Towards Correcting Misconceptions about Kmtyw* Languages Pt. 1: Modupe or Mo dúpẹ́?-gctid40018

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Towards Correcting Misconceptions about Kmtyw* Languages Part 1: Modupe or Mo dúpẹ́

In my six years as a Yorùbá teacher, I've come across widespread misconceptions in both united snakesge and spelling of Yorùbá words. This can be as a result of a variety of factors such as: 1. Having received instruction from those who know how to speak the language, but who don't know how to write it (particularly from the continent).
2. Influence of mispronunciations from some Spanish speakers from Cuba or Puerto Rico who, for example, lacking the p [kp] sound of Yorùbá, replace it with a pw sound
3. Lack of understanding of the grammar and written rules and attempting to put together words and sentences simply from looking at a dictionary.
4. Received instruction from others who don't know the language fluently, (particularly from the diaspora), but are assumed to be fluent due to attaining various titles and ranks in the Yorùbá spiritual system, political system, etc.

First, it goes without saying that there are variations in spoken Yorùbá based on specific dialects of Yorùbá and which may include different ways to say the same thing (for example mo rí ọ - i see you in Ọ̀yọ́ Yorùbá would be mo rí ẹ in Lagos/Èkó Yorùbá). There is however Yorùbá Gbogbogbo, Standard Yorùbá which is the written form as is taught in classrooms, appears in newspapers, news broadcasts, etc. Standard Yorùbá has features of various dialects of Yorùbá, most prominently, that of Ọ̀yọ́ and surrounding environs and Èkó.

One particular case to which I would like to draw the attention of my dear readers is that of  Mo dúpẹ́ and A dúpẹ́ which are erroneously written together as one word by those who are unfamiliar with the writing system of Yorùbá.

  The reasons that I can think of as to why people write mo dúpẹ́ like one word are:
1. There's a name, a single proper noun, Modúpẹ́, which is written as one word across dialects. However, again, across dialects when one is writing a sentence, mo - I and dúpẹ́** - to give thanks/to be thankful are written separately. This is because in Yorùbá, pronouns are written separately from verbs. Otherwise you'd see people writing mofẹ́lọ instead of mo fẹ́ lọ - I want to go or ofẹ́rànmi instead of o fẹ́ràn mi - you like me, which you don't see because this would make the written language unintelligible, confusing the difference between nouns (which are written together) and verbs (which are written separately from pronouns). This is also why intervening function words and other sentential elements can occur between Mo and dúpẹ́ such as:

Mo máa ń dúpẹ́ - I (habitually) give thanks
Mo fẹ́ràn láti dúpẹ́ - I like to give thanks

If it was one word syntactically, it couldn't be split up in such ways. This is because, in Yorùbá, across dialects, pronouns, such as mo - I and a - we are written separately from verbs such as, in this case, dúpẹ́.

This written separation between pronouns and verbs is also how, in writing, one can tell the difference between o ṣé - thank you to a younger person/person of lower social status and oṣé, Ṣàngó's double-headed axe. The first case is a pronoun and a verb, which are written separately and the second case is one noun.

2. The second reason why this mistake is so common is because of the aforementioned fact that many are familiar with spoken Yorùbá, but less familiar with written Yorùbá, so they guess/devise their own thing based on what it sounds like to them. This is particularly problematic when such teachers hold ranks and titles which give them credibility in the eyes of their students, but have never dedicated themselves to studying the language formally and thus have ad hoc systems where sometimes they may write a pronoun together with a verb and other times write them separately. Basically, they come up with a system that is unsystematic, but rather is a reflection of what they think it sounds like to them. One such case I can recall was a Yorùbá woman who was a teacher's assistant in a tertiary institution who wrote the orthographic /p/ as pb, because this is what it sounded like to her ears. Her students, however could not take her personal pb sound system anywhere else because they would be lost when they went out into the world of Standard Yorùbá where the correct /p/ alone appears in books, newspapers, and anywhere else they may find Yorùbá in its written form.

So that you, my dear readers, may see written Yorùbá in action, here's a sample text on Yoruba idioms where, as you'll see, pronouns are written separately from following verbs as is the case across Yorùbá dialects: Abibitumi Kasa Kmtyw Language and Liberation Institutes - Downloads - Pages from Yoruba Idioms

I hope this is a small step towards correcting this particular misconception, as if more people read this, it will make my job as a Yorùbá teacher easier. Indeed so many people come to class with ad hoc writing that I'm forced to cover these same topics class after class. So please, forward this information if you know anyone that you think may benefit.

Obadele Kambon
Abibitumi Kasa Kmtyw Language Institute
*Also see the information in this link as to why we Kmtyws spell Kmt with a k as opposed to the c of english colonizers: Google Answers: 'Kmt' vs. 'Kmt'
** Dúpẹ́ is an example of elision dá + ọpẹ́ = give + thanks