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Janko
Gambia
1267 Posts |
 Posted - 19 Sep 2009 : 23:30:43
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KUMANDANG(O)
What is the meaning of KUNADANG?
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Clean your house before pointing a finger ... Never be moved by delirious Well-wishers in their ecstasy |
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Santanfara
3460 Posts |
Posted - 20 Sep 2009 : 11:26:57
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this is too deep Janko. i will think over this. |
Surah- Ar-Rum 30-22
"And among His signs is the creation of heavens and the earth, and the difference of your languages and colours. verily, in that are indeed signs for men of sound knowledge." Qu'ran
www.suntoumana.blogspot.com |
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MADIBA
United Kingdom
1275 Posts |
Posted - 20 Sep 2009 : 12:12:18
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Janko it means Commissioner. I think its a distortion of Commandant, which in colonial francophone meant the same, a kind of a local authority.
"The governor general was the head of a centralized administrative bureaucracy consisting of a lieutenant governor for each territory, the commandant of a cercle (a colonial administrative subdivision), and chiefs of subdivisions, cantons, and villages. The key figure in the system was the commandant in each cercle, who was almost always a European and who was closest to the indigenous population in his duties of collecting taxes, overseeing works projects, maintaining peace and security, and carrying out administrative decrees. Generally, the subdivisions subordinate to the commandant were manned by Africans. For these positions, the French relied to a great extent on the traditional hierarchy of chiefs or their sons. In keeping with their policy of direct, centralized rule, the French made it clear that these African chiefs exercised authority not by virtue of their traditional position but by virtue of their status as modern colonial administrators." Wikipedia
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madiss |
Edited by - MADIBA on 20 Sep 2009 12:27:29 |
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kayjatta
2978 Posts |
Posted - 21 Sep 2009 : 09:09:28
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I think you are absolutely right. Your theory makes a lot of sense. However, to add some further thought to the discussion , I would ask whether the word "kumandang(o)",which means 'Commissioner' could have been inspired (even contributorily) by the closely-sounding Mandingo word 'kumadang' or some other variation of the word, meaning 'all words are final'? The Commissioners who are the district administrators, also loosely function perhaps like Supreme Court judges in the British (the darn British again-they have conquered everywhere...  ) Indirect rule system of the colonial era. Most, if not all cases that the Chief's court could not resolve adequately may end up getting the involvement of the kumandango... |
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MADIBA
United Kingdom
1275 Posts |
Posted - 22 Sep 2009 : 12:19:11
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Kay,
The word kumandang cut across possibly all the local dialect. Take for instance, the elderly fulaman still calls the commissioner's office, GALLEH KUMANDANG. Which literally means the home of the commissioner. I think its one of those words that infiltrated the senegambian dialects. The word PANTALON, is used in many local langauges but its French. The French call a mud-house, une maison en banco. Banco sounds mandinka. |
madiss |
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kayjatta
2978 Posts |
Posted - 22 Sep 2009 : 12:29:56
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quote:
Originally posted by MADIBA
Kay,
The word kumandang cut across possibly all the local dialect. Take for instance, the elderly fulaman still calls the commissioner's office, GALLEH KUMANDANG. Which literally means the home of the commissioner. I think its one of those words that infiltrated the senegambian dialects. The word PANTALON, is used in many local langauges but its French. The French call a mud-house, une maison en banco. Banco sounds mandinka.
Good point Madiba! That absolutely makes sense...
Is there a Wollof word for Commissioner? |
Edited by - kayjatta on 22 Sep 2009 12:57:14 |
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MADIBA
United Kingdom
1275 Posts |
Posted - 22 Sep 2009 : 17:01:51
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Kay,
It could well be the same for Wollof, Kumandang. |
madiss |
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kayjatta
2978 Posts |
Posted - 23 Sep 2009 : 07:53:14
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quote:
Originally posted by MADIBA
Kay,
It could well be the same for Wollof, Kumandang.
If all the local languages have the same hybridized word (Kumandang)for "Commissioner", then it appears that the etymology (origin) of the word "Kumandang" extends beyond (outside) the local languages. Two things might be possible here:
1. The original word for kumandang could have been an outside dorminant language that came into contact with all the local languages at roughly the same time. This outside dorminant language could very well be English. Therefore, if this theory is correct, Madiba's contention that the word "kumandang(o)" is derived from the English word "commandant" may be correct.
However, this theory could be tested in other English colonies in West Africa to see if similar hybridization of the word "Commandant" or "Commissioner" existed.
2. Since "Commissioners" were largely provincial administrators and Mandingo (Mandinka) is the dorminant language in this provinces, the word "kumandang(o)" could as well been a hybridized Mandingo word either derived or not from English. From there on the word "kumandang" could then have spread into other ethnic languages. This, I must admit, is a highly speculative theory that could be flat wrong; but I do not want it to be misinterpreted along tribal sentiments. What I merely tried to illustrate here is that larger ethnic groups or dorminant languages tend to exercise a bigger influence on smaller ethnic and language groups than the other way round.
Hey I am neither a linguist nor a historian. So everything I have said here is at best a speculation, just for the fun of it. having said that, I will have more eligible ones like Janko, Madis, Kons, Santa, and others take over and shed more light on this important but difficult question...
Thank you guys... |
Edited by - kayjatta on 23 Sep 2009 07:56:25 |
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MADIBA
United Kingdom
1275 Posts |
Posted - 23 Sep 2009 : 13:43:44
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Kay,
I dnt know how it happened maybe KOnds can help, but the contemporary local languages in The Gambian have loads of french words in them. Still on the colonial administrators, apart from the KUMANDANG, commissioner, theres this word CHEFFO, which means district chief. The word CHEF originated from French for a colonial adminstrator responsible for a number of villages which make up a district. A district in colonial french is CANTON. Chef de canton means distrcit chief. The word CHEF for chief is as follows in local langauges i know,
CHEFFO, Mandinka, CHEF, Fula, CHEF,Wolof, maybe dalton knows it in Jola.
I think this link below could help elucidate things:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_West_Africa#Colonial_administration
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madiss |
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