Bà

Méníshè

Etymology

From Proto-Méníshè *pan.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ba˩/

Postposition

bà

1. about, regarding, concerning
2. with respect to
3. for (when used for topicalization)

   Sé t'akálà bà jùrìmé kat'énjì t'amwè.

   Perhaps it is time for some new leadership.

   -General Sharma (Motherland: Fort Salem)

Creation and Usage Notes

It's such a little word, but the experience of creating bà was a moment of beauty for me. We needed to translate General Sharma's line above ("Perhaps it is time for some new leadership"), which seems simple enough, right? But when you break it down and think about what meaning is provided by each phrase, it's actually quite complex to translate. As we tackled potential translations, one of the things we focused on was how to express the meaning of the phrase "for some new leadership," and our discussions led to bà, a postposition originating from the verbal root *pan (meaning "to think about, to consider"). In a more literal translation of the Méníshè line, Sharma is saying something like "Considering a new leader" or "In thinking about a new leader," which I still find very linguistically elegant. -Jessie Sams 12:12, 2 April 2020 (PDT)