One thing you’d discover learning a new language is difficulty in saying the words correctly, the native speakers of that language will jeer you often, mock you saying that your communication skills are poor, you are just not pronouncing the words correctly, maybe your mother-tongue emphasized different parts of the vocal cords, French people speak more through the nostrils than through the voice box, other languages like Arabic stress the throat, which does most of the pronouncing , the first time I heard a Somali man speaking, I thought he was gaggling and was about to spit on me, so I moved aside, while a friend saw this and eased me down saying, “stay calm man they are just having a chat.”
Another feature is the tone and body language that accompanies the words, when you listen to certain people, from some tribes speak, you might think they are quarreling, they yell and throw hands at one another, making it look like they are about to get into a fight. “fool ya” this is simply the norm, like saying hello, good morning, I wondered if this this is how they speak in a normal conversation, how it’s like when someone is angry, I’d like to witness one incident of quarrel or argument.
Another factor is pacing of words, speed of intonation, the Numar tribesmen speak so fast that a person can easily utter three hundred and fifty words a minute, they are nomads, so they have a famous phrase that says, “throw in your words quickly before the maize seller deceives you,”
The Bakole on the other hand are very slow speakers, their neighbours the dwellers of the rainforests have most of their language depleted through isolation from the outside world, their vocabulary is so few that you can learn their entire language in a single week.
The Bakole are farmers who have long summers and short winters, they say we will wait for a hundred moons to pass before the rains come, they often speak calmly and slowly so as not to offend their guests, speaking with a loud voice and quickly is a sign of restlessness which is a vice in this part of the village.
In some other tribes, there is a lot of whistling and clicking, you would not say more than five words in a row without having to whistle or click.
There are some languages that are like tongue twisters when you hear them for the first time, it’s like when you are asking a child who is learning to speak to distinguish between kitchen and chicken, when you ask him to say one, he calls upon the other.
Some tribes they talk so fast, throwing their hands into the air, you can’t tell whether they are singing or talking, a Yankee was walking over there and watched them as they spoke, standing on the furthest corner of the beach, “obviously here on a vacation” he then turned to the guy standing beside him and said, “these rappers, they don’t know what they are saying.” and moved on with his surfboard firmly clenched under his armpit.
They churn in Three hundred and fifty words a minute, that’s the gentleman speaking only not to mention the….
Some languages are very beautiful, when you hear the natives speak you might think they are singing, some other languages are spoken with lots of enthusiasm and are accompanied by lots of nonverbal cues, tonal variations, alliterations, gestures etc., such that a first time listener might think there is a quarrel going on, and the speakers are about to fight.
Listening to these communities speak, so exciting even if you don’t understand their conversation, its sweet like music.
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