Saturday, July 24, 2010

Vocabulary primer: A little Maa, a little Swahili

We depart tomorrow! A friend, whose late husband was Maasai, gave me this vocabulary primer that may be helpful to us as we greet our hosts.

In Maa:
Greeting, as in "Hi, how's it going?": "Sopa!" (Soap-ah)
Response: "Sopa" or "Sopa oleng"
Thank you: "Ashe" (Ahsh-ey)
Thank you very much: "Ashe oleng"
Goodbye: "Ole Seri" (Oh-lay sayri).

In Swahili:
Thank you very much: "Jambo! Assante sana"
Goodbye: "Kwaheri"

We'll see if we can develop our understanding beyond this point as the next two weeks unfold!

Claudia Daggett

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