Languages

[mmarlo 1]

Jacinta, who is a Meru, from Kenya:

Kimeru: mother tongue

Kiswahili/Sheng: fluent

(Kenyan) English: fluent

Kikuyu: fluent

Kichuka: understands, but does not speak

Kiembu: mostly understands, but does not speak

... and probably also some other languages/dialects related to her mother tongue (like Kitharaka) that she can understand but not speak

Me, an American, who happens to study African languages:

(midwestern American) English: mother tongue

French: college major (with linguistics), about 10 years of study, plus 10 months study abroad in France, but not fluent

Spanish: college minor, can sortof understand, but not speak well, getting worse

Kiswahili/Sheng: one year of study, plus 7 months in Kenya; I still suck at it

Kiluyia: have done research on about 10 of the 20 dialects can say things here and there but takes me waaay too long to put together sentences, and I don't understand it very well, but I know a lot about the structure of the language, and I've written some dictionaries

Kimeru: a few words, enough to impress the parents :-)

Bakweri/Mokpe (Cameroon): about 6 months of research, have written about the language, but I cannot speak it

Tigrinya (Eritrea, Ethiopia): about 4 months of research, but I don't remember much

[randolady 1]

Ombeni is Mmeru too! He knows Kimeru fluently, English fluently (for the most part), Swahili fluently, and a little bit of French.

I know English fluently, French pretty well (but I forgot it all once I learned Swahili), and Swahili decently enough to get by on my own.

I am amazed by people who learn so many languages in adulthood. It seems like I only have room for one extra language in my brain... as soon as I started to pick up Swahili, my French disappeared. I'm assuming French would come back quickly if I was immersed in the language, but then I'd probably forget Swahili.

[mmarlo 1]

Ombeni is Mmeru too!

Very cool. I think these are different ethnic groups that happen to have the same name, but it would be really interesting if they have a historical connection, and even more interesting (to me) whether there are similarities in the languages. My understanding, though, is that Tanzanian Kimeru is like Kichaga (it may be a dialect of Kichaga, I don't know) and not like Kikuyu, for example.

I'm heading to WI in two weeks for a job interview at Lawrence U. in Appleton. Are you anywhere near there? There's a chance that Jacinta and I will be staying there for at least one academic year beginning later this summer.

[mmarlo 1]

I am amazed by people who learn so many languages in adulthood. It seems like I only have room for one extra language in my brain... as soon as I started to pick up Swahili, my French disappeared. I'm assuming French would come back quickly if I was immersed in the language, but then I'd probably forget Swahili.

I know what you mean. I feel like I've lost French, until I hear a bunch of it, and then I start to tune back in. I've got a lot of languages listed there, but I pretty much suck at speaking all of them, but I know a lot about them, like a biologist might get to know a number of species well, but I have very little communicative ability in those languages.

[Queen Jenn 0]

Gbenga - Nigerian English (mother tongue)

Yoruba (fluent)

Igbo (understands and speaks a little)

Me - English (Utah dialect )

French (enough to get around)

TRYING TO LEARN YORUBA

[randolady 1]

I'm heading to WI in two weeks for a job interview at Lawrence U. in Appleton. Are you anywhere near there? There's a chance that Jacinta and I will be staying there for at least one academic year beginning later this summer.

I'm about two hours from Appleton. I just got off the phone with Ombeni and was trying to convince him that he *will* get homesick and it would really be good if we could find other East Africans in the area. Even if he isn't homesick, I think it would be really fun to get together.

[wasino 0]

My husband speaks English, Spanish, Dutch, Edo. He understands Yoruba and Ibo as well.

Me (the USC) speaks English, some Swahili, even less Spanish, even less Nyaturu, and about 5 words in Edo (which I really need to learn).

I have the same problem with multiple languages. When I was learning Swahili, it wiped out a lot of my Spanish. I remember being in Costa Rica, and any word I didn't know in Spanish I would substitute the Swahili word. I was confusing people...lol.

I'm losing my Swahili, which makes me so sad. I haven't been back to Tanzania in over 2 years, and most of my Swahili speaking friends here in the States have moved away...

[Ta Ta 1]

He English, Sierra Leone Krio and Mende.

Me fluent German, English, a pinch of french, some Krio.....want to

learn Mende.

Can you direct me to a good Mende book to learn the language ?

[mmarlo 1]

My husband speaks English, Spanish, Dutch, Edo. He understands Yoruba and Ibo as well.

Me (the USC) speaks English, some Swahili, even less Spanish, even less Nyaturu, and about 5 words in Edo (which I really need to learn).

I have the same problem with multiple languages. When I was learning Swahili, it wiped out a lot of my Spanish. I remember being in Costa Rica, and any word I didn't know in Spanish I would substitute the Swahili word. I was confusing people...lol.

I'm losing my Swahili, which makes me so sad. I haven't been back to Tanzania in over 2 years, and most of my Swahili speaking friends here in the States have moved away...

I've gotta know the story behind this. How do you know Nyaturu? Very cool. I've written a paper with some stuff from Kirimi. I've heard that Rimi is maybe a dialect of Nyaturu? I dunno.

I had the opposite problem for a while when trying to speak Swahili; when I was trying to speak Swahili and didn't know the word, the French word would come to mind, and it was very confusing! And a friend of mine who's lived for many years in Kenya has picked up a lot of Kenyanisms when speaking English always says "you know, the nini" (thing/what) or "sindiyo" (isn't it?, no?) when speaking to other Americans in the midwest. He gets a lot of funny looks.

[mmarlo 1]

He English, Sierra Leone Krio and Mende.

Me fluent German, English, a pinch of french, some Krio.....want to

learn Mende.

Can you direct me to a good Mende book to learn the language ?

The following website from UCLA has a really good database of materials for many different "less commonly taught" languages:

http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/index.aspx

You can click on Mende from the "Language" pull-down list, and find a number of materials, including some with recordings. I noticed that the US government produced a "Basic Course in Mende" in the 1960s with tapes, exercises, etc, that we used to use and maybe still use for training Foreign Service Offiicers to Liberia and Sierra Leone. I don't know how easy it will be to track down these materials, but they exist. If you live near a university, that's probably the easiest way to get one. Let me know if you want any more info!

[a&o 4]

I have been trying for a couple of years (ok, not trying: intending) to learn Hausa so that we can talk secretly in Santa Fe....

One good tip for people trying to practice the language or homesick for it: listen to African radio stations via streaming audio on the internet. We listen to JoyFM out of Accra every morning as we get ready for work. The Saturday morning (for us: afternoon in Accra) countdown of Ghanaian music hits is the best! You can access the stream with this url in iTunes or other player:

http://knet-str01-sf.k5online.com:8000/joyfm

I wish we could get Atlantis, too. That's a better station.

[mmarlo 1]

I have been trying for a couple of years (ok, not trying: intending) to learn Hausa so that we can talk secretly in Santa Fe....

There are a ton of materials for learning Hausa, see the link I posted above and select Hausa from the list of languages. Hausa is also frequently offered for study at universities with African Studies centers. Unfortunately, I don't think NMSU offers it.

Good luck! And thanks for the information on the radio stations.

[KoshkaMoshka 0]

I speak russian ,english and learning german

My husband english and also knows some spanish

[Ta Ta 1]

He English, Sierra Leone Krio and Mende.

Me fluent German, English, a pinch of french, some Krio.....want to

learn Mende.

Can you direct me to a good Mende book to learn the language ?

The following website from UCLA has a really good database of materials for many different "less commonly taught" languages:

http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/index.aspx

You can click on Mende from the "Language" pull-down list, and find a number of materials, including some with recordings. I noticed that the US government produced a "Basic Course in Mende" in the 1960s with tapes, exercises, etc, that we used to use and maybe still use for training Foreign Service Offiicers to Liberia and Sierra Leone. I don't know how easy it will be to track down these materials, but they exist. If you live near a university, that's probably the easiest way to get one. Let me know if you want any more info!

Thank you for that link ! It will keep me bussy for a while.

[akim oda 0]

my fiance speaks fluently, twi and english

only thing i'm fluent in is english:)

although, i took spanish in school, forgot a lot and in the past year i've been working with a lot of spanish speaking patients and have no choice but to speak it. I've now learned even more, then when I was in school. I can speak some french, i forgot most, of the french i knew, when I started speaking spanish again. I can say a few words in kreole, learned from an ex, who lives here, but is from haiti.

Also know a few words in twi, will be learning more as time goes by. I love to learn other languages, I find it a lot of fun. Although, I don't dedicate as much time to it, as I would like.

mmarlo, nice topic!