Sleep Like a Log

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Josh calling from St. Paul, Minnesota.

Hi, Josh. Welcome to the program.

Hi, I had a question about the phrase, to sleep like a log.

Mm—

While I was doing some missionary work in Tanzania, I learned Swahili.

And it’s a very common phrase in Swahili, and it’s a very idiomatic use.

And they taught this phrase to me, and they said, you’re probably not going to understand what it means, but it’s to sleep like a log.

And the phrase is neelilala fo fo fo fo.

And they were thinking they were going to have to explain it to me, and I was like, no, we have that exact same phrase in English.

And they’re like, no, there’s no way that’s possible.

This is one of our phrases.

And so I was wondering if you guys knew the origin of that.

Oh, Joshua, I need to hear that again.

Yeah, what’s the Swahili?

The Swahili is neelilala fo fo fo fo.

Neelilala fo fo fo fo.

Yeah.

Wow.

I love that.

That’s melodic.

It’s musical.

It’s great.

It’s very melodic, and it’s definitely an idiom, and, you know, it’s really beautiful in their language, not so beautiful in English.

And I was wondering if those two correspond in any way.

Oh, my gosh. I just want to wake up tomorrow saying, Nili, la-la, foe, foe, foe.

So you were in—

It’s really fun to do that, yeah.

You were in Tanzania, and you learned Swahili as part of your work there as a missionary.

Are you still fluent?

Unfortunately, I’m not.

Right now I’m a seminary and graduate school student in St. Paul.

I was only in Tanzania for about four months, but it would probably be a lot easier for me to re-pick it back up.

Martha, am I right in remembering that Swahili and English aren’t the only languages where someone who sleeps well is compared to sleeping like a log?

Well, I know you do in Spanish.

What’s that?

You sleep like a tronco.

Like a trunk.

A trunk of a tree.

Yeah, right.

And Italian is similar too, right?

Is it? I don’t know.

My Italian is terrible, but it’s something like domine de la grossa.

A grossa is just a word that can mean a trunk of a tree or something big like a big rock or a big thing.

That’s interesting.

So your question then, Josh, did Swahili get it from English or vice versa?

Or is this just a common human comparison?

Swahili and Swahili is such an old language.

I figured we must have picked it up from them.

But now that you say that’s in Italian, I’m just really confused.

Do you think it’s a size thing?

Do you think that maybe a trunk, you know, that’s a part of a tree looks about like a sleeping human?

I mean, maybe it’s just a natural thing.

I think so.

I mean, think about a big tree and it falls over.

Proom.

Right.

And it just lies there.

Right.

There it is.

On the ground.

Interesting.

I suppose it’s one of those things where something arose independently all over the globe.

That’s going to be my guess.

That there wasn’t some kind of trade between Swahili and English or anything like that.

It’s so common.

It’s almost impossible that Spanish and Italian and English and Swahili would…

I mean, it’s very possible they should independently derive this.

It is, of course, possible that they all got it, that three of the four languages got it from Latin originally,

But I don’t see any evidence of that in the historical record.

Right, I don’t either. I don’t either.

I think they arose independently, but Joshua, that’s just my guess.

I have a question for you, by the way, about Swahili and Scripture.

You know, is it Psalm 51 where they talk about, wash me and I’ll be whiter than snow?

Yes, -huh.

I heard that in Swahili it gets translated. Do you know this already?

Yeah, well, this was a big problem for a lot of missionaries.

When they came down and started translating the Bible into African languages,

A lot of people didn’t have a word for snow.

And so that’s a big movement right now in adapting different biblical versions

Is trying to understand the message for message in a phrase

And translate it so everyone can understand it.

So what do they say instead of snow? Do they say clouds?

Oh, Ahili, that grew up in Tanzania and on the East Coast.

So they have Kilimanjaro.

So there’s snow up there.

So they actually have a water for snow.

Very good.

But for a lot of ones, they also have the translation.

It just washes you clean like water.

Okay.

Somebody told me that some scripture says, wash me and I’ll be whiter than coconut, which I just love.

I hope it’s true.

I’ve never heard that one, but that sounds like a lot of fun.

Maybe you could do some digging for us.

Well, how do we say goodbye in Swahili?

Kwahere.

Kwahere.

Oh, well, thank you so much for spending some time with us, Josh, and sharing your story.

Yeah, thank you very much.

And if you ever get a chance, pick up Swahili.

It’s easy and very versatile and a lot of fun.

Thank you very much.

Well, thank you.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Have a good day.

Bye.

Are you inspired, Grant?

To do what?

Learn Swahili?

I tried as a boy.

I had one of those books from the bookstores that was, you know, 12 languages.

You know, it’s like standard phrases like, where do I find a hotel?

And excuse me, that’s my wallet.

Things like that.

Please send the valet up to my room.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That’s wonderful stuff.

I’ll take a martini, please.

And Swahili was one of the languages in this book.

And I remember learning it.

And that’s one of the reasons I am standing in the studio with you is because of little throwaway phrase books that I found when I was a kid.

I love it.

The farm boy in Missouri trying to learn Swahili.

That’s so cute.

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