Local language - useful words and phrases

Whilst the various tribal languages are used by many Gambians to converse between themselves, the official language and language taught in most schools is English, as The Gambia is a former British colony.

There are many tribes in The Gambia but the main ones are Mandinka, Wolof, Fula and Jola, each having its own language and traditions.

My husband speaks 4 of the local languages to varying degrees of fluency, but the main language spoken in our locality was Mandinka. I am useless when it comes to learning languages - it's just not one of my strong points - so I only managed to learn how to say 'hi' and 'how are you' and was then totally lost at the responses I received...

I have included a few useful words and phrases from the Mandinka language which I hope will prove useful to anyone visiting the gorgeous Gambia! I'm really not sure if the spellings are 100% accurate, but they should be pretty close!

Greetings & pleasantries:

I saama - good morning
Tiloo ye diyaa - good day to you
I nimbaara - you are well?
Salaam aleekum - peace be with you
A baraka - thank you
Tambi nan - come in

People related words:

dimbaayaa - family
baamaa - mother
faamaa - father
dindino - child
teerimaa - friend

These may find the following words useful in a hotel, for example if you need an extra pillow!

alimooroo - cupboard
daraboo - bed sheet
kamoo - toilet
kullaarano - pillow
laabuno - bedroom
mbajoo - blanket

The Gambia is a country where haggling is a must! You should never be afraid to haggle and never accept the first price offered. We went shopping for batik and tie-dyed fabric and discovered that the less touristy areas and individual street sellers offered much better deals than the more touristy batik factories. So a couple of useful words to remember when going shopping include:

daa feemaa - cheap
kodoo - money

Remember that most Gambians speak good English but it is always nice to try to communicate in the local language - it is fun, culturally satisfying and genuinely appreciated by the locals! I really need to learn to speak Mandinka as my in-laws do not speak English and although this might be a blessing in some respects (we've all heard the jokes about in-laws haven't we?!) I would really like to get to know them and especially find out about my mother-in-law who has had a vastly different life to my own.

I hope to add to this in the future as I learn more, but in the meantime, if anyone out there has any comments, additions or suggestions they would like to make, please feel free to contribute! I currently have no idea how to string a sentence together but hopefully that will change after my next visit!