Document Type
Interview
Publication Date
5-2-2008
Subjects
Endangered languages -- Sierra Leone, Sierra Leone -- Social life and customs, Kim language -- Sierra Leone
Disciplines
African Languages and Societies | Applied Linguistics
Abstract
Late morning to mid-afternoon: recording session in the Bundo house again, Taamuke: Mami Tɔka (Moiwo’s mother), Mama Ko (I thought her name was Maako; she’s Kɔna Lango Sɔndai’s daughter or niece), and Maama Kine were scheduled to record, but Mama Jilo and Kema Janga gathered, too. There was a nice feeling to the session, which ran long. The women are neighbors and know each other well. Mama Jilo remembered a song partway through the session and taught it to the others. Mami Tɔka seemed to me not to be a great speaker; she used simple and repetitive language, and wasn’t a very enganging speaker, from what I could tell—she didn’t seem to involve the others; wanted to tell her own point of view. But she was the person who most wanted to talk, so I let her. Mama Kine went last and told a dɔmi, ‘story,’ (‘folktale’?) that she was clearly translating from Mende to Kim. She said she wanted to tell it first in Mende so “the boys,” Atɔ Moiwo and Solomon Kine, “who don’t understand Kim,” would understand. It was a very lively telling, punctuated by chanting and singing, in which the other women all participated. Then she retold it, immediately, in Kim; she relapsed into Mende a little during the singing, but for the most part went through the whole story pretty fluidly. Then Mami Tɔka ended the session by leading another song.
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Location
Africa, Sierra Leone, Tamuke
Participants
Hannah Sarvasy (creator), Tucker Childs (contributor), Adama Mende (subject)
Languages
Kim, English
ISO 639
kia, eng
Bundle ID
080430_14
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/29938
Citation Details
Childs, George Tucker, "Adama Mende Family" (2008). The Kim and Bom Languages of Sierra Leone. 191.
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/29938