plait’ – ‘if you please’. In Lingala it’s soki okosepela (SOH-kee oh-KOH-she-peh-lah) – soki (if) and okosepela (you will be content). I use it when it’s appropriate, but it’s not really that common. It’s actually a bit formal and most Kinois seem a bit bemused when they hear it. If you do get a reply, it will almost always include ‘nakosepela’, or ‘I will be content’.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 06:18:33 +0000
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