Fᴐᴐ! An Introduction to Bariba

My Bariba classmate and teacher

 

Since I already speak French fluently, I spend my 30 weekly hours of language class learning Bariba, the predominant language in northwestern Benin, which is where I will eventually live and work.

While all languages are difficult, there are a few aspects of Bariba that make it particularly challenging.

For instance...

• There are at least four different ways to say 'is'. The same is true for 'and'.

• There are a half dozen (or more!) 'wa's (or 'waa' or 'wã') and they all mean different things. The same is true for 'ma'.

• 'Wiru' means 'head', 'wĩru' means 'nose', and 'wiĩru' means 'neck'.

• Bariba scarcely exists as a written language and is usually not taught, so there are no reference materials (other than one created by the Peace Corps) and my teacher has never taught the language before. This also means there are no dictionaries.

• There seems to be no particular rule as to how to spell a verb in a given tense (past, future, past habit, etc.). Essentially, as far as our teacher knows, every verb is an irregular verb, meaning we just have to memorize half a dozen different spellings for each verb. Note that there are tenses that do not exist in English, such as a separate spelling for verbs in negative sentences (eg, "I do not like chicken").

• Since Bariba is not a written language, there is no fixed spelling. Our teacher will teach us a word as 'dwe' one day and the same word as 'due' the next day.

• There are sounds that do not exist in English and are hard for a Westerner to pronounce, such as 'kp' (sounds somewhat like a 'B' or 'P') and 'gb' (a special sort of 'B').

• With the exception of people, all plurals are irregular (as far as my teacher knows), meaning there is a different plural to memorize for every word.

• There is no simple translation of the words brother and sister. The terms are dependent on the gender of the person who has the siblings and the respective age (older or younger) of the siblings. Since I am a female, my older sister is called 'mᴐᴐ' (with accents on the vowels), my younger sister is called 'wᴐbu' (with an accent on the first vowel), and my brother is called 'sesu'. However, for my brother, since he is male, 'mᴐᴐ' is an older brother, 'wᴐbu' is a younger brother, and 'sesu' is for sisters.

And the crazy part? The Peace Corps Benin Language Director told us that all of the above is the easy part of learning this language. Apparently, the hard part is yet to come: it is a tonal language.