# Impé, impé ! [un peu, un peu]



## bababardwan

A colonel in a tribal war in West Africa is asking a witchdoctor if he has any charms against bullets and the witchdoctor replies that it's one of his special talents, to which the colonel replies "Impé, impé !" 

The only meaning I can find for impé is raincoat, so I'm not sure if the word is being used here to kind of mean shield [from bullets], but it's used more like an exclamation, so I'm not sure if it's being used more like awesome, or impressive or something along those lines.


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## johngiovanni

If it does mean raincoat, perhaps the colonel is thinking / joking that one of the witchdoctor's other special talents is rainmaking!


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## petit1

Doesn't the colonel say "_impec, impec_" instead?
That means "_*impeccable*_" = *perfect*
By the way, did you read or hear it?
"Imp*é*" has never been short for "imperméable". It would be "imper" (pronounced like "un père") but meaningless, here.


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## johngiovanni

Quote: "By the way, did you read or hear it?"

That's a good question!  I was wondering if the colonel was saying "Impie! Impie!"


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## bababardwan

Thanks all

impec definitely makes a lot of sense. I read it and it's definitely written Impé, impé ! but maybe that's a typo, or maybe it's some local corruption of impec in West Africa

Ok, I see. When I entered impé in wordreference french english dictionary :

http://www.wordreference.com/fren/Impé

....it came up with raincoat for imperméable, but I see you are right that it was giving that as the definition for imper. I guess because it gave that result I assumed it must have been some equivalent. I'm not sure how these things work when a search gives such a result, what it implies exactly.


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## petit1

About *Johngiovanni*'s idea of "_impie, impie_", from what you have read, do you think that the colonel had the same reaction as a missionary would perhaps have? How did he react after he said so?
If he seems interested, though perhaps in a mocking way, in the witchdoctor's talents, I think that he would not blame the man.

Something I forgot to ask and which might help us guess: *When* does the story take place?
(Time ago, people didn't say "impec." nor "imper".)


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## bababardwan

petit1 said:


> About *Johngiovanni*'s idea of "_impie, impie_", from what you have read, do you think that the colonel had the same reaction as a missionary would perhaps have? How did he react after he said so?
> If he seems interested, though perhaps in a mocking way, in the witchdoctor's talents, I think that he would not blame the man.
> 
> Something I forgot to ask and which might help us guess: *When* does the story take place?
> (Time ago, people didn't say "impec." nor "imper".)




No, I don't think impie fits. The colonel wore lucky charms himself and was looking for protection as there was a tribal war going on [ set in Liberia during civil war there in the 90's ], so once the witchdoctor [who had initially been taken prisoner ] stated his talents the colonel welcomed him with open arms and gave him priviledges.


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## petit1

Then "impec" would fit.


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## Lune bleue

Hello,

"Impec" seems to fit with the sense, but are you sure that you're looking for a French word? Liberians usually speak English. Maybe it comes from an African dialect.


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## bababardwan

Lune bleue said:


> Hello,
> 
> "Impec" seems to fit with the sense, but are you sure that you're looking for a French word? Liberians usually speak English. Maybe it comes from an African dialect.



No, I can't be sure I'm looking for a French word. The novel is written in French, starts out in Côte d'Ivoire where the protagonist and narrator come from, written from the perspective of a child soldier who gives a definition for any larger word or slang or words more unique to West African French, so I don't know how this one escaped the included definitions. If I use google translate for detecting language it detects it as French though doesn't give a satisfactory definition for it. General googling doesn't come up with much, so I can't find it under another language, but it's a good question. I think there was one example of Latin being used earlier in the book, but other than that it's all been French. I don't think Latin uses accent marks either. I'm also thinking that West African native languages probably don't use accents though I'd be happily corrected in both these presumptions. But a local dialect of French would be very likely I think.


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## bababardwan

ps, there are also a few terms of pidgin English from Liberia, but they too are pointed out and explained in the book, and again, I don't know that English or pidgin would have an accent mark


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## zwim

IMPÉ [���] adv., n.m (fr. \ un peu) : Sou, argent.
Êské tu a impé ? Est-ce que tu as un peu d’argent sur toi ?
Impéist : [������] n.m (fr. \ un peu-iste) : Argenté.

C'est un mot en *nouchi*, l'argot ivorien.
Je suppose que la traduction dans la phrase serait: "Combien, combien !" (ça coute) ou alors "Des sous, des sous !" (demandant à son entourage).


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## bababardwan

wow, that's awesome , thanks zwim. Did you just know that? If not, do you mind my asking how you found it? I found a nouchi online dictionary here:

http://www.nouchi.com/dico.html

but it doesn't seem to have it.


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## bababardwan

ps 
Here's the section impé was in the novel:

"
Le colonel Papa le bon fut très heureux de rencontrer Yacouba, très heureux

  d’avoir un grigriman, un bon grigriman musulman.



  « Quelle sorte de grigris ? lui demanda le colonel Papa le bon.



  - De toute sorte d’usages, lui répondit Yacouba.



  - Des grigris contre les balles aussi ?



  - Je suis fortiche dans la protection contre les balles. C’est pourquoi je suis venu

  au Liberia. Au Liberia où il y a la guerre tribale, où partout se promènent des balles qui

  tuent sans crier gare.



  - Impé, impé ! » S’écria le colonel Papa le bon.



  Il l’embrassa sur la bouche. Et il l’installa dans une maison réservée aux grands

  quelqu’un. Yacouba était un bienheureux. Ça avait tout et surtout ça mangeait comme

  quatre."


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## zwim

Well i guessed it was nouchi, then i digged a bit^H^H^H^H a lot on internet and found it.


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## petit1

Comme c'est une exclamation et non une question qui aurait pu vouloir dire: "_Combien ça va me coûter_?",  je continue à penser que c'est plutôt la retranscription presque phonétique de la manière dont l'homme prononce "impec". En Côte d'Ivoire le français est la langue  officielle. Il est donc normal que "impé" ne se trouve pas dans les définitions.  L'accent est là seulement pour que l'on n'entende pas "e". Il aurait pu dire "merveilleux" ou "formidable" mais il choisit un mot plus familier dont il ne prononce pas la terminaison. Ce n'est pas rare avec certains accents régionaux ou langues, le créole par exemple.


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## pointvirgule

I believe that zwim's _impé _was on the right track, although the meaning probably differs from "money" here. I did a bit of research, and found this definition in a document titled,_ Actes du Colloque « Ahmadou Kourouma, un écrivain total »_:


> - impé-impé (p.72) : déformation phonologique familière de la locution adverbiale « un peu » chez les francophones analphabètes et signifiant, en petite quantité ou contextuelle[1], faire une petite démonstration. [Source, p. 14 (PDF)]


[1] That is oddly phrased; it could be a typo. I believe the author meant to say, "contextuellement," "dans le contexte."

In light of this definition, I believe it would make sense for Colonel Papa le bon to enthousiastically exclaim,_ Impé impé !_ in the sense of _Montre un peu !_ (_Show me! Show me!_) when offered a talisman that protects against bullets. Hope this helps.


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## johngiovanni

It looks as though you've nailed it, pointvirgule!


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## bababardwan

petit1 said:


> Comme c'est une exclamation et non une question qui aurait pu vouloir dire: "_Combien ça va me coûter_?",  je continue à penser que c'est plutôt la retranscription presque phonétique de la manière dont l'homme prononce "impec". En Côte d'Ivoire le français est la langue  officielle. Il est donc normal que "impé" ne se trouve pas dans les définitions.  L'accent est là seulement pour que l'on n'entende pas "e". Il aurait pu dire "merveilleux" ou "formidable" mais il choisit un mot plus familier dont il ne prononce pas la terminaison. Ce n'est pas rare avec certains accents régionaux ou langues, le créole par exemple.



..this book is a bit unusual in that it does include giving definitions for some standard French words if they are judged to be big words [as judged by the child narrator], as well as giving definitions for slang words etc. 

" L'accent est là seulement pour que l'on n'entende pas "e"." ...forgive me, I'm a novice at French, but can I just confirm this. Are you saying that an accent on the final e makes it silent? I thought it was the other way around. I though such an accent would make the e pronounced.


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## bababardwan

pointvirgule said:


> I believe that zwim's _impé _was on the right track, although the meaning probably differs from "money" here. I did a bit of research, and found this definition in a document titled,_ Actes du Colloque « Ahmadou Kourouma, un écrivain total »_:
> 
> [1] That is oddly phrased; it could be a typo. I believe the author meant to say, "contextuellement," "dans le contexte."
> 
> In light of this definition, I believe it would make sense for Colonel Papa le bon to enthousiastically exclaim,_ Impé impé !_ in the sense of _Montre un peu !_ (_Show me! Show me!_) when offered a talisman that protects against bullets. Hope this helps.




Awesome pointvirgule, yes, looks like you've nailed the 2 definitions used in this particular case as that's the author alright. I'm wondering whether you've chosen the right definition to apply to this context though. Although what you are saying makes sense, the witchdoctor doesn't go on to make any demonstration , so I'm wondering if it is not the second definition of "show me, show me", but rather, my take on it would be that it was in response to the witchdoctors comment just prior to this that there "où partout se promènent des balles qui tuent sans crier gare"....in response to partout, he's saying an understated a little, a little. And he's enthusiasm is that he now his a solution to this little problem. But you may well be right. Thoughts?


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## bababardwan

I'm curious. I was the original poster who asked the question in this thread. I titled the thread "Impé, impé!". Pointvirgule has correctly pointed out that this means "un peu, un peu". Subsequent to this I note that "[un peu, un peu]" has been added to the title, which is helpful. So I'm curious as to who modified the title to add "[un peu, un peu]"? Can anyone do this? Could I have done this? Or does it have to be a moderator? If I could have done this, how is it done?


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## pointvirgule

By the way – why didn't I think of that first? – I looked for the English version of the book. The translation goes,


> 'Excellent! Excellent!' roared Colonel Papa le Bon. (page 67)


Oh well. Did the translator know something we don't, or did he just put that there because it fit?
Perhaps _impé _is used over there to mean just anything?

Edit – corrected typo.


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## bababardwan

pointvirgule said:


> By the way – why didn't I think of that first? – I looked for the English version of the book. The translation goes,
> 
> Oh well. Did the translator knew something we don't, or did he just put that there because it fit?
> Perhaps _impé _is used over there to mean just anything?




I did look for a digital English version. Thanks for your link, but I had come across that before in my searches and it's still showing "Aucun livre numérique disponible". I'm in Australia and I've found a lot of these ebooks aren't available here. 

Ok, thanks for letting me know what the translator had it as. Yes, I wonder if he knew something we haven't here. That would take us back to impec..maybe a corruption of that which would make the most sense. Your definition in the document about the author seems the most authoritative, though I've just noted that it gives the definition for "impé-impé" ...like a hyphenated single word, as opposed to Impé comma impé. I'm not sure how much difference that makes, but thought it worth pointing out, especially in light of the English version translation , and "excellent" does sit more comfortably than "a little"


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## pointvirgule

Google Books is a bitch about displaying book contents or not depending on the country you're in.

So, on one hand, we have the official translation. On the other hand, we have a definition proposed by native linguists. The search continues...


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## petit1

May I point out that I suggested that "impé" could be "impec"; which means "excellent" in my previous posts (3 -8 and 16)?


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## pointvirgule

petit1 said:


> May I say that "impé" could be "impec"; which means "excellent" in my previous posts?


Pour ma part, je n'en suis pas encore convaincu, sans plus de preuves. Mais il se peut que le traducteur l'ait compris de la même façon que vous.


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## wildan1

bababardwan said:


> I note that "[un peu, un peu]" has been added to the title, which is helpful. So I'm curious as to who modified the title to add "[un peu, un peu]"


With my moderator hat on, I have added the clarification to the title, babardwan. (And no, members may not edit their titles after a few seconds--just the time to correct a typo). We do frequently edit titles to make them conform to some of the WR dictionary's style preferences).

And now with my member hat back on, I can confirm that _un peu un peu_ is a common West African French colloquialism, literally translating the  Bambara language expression _"doni-doni"_. In my experience when I lived there, it often is used to mean _just a little, slowly_ or _gradually._


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## petit1

Je comprends bien ce que vous voulez dire mais comment "un peu un peu" peut-il s'insérer dans ce dialogue?


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## johngiovanni

I don't see "un peu un peu" in the OP or in the original text, so - forgive me, and just my humble opinion - I don't see a reason for changing the title of the thread.  This thread should still be open to all-comers as "Impé, impé", without "un peu, un peu".  Is it a clarification or an interpretation?


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