When villagers aren't talking in hybrid, and they're speaking French, you start noticing the peculiarities of their French. It's certainly not the Parisian French that we teach here in the USA. Rather, it's a mellowed-out African French full of quirks and amusing phrases. Here are some of them.
Bonsoir
In French French, bonjour (good day) is the standard hello. It can be used during any time of the day, even if it's not technically jour (day). In Togo, this is not the case. After noon, Togolese shift to bonsoir, or good evening. When you say bonjour to a Togolese after noon, they correct you by replying bonsoir, since it's evening at 1:00 P.M. Little kids pick up on this bonsoir frenzy so that they say it even when it's definitely not the soir. I heard a child say bonsoir as early as 7:00 in the morning.
My explanation for this insistent shift to bonsoir involves the nature of the villagers' mother language, Kabiye. In Kabiye, the greetings are 100% dependent on the time of day. Early in the morning, say 5:00 - 8:00 A.M., the greeting is nya na léo, which means "you and coming out [of your house]." Around noon, one says nya na ilum: "you and the sun." Finally, in the evening, one says nya n'dana (I forgot what that translates to). This being the case, it makes sense why French greetings are used in such a way so that each time of day has its own version of hello.
Ça va, non? / Comment?
The phrasing of "how's it going" is different in Togolese French. In French French, one asks comment ça va. In Togolese French, it's either "ça va, non?" or "comment?" Ça va, non? makes it seem like the asker is assuming that ça va (it goes) and just wants to make sure by asking. Comment just means "how," which is an amusingly brief way to ask how someone is doing. I became an avid user of comment. Time to adapt this in the USA: "How" can start meaning "how are you."
Et le voyage? Et la famille? Et le travail?
In Togo, ça va is followed by other inquiries. After asking how it's going, one asks about anything else there is to ask about. If somebody just got back from a trip, one inquires about the trip by asking et le voyage (and the voyage). The person's family (Et la famille?) and work (Et le travail?) are often asked about as well.
This is another quirk that can be explained by the nature of the mother language, Kabiye. In Kabiye, one asks "are you in good health?" with alafio-way, to which the response is alafia, "in good health." A Kabiye then asks about family, work, the voyage, etc. - are these things alafia also?
Voilà!
This is a phrase I heard a lot. We all sort of know what voilà means. It translates to "here it is" or "there it is" and is usually said when it, whatever it is, just recently came into view. For instance, say I'm searching for money in my pocket to pay for my ice cream cone. When I finally find the money, remove it from my pocket, and present it to the cashier, I say voilà.
In Togo, voilà is used in an abstract sense as well. When one is having trouble understanding what somebody is saying but then finally understands, that somebody says "voilà!" With my not-so-super-duper French, I tended to have trouble understanding, which is why I heard voilà so much.
Host mom: Blahoeponvwpau!
Me: Pardon?
Host mom: [speaking more slowly] *something coherent*
Me: Ohhhhhh!
Host mom: Voilà!
Bon
Bon means "good," like in good evening, bonsoir, and good travels, bon voyage. In Togo, bon is inserted into phrases as a sort of way to fill in pauses. "Qu'est-ce qu'on va faire?" "On va faire... Bon... On va faire ce qu'on peut." Translation: "What are we going to do?" We're going to do... Bon... We're going to do what we can."
Ou bien?
Ou means "or," and ou bien means something like "or even." It's tacked on at the end of a phrase of proposal. For example, "Would you like to interview some local healers today? We could go to their homesteads and see if they're around. Ou bien..."
Ou bien is sort of a question, inviting the listener to respond with any alternatives he or she might have in mind.
Il faut...
When you're telling somebody to do something in French, you have two options. You can use the imperative form of the verb and say "do this," or you can demand indirectly by saying, "Doing this is necessary." Thus, you can say regardez! (look!) or il faut regarder (it's necessary that you look).
I don't think I heard the imperative form (do this! look!) even one time while I was in Togo. Instead, I heard il faut this and il faut that. Y a les moustiques; il faut fermer la fenêtre! "There are mosquitoes; closing the window is necessary!" I love this indirect way of demanding. It's a little less like you're pointing your finger at someone and saying "Do this! Do that! I shouldn't have to ask you to do these things!"
J'arrive / Je viens
J'arrive translates to "I'm arriving," and je viens translates to "I'm coming." When you're impatiently waiting for somebody, so you call him up and say, "Dude, where are you," these are both phrases that you don't want to hear. If he says, "J'arrive," he could arrive in 5 minutes or in 5 hours. The meaning is seldom "I'm arriving now;" it's more like "I will arrive... eventually."
Je dis, hein...
This is my favorite of all the peculiarities of Togolese French, and it's another one that I heard all the time. It translates to "I'm saying..." Togolese use this phrase right before repeating something you didn't understand the first time.
"I'm going to the store." "Pardon?" "Je dis, hein... I'm going to the store."
With my less-than-stellar French, I said pardon many, many times, so I heard je dis, hein often. Hein translates to "huh" as in, "Cool, huh?" and is pronounced like a really, really nasally "uh." The reason why je dis, hein is my favorite Togolese French phrase is because it's absolutely hilarious, largely due to the nasally hein. I don't think I ever got through hearing this phrase with a straight face. This is probably a sign that I need to grow up. One day... maybe.
A view from the village of Kuwdé.
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