Attention: one of our dear readers, a fluent speaker of the Benin Fon language, gives us a correction:
Love this. A fon ganji a means, “Did you wake up well.” Un yi wan nu way means “I receive your smell.” No worries though as your other readers probably won’t catch that! Always glad to correct you!😎
Thanks for the correction Jeff, now my whole life is a lie, but I digress.
Frankly, I haven’t been this confused since Marcus, my German teacher (Marcus Language Academy!), said the word “der Sonntagnachmittagsspaziergang.” This word is untranslatable for Americans because we never walk anywhere.
Today’s language tip is Lamnso, another Niger-Congo language. It is the language of the Nso people. Lam is language, Nso are the people
Asaka “What the news?”
Meo sa’ “No news” meaning “I am fine”.
Update: Our entire team has now arrived in the beautiful city of Bamenda, population over 600,000. My International Travel Map says of Bamenda (yes, I still use paper maps, what’s your point???):
(lightly edited)
“Bamenda is a popular, beautiful, resort town which has a variety of handicrafts. A few miles from here is a nice village called Bafut with a palace built in the early 20th century. In December a huge festival occurs where local Fon (chieftain) masks and costumes are displayed. Also, some people still walk around with flintlock rifles.”
I’m sure Mr./Miss International Map writer thinks the last sentence is noteworthy, but in Tennessee we just call that “muzzle-loader deer season.”
Somewhere in Africa,
M
Michael R Spradlin 