Ewe

15 December 2008

You go, sister!

The word for “to learn” is srõ
so, if I want to say I’m learning Éwé, I say:
me le éwé srõ

The word for teacher is nusrõla
broken down: nu = thing, srõ = learn/teacher, la = one who...
So teacher is : the one who teaches things

The word for spouse is srõ because in marriage, the spouses teach each other all the things about men and women


“yo” basically means “ok”
It is the response to everything:

woezoloo (welcome) .... yo!
avakaba (come back soon) .... yo
babaloo (sorry about that) ... yo
nezo (bon appetit) ... yo


My name is Éwé is Da Adzo – because I was born on a Monday (dzodagbe). Every child gets a weekday name. For children born on Mondays girls are called Adzo and boys are called Kodzo. (The former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was born on a Friday – Fidagbe – girls are called Afi and boys are called Kofi)
Dzo is also a verb meaning to go/to leave
a dzo can be the conjugated subject and verb: you go (a is the subject for second person singular)

Da means sister. It’s kind of an honorific along the lines of Miss or Madam

So, my name Da Adzo can roughly be translated as: You go, sister!!!