- Symbols and Pronunciation
- Some Starter Nouns
- Some Starter Adjectives
- Adjective Placement
- Some Starter Verbs
- Gender
- Quantity
- Verbal Nouns
- Adjectival Nouns
- Articles
- Personal Pronouns
- Present Transitive and Intransitive
- Equatives
- Direct Object and Reflexive Pronouns
- Possessive Pronouns
- This, these, that, those
- Indefinite Pronouns 1
- Indefinite Pronouns 2
- Present Presentatives
- Question Markers 1
- Question Markers 2
- Relative Pronouns and Constructions
- Comparing Things
- [Noun] is [adjective]
- Location
- Past Tense Transitive
- Past Tense Intransitive
- Imperative
- To Have
- To Like
- If-Then Statements
- Present Progressive
- Perfect
- Future
- The Subjunctive Mood
- Turning a Statement Into a Question
- Declarative Statements
- Ka Review
- Prepositions
- OClock
- Introducing Yourself
- Song
- Interjections
- More Emphatics
- Want
- Modals 1
- -len, -nen, -nin
Lessons
Symbols and Pronunciation
- ɛ : Sounds like "eh" but with a little raise in the back of the tongue. It's almost half-way between the "eh" in "bet" and the "i" in "bit".
- ɔ : Like "aw" in English, but you make the "o" shape with your lips. It can also be thought of as the "o" sounds but you place the sound in the back of the mouth instead of the front.
- ɲ : A "ny" sound.
- ŋ : A "ng" sound. This one is hard to do for beginners. It will take practice.
- Forward accent marks: á, é, etc. : Raised tone. You should sound excited and higher pitched.
- Backward accent marks: à, è, etc. : Lowered tone. Make your voice a little deeper and sadder.
- Caron accent marks: ǎ, ě, etc. : A low-to-high inflection. Start somewhat deep and then go up.
- Note: Normal-written Bambara doesn't actually use accents-marks. These markers are just for didactic purposes. Bambara speakers naturally know where to put the tone just like English speakers know it's "wAter" and not "watEr".
- Double vowels: aa, ee, etc. : Same vowel, but just spoken twice as long.
- c : A "c" in Bambara is a "ch" or a "tch" sound in English.
- nw : Like a portuguese nasalized "u". Like a "u" and an "n" at the same time.
Keyboards
To get a Bambara virtual keyboard, you need to download it for free from keyman.com. Choose between the Burkina Faso keyboard and the Malian keyboard.
- Burkina Faso Keyboard Instructions:
- ɛ ⇒ ; + e
- ɔ ⇒ ; + o
- ɲ ⇒ , + n
- ŋ ⇒ ; + n
- á ⇒ a + /
- à ⇒ a + \
- ǎ ⇒ a + &
- â ⇒ a + ^
- Mali Keyboard Instructions:
- ɛ ⇒ ;
- ɔ ⇒ "
- ɲ ⇒ [
- ŋ ⇒ ]
- á ⇒ a + /
- à ⇒ a + \
- ǎ ⇒ a + &
- â ⇒ a + ^