What does greeting mean in typical
Yoruba?

Answer: Okun.

E pe le: People do take this to mean 'sorry', but it means more than that. The word derived from pe, (long) and le (land). It means 'live long' or 'long life' (be long alive on the land).

A derivative of this saying is, 'b'ori ba pe nile, a dire' (if a soul endure in life, a good turn will come).

iwapele (peace, peaceful conduct). Esor (easy, calm, peaceful-when repeated
twice: variant, jee, jeje) Pele.

E nle (be to own the land) e kun (be multiplied). Kun:filled up, fulfilled,
additional, excess.

Okun awe (be strong, contemporary).
Okun: strenght.

EKUU-, EKAA-

This is born out of the need to make a
phrase with Okun kiki. It is not where the
word itself originated from.

Okun kiki: cheering mannerism, cheer
greeting.

IkiNi:

Act of of cheering someone up, to press, to impress. Okun: To greet, to salute, to strengthen or encourage one another at any point in
time.

Wow Interesting

Are our minds in sync or what?

Just this morning I was thinking of the possible etymologies of Igbo greetings.

I think you mentioned this in your post, but I didn't quite get it, so I'll ask: Can you explain the meaning of the Ekaa-/Ekuu- component of Yoruba greetings?

Radoillo:
Are our minds in sync or what?

Just this morning I was thinking of the possible etymologies of Igbo greetings.

I think you mentioned this in your post, but I didn't quite get it, so I'll ask: Can you explain the meaning of the Ekaa-/Ekuu- component of Yoruba greetings?

LOL,

GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE. WE'VE BEEN LIFTED, MY BROTHER, I BELIEVE.

Ekaa- is when you are about to say eku + aaro, meaning good morning. then also 'ekaa san' and 'ekaa le' for afternoon and night greetings respectively.

Of course you can't say eku aaro o' but ek'aaro, ekaasan o, or ekaale o. It is only at evening that you say 'ekurole o'. Another one is, eku iyaleta o.

Sometimes we do miss the underlying meaning of ageless terms. To enrich a term, one has to compare and contrast. Then make meaning from a common denominator.

In light of this, 'eku' is derived from 'okun,' (but) okun lost to eku because we are bias: rarely used words loses as we favour current words.

Thanks, man.

So the etymology of 'eku/okun' aspect of the greetings is lost to history?

Radoillo:
Thanks, man.

So the etymology of 'eku/okun' aspect of the greetings is lost to history?

I was half-awake when I typed the last part of the last post, I was dosing. Thank God its not North Korea, its nairaland.

I think the part lost to history is words that did not attain mainstream usage, e.g. 'ago o', which is Yoruba equivalent for 'hello' or 'attention!'

Our peoples' inability to map their words and phonetic progression rob us of many useful and insightful terms.

absoluteSuccess:


I was half-awake when I typed the last part of the last post, I was dosing. Thank God its not North Korea, its nairaland.

I think the part lost to history is words that did not attain mainstream usage, e.g. 'ago o', which is Yoruba equivalent for 'hello' or 'attention!'

Our peoples' inability to map their words and phonetic progression rob us of many useful and insightful terms.

LOL @the emboldened.

Okay, thanks.

Interesting, but if "E pele" really refers to "living long on the land" at what possible point and with wat factors did it change from "e pe ni'le"?


Although the "kun" in "Ekun" for Leopard doesn't sound the same with "kun" in "Okun" I believe they are linked but not the same as you are pointing out. . Cus I guess your translation of "Okun" as strength comes from "Ekun"

I agree with "fulfillment" . It is the same tone with "kun" as in "to fill"

"EKUN" LIKE "kun" as women say when they apply makeup "mo fe kun s'oju" but what this has to do with strength I don't know yet. "kun" here seems more like "to perch" or "to apply"(make up on the face)


I have a different idea of the etymology of "e pele" but I'm not certain ...
We have iwapele - character of calm, being of a sound and balanced mind. See when someone is not calm due to a deed against him/her, people say "e pele" which I would say means " call on to calmness" from "pe ele" but like I said I'm not certain cus I'm not even sure if "ele" is a real word

Radoillo:
Are our minds in sync or what?

Just this morning I was thinking of the possible etymologies of Igbo greetings.

I think you mentioned this in your post, but I didn't quite get it, so I'll ask: Can you explain the meaning of the Ekaa-/Ekuu- component of Yoruba greetings?

Kú is simply a greeting prefix (more or less), which is why you can say things such as e ku iduro, e ku ijoko (ati bee bee lo).

The concept isn't translatable to English.

StarFlux:
Kú is simply a greeting prefix (more or less), which is why you can say things such as e ku iduro, e ku ijoko (ati bee bee lo).

The concept isn't translatable to English.

Language is bye product of intelligence,

We are not trying to hunt for english equivalent as if english grammar is some sort of standard.

But we are verifying the underlying intelligence behind common expression and mannerism as unique to us.

Starflux, why are you often conclusive?

@macof, brilliant.

You need observe that longevity is part of greeting and goodtime wishes among the Yoruba to this day, as in,

Kade pe lori, ki bata pe lese keshin oba o jeko pe', and eepe funwa, ee kowa je pe' meaning long may the king reign.

We also says 'ate pe lao te le yi pe'. Long shall we tred on this land.

Now look at this Yoruba word 'erupe~ile': sand, but the phrase means 'ashes of ancient world'.

ile is Yoruba for land, world or earth. It shares something in common with sticker or adhesive or gum.

The ancient Yoruba may be alluding to the force of gravity that gum us to the earth surface, as in, the earth is gum-gum planet.

Okun as strength is as used in 'a maa se bieni ti 'o l'okun n'nu' that is, he would be (sluggish) as one without inner strength.

Then the proverb, okun inu lafi ngbe tita. We depend on strength within to lift up (strong object) without.

absoluteSuccess:
@macof, brilliant.

You need observe that longevity is part of greeting and goodtime wishes among the Yoruba to this day, as in,

Kade pe lori, ki bata pe lese keshin oba o jeko pe', and eepe funwa, ee kowa je pe' meaning long may the king reign.

We also says 'ate pe lao te le yi pe'. Long shall we tred on this land.

Now look at this Yoruba word 'erupe~ile': sand, but the phrase means 'ashes of ancient world'.

ile is Yoruba for land, world or earth. It shares something in common with sticker or adhesive or gum.

The ancient Yoruba may be alluding to the force of gravity that gum us to the earth surface, as in, the earth is gum-gum planet.

Okun as strength is as used in 'a maa se bieni ti 'o l'okun n'nu' that is, he would be (sluggish) as one without inner strength.

Then the proverb, okun inu lafi ngbe tita. We depend on strength within to lift up (strong object) without.

I know "kun" has to do with strength but I'm using tones and pronunciations here, the "kun" there is the same with "kun" in "Ekun".. and " Okunrin" : man, but really meaning " strong metal "(bone: which is made of calcium, a metal)... but that " kun" isn't the same tone with "kun". in " Okun" the greeting.. one is "do" the other is "mi". " kun" here is the same with. "o ti kun" : it is filled.
"kun" for strength is also similar to "kin". for bravery like we have it in Kinniun and Akin

macof:


I know "kun" has to do with strength but I'm using tones and pronunciations here, the "kun" there is the same with "kun" in "Ekun".. and " Okunrin" : man, but really meaning " strong metal "(bone: which is made of calcium, a metal)... but that " kun" isn't the same tone with "kun". in " Okun" the greeting.. one is "do" the other is "mi". " kun" here is the same with. "o ti kun" : it is filled.
"kun" for strength is also similar to "kin". for bravery like we have it in Kinniun and Akin

When you say 'okun awe', the tone is, re~re (okun) do~mi (awe). But when my Awori people say it, its O(o)kun: re~(mi)~re.

The Oyos (Ilorin) would say 'ekun', which is the same for weeping, and filled up, as in the name ekundayo.

Meanwhile, when you are talking about greeting, you must factor in variants and embrace predominant idea.

Egbe: (kogi) - Erokun, i do not erect my knee, sort of.

Arigidi: (ekiti) - metekun, i bend my knee, sort of.

ekiti: iyinokun: knee praise,.

absoluteSuccess:


Language is bye product of intelligence,

We are not trying to hunt for english equivalent as if english grammar is some sort of standard.

But we are verifying the underlying intelligence behind common expression and mannerism as unique to us.

Starflux, why are you often conclusive?

Indeed. Apologies, my friend. It's not my intent to sound conclusive.

StarFlux:
Indeed. Apologies, my friend. It's not my intent to sound conclusive.

Thanks, be strong.

the batton has been passed unto us to be the ambassadors of our native languages.

we must endear posterity to it or all its essence will be thrown away as 'vernacular thrash' by the 'end time people' and their teachers.

macof:
Interesting, but if "E pele" really refers to "living long on the land" at what possible point and with wat factors did it change from "e pe ni'le"?


Although the "kun" in "Ekun" for Leopard doesn't sound the same with "kun" in "Okun" I believe they are linked but not the same as you are pointing out. . Cus I guess your translation of "Okun" as strength comes from "Ekun"

I agree with "fulfillment" . It is the same tone with "kun" as in "to fill"

"EKUN" LIKE "kun" as women say when they apply makeup "mo fe kun s'oju" but what this has to do with strength I don't know yet. "kun" here seems more like "to perch" or "to apply"(make up on the face)


I have a different idea of the etymology of "e pele" but I'm not certain ...
We have iwapele - character of calm, being of a sound and balanced mind. See when someone is not calm due to a deed against him/her, people say "e pele" which I would say means " call on to calmness" from "pe ele" but like I said I'm not certain cus I'm not even sure if "ele" is a real word

From what I can tell, the kun in ekun is "kùn" and the make up (to paint) is "kun" while to fill is "kún".

Interestingly enough, the leopard is a rather magnificent creature, and its dots are somewhat paint-like. To paint something is similar to filling it with color.

StarFlux:
From what I can tell, the kun in ekun is "kùn" and the make up (to paint) is "kun" while to fill is "kún".

Interestingly enough, the leopard is a rather magnificent creature, and its dots are somewhat paint-like. To paint something is similar to filling it with color.

You are 100% correct my brother.

Rope is also "Okun" ..yoruba language ehn

Wow,

Beauriful, friends.

Now we have isolated the phenomenon, courtessy starflux (little things count, it shows).

Next is to really determing what the rhymer 'kun' does to each and how it strings all the meaning together.

1. Okun: do-do (o kun), one that grunts, paint, painter: Okunkun, fog, dusting, darkness.

2. Okun: do-re (o kun), that which fill it up. Ocean.

Okun-: do-mi (o kun) one who fill up, okundaye, okunnu, olokunbuoke.

3. Okun: mi-mi (o kun), its filled up, its full. Greetings.

4. Okun: re-do: (o kun), you paint, you grunt. Rope.

kun, as in ekun and okun (sea) has to do with roar, rumbling.

Thats why ekun and kiniun is often used for the lion.

Some Yoruba takes lion for ekun, and some differentiates.

@metaphysical,

you often talked about 'rookoo' as when someone makes obeisance with forehead touching the ground.

I think this is where it make sense,

ruku, (Arabic)

orunkun,

okun.

Ancient Yoruba do not 'dobale', rather they makes their forehead touch the ground for salute.

that is demonstrated in the saying,

ifa ori mi ree o, (ifa, here is my head) at which the person touches the ground with his forehead.

then the baba will say 'ori agbo ato'

Wow to you guys, am so overwhelmed. Please take another prefix and suffixes to make the younger generation more knowledgeable, you are doing encyclopedia little by little.

Okun o : To me is a greating to infer a wish for strenght and long life with variants of eekun(Yagba-plural) , ookun or inh-okun(Ekiti plural)
E pele or enle

mandarin:
Wow to you guys, am so overwhelmed. Please take another prefix and suffixes to make the younger generation more knowledgeable, you are doing encyclopedia little by little.

Okun o : To me is a greating to infer a wish for strenght and long life with variants of eekun(Yagba-plural) , ookun or inh-okun(Ekiti plural)
E pele or enle

What about Ojutu that is Solution

Chisos! Nd I dey call myself yoruba babe. Thanks for sharing. I still it's time I become regular here 2 learn

mandarin:


What about Ojutu that is Solution

Hey Mandarin,

It's been a while.

Thanks for the collection you just offer, it's enough to reveal some salient aspects of Yoruba semantics.

Let's say 'ojutu' is made of two syllables, namely oju and itu. The combination of the two words gives a new word.

Oju means the eye, inlet, spot (as used in the phrase that became a word). Itu is a verb meaning 'untie'.

Together, ojutu has come to mean solution. But by the given of it's root words, the term really means 'escape root'.

The only time an interpretation become revolutionary is when you are the only one with the interpretation to it.

But trust the intelligence of our forebears than any of your contemporary. Meaning, nothing happened in isolation.

ojutu is the same word paraphrased as ona abayo. The two words gives a new idea of semantic rule in Yoruba.

I love to call it 'rhema-duplication'. The fathers did that to give insight and credence to how their ideas were coined.

Tinbani omi njona, eni nkeeru e
wa (if I tell you that water is burning, just ask me to fetch you the ashes). That's all.

So, both ojutu and ona-abayo are hunters' idea. Ojutu is where a rodent will escape from, once you hear otu! Out! the next thing is chase.

So what we do as kids hunting grasscutters was to first find a hole that look fresh and then we smoke it.

ojutu is where the smoke will escape from. We got to find it, and then some of us will keep watch with a dog or two, while others watch the one digging the hole.

Back to rhema-duplication, every Yoruba words comes in duplicates, if not 'multiplicates'. Nothing happened in isolation.

Before one concludes on one Yoruba word, have to find its duplicates that agrees with your conclusions. It helps when dealing with 'oro sununkun:.

Oro sunukun, oju sunukun lafi nwo, oun t'oba jo'un lafi nweun. Epo epa jo posi eliri.

Abbykem:
Chisos! Nd I dey call myself yoruba babe. Thanks for sharing. I still it's time I become regular here 2 learn

welcome home, the land is green and fertile.

I disagree with you on E pe le

I don't think it means sorry

I think it is more like 'take it easy'

daretodiffer:
I disagree with you on E pe le

I don't think it means sorry

I think it is more like 'take it easy'

hm

you will recall that 'kee pe' is 'may you live long?'

take it easy is 'e fara bale'. I can argue with my friend and freely say 'ogbeni, fara buruku bale jo, bayi ni...'

you can't tell elderly people 'e fara bale' especially if you will end up using few words, it is said 'gboun leebu agba'

so you will rather say :'eni suuru', be patience.' Take it easy is like calm down, 'jelenge' is the closest word to easy in Yoruba.

Jelenge is an upgrade-form of 'Je elege' which literally means, 'delicate in form', something you might lose if not carefully handled.

'E pele' as 'sorry' is to compensate you with blessing of longevity when you are wronged, injured or experience reflex action.

2prexios:


hm

you will recall that 'kee pe' is 'may you live long?'

take it easy is 'e fara bale'. I can argue with my friend and freely say 'ogbeni, fara buruku bale jo, bayi ni...'

you can't tell elderly people 'e fara bale' especially if you will end up using few words, it is said 'gboun leebu agba'

so you will rather say :'eni suuru', be patience.' Take it easy is like calm down, 'jelenge' is the closest word to easy in Yoruba.

Jelenge is an upgrade-form of 'Je elege' which literally means, 'delicate in form', something you might lose if not carefully handled.

'E pele' as 'sorry' is to compensate you with blessing of longevity when you are wronged, injured or experience reflex action.

Yeah, maybe you were right afterall

daretodiffer:

Yeah, maybe you were right afterall

Only the ancient fathers have the final say,
we can only come around as closest idea of what they meant to say.

I've wondered why grandma says ehu after greetings most of the time. Yeah she's Fon.

Then I suspected that 'ehu' is 'e Ku'. I don't know how Yoruba words crept into Egun language, because ehu means 'you death'.

Most times the Yoruba words in Egun are already "Egunized", as you have it in the saying "apakrioko" which is Yoruba word.

So I asked mum who was my informant and a very Yoruba as she is Egun. She couldn't break the code either.

But I think, it is Yoruba and it means 'a pa kiri oko' wandering fighters. I think the code mixing is on purpose.

The ancient fathers uses secondary languages to say unpleasant stuffs that are important to be said.

I observed this in how Yoruba often says "Ayanma", is this a corruption of "oyinoma"?

We can relate with this irony, using someone else's (language) good word to say good word to imply the worst in your own language.

For instance, 'e fon dagbe' is a Yoruba slang meaning, 'good as gone' but it is an Egun phrase meaning 'hope you wake up fine?'

The Yoruba are great with words. But often their ideas are paradoxical. There are delicate words beyond our scopes at our disposal.

The best example of complex use of ideas is to be appreciated in Yoruba euphemism.

Most of today's Yoruba unpleasant words are euphemism originally, mo fe ya gbe, I want to branch off to the bush.

This ironically is Yoruba euphemism for using the conveniences. But we now take it to mean (saying) the uncouth word.

But the very Yoruba for the very act, the culprit we are running from is "mo fe se igbonse" that is, "I want to do reflex-and-discharge".

Actually, Igbe is bush, while igbonse is poo. In a way, we sensors the euphemism and protect the vulgar word we intend to sensor.

We sensor 'I want to use the conveniences' and we protected 'I want to defecate'.

I hope someone can relate with the idea I'm striving to put across. its complicated.

absoluteSuccess:
I've wondered why grandma says ehu after greetings most of the time. Yeah she's Fon.

Then I suspected that 'ehu' is 'e Ku'. I don't know how Yoruba words crept into Egun language, because ehu means 'you death'.

Most times the Yoruba words in Egun are already "Egunized", as you have it in the saying "apakrioko" which is Yoruba word.

So I asked mum who was my informant and a very Yoruba as she is Egun. She couldn't break the code either.

But I think, it is Yoruba and it means 'a pa kiri oko' wandering fighters. I think the code mixing is on purpose.

The ancient fathers uses secondary languages to say unpleasant stuffs that are important to be said.

I observed this in how Yoruba often says "Ayanma", is this a corruption of "oyinoma"?

We can relate with this irony, using someone else's (language) good word to say good word to imply the worst in your own language.

For instance, 'e fon dagbe' is a Yoruba slang meaning, 'good as gone' but it is an Egun phrase meaning 'hope you wake up fine?'

The Yoruba are great with words. But often their ideas are paradoxical. There are delicate words beyond our scopes at our disposal.

The best example of complex use of ideas is to be appreciated in Yoruba euphemism.

Most of today's Yoruba unpleasant words are euphemism originally, mo fe ya gbe, I want to branch off to the bush.

This ironically is Yoruba euphemism for using the conveniences. But we now take it to mean (saying) the uncouth word.

But the very Yoruba for the very act, the culprit we are running from is "mo fe se igbonse" that is, "I want to do reflex-and-discharge".

Actually, Igbe is bush, while igbonse is poo. In a way, we sensors the euphemism and protect the vulgar word we intend to sensor.

We sensor 'I want to use the conveniences' and we protected 'I want to defecate'.

I hope someone can relate with the idea I'm striving to put across. its complicated.

I remember when I think of the word "Eran-Igbe" I felt disgusted thinking it as "Poo Meat" only to realize it actually means "Bush meat"

macof:

I remember when I think of the word "Eran-Igbe" I felt disgusted thinking it as "Poo Meat" only to realize it actually means "Bush meat"

I used to think the same thing too, and the meat used to disgust me until I actually saw it and ate it.