ktravula – a travelogue!

teaching. lanugage. travel

Tweet Yoruba Day 2013

On March 1, 2013, twitter users who speak Yoruba will tweet all day in their mother tongue.

This practice began last year as a means to pressure Twitter to include Yoruba in the list of languages into which the platform is being translated. There was a partial success in form of a response by a twitter translation desk official who assured that while the message has been heard, it would take a little while more to include the language, for logistic reasons.

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We have had a second contact with Twitter official @lenazun, this time to help with the question about what accepted dialect of Yoruba is generally used in official Yoruba writings and translation. (The answer is the North-West, Oyo Dialect of Yoruba). Besides that, nothing else.

The Tweet Yoruba Day on March 1, 2013* is to continue the annual tradition, but with less emphasis on pressuring Twitter but on celebrating the beauty and importance of the mother tongue usage in the age of modernity. It might never happen anytime soon that the only means of communication online would be any of these local languages with a limited number of speakers (Yoruba has over 30 million), but as long as these means of communication exist, there would always be new ways of transmitting culture and a distinct worldview.

The hashtags to use, like last year, would be #tweetYoruba and #twitterYoruba. For those still interested in reminding twitter of our intention to have the platform translated into Yoruba, copy your tweets to @twitter and @translator.

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*February 21 is The International Mother Tongue Day

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Here is the official poster. Feel free to share on your social networks:

TweetYorub2013 (1)

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speakafrica

 

Tweeters with the most creative tweets during the event will receive “I Can Speak Yoruba” T-shirts and tote bags courtesy of @SpeakAfricaApps, a supporter of the event, and Recharge Cards courtesy of Think Oyo (@ThinkOyo), another supporter. The project is brought to you with help from Molara Wood, writer (@MolaraWood), Alakowe Yoruba (@AlakoweYoruba), The Yoruba Cultural Insittute (@yorubaculture), and Kevin “Kayode” Barry (@KayodeOyinbo).

 

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Kàá ní Yorùbá

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Tweet Yoruba Day 2013 was published on February 21st, 2013, with the tags , , under the Linguistics category. There are currently 10 comments on this article so far.

Ojo Siso Yoruba Ni Twitter 2013

Lọjó Kinni, Osù Kẹta (Ẹrẹnà) 2013, àwọn olùlo twitter tó gbọ Yoruba yóò sọọ láti àárọ dálẹ.

A bẹrẹ ètò yìí lódún tó kọjá láti fá Twitter lẹsẹ kí wọn ba le fi ọn ba le fi èdè Yorùbá sí ọkan lára àwọn èdè àgbáyé  tí a ti lè lo gbàgede náà. A se aseyọrí díẹ nígbà tí Twitter dá wa lóhùn padà láti ẹnu òsìsẹ ògbifọ wọn kan tí ó sọ wípé wọn ti gbọ ohùn wa, sùgbọn yó se díẹ kí wọn tó fi ọn tó fi Yorùbá kún-un nítorí àwọn ètò díẹ tí wọn ní láti se kí ó tó le seése.
imagesA tún ti bá wọn sọrọ lẹẹkan síi nígbà tí òsìsẹ Twitter miran @lenazun wá láti bèèrè irú èka Yorùbá tí a máa n lò láti se ògbifọ àti láti kọ ìwé ìjọba ní Yorùbá. (Ìdáhùn rẹ ni Yorùbá Àríwá-Ìwọ Oòrùn, tí a n sọ ní Òyó). Léyìn èyí, nkò gbọ ohun mìràn.

ỌJọ Sísọ Yorùbá Ní Twitter ní March 1, 2003* jẹ láti tẹsíwájú èyí tí a bẹrẹ lódún tó kọjá, sùgbọn nísìnyí láti fi ẹwà èdè abínibí wa hàn nínú ayé ẹrọ ayélujára tí a n gbé nísìnyí. Ó lè má sẹlẹ rárá wipe ọjọ kan yóò wà tí èdè tí gbogbo aráyé yóò máa sọ lórí ayélujárá yóò jẹ èdè abínibí nìkan, torípé àwọn tó n sọ wón kò pọ púpọ (Yoruba tíẹ sí ní ju ọgbọn million lọ), sùgbọn bí ọnà láti sọ èdè yìí bá ti se wà, bẹẹ náà ni a ó se ní àìmọye ojúlówó ọnà láti fi àsà àti ìse wa hàn fún gbogbo àgbáyé

Bí a se seé lésìí, àwọn hashtags láti lò lọdún yìí ni #tweetYoruba àti #twitterYoruba. Fún àwọn tí wón bá tún fẹ fa Twitter lẹsẹ wípé kí wọn jẹ kí á se ògbifọ gbàgede náà sí Yorùbá,  kí wón sèdà tweeti wọn sí @twitter àti @translator.

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*February 21 ni Ọjọ Tí a Yà Sọtọ Lágbàáyé Fún Sísọ Nípa Èdè Abínibí

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Èyí ni atọka ètò náà. Jọwọ fi han gbogbo àwọn ènìyàn rẹ lórí èrọ ayélujára

TweetYorub2013 (1)

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speakafrica

Àwọn olùlo twitter tí ó bá kọ àwọn oun tó mọgbọn wá jùlọ ní ọjọ yìí yóò gba asọ “Mo Le Sọ Yorùbá” àti báàgì ìfàlọwọ láti ọwọ @SpeakAfricaApps tí ó n se ìgbọwọ ètò yìí, ati kirediti lati owo  Think Oyo (@ThinkOyo). Ètò yìí tún wá pẹlú àjọsepọ àwọn wọnyìí náà: Molara Wood, ònkọwé (@MolaraWood), Alakowe Yorùbá (@AlakoweYoruba), The Yoruba Cultural Insittute (@yorubaculture), àti Kevin “Kayode” Barry (@KayodeOyinbo).

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Ojo Siso Yoruba Ni Twitter 2013 was published on February 21st, 2013, with the tags , , , , under the Fun, Linguistics category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

The Origin of “Oyinbo”

I have come across the  most convincing story yet of the source of the word oyinbo. Of all the previous stories about the source of the word, the current entry in Wikipedia makes use of cognates and probable historical anecdotes. See below:

it… means “white person” generally used in the country, which originates from Igbo Language . The first “White people” to settle in Nigeria as colonial masters were the English people. In Igbo language demonym takes the form ” onye + the place of origin” of the person, hence, and Igbo person is called ” Onye Igbo”. A Yoruba person is called ” Onye Yoruba”. A German is “onye Germany”. Thus the first white people were called “onye ocha” for singular and “ndi ocha” for plural meaning “white person and white people” respectively. This was because the Igbo people of those days did not know from where the white people came. Interaction between the Igbos and the white people resulted in the white people trying to refer to the Igbos with a name similar to what the Igbos called them, but there was problem in pronouncing Igbo words due to presence of double lettered alphabets which involve nasal pronunciation,in some of the consonants such as ‘ch’, ‘gb’, ‘gh’, ‘gw’, ‘kp’, ‘kw’, ‘nw’, ‘ny’, ‘sh’. These were not present in English language hence the difficulty in the white man’s effort in giving the Igbos similar demonym as the Igbo people had given to him, instead a name resulting from a mutilation of Igbo words was produced “Oyi ibo’ instead of ” onyi igbo’ meaning ‘Igbo person’ just as he ‘the white man’ was called ‘ onye ocha’ meaning ‘white person’. It was this ‘oyi ibo’ that the Igbos later started referring to as ‘white person’ in a way of mocking the white man for his inability in saying “Onye Igbo”. This would later be adopted by other Southern Nigerian tribes as the standard name for the white man and coupled with dialect variance one obtains different pronunciations such as “Oyinbo’ in Yoruba and other western Nigerian tribes…

As a linguist, this makes more sense than any other story that breaks the word down as “oyin + bo” or any other permutation.

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The Origin of “Oyinbo” was published on February 4th, 2013, with the tags , , under the Academic, Linguistics category. There are currently 4 comments on this article so far.

Will Yoruba Survive?

To @MrBankole, who asked:

I’d like a brief comment, if you don’t mind… (on) your thoughts about the future of (Yoruba’s?) cultural legacies and how they interact with evolving mediums of expression. Do you think they’ll erode…or will they be preserved? Living, breathing, or digital fossils.

I’ve heard many versions of this question before, but this one is about whether the new means of communication (with their inherent tendency for language imperialism) will (or not) send Yoruba, or perhaps any other language with such limited use off the map completely.

I believe, of course, that they will survive. The question however (always) is “in which form?”

IMG_6968The Yoruba language lives today in Candomblé, a religion in Brazil, and in Cuba as Santería. Some of the cultures of the old Gold Coast have remained in Jamaica and some other parts of the Caribbean in sometimes recognizable bits, or sometimes in totally evolved forms. This is the inevitable fall-out of language and cultural transposition. As dead as Latin is, it still lives on in science and in the Catholic Church. The point is that even in the worst case scenario, there will still be a recognizable part of the language left.

So, if in a couple of hundred years, Yoruba survives only in this (electronic) medium through the use by those who remember particular registers from their own childhood and nothing more, we may be left only with that: a Yoruba customized for a medium and a particular kind of audience. An e-diolect, if you will. Over time, as it happened in Brazil and Cuba, the chasm will increase and the distance between the original Yoruba from root and the e-volved Yoruba that lives on in the medium will increase to perhaps an unbridgeable length, with few exceptions.

Or not. (We never really know. Language is dynamic and their survival/destruction is often subject to other issues than just mere technological advancements. Maybe a war will take place and destroy all Yorubas in Nigeria, and the only surviving bits of the language will be those spliced with English and all the other acquired languages we’ve imbibed.) But these are hypotheticals.

I don’t believe that the original Yoruba from the motherland/hinterlands will ever completely disappear from the earth (just like English never will as well). But I believe that all things being equal, they will evolve, differently in speed – of course, depending on their medium of transmission (and the types/number of people that use one kind over the other).

Thank you for the interaction, Lord Banks.

PS: The Speak Yoruba Day on Twitter is still March 1, 2013. It is a chance to showcase the facility of the mother tongue and its relevance to the 21st century.

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Will Yoruba Survive? was published on January 16th, 2013, with the tags , , , under the Academic, Linguistics category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

Another Short Digression on Tone

Whenever I’ve told people that my thesis is on L2 tonal acquisition, except for folks with sufficient familiarity with the field, the first question usually is – “what is tone?” or “what is a tone language?”, followed by “so what exactly are you trying to find?” I therefore spend the first five minutes explaining to them what tone languages are (and that about 70% of all world languages are tone languages), and then tell them a few more details of the direction of my work. I found myself in this direction by chance – though I don’t tell them that – but after taking the patience to explain why in the absence of sufficient research materials on the process of L2 tonal acquisition I find it fascinating to be involved in discovering all that can be found there, they usually look enlightened suddenly, and then give me a look of “well done.” I feel better, although I know that a good number of them are just happy to be done with the conversation.

Having taught Yoruba at the university level for a while here in the States, it was natural to be interested in phonological and pedagogical dimensions of the language acquisition. Then I took a course on Second Language Acquisition with all its arguments on the critical period hypothesis that implies that language learning becomes difficult or impossible after a certain age. It all coalesced at some point in my head, and here I am. The data gathering part of the work itself is almost done, and the writing is halfway done already. I have discovered very many fascinating things, and encountered enough data to advance into a few more research directions in the future. One of the main things, of course, is that nothing at all prevents anyone from learning and acquiring tone or any language at any age whatsoever. There are influences of first language, to be sure, but they don’t pose enough challenge to prevent a subject (even those above the so-called critical period) from acquiring the form.

Just last week, I helped another colleague conduct a shorter research than mine on the questions of tonal perception among American English speakers. The results were equally interesting regarding which tones were easier to learn in isolation and in context, and whether tones are generally easier to learn in context or in isolation. I have been busy. In a few weeks, all of this should be over, and I should have some time off to myself. What to do with that time is another matter. There seems to always be something. What I will take away from this research (and the whole Masters experience) would be the fascinating unpredictability of results, along with a few frustrations of disobedient subjects and other constraints of time, space, and materials. Somewhere in there will also be an appreciation for the Graduate School here – along with my ever patient supervisors – for the small research grant that has made the whole exercise worthwhile and less exacting, and my supportive family and friends.

The commencement is on May the 5th. I shall have become a master in something (else).

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Another Short Digression on Tone was published on April 11th, 2012, with the tags , , , , under the Observations, Soliloquy category. There are currently 1 comment on this article so far.

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