A large part of my life here is learning the Jula language. Since I’m now getting into some fun (and funny) parts of the language, I thought that you may want to join me on my adventure. So I’ll post some interesting things I’ve learned in Jula today and some in the future as well. One thing to note (in case you want to try to pronounce anything I write) is that it is pronounced as it is written, much like Spanish. There are a few new letters, though. “ɛ” is pronounced like the “e” in “let” and “ɔ” is pronounced like the vowel in “dawn” (if you’re from the Midwest and make a distinction between the pronunciation of “Don” and “Dawn”). Here we go!
“Bɑɾɑndɑfɑɾɑ” is a banana peel. But “bɑɾɑndɑ” is banana and “fɑɾɑ” is a big rock, like what the wise man built his house on. I learned the word for banana peel while I was working on being able to tell the story of the wise and foolish builders, so found it quite funny. You had better say that he built his house on the “fɑɾɑ” instead of the “bɑɾɑndɑfɑɾɑ,” or it will be the foolish man instead and the house might slip off even without the rain! “Lɔɡɔkunjɑntɛmɛninkɔfɛ” – I think this is the longest word I’ve learned in Jula so far. It looks quite impressive. It means “the week before the week before last week,” which I think we could also express by saying “three weeks ago.” Here’s how you separate it out so it’s not so hard:
– Lɔɡɔkun – week (if you want to know, “lɔɡɔ” means “market” and “wood,” and “kun” means “head,” but that doesn’t come into play here. There are lots of homophones in Jula.)
– Tɛmɛ – pass/passed
– Kɔ – back (as in, “What’s on your back?”)
– Kɔfɛ – behind (as in, “Who’s standing behind you?”)
– Lɔɡɔkuntɛmɛnin – last week
– Lɔɡɔkunjɑntɛmɛnin – the week before that
– Lɔɡɔkunjɑntɛmɛninkɔfɛ – the week before that
– Got it? Good!
Alicia says
Hey Susie!
It’s been awhile, I know. I had a ton of fun reading this post just now and analyzing it with what I remember from all those linguistic classes of long ago.
Hope all is well and God blesses you greatly!
Alicia 🙂