Loving the Language

It's been a delight to see my children dive into language.  Acacia has always been miles ahead of us as she diligently studied Arabic (both a true form and it's local dirivitive) .  This week, Liana, Gaby and I got to give it a try.

Bethany arranged for a language helper to teach two lessons a day, one for her and Acacia, and one for me and the younger kids.  I wasn't sure how Gaby and Liana would feel about it, but our trips into town this week have been fun.  Alex works at his brother's shop and we meet him there.  He, as well as the women running a little tea shop in the front porch, and those sitting around listening to the radio all have words to share with us.  So far we've worked on the greetings and then moved on to the fun question: De shinuu? (What's that?).  Gaby has run with this question.  He sits in the shop and points and everything, saying "De shinuu?"  He is gaining words for a lot of objects.  Liana had us stop by the market on the way so we could buy produce and ask their names.

I'm loving Juba Arabic.  Basically, it is Arabic, but SIMPLIFIED.  Juba Arabic doesn't worry about the "to be" verb, it doesn't worry about verb forms, and it has the basic sentence stucture we use in English.  Juba Arabic is raw, a bit like the way a young child would speak a language.  I'm up for that.

Arabic WAS the official trade language here.  Now that South Sudan is it's own country, the education is now in English.  The next generation of children will be speaking their tribal language and English. For now, though, many people still speak Arabic and it is a helpful language to get around in.

Once I get a basic hold of Juba Arabic, I'd like to learn Moru, the local language in Mundri.  It is a tonal language meaning that there can be many similiar words, but the pitch changes the meaning.  Also,  the sentence structure is not intuitive for English speakers. It will be a joy to understand and be understood, though.

In the meantime, off we go to Alex's brother's shop to learn more, maybe stopping at the Ugandan restaurant on the way home for a soda and snack to encourage us on.