I thought your question should have been: what is the diff
Dr. Jaiteh,

I thought your question should have been: what is the difference between Jaiteh and Jakiteh?  I wonder if your question was aroused by your intellectual curiosity or if it is simply the case of  a Jahanka trying to pull a fast one on a Fula.  Sanakuyaa aside, I will try to answer your question to the best of my ability.

As far as I know the correct pronunciation is Bal'ndeh and this is what I hear from pulaar speaking people.  I think the problem here is a euphonic one and I tend to think that the European ear did not pick up the consonant, 'n'.  Hence, the name became recorded as Baldeh in English or Baldé in French.  The pulaar language, you may note, has a lot of double consonants and this could be the case in this instance.

Other ethnic groups, especially the Mandinka, left out the 'l' and pronounced it as Bandeh.  This, it seems, became the mandakinized version of the name that is so common in the McCathy Island area.  For instance, the descendants of Musa Molloh Baldeh's family in the CRR are usually referred to as Bandeh, e.g Cherno Bande, Morro Bande, etc., although Musa Mollo himself was not a Bandeh but a Baln'deh.  The late Cherno Michael Baldeh (Economics lecturer at Saint Augustine's) made it a point to record his family name as Baldeh, although I hear his brother, Morro (of Jaliba fame), referred to as Bandeh by non-pulaar speakers.  In fact, most members of this Bandeh/Baldeh family (particularly those in Sankule Kunda and the environs) can barely speak a word in Fula and are more conversant in Mandinka, although they readily identify themselves as descendants of the Fula king, Musa Molloh Baldeh.

The same goes for names such as Suso/Cissoho or Sissoho, Jaiteh/Jakiteh, Trawally/Traoré. In my opinion our language differences have contributed to a large extent in the corruption or even total modification of certain words or names.  A case in point, Mandinkas say Yorro while for Fulas it is Yero.

If I may note, after decades of your interaction with both versions of Baln'deh it is interesting that you are just beginning to question the affinity between the different versions of the same name.

Momodu Baldeh.



----- Original Message ----
From: Y Jallow <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2008 8:08:27 PM
Subject: Re: Is it Baldeh or Bandeh?




Baldeh is a last name certainly. There might be 'Bandeh' as well, just because of the pronounciation difficulty. I am convinced that it should be Baldeh, which is the same as Bah. 



On the other hand, one cannot rule out that a surname 'Bandeh' might exist. 

A little observation: 

For e.g. 

Some non-Fulbe from my home village pronounce 'Baldeh' as 'Bandeh.' There are numerous alphabets that are in 'hal-pular' that I don't find in english and others. It might be the same for others as well. In a similar vein, arabic doesn't have 'p', instead they use 'f' for the work of the 'P'. 

The above is just my observation and not from any book . I will keep an eye to it, and probably further to ask my matrilineal uncles who are Baldeh by surnames. May be others might come to your aid as well if you state what led to your question. 

Baldeh-bolong!


YJ



> Date: Thu, 22 May 2008 17:35:11 -0400
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Is it Baldeh or Bandeh?
> To: [log in to unmask]
> 
> Probably both. I know people who have the last name Baldeh and others with the last name Bandeh. it could also be, that somehow along the line, one of these last names changed due to mispronunciation and just stuck. Or that they  just completely have nothing to do with each other.  i am not an expert on this, but that is my take, Hopefully the Baldeh's can shed some light on this
> Fatou
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Malanding Jaiteh <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Thu, 22 May 2008 11:59 am
> Subject: Is it Baldeh or Bandeh?
> 
> 
> Folks, 
> Is the surname Bandeh or Baldeh? Can anyone help? 
>  
> Malanding Jaiteh 
>  
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