Phrases
Jamsai gets its name from a common response to a greeting: Jam sai, or "peace only." A typical Jam sai greeting goes like this:
- A: Jam now (do you have peace in the morning?)
- B: Jam sai (peace only)
- A: Kanya now (do your people have peace in the morning?)
- B: Jam sai
- A: Taardé
The greeting then repeats, with B asking all the same questions of A. "Taardé" is the way of the question asker telling the askee that he's done with his inquiry.
A few other common phrases and words:
- E nam sayoba? (Do your people have peace?)
- Guinea nissama? (Did you sleep well?)
- Nya nyé (Eat!)
- Ejuko (Good)
- Ejila (Bad)
- ni inim (Bathe—literally to put water on oneself)
- Ewé (market)
- Yayerrem (I will be right back—literally "I am coming there")
- miten (friend. Can also mean boyfriend/girlfriend)
Read more about this topic: Jamsai Dogon
Famous quotes containing the word phrases:
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—Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880)
“For proverbs are the pith, the proprieties, the proofs, the purities, the elegancies, as the commonest so the commendablest phrases of a language. To use them is a grace, to understand them a good.”
—John Florio (c. 1553–1625)
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