Are you a Sierra Leonean, a Liberian or a foreigner based in Sierra Leone or Liberia who struggles to speak Mende, one of West Africa's indigenous languages, mostly-spoken in Sierra Leone?
Are you a Mende person who cannot speak Mende properly, or cannot speak it at all?
Or, maybe, you are someone who simply wants to learn a new language? Or planning to visit any of the Mende lands?
Sɛnɛ o! Hi, I am Sheku :)
Learn MƐNDE Grammar is a free platform dedicated to helping you speak, read and write the Mende language spoken mainly in Sierra Leone and also in Liberia.
Here, I make Mende easier and fun to learn. I provide you useful lessons on different aspects of the language which will help you speak, read and write it. And I also tell you about the beautiful cultural heritage of the Mende people. And just anything related to Mende.
The lessons are mainly through English. So this even makes it easier for English speakers.
Hi, M. James! Thank you so much for your kindness. I would appreciate it a lot. I'm sorry for late reply to your message. Was having some technical challenges. Kindly reach out via this email: learnmendegrammar0@gmail.com
Thank you so so much for this… I’ve been learning Mende little by little from my parents and family. I always make it my mission to always stay in BO where I’ll force my family to only speak Mende to me as I already learnt to speak Krio
Welcome to the platform. I'm glad you find it helpful. Kindly share it with others. And reach out via learnmendegrammar0@gmail.com for more details on personal lessons.
Abu a waloh, literally means Abu he will come. The use of "a", which is a third person subject pronoun for simple present and simple future tense regardless of gender, should only be used for singular third person statements. If for example you want to say "they hyenas will come", you will say "Sulugbuisia / sugbuisia ta waloh". Ta means they.
Hello, Sir... What about the pronouns. I believe that you have to include the subject pronoun sets that go with various different time tenses, aspects (such as perfect and continuous) of Mende. That is one of most difficult and peculiar things with regards to Mende. There are different subject pronouns sets that are used for different tenses, moods, and aspects. This is one of the most difficult things of Mende.
You're right. We shall be dealing with all of that. And this particular one requires a special lesson video or series on it. We will touch on all. Thanks for the contribution!
Yes, it is called like that also. Most common way it's called is "Jaa" Many people also use the word "koli" to refer to Lion. But it's arguably used for leopard or tiger.
I try to mix all; and ensure that the learner can, at the end, understand any Mende speaking person. And in doing so, the "Sewa Mende" version can do that better. But overall, we take from all at one point or the other, especially when we get to vocabulary lessons. Thanks for joining.
0:23 Brother, here the word should be "niggas" and not "n!ggers". As someone born in the United States, I understand many people from West Africa do not differentiate between the two words, (probably due to the accents, both forms of this word are pronounced almost exactly the same by west africans) but in the US and Western world, the -ER word is typically highly offensive, especially when used by people who are not black. Most black people do not say "n!gger", but "nigga". Hope this helps :)
New subscriber! I'm from Yorubaland but I found out recently that my great great great grandmother was mende! I'm now trying to learn the basics and now I want a mende name too.
Oh! That's great! Glad that you found out that you're partly a Mende. And it's really nice to understand the language; at least to a passable level that can enable you to communicate with the Mende people. For the name, you may want to suggest a meaning or connotation of the kind of name you would want. That would make me suggest an appropriate one for you. In the main time, (even though I don't know your gender yet), here are some popular Mende names for males: ➡Munda (our own) ➡Hindolo (boy child/ man child) ➡Hindowa (big man) ➡Kakpindi (literal meaning: Sir night (for a male born during the night hours ➡Moinina (New guy / New mori man) Thank you for joining the channel.
@@FreedomBiafra That's great! And in fact, there is a name the Mende people casually use, which is "Koigɔ" (or "Koigoh"). It literally means "Fight war" or "War Fighter" Few people even have it as surname
@@FreedomBiafra You're welcome. The "Koi" is pronounced similarly like the "Que" in the English word "Query" Kind of one syllable. Not two, as in "Ko- ye. 🙏
There are lots of them. ➡Munda (our own) ➡Hindolo (boy child/ man child) ➡Hindowa (big man) ➡Kakpindi (literal meaning: Sir night (for a male born during the night hours ➡Moinina (New guy / New mori man) Etc
That is because it is not in common use anymore. But I brought it up just for the awareness. The first part is the focus since that's what many use. And the aim is to help people communicate in the language. So we focus on what's more in use practically :)
Lol You may have a logical reason to say so. But actually the focus of the channel is to help people communicate with Mende speakers. And that's how the Mende people call the days of the week. And like I said in the video, they are influenced by Arabic. So I'm not teaching Arabic. I'm teaching what the Mende people speak
That's good, @ShaeLilly! Kindly check the answers here and match them: 1. Musa ii wai gboi. ✔️ 2. Mariam a waa sina. ✔️ 3. James wailɔ. ✔️ 4. David ɛ tɔ sina. ✔️ 3.➡️ When using the basic form of the past tense, one of these two must be present: "ii" and "lɔ" "ii" is used before the past tense verb if the sentence is negative "lɔ" is used after the past tense verb if the sentence is positive. (We don't use the past tense verb without one of these two, as you did in "James wai")😊 Therefore, "James came." should be "James wailɔ" (since the sentence is in the positive. 4.➡️ And "gboi" is "yesterday. While "sina" is tomorrow. So, we should have "David ɛ tɔ sina" (David will not see it tomorrow.
Ayyee! Bua! You're back! 💜 You're a great language teacher Sheku. I've been learning for a few months now and was sad when the videos stopped. Can't wait to keep learning 😊
Thank you! I traced my roots to the Mende of Sierra Leone. I would love to know more. Right now I want to how to say the word freedom in Mende. Can anyone help?
