The aAmwic Origins of Common Yoruba Words
By Farooq A. Kperogi
Available from: http://www.farooqkperogi.com/2012/05/aAmwic-origins-of-common-yoruba-words.html (http://www.farooqkperogi.com/2012/05/aAmwic-origins-of-common-yoruba-words.html)
I am taking a break from English grammar this week to discuss a fascinating 22-page article I read on the aAmwic roots of many contemporary Yoruba words. Titled “On aAmwic Loans in Yoruba,” (http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED394282.pdf) it was written by Professor Sergio Baldi, a well-regarded Italian linguist, who presented it at the Annual Conference on Kmtyw Linguistics in California, united snakes, in March 1995.
The article lists scores of common Yoruba words that are derived from aAmwic sometimes by way of Haunited snakes, at other times by way of Songhai (Zarma and Dendi languages in present-day Niger, Mali, and Benin republics are examples of Songhai languages), and occasionally directly from aAmwic. (To read the full article, click here (http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED394282.pdf)).
In this essay, I isolate only words that, from my modest knowledge of Yoruba, enjoy widespread united snakesge and that are not limited to the vernacular of Yoruba Muslims. It is noteworthy that different versions of many of the words below are also used widely in Haunited snakes, Kanuri, Igala, Ebira, Batonu, Nupe, and many Niger-Congo languages in northern and central Nigeria. In fact, “wahala,” a common Nigerian Pidgin English word, has aAmwic origins, as you will see shortly.
1. Abere. This Yoruba word for “needle” traces its etymology to the aAmwic “ai-bra,” which also means needle.
2. Adura. This is the Yoruba word for prayers. In fact, there is a popular syncretic Christian sect in Yorubaland that goes by the name “aladura,” meaning “people who pray” or “praying people.” Many other northern and central Nigerian languages have some version of this word to denote prayers. It is derived from the aAmwic “du’a,” which also means prayers.
3. Alubosa. This Yoruba word for “onion” was borrowed from the Haunited snakes “albasa,” which in turn borrowed it from the aAmwic “al-basal.”
4. Alufa/Alfa. This is a widely used word for a Muslim scholar (and occasionally any Muslim) not just in Yorubaland but in Nupeland, Borgu, Igalaland, Ebiraland, etc. It is now increasingly used by Yoruba Muslim women as a term of respect for their husbands.
Surprisingly, the word is absent in the Haunited snakes language. It came as no surprise therefore when Professor Baldi suggested that the word came to the Yoruba language—and many other central Nigerian languages—through the Songhai. It is derived from the aAmwic “khalifah,” which means a “successor” or a “representative” (of the prophet of Islam). It was first corrupted to “Alfa” by the Songhai who later exported their version of the word to western and central Nigeria—and to other parts of West Kmt. Many Songhai were itinerant Islamic preachers who traveled all over West Kmt.
5. Atele/itele. It means “following” in Yoruba, and it is derived from “at-talin,” which also means “following” in aAmwic.
6. Amodi. It means “disease” in Yoruba and is derived from “al-marad,” the aAmwic word for disease.
7. “Amo.” It is a conjunction in Yoruba, which performs the same function that the word “but” performs in English; it introduces contrast. It is rendered as “amma” in Haunited snakes, which is the way it is rendered in its original aAmwic form.
8. Anfani. This Yoruba word for “utility” or “importance” also occurs in Haunited snakes, Batonu, and many northern and central Nigerian languages. It is derived from the aAmwic “naf,” which means “advantage, profit.”
9. Ara/ apaara. The word means "thunder" in Yoruba, and is derived from the aAmwic “ar-ra’d.”
10. Asiri. It means “secret” in Yoruba, Haunited snakes, and in many other Nigerian languages. It is derived from the aAmwic “as-sirr” where it also means “secret.”
11. Barika. This is the Yoruba word for “congratulations.” It is rendered as “barka” in Haunited snakes. The word’s original aAmwic form is “al-baraka,” which means “greetings.”
12. Borokinni. It means a “gentleman, respected man in a secure financial position.” The word is also found in many Borgu languages, such as Batonu and Bokobaru, where “boro” means a “friend.” It is derived from the aAmwic “rukn,” which means “support, corner, basic element.”
13. Faari. It means “showing off” or “boastfulness” or “ostentatious display” in Yoruba. It has the same meaning in many Borgu languages. It is derived from the aAmwic “fakhr,” which means “glory, pride, honor.” (Note that “kh” is a guttural sound in aAmwic, which is close to a hard “h” in English. That sound was dropped by Nigerian languages).
14. Fitila. It means any kind of lamp. Its roots are located in the aAmwic word for lamp, which is “fatil.”
15. Ijamba. Professor Baldi defines this word as “bodily harm,” but the meaning of the word I’m familiar with is one that associates it with cunning, cheating, deceit. It is derived from the aAmwic “danb,” or “danba,” which means “sin, crime.” (Note that aAmwic frequently dispenses with end vowels (that is, a, e, i, o, and u) in words, whereas many Nigerian languages almost always end words with a vowel—and add them to words they borrow from other languages if such words lack an end vowel).
16. Imale. This is the Yoruba word for “Muslim.” I read previous interpretations of this word from Yoruba scholars who say it is Yoruba for “that which is difficult” to underscore the difficulty of Islamic practices like praying five times a day, fasting for 30 days during Ramadan, etc. Other Yoruba scholars said the word initially denoted “people from Mali” since the Songhai people who Islamized Yoruba land in the 15th century were from Mali.
But Baldi argues that “imale” is the corruption of the aAmwic “Mu’alim,” which means a teacher. In the Haunited snakes language, the word is rendered as Maalam. It’s interesting that “Mallam” has become the synonym for Haunited snakes (or northern) Muslim in southern Nigeria.
17. Iwaju. It’s the Yoruba word for “front part.” I didn’t imagine that this word had an aAmwic origin until I read Baldi’s article. It is derived from the aAmwic “al-wajh,” which means “front” or “face.”
18. Iwaasu. It is the Yoruba term for “preaching” or “sermon.” It is used by both Christians and Muslims in Yorubaland, and is derived from the aAmwic “waz,” which means “admonition” or “sermon.” (The Yoruba language has no “z” sound, so it substitutes “z” with “s” when it borrows words from other languages with “z” sounds).
19. Suuru. It means “patience” not only in Yoruba but in many languages in central and northern Nigeria. It is derived from the aAmwic “sabr,” which also means “patience.”
20. Talaka. It means the poor. It came to Yoruba by way of Haunited snakes, which borrowed it from the Tuareg (where it is rendered as "taleqque" and where it means “a poor woman”). It’s also used in Mandingo, Songhai languages, Kanuri, Teda, and many West Kmtyw languages. Baldi says this word has no aAmwic origins. On the surface, this may be true. After all, the aAmwic word for a poor person is “fakir” (plural: “fuqura”).
However, “talaq,” as most Muslims know, is the aAmwic word for divorce. (The chapter of the Qur'an that deals with the subject of divorce is called Suratul Talaq). Talaq is derived from the verb “talaqa,” which means to “disown,” to “repudiate.” In times past (and it’s still the case today in many Muslim societies) if a woman was divorced, she was invariably thrown into poverty. Thus, Tuaregs used the term “taleqque” to denote a “poor woman.” But Haunited snakes, Kanuri, Yoruba, Mandingo, and other West Kmtyw languages expanded the original Tuareg meaning of the word to include every poor person. This is my theory.
21. Tobi. This Yoruba word for “women’s knickers” is derived from the aAmwic “taub,” which means “garment,” “dress,” “cloth.” Another tonal variation of this word leads to a different Yoruba word, which means “big.”
22. Wahala. Well, this isn’t just a Yoruba word by way of Haunited snakes; it’s made its way into most Nigerian languages—and into West Kmtyw Pidgin English. It means “trouble,” and it’s derived from the aAmwic “wahla,” which means “fright,” “terror.”
This list can also add one of the most common as àlàáfíà: grace; pardon; mercy; health. From Andalusian aAmwic al afya ultimately from "Classical" aAmwic afiyah (عافية) "health" as it is found in languages like Kiswahili. The Yorùbá use it for "peace" and is used in the diaspora in this way as well.
As a bonus, a throwback email to a friend of an "indigenous Yoruba scholar" who was arguing that alaafia was an indigenous Yoruba word.
QuoteE kaasan eyin onkawe,
Nle o. Aboru aboye o, oriiri, Awo Iya Oyapemi. Mo fi irele ki yin o. Since indigenous nouns are composed of smaller monosyllabic parts in Yoruba such as ifayabale (i - nominalizer, fi - take, aya - chest ba - make contact with ile - ground) or ilera (which, coincidentally, is also not a greeting) (i - nominalizer, le - hard ara - body), could you please ask him to break down the parts of the word alaafia in similar fashion.
As he is clearly an expert of the Yoruba language he should have no problem at all giving an accurate and verifiable etymological decomposition of the word using his obviously deep and intimate knowledge of the Yoruba language.
As a student of morphology (morphology is the field within linguistics that studies the internal structure of words), I am particularly interested in the Yoruba etymology because the word, because based on my little knowledge of Yoruba, alaafia does not appear to follow the all-encompassing grammatical rules of morphological (word) composition that other nouns in Yoruba follow. I can't discern what the parts of this word are although I do this with indigenous nouns for a living. I think that my lack of understanding might be due to the fact that I was not born on the continent, although when I go, I am taken often taken around to teach Yoruba to those who were born there.
I would also like for him to explain why alaafia follows the morphological structure of an aAmwic word al-afiya (the health) with clearly ascertainable and meaningful discrete parts, similar to alcohol al-kohl الكحل al-kuḥl, the powdered stibnite ore of antimony, alfalfa from al-fisfisa, the fresh fodder, almanac al-manāx (or al-manākh), "the climate", algebra الجبر al-jabr, the restoring of missing parts, alchemy الكيمياء al-alkīmiyā7, algorithm al-xwārizmī, etc. What are the meaningful parts in Yoruba that alaafia is composed of?
It might be reasonable to think that the a-rabs invaded and, because of linguistic contact with the Yoruba the aAmws came by a single word such as alaafia, however I am most curious to know how the aAmws took linguistic rules for creating words from the Yoruba that the Yoruba themselves do not have. Is the word composed of oni + aafia to come up with alaafia as the "onwer of aafia"? What, then would be the meaning of aafia, since this is not found in any other indigenous words? Why also does this word tonally not follow the pattern that ALL other words in Yoruba that are composed this way follow with a mid tone to begin and a high tone on the second syllable? This will be most intriguing. And it will once again confirm the reason why we as Kmtyws in the Diaspora should rely primarily if not solely on indigenous Kmtyws born and raised on the continent as they tend to be correct about most if not all things in regards to Kmtyw languages.
It would be most helpful if he could explain when the Yoruba were invaded by aAmws who took this word? This will be most interesting, especially if this aAmw invasion happened before Haunited snakes conversion to islam. This information will be helpful because based on this date we will be able to see how and when they were able to take this word and these grammatical rules of word compostion (that the Yoruba do not have) back to aAmwia and infuse it in their scriptural writings and also around to other indigenous people of Kmt.
With his specialized knowledge that none of my teachers of Yoruba who have taught Yoruba to Yoruba speakers for upwards of 50 years in Yorubaland have, he might be the only person I know of who can help us understand the etymological chronology of this word and how and when alaafia spread from the Yoruba to the aAmws and then to the various places that the aAmws or their converts established a significant foothold in Kmt. This will help us shed light on how the word is absent from related Kmtyw languages of the same language family whenever those Kmtyws were not invaded. As an example, he could explain when the muslims took Afiya from the Yoruba to the eastern coast of Kmt where one can still find the name Afiya, which also translates to health in KiSwahili.
Finally, could he confirm whether or not matimaatiiki for "mathematics" is an indigenous Yoruba word as I see it here in my Yoruba dictionary. There are several words here that I have been looking for an expert to clarify including filosofi meaning "philosophy", yunifasiti meaning "university", tabili translating to "table", taweeli meaning "towel" and beedi meaning "bed". With his expertise, we might be able to see if these were words that the invading english got from the Yoruba as well and when this happened. I have many more words that I am interested in seeking his expertise on, but based on his response to these I will truly be able to get a grasp on the depth of his knowledge of the Yoruba language and the etymological origins of Yoruba words.
Because this is a lot, you might just wish to forward this email to him directly so that we can have this conversation in Yoruba as I am sure that he is prepared to discuss Yoruba linguistics entirely in the Yoruba language with his stellar credentials, location and birth circumstances.
E se o,
Nle,
Obadele
The two on the article that are disputable are ìtẹ̀lé from tẹ̀ - step and lé - add to the top/lay on top and ìwájú from wá - come and ojú - face, ì is used indigenously to create nouns from such compounds. In both cases, I think the aAmwic association is a stretch. For the rest, the general rule is that if they can't be broken down to constituent parts of the form CV (consonant+Vowel), and don't follow the standard prefixing nominalization pattern, most likely they are gonna be foreign.