Village boy Impressions

Maa puusi wai meena ale ajam Buli karungku dewa la ale ngma nye ni tia. Ti daa nga ye wa ka se? Maa poli ayen ni meena yiri ale nyinyogsa. Jinla karungku alaa sai bunaansi. Karungku de po, taa zamsi ka Buli daa-meena wa ngai ate ti bag'a wi yaase ti bag'a ngmarisi a nyini J/Gy agaa paari L la gela.  Ti bi seba ayen wa-ngai ate mi nyiem a ngmarisi ti karungku po dela la ka ngaye ngata ayen ti pa piilim. Ti meena nyiem nye kukeri ate ti va wei ngade zuk a poli wei nga chaab nyoro. Dila ale ti zamsika a zuag a nyoro. Maa puusi. [ Greetings and welcome to all of you that come here regularly to learn the Buli Language. How are you all? I hope everyone is doing well. Today's lesson is the fourth in the series. In this lesson, we are going to learn a couple of common words in Buli from the alphabet J/Gy to L.  Let me reiterate that the words listed here are only a few and they are intended to whet your appetite. It will be very helpful to you to think up more words under each alph

Ni ngaangaa! Maa puusi waa-meena ale a jam Buli biika zamsika dewa jigni la, alaa nye ni meena tia. Jinla taa yaali ayen ti zamsi ka Buli daa-meena wa ngaai te ti baga a ngmarisi a nyini 'E' ta ga pari 'H' la gela. Ase ti daam le nye dii la, ti le piilim ale ka Baba Ak röger Buli wei wiik sinsanga: Fi dan kan mai karim karungkui ale sai buyewa la, va vuukude ate fi karim ku. Piilimka karungku me bo dela   [ Dear readers, you're once again welcome to the Buli Language Series, Today, we are learning a few common words from the alphabets E - H.  If you have not read lesson 2; alphabets A-D, follow this link . The Introductory lesson may also be accessed here . As usual we begin with Dr. Franz Kröger's pronunciation guide: ] a  [a] ga  (to go)   aa  [a:]  maari  (to help) e  [e, e]  metik  (thin)   ee  or  ie  [e:, ie:, je:]  meena, miena  (all) i  [i, W]  poli  (to think)       ii  [i:]  biik  (child) o  [o, B]  pok  (wife)       oo  [o:, B:]  boosuk  (grave) u  [u

Mother Africa, beloved mother  How glorious in bloom you lie,  Beaming in the early morning dew.  Silent, peaceful, enduring, content.  Though some have named you dark,  Ever brightly your dark skin glows!  To others exotic, distant, remote.  Yet to us, there is no place more home  Many have called you wild and untamed.  Yet none is more accommodating.   Quietly you birthed and nurtured a humanity   That turns round to call you ‘discovered’.   Ever your charm, grandeur and enigma.   Are these the joys of your motherhood?  Have You Read:  Village Boy Impressions - Topsy-turvy? From the chalky desert of Egypt, so ancient,   To the frozen peak of Kilimanjaro, so majestic.   From the simmering Nyiragongo, so feisty,    To the Devil’s pool of stupendous Victoria  Rightly did the enchanted Livingstone speak;  You "must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight".  From the colourful salts of the Danakil,  To the Table mountains of Cape Good Hope.  The vast plains, moors and fer

What agony to listen to the news in Ghana  What torment to hear the uneducated literates babble!  Televised news turns food into ash in my mouth.  Prejudiced narratives that only show the north,  As a people most incomprehensible; Skeletal mothers with drooping dry breasts,  Babies strapped with tattered rags to aching backs,  The distended bellies of bony orphans,  The starved faces of scruffy toddlers,  Desperate youth trooping out to survive,  People slaughtered  in senseless wars,  Forests razed to the ground, Poverty, hunger, disease, death.  So has the West defined and cursed Africa: One country, one people, one story And so we do to ourselves now. Have you Read:  Village Boy Impressions - The Joys of Mother Africa   Ghana, are you so gullible? To be so bogged down With such naivety,   Such thoughtless generalizations , Such vulgar labelling, Such single stories; That the whole north is but a village, Is too hot and far away, That ‘northerner’ must be a tribe, Unable to speak for

If you like reading the dictionary, you'd love this aspect of our lesson, but I am sure that even those who don't would still find it useful. It is interesting to read the Buli words and look at the English equivalents. The words presented here are by no means exhaustive, they're only a small sample to whet your appetite. Some of the words are also quite stimulating to the imagination. As for the sound, it is so satisfying.  I am confident you would be entertained and sure that you can add to them and enlarge your Buli vocabulary way beyond what is presented here. Happy reading.  A reader has alerted me that I didn't indicate the vowels when I presented the Buli alphabet. So here they are:                                        a     e     i    o     u  Dr Franz Kröger, the renowned anthropologist and chronicler of all things Bulsa, who is apparently as excited about the Buli Language series as I am myself, sent me a very important document; a few rules of pronunciation

Buli is the language of the Bulsa ethnic group in the Upper East and North East regions of Ghana. The name Bulsa is also spelt in official documents and elsewhere as Builsa but this author and many others believe that spelling to be quite incorrect.    With regards to this series, let me say from the outset that I am not a language expert. This series is not a study of the origin of the language or its syntax or any of all those things that help people to learn a language in detail. In effect, therefore, considering my lack of training in language or linguistics, this endeavour may be described as a headstrong attempt (in the Buli Language;  zupagruk tuima) .    My  zupagruk , however, comes from the motivation that it can be the force that would propel the more qualified ones to come out with the best material that can help us read and write Buli well. This is, therefore, more of a kindergarten introduction to the language.   If you have no background in the language, it may n