Walk around Gabs for 5 minutes, and you will hear an echo of, "Ee mma,"which means "Yes, mam." However, it seems to me that people also just say it to fill space. Instead of sighing, they say, "Ee mma".
I have been riding the combi (public transport van) to the gym most days, and somehow I always end up in the furthest back corner, wedged in between a large "mma" and a fiendishly texting teenager. Getting the driver to stop has proved challenging. I started out yelling, "GymActive," but I felt like a tool. Then I switched to "GymActive rra (sir)," but I can't roll my "r"s, so that was also embarassing. Finally, I inquired about the word for "stop," and I learned that it's "ema," which sounds a whole lot like, "ee mma". I tried this out yesterday, screaming "ema!", and after 5 seconds without a reaction, one of the passengers turned around and realized I was trying to communicate something. He muttered something else, the combi stopped, and I exited past rows of chuckling passengers. Maybe I'll get it next time...
great description!
ReplyDelete