September 17, 2010
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Zoma
Lord, please preserve me from pride. Today just now Mme I. told me that she thinks i’m learning Malagasy very quickly. Haha. I’m trying not to let it go to my head. I reckon perhaps she just hasnt been around someone learning Malagasy before and therefore any speed would look impressive.
Whatever the case, i’m taking her compliment as encouragement to keep going because i feel a strong battle over this language learning every evening before a lesson. It’s really silly because i tell my son every day before he goes to school not to be upset about going to school because every day when he comes home he says he’s had a great day. Similarly, once the lesson begins i am so enthralled by the knowledge that learning a language brings, the doors to a culture are flung open wider when one learns the language, to be sure! Today i learned that while many words in Malagasy are similar or exactly like the french words for the same object, some words – especially those related to learning/education – are similar to English:
boky (pronounced [sort of] book-ee)
pensily (pencil-ee)
penina
It is this way because in the history of Madagascar the English were the ones to come first to teach. Moreover, as the first English Missionaries came they collaborated with the king of Madagascar to establish the alphabet or, in Malagasy, the Abidia (ah-bee-dee) – so called because their alphabet starts with A-B-D (ah, bee, dee), like we call it the “ABC’s”
I thought that delightful. Did you know that the Malagasy ABD’s only have 21 letters, missing the “C” [as you could have deducted], “Q”, “U”, “W”, “X”. My tutor told me that this was because the king, in his wisdom, decided with the English Missionary working with him to establish the ABD’s that there was already a letter that made the “s” sound and the “k” sound, which made the letter “C” redundant. (ha! doesnt it indeed!). Similarly with “Q” and, because in Malagasy “O” is pronounced “oo” [as in touque] there is no need for “U”, etc. Strangely (for me, probably because i havent learned much about that part of the history yet) the Ny andro amin’ ny herinandro (days of the week) are derived from Arabic. huh!
I also find it amusing that where Judah learned French from his nanny, Asher will definitely speak Malagasy before French… maybe even before English! His vocabulary already includes the word for “let’s go” and “no” (which sounds a lot like the sounds we make to get our babies to sleep: ‘ah-ah-ah’). Josh made a crack at the dinner table that Asher is ahead of me in Malagasy already. ha.
Today i learned, “Inona no dikan ‘ny “mangue” amin’ ny malagasy?” (how do you say “mango” in Malgasy?) So, at lunch Asher and i were practicing our new vocabulary: Minana mangue, minana aourt, minana totenomby, misotroa rano. (chortle, chortle… i feel so clever! )
Yesterday, while out with one of my besties at the market, there was a man selling… (wait for it!) Mangoes!! Yeehaw!! SO STOKED about Mango season!! They’re a bit small but they taste so delish! The fruit of the gods, i tell you!! By the time my family gets here they’ll be way bigger and the litchis will also be out (hopefully). Woot, Woot!!
I took this photo for Thom. i reckon he’ll know why.
