I am a Polyglot

My friend e-mailed me yesterday to ask how 'my polyglot self was doing'. Being a lover of words, I instantly checked this one out in the dictionary:

Polyglot:

1. one who is polyglot
2. a book containing versions of the same text in several languages (especially : the Scriptures in several languages)
3. a mixture or confusion of languages or nomenclatures

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/polyglot

Though some days I wish (and aspire to one day reach again, in all my languages) that I was definition #2; but alas, most days I feel like I am closer to definition #3. In Québec while studying French, I occasionally felt like I was losing my English grammar - my English sentences were often inter-spersed with French words and grammatical structure. Well, again, I feel sometimes that I am losing language, but now a bit of French! A friend has told me each time you learn a language, you have to lose some of your others to make room . . . not sure what that means for me as I have now started (offically learning) learning my fifth! Yet, this makes sense as my German and sign language are fastly disappearing; though I do wish that I would lose more of what I am not using (the above two) and less of my English and French.

The professor of my linguistics course in Toronto spoke of some languages which add groupings of letters into words (in-fixes) to add-on to the meaning. He gave us an example of one word in Turkish (note each infix is a different colour, 'x' represents a letter I forget):

kanadaliastinilxxxlaedsunusx

Each infix added different nuances to the word: causative, interrogative, plural, past tense etc... Until this one word means: Are you (plural) from among us, those who were caused to become Canadians?

I remember thinking in class that was crazy huge and hoping that my language did not have such things to learn . . .

and . . .

you guessed it!! This week, I learned that Fulfulde has infixes!!! to add into verbs, changing how said action is done.

Though, thankfully, not as many, nor the capabilities of stringing this many together. There are 7 various infixes and not all can even be used together in one word. I am also, thankfully, having fun trying to mesh these into words to find the longest word (ie: the one with the most infixes) that I possibly can. Not sure my prof is having as much fun as I am, but he patiently corrects all my attempts! So far, I have been able to string together 3 and my current goal is to succeed with 4!

My infixes:

id: with someone

an: for someone, in the name of someone, to

in: cause someone to do said action (eg: to study = janngude, to teach = jannginude)

ir: with something or in a certain manner

odir: with each other

ow: to go somewhere to do said action

it: repeating of said action

My longest word so far, and thus shortest sentence, is:

Miden kaalodirowa Teppe. (We are going to Teppe in order to speak with each other.)

I will keep you posted if I ever succeed at 4 or more!

I have also learned the number system (counting) and money system this week. A somewhat perturbing and yet challenging occurence.

First off, the systems for counting numbers and counting money are completely different, yet slightly entwined. To top it off, both systems are majorly dependant on math skills!! (Not my strength - okay, I did okay in Grade 1 math, when all involved was 1 + 1 = 2 and 2 + 2 = 4).

The math here is slightly more complicated. When learning French, way back in high school, I remember being frustrated that language and math had to be mixed (eg: 99 is 4 x 20 + 19). Well, in comparison to Fulfulde, that is simple!

The counting numbering system goes as high as five and then starts adding and multiplying these numbers (though there are words for major dividing points: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 . . . up to 100; and then 1000, and 1,000,000).

The part I try to make fun, is trying different numbers (which I will never likely use) to try and make the longest speaking number I can. My current favourite is:

561,376

ujuere keme joy e ujunere laasoji e tati e go'o e keme tati e laasoji tati e sapo e jeego'o

= 5,000s x 5 500s and 5,000s x 3 20s and (5 + 1) and 1 and 3 500s and 3 20s + 10 and (5 + 1)

I have decided to make this the number of camels that I am worth, as it is sort of fun to say. (Though, can anyone working with the Fulani verify that this number is unachieveable before I get myself in trouble??!?)

The money counting system is even more complicated. Every number builds of the smallest denomination - the 5 franc coin. This is called buudu - pluralized, it is buudi. Each number amount is based on a multiple of this coin - using a few of the numbers from the counting system. Small amounts - fairly simple: 10 francs is 5 francs x 2 (buudi didi) and 25 francs is 5 francs x 5 (buudi joy).

It gets slightly more complicated with the larger numbers as you have to divide the amount by 5 and then determine by which of the larger above numbers (10, 100, 1000) or major money numbers (500, 5000) you are going to multiple the 5 franc coin.

Hence the math . . . and my sincerely confused brain!!

For example: 18,500 becomes

buudi ujunaji didi e buudi kemi jeedidi

Thankfully, the buudi (5 franc coin word does not need to be repeated for each multiplication phrase, as it is understood to be the base). So this spoken, is essentially:

5 francs x 2 thousands (=10,000) + 5 francs x 7 500s (=3,500).

Yes, my confuzzled polyglot self is definitely a: mixture or confusion of languages or nomenclatures!