Rigoberto - Bocas Del Toro, Panama

Over the past few years, I’ve had the opportunity to get to know a number of members of the Guaymi (pron. ‘why-me’) indigenous culture. The Guaymi, also known as the Ngäbe (pron. ‘naw-bay’), are mainly concentrated in the Western Provinces of Panama and the Southern Part of Costa Rica. Their history is rich and dates back many centuries. Through all of my interactions with the Guaymi peoples, I have become deeply fascinated with both their culture and language. So much so, in fact, that I have learned to speak many basic words and phrases, which help me communicate and bond with members of the Guaymi.

The Guyami language, known as Ngäbere (pron. ‘naw-bay-ray’), is part of the Chibchan language family and is only spoken by roughly 250,000 people. Ngäbere sounds very different than any language I’ve ever heard and from my limited knowledge of it, seems to have a very basic grammatical structure. Also, from what I gather, the Ngäbere language does not have a written form — it is only meant to be spoken.

I thought it would be fun to document and share some of these Ngäbere words and phrases with the hopes of encouraging others to strike up a conversation with members of the Guaymi. In my experience, it is quite a bit of fun to say hello to a Guaymi stranger in their own dialect — you should see the look on their faces when they realize you’re speaking their language!

All the words and phrases below are spelled out as phonetically as possible. Some of them may not be perfect, but these words should be a good start if you want to learn some Ngäbere!

General Conversation

• Hello => ma bone-yo
• What is your name? => ma cone-yo
• I am John => ti go John
• It’s hot today => con gee-ray
• Good morning => yan-toro dega
• Good afternoon => yan-toro dere
• Good evening => yan-toro day-oo
• I’m going => te nigita
• I’m going to eat => te nigita muh-ruh-re
• I’m going to work => te nigita sire-vide
• Very good => borry-coyne
• Let’s go => buh-ron
• See you later => ah-toe-eye-ah hedd-a-way

Animals & Insects

• dog => nu-guro
• cat => min-gee
• chicken => kwee
• bird => nu-gwo
• crab => doo-day
• sand fly => nee-ba
• ant => nine-ya
• termite => co-may-hen
• mosquito => huh-ra
• big mosquito (or insect) => mung-wa

Plants

• banana => dig-ee-ma
• banana (small variety) => bu-ju-ru
• plantains => mu-ra-bun-ga

Home & Family

• mother => tee-may-yay
• father => tee-roon
• brother => tee-ed-eba
• sister => ting-why
• house => who
• my house => who-tee-may
• stove => nee-o-gwa
• food => muh-ruh

Nature

• ocean => mar-en-ee-a
• beach => oo-ma
• sun => hi-wanna
• moon => s-uh
• wind => mu-rie
• rain => niu

Other Words

• beautiful => bone-o-ray
• unattractive => ma-musa
• white person => merry g-inn-ee
• shoe => sab-da
• machete => nee-dra
• boat => ru
• sandal => cringu
• chubby person => bool-i-kree
• skinny person => bool-i-chee

Now you know some Ngäbere! Get out there and start making friends!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 13th, 2009 at 7:32 pm and is filed under Bocas Del Toro, Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.