Qalqalah قلقلة – Love and Prejudice: exerce Lexicon 2/4

Love and Prejudice: exerce Lexicon 2/4

This second release of “Love and Prejudice” is presented in the form of a glossary, the authors of this edition are Noah Allui Konan Léonce, Vir Andres Hera, Acauã El_Bandide Sereya, Mathilde Rance and MariaGiulia Serantoni.

Conceived on the occasion of the workshop “Amour, Préjugés et Enta Omri” [Love, Prejudice and Enta Omri] organized by Qalqalah قلقلة with the artist Mounira Al Solh, which took place on November 9-11 2020 at the masters exerce in Montpellier; it drew inspiration from another lexicon, published in the 3rd issue of NOA, a performative magazine that Mounira Al Solh co-founded. Titled On Words, Prejudice, Schizophrenia and Enta Omri, it gathered some forty contributors who shared a personal lexicon of words associated with prejudice or preference in multiple languages, accompanied by subjective definitions.

Our group worked in the Buffard Dance Studio at CCN [National Choregraphic Center] in Montpellier; we would call the result of this work “glossary” rather than lexicon, because it lists interpretations in French translated from each person’s mother tongue. Arthropod was our first word, proposed by Mathilde, the only native speaker of French among us. This word is neither a prejudice nor a word of affection, but the fact that it explicitly shows its etymological roots appealed to our sense as a metaphor of the parallelism of language: the idea that each word corresponds to an object and vice versa.

Through the collective translation of terms into French, we “cross” the exoskeleton of this arthropod that is language. While we communicate in a French pierced on both sides by various sounds and imaginaries rooted in multiple locations, we try to dissect and introduce new meanings into this “host” French language.

Four languages ”cross” French in this glossary: Baoulé, Nouchi, Italian, and Brazilian Portuguese. On this principle, each one in turn delivers words that have marked him-her, appealing to his-her memory and his-her experience. For example, the Italian word “culona” is a macho insult, but in a feminine context it can be liberating and invoke sorority. The same happens with the word “pessega”, used among LGBTQ communities in Brazil. Our glossary words’ meanings are in constant motion, including in their original geographical contexts: without seeking to dilute their depreciating charge, some contain nevertheless forms of attainment beyond binarity of genres. They are true “colpi al cuore.”

Convoluted, they seek social and political interstices to reappear in new forms, like the “sren-blés,” these entities to which we call upon in the Baoulé culture, sometimes charged with ancestral spirituality as well as with sexual desire. Finally, the set of meanings bring us to a sort of incantation created by the incomprehension of the terms, a sort of “xêro” which leaves room for a last word, the “iiiêêêiiii,” this spiritual and cosmic cry coming from Céara, which in its cunning onomatopoeia trajectory punctuates the space of language.

Two other Research Diaries from the “Amour, Préjugés et Enta Omri” [Love, Prejudice and Enta Omri] workshop are forthcoming on qalqalah.org, the first one is available here. Each one was composed by a group of participants of the exerce Master program. A conversation with Mounira Al Solh will soon be published on this website.

Arthropod

It is a class within the phylogenetic classification of living things which designates organisms with an external skeleton and articulated legs, this includes insects, (unfortunately not humans), centipedes, crayfish, shrimp, spiders.

Also, this scientific word was made to expressly define this type of creature, it includes in itself the etymological roots necessary to decipher its meaning: artro meaning articulated and pode meaning legs.
The sound is manifested in the bodies of these beings, their movements are living onomatopoeias, each part of their body has a particular sound and meaning.

Culona

It is an insult addressed to Italian women that means “you have a big butt”. The masculine equivalent, Culone, means “you are lucky”.

It is unacceptable that men continue to use derogatory terms to refer to women’s buttocks. Men also have Culoni! Men also have big buttocks.

Culone = to be lucky; culona = to have big buttocks.
It is written in the unconscious of the Italian language.
Sometimes Culona is used in northern Italy to say “lucky” even for a woman. Women friends among themselves can call themselves Culona, with humor and affection.

Pêssega

It’s a word with a circumflex accent on the first “e”, it is widely used by LGBTQ, it means to be stupid, hurt, misunderstood. It can also describe a seductive, almost feline female entity. “Geralda, don’t be pessega!”

Com acento circunflexo no primeiro e. è uma giria usada bastante pelas gays, que significa ser boba, lesada, desentendida. “Geralda, nao faz a pessega!”

‘Ndranghetista

‘Ndrangheta is a mafia organization from the Calabria region and the word has its etymological origin from the greek word “andragathía”, which means heroism and virtue.

It could also be derived from Andraghatos, an ancient Greek noun from Italy which described a courageous man. ‘Ndranghetista is an evolution of these terms, thus becoming a clearly pejorative qualifier, it designates a man not very virile, a dancer, a buffoon, who takes part in the dance of the tarantella.

N’edê kan o lê

Expression meaning “There is a little thing, a little problem” in Baoulé.

Colpo al cuore

A metaphor to describe when one falls in love, it is an intense feeling, something like a gunshot. Its use is not limited to the city of Bologna, even if it originates from there.

It describes falling in love, but it’s not love in general, it is the precise moment you fall in love, it’s a dramatic action that feels like death, it’s dangerous and dramatic. Sometimes, it can be fatal.

Sran-blé

Sran-blé is a Baoulé word, it is the representation of a ghost that can be male or female, invisible or absent at times, we invoke the Sran-blé in order to come to our aid.

The Sran-blé is also the metaphor of a living God invoked for strength and health. In the urban context of Abidjan, Sran-blé is a man or a woman who has many lovers. For some, it is a God and for others it is nothing.

Finally, Sran-blé can simply mean black man or black woman.

Gui gui

Pronounced JIJI. It means “for real”. It is possible to use it as a noun, adjective or as an adverb, in Nouchi, a sentence can consist of only one word, this word can express up to four different meanings. A guigui my leg hurts !! - My leg is seriously aching!

Xêro

An action and an affection. A kiss that you get everywhere. The word “xêro” is only used in northeastern Brazil. It is a kiss, a hug and an the smell of a perfume, altogether.

Uma acão e um afeto. Um beijo você ganha em todo lugar mas um xero (com ascento circunflexo no e) só ganha no nordeste do Brasil, quei é um beijo, um abraço e um cheiro juntos.

Andrà

Discovery of the truth, of something that was hidden. It’s an expression in Nouchi.
To be “andrà”, is to discover a truth which was hidden. “France is andrà from the coronavirus”, it means France knows coronavirus is dangerous, therefore is reacting by setting up lockdown.

Iêêêiiii

A cry, a hoot, a communication used in Ceará, in Brazil. It can be seen as something humorous because the word has an ability to turn everything into a joke. There are indications that the cry comes from the indigenous peoples of the Ceará region.

Um grito, uma vaia, uma comunicacao utilizada no Ceará. Pode ser vista como um fato humoristico da capacidade de transformar tudo em humor. Ha indicios de que o grito é oriundo de povos indigenas da regiao cearense.