# nei ma



## Graham Butler

Quoted in a letter from a French soldier serving in Serbian Macedonia in 1916.  He is attempting to buy a sheep from a man whom he describes as a Turk. The man replies 'nei ma nei ma', which the soldier thinks means 'I have none'.
Is it indeed Turkish and is this the correct 
meaning?
Context 
"Alors voilà le Turc qui nous faisait tout un discours ... nei ma nei ma (ce qui veut dire; je n'en ai pas), et, nous  persuadés qu'il en était le contraire.


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## badgrammar

Sorry, but no way, that is definitely NOT Turkish.... Are you sure he is not mimicking the sound sheep make?


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## Graham Butler

Thanks, badgrammar.  Can anyone throw light on this?  The original is a private letter, not a work of fiction, so the author may not be referring to actual Turks when he says 'Turks' but to the Muslim inhabitants of Serbia.  I'm not sure what their ethnic origin would be.


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## Agnès E.

Mmm... in French, we imitate the sound of sheeps by _bêêêê_... which is rather far from _nei ma_.


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## SofiaB

serbian and other slav. there is not. Turk probably meant muslim, although there were Turks there also.


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## Graham Butler

Thank you Sofia.  I thought it must mean Muslim.  In connection with that, are you able to tell me where the  Muslim population of Serbia originated from?  Are they of Turkish origin?


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## estreshita

Graham Butler said:
			
		

> Quoted in a letter from a French soldier serving in Serbian Macedonia in 1916. He is attempting to buy a sheep from a man whom he describes as a Turk. The man replies 'nei ma nei ma', which the soldier thinks means 'I have none'.
> Is it indeed Turkish and is this the correct
> meaning?
> Context
> "Alors voilà le Turc qui nous faisait tout un discours ... nei ma nei ma (ce qui veut dire; je n'en ai pas), et, nous persuadés qu'il en était le contraire.


 
in norwegian nei må is : no.. must, but is not don't.. is only no..and must

=S


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## SofiaB

Turks, Albanians and Slavs.


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## Turuncan

We don't have such a phrase in Turkish as "Nei ma".


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## mansio

The Muslim communities of Macedonia spoke Macedonian with people from outside their community, so "nei ma" must be Slavic.


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## Graham Butler

Thanks to everyone.  It's clear that the expression is Slavic and that the French soldier was meaning 'muslim'.  It shows the unfortunate fate of those people during World War I, when the Turks were the enemy of France and England and the Bosnian and Serbian muslims were treated as if they too were enemies.  In this case the French are clearly stealing sheep from the local population, using the idea that are somehow 'Turkish' as an excuse.


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## se16teddy

I'm pretty sure 'nei ma' is a south Slav language, and that the soldiers translation is not far off the mark. 'Nie ma' is Polish for 'He hasn't (any)', and I guess Bulgarian, Macedonian or a neighbouring Slav language must be similar. I don't see why an ethnic Turk (or anyone else who might be described as a Turk) shouldn't speak a Slav language in that area.


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## tristero

It may be a bit late to chime in, and I don't know how likely a fit it is, but in Kurdish, which some "Turkish" (i.e., Ottoman) soldiers and others in the Balkans at the time must have spoken, "nema" means "none left", or "no more", equivalent to the Turkish "kalmadi".  How likely it was that the individual in question was a Kurd, I can't tell.

I'm also fairly sure that, in Bulgarian, and I think in the other South Slavic languages such as Serbo-Croatian and Macedonian, "nyama",a contraction of "ne ima", means "he doesn't have" or the like.


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## dusica

Yes,in Serbo-Croatian 'nei ma' could be 'nema' which means 'none left','there is none'.


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## übermönch

well, maybe it's just "monnaie" or "money"... you know - ma-nei-ma-nei-ma-nei.  "nema" also sounds plausible. If you read the nei with French pronounciation it sounds like ne.

EDIT: The thread somehow reminds me on Monty Python and the Holy Grail


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