# Looking for Malian profanity (preferably not in French)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-malian-profanity-preferably-not-in-french/979648>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 12, 2023, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-malian-profanity-preferably-not-in-french/979648 "2023-02-12T05:08:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2023, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-malian-profanity-preferably-not-in-french/979648/1 "2023-02-12T05:08:56Z")

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As in, from Mali, the country. Population 24 million, [more than _13_ languages having some form of official status—out of _80_ spoken](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Mali)—aside from the official language, French.

For a creative project of mine, I’m looking for distinctly Malian profanity. Swear words and interjections. But _not_ in French, or even Arabic.

Trying to search Bambara and Tamasheq glossaries and language guides myself have been slow going, and not very fruitful.

So, I’m outsourcing the problem to people better in the know. What’s something you’d blurt out if you were from Mali, had a couple of broken ribs, and bumped your side into a wall, not in polite company?

The exact language out of the 13-80 noted above is up for grabs, luckily enough—the specifics of the work I’m tinkering with allow a lot of leeway to work with what’s available, or what sounds the best.

Can anyone help me out?

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**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2023, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-malian-profanity-preferably-not-in-french/979648/2 "2023-02-12T05:12:08Z")

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Did you try searching for _taboo words mali languages_?

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**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\
**Post date:** [February 12, 2023, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-malian-profanity-preferably-not-in-french/979648/3 "2023-02-12T12:43:53Z")

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I lived there for two years and am unaware of any. I didn’t speak Bambara or other local languages, but you almost always learn curse words in most any language if you’re around it long enough. The closest thing I heard to something like that was _tubab_ or _tubabu_, which is Bambara for “white person”.