I have a question or two, probably not questions we'll be able to get an answer to, but I'll ask anyway.

Why do they call Yorubas "Yoruba people?"
and

At what time did people start calling Yoruba people "Yoruba people"? When I say "when," I mean in regards to years.

also

When people say "Yoruba people/language, it seems to be used in a derogatory manner. No?

Sorry if my question seems weird or unusual.

I have my own views already, but it's not researched, just something I thought about.

I think Igbo traders started using it first, and it must have been during the post-Biafra business boom in Lagos. I also think the word is closer to "Igbati" which means slap, as opposed to "Yoruba," which literally translates to "when." My reasoning is that "igbati" seems to be the more common word of the two. There must have been lots of threats of slaps back then, probably used during squabbles between the Yoruba and Igbo traders.

another reasoning:

Maybe there was a movie/play/television show back then where the Yoruba characters used "Nigbati" a lot.

My broda i wonder o!.anyway nkan to ba wu anybody lo le fenu won so.We Yorubas are simply the best.

vroom:

My broda i wonder o!.anyway nkan to ba wu anybody lo le fenu won so.We Yorubas are simply the best.

Maybe you're missing my point, I'm not trying to prove we're the best with this thread. Peace, love and harmony.

My broda i wonder o!.anyway nkan to ba wu anybody lo le fenu won so.We Yorubas are simply the best.

u see what im sayin!!

i still dnt understand yoruba ppl, whenever they are in the mist of other nigeria, emmm yea there u go

is it a trait

n-guage:

I have my own views already, but it's not researched, just something I thought about.

I think Igbo traders started using it first, and it must have been during the post-Biafra business boom in Lagos. I also think the word is closer to "Igbati" which means slap, as opposed to "Yoruba," which literally translates to "when." My reasoning is that "igbati" seems to be the more common word of the two. There must have been lots of threats of slaps back then, probably used during squabbles between the Yoruba and Igbo traders.

i have heard something like this before.
They said the Yorubas can use the word "Yoruba" five times in one sentence.lol
. . .and Personally,i dont think or use the "Yoruba" word in a derogatory way. . .its just like calling an Igbo man Omo Ibo.If i wanna tease a Yoruba friend,i always use Ofe-mmanu 
BTW,have u heard abt the Nyamiri?.Its the way most Huasas' refer to Igbos.Again,stories had it that during the war,some igbos ran to the north and the first thing they asked for was water. . .mmiri.They said "Nye m mmiri" but to the kind hausas,it was Nyamiri ie "Nye m mmiri . . . .meaning, Give me water.The hausas cudnt pronounce the real word so they use "Nyamiri" and till date they still use it to refer to Igbos.Same for aboki etc.
anyone can take any word to be derogratory anyway. 

I hope this thread doesn't turn into another tribalistic fight. Since the poster has addressed the issue politely and is only interested in knowing the origin of such denomination, please I beg the members to be kind enough to satisfy his thirst of knowledge.

Nontheless, this thread is under observation.

have heard something like this before.
They said the Yorubas can use the word "Yoruba" five times in one sentence.lol
. . .and Person[b]its just like calling an Igbo man Omo Ibo.If i wanna tease a Yoruba friend,i always use Ofe-mmanu [/b]ally,i dont think or use the "Yoruba" word in a derogatory way. . .

Why refer to people as ofe mmanu or Yoruba?. It's derogatory no matter how you say it. I wouldn't want to be called omo ibo, call me emeka.

BTW,have u heard abt the Nyamiri?.Its the way most Huasas' refer to Igbos.Again,stories had it that during the war,some igbos ran to the north and the first thing they asked for was water. . .mmiri.They said "Nye m mmiri" but to the kind hausas,it was Nyamiri ie "Nye m mmiri . . . .meaning, Give me water.The hausas cudnt pronounce the real word so they use "Nyamiri" and till date they still use it to refer to Igbos.Same for aboki etc.
anyone can take any word to be derogratory anyway.

Who lied to you about the meaning of Nyamiri?. When did igbos go up north that is a desert asking for water of all things?

My observation is that "Yoruba" is not so much of a common word, I'm mostly concerned about the circumstances surrounding it's association with the Yoruba. Water seems to be common enough to be associated with a people, so Ify's explanations are not far-fetched.

Instead of saying when - Yoruba, many Yoruba people totally ignore it or say "Mo ranti"(I remember). So instead of saying "Nigbati mo wa ni school" - I remember when I was in school, many Yoruba speakers are more likely to say "Mo ranti school" - I remember school. This may be a recent development too, the disregard to "Yoruba." As we all know, language evolves and certain words gradually become achaic. Maybe this is the case with "Yoruba," when the Igbos came in contact with the Yorubas, it was probably still a common word.

Now, a word that doesn't seem so strange would be Aku, as the returnee slaves in Sierra-leone called the Yorubas. "Aku" in it's various forms, is a very popular Yoruba prefix. How popular?

E + KU + ise = ekuuse, meaning welldone/good job.
E + KU + owuro = ekaaro, meaning good morning.
E + KU + Osan = ekaasan, good afternoon.
E + KU + irole = ekuurole, good evening (5pm/6pm-ish).
E + KU + ale = ekaale, good evening (night time), not the same as good night - odaaro.
E + KU + ile = ekuule, no direct English translation, used as an opposite of welcome.
E + KU + abo = ekaabo, welcome.

The word Yoruba is the suppressed for of ni igba ti meaning 'at the time' or when. It was initially associated with the people of Ibadan who used it heavily as a segway in conversation.

Calling the Yorubas 'Yoruba people' is similar to calling one from the east 'Omo Nna' (which is funny since omo means child in Yoruba, and Nna means father in Igbo, resulting in the transliteration 'Child of father'.

I don't see either as being derogatory, as the aim is not to belittle the subject, but rather simply describing someone of a foreign language by a high frequency word from their vocabulary.

I think the use will likely date back to sometime between colonization and independence.

please let's stop all these political correctness,Yoruba,Ofe mmanu,Omo Ibo,Omo nna,the people that eat stone without drinking water,okoro, inyammiri,aboki are not terms of endearment.
I know we use it here to tease each other sometimes but that doesn't mean the term is not derogatory.
When a Yoruba trader calls his Igbo neighbor Omo nna or Okoro while speaking to his fellow Yorubas,he's not saying anything good same as when an alaba trader says these Yoruba Yoruba people.

@ the poster ,I think Yoruba Yoruba came from the fact that Igbos say the Yoruba language sounds that way and they often use that word or is it nigbati in their speech.
a lot of gb and ti,at least that's the way it sounds

$osisi:

@ the poster ,I think Yoruba Yoruba came from the fact  that Igbos say the Yoruba language sounds that way and they often use that word or is it nigbati in their speech.
a lot of gb and ti,at least that's the way it sounds

Yes! This is a great explanation. Mostly because I refuse to believe nigbati is that common. I should know because I'm an Ibadan boy and I can count how many times I hear people say nigbati in a day, so it is infact very possible that it's a lot of other "gbs" and "atis" that actually make up Yoruba and not Yoruba itself. I don;t know if I' making any sense here.

But still I want to know when this word became popular and where it started from. It probably started from Ibadan if it became popular in the 60s or Lagos, if it became popular in the 70s. I would really appreciate if anyone has any records to show or stories to tell  about when and where they first heard this word.

Also, it's not outrightly derogatory, like "nigger," but it seems to give a sense of "them versus us." I would not go into how language affects our thinking, but these "them-ism" is one of the biggest problems in Nigeria. Until we are able to see each other as one, we'll never get ahead. This is something for another day.  For now, let's just tackle the history of the word.

Aloy.Emeka:

Why refer to people as ofe mmanu or Yoruba?. It's derogatory no matter how you say it. I wouldn't want to be called omo ibo, call me emeka.
Who lied to you about the meaning of Nyamiri?. When did igbos go up north that is a desert asking for water of all things?

i wud greatly appreciate if u stay away from my posts esp.when they are not in any way refering to you.Thank u

na so these women them like me reach. dem just dey call me.

Well I remember Yoruba classes in primary school and the teacher was always saying "Ni gba ti", so it being coined into a phrase to describe Yoruba people didn't come as a surprise to me. Nevertheless, those who use such to refer to Yoruba people, check them out, you would see that they are very very tribalistic. They are the ones that will say use derogatory words to even describe Amala.

opps gbatti

Aloy.Emeka:

Why refer to people as ofe mmanu or Yoruba?. It's derogatory no matter how you say it. I wouldn't want to be called omo ibo, call me emeka.
Who lied to you about the meaning of Nyamiri?. When did igbos go up north that is a desert asking for water of all things?

ify's story is almost correct. the first igbo man to go to the north was so thirsty by the time he saw a house and he asked for water. however, that happened way before the civil war. probably in the I9th century of even before that b/c the hausas were already calling us nyammiri b4 the civil war.

michelin89:

I hope this thread doesn't turn into another tribalistic fight. Since the poster has addressed the issue politely and is only interested in knowing the origin of such denomination, please I beg the members to be kind enough to satisfy his thirst of knowledge.

Nontheless, this thread is under observation.

keep observing. i wish u luck. u see thread involving igbos and yorubas and u expect peace. for nairaland?

n-guage:

Yes! This is a great explanation. Mostly because I refuse to believe nigbati is that common. I should know because I'm an Ibadan boy and I can count how many times I hear people say nigbati in a day, so it is infact very possible that it's a lot of other "gbs" and "atis" that actually make up Yoruba and not Yoruba itself. I don;t know if I' making any sense here.

But still I want to know when this word became popular and where it started from. It probably started from Ibadan if it became popular in the 60s or Lagos, if it became popular in the 70s. I would really appreciate if anyone has any records to show or stories to tell about when and where they first heard this word.

Also, it's not outrightly derogatory, like "nigger," but it seems to give a sense of "them versus us." I would not go into how language affects our thinking, but these "them-ism" is one of the biggest problems in Nigeria. Until we are able to see each other as one, we'll never get ahead. This is something for another day. For now, let's just tackle the history of the word.

You might as well say nigger is not outrightly derogatory,afterall it's a corruption of the word negro.
I doubt if you'll find the origin of it or the first man that coined the word.
He's probably not on nairaland

My colleague in the office is a yoruba guy. He always say Yoruba Yoruba when he's talking, for instance if someone tells him what he doesn't understand he'll say the person is talking Yoruba Yoruba. Maybe that's why they are called Yoruba people going by the fact that they always say Yoruba Yoruba.

Honestly, I didn't know they are called Yoruba people and I don't know what Yoruba means.

$osisi:

@ the poster ,I think Yoruba Yoruba came from the fact that Igbos say the Yoruba language sounds that way and they often use that word or is it nigbati in their speech.
a lot of gb and ti,at least that's the way it sounds

I agree with this explanation. Just like igbos are called 'okoro' maybe because it's a common igbo name. I don't know about the origin of the word, 'nyamiri' but Ifyalways' story makes sense. I believe all of these terms are derogatory though.

damn, chiogo n Nguage u guys r still here,,,oh my lard, dis star, wts up yall?,

The explanation that 'Yoruba' came as a name for the Yorubas because we say it too often appears more sensible to me than any other explanation. Yoruba(meaning when) is quite commonly said among us, and I had always thought and still think that is why we are called 'Yoruba' people.

In any case, i don't see it as derogatory. When anybody calls me Yoruba or berebe(as Hausa call us), I don't feel insulted. I call our gatemen aboki or mallo and they also call me Mallam Berebe, and we laugh it off. And in the midst of igbos, I proudly say 'me I be Yoruba boy o' to tell them I'm Yoruba.

@ Jarus; That's the spirit my dear!

@Vroom
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My broda i wonder o!.anyway nkan to ba wu anybody lo le fenu won so.We Yorubas are simply the best.
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Please, don't say it loud they know already; but want to argue with you. Anywhere you see Osisi, Aloy.Emeka and Ikeymaa00, they ain't for no good about Yorubas! They know we can be copied but we can't be duplicated.

Unfortunately, there is nothing to copy!