ola@:

I dont know much but I can help u with the following

Lightning    Ina ara, Ino ara

Skin              Awo    (o is pronounced "aw"

Animal           Ira ko

Living            Gbe  (e is pronounced as "a"

Grip               Mu e.g mu dani

Pride Igberaga

omosoji:

Lightning - ara

- Guardian - still thinking for the precise word, if you can be definite you can help us to help you because Guardian of knowledge would be different from Guardian of life or a temple, and don't ask for the meaning of certain word like 'angel' or 'satan' or 'devil', etc because they are semitic theological concept that was brought to us during the slave and colonial periods. So word were coined for them, some are erroneous but has stayed on the lips of so many.

BABE!:

Blade--- Abe ( re, re) -- the "e" is the one with the dot

Blast---- Fanka -- (mi, mi)

Guardian-- Olutonisona ( re do mi re mi do) -- the first "O" doesn't have the dot. The second and third "O" do. The "S" doesn't.

Booshman:

I don't understand what the words in parantheses, next to the Yoruba translations mean.

Ileke-IdI:

Those are the intonations. Yoruba is a tonal language.

Remember the C Ionian mode : "do, re, mi, fa, so la, ti do". Well, Yoruba is compromised of 3 of those 8 notes; DO RE MI.

So when speaking yoruba, those notes/tones have to be taken into consideration to correctly speak Yoruba.

Booshman:

Oh the "low", the "mid", and the "high" tones. That's something that I'm trying to get used to, because it changes the word completely. That is one of the things that makes Yoruba such a fascinating language. On top of the words themselves, you have to account for the subtle pitch changes. Thanks for the clarification!

Ileke-IdI:

No prob.

Are you studying African languages? How do you know about Yoruba's tones and how they change the words/sentence completely?

Booshman:

OP here!

Thanks a lot, so far! This is all very helpful! So much so, that I should have just came here first instead of struggling with this old dictionary of mine. What is odd is that I have heard four different Yoruba translations for the word "Lightning". Ina Ara, Ino Ara, Ara, and Etimo. Is this one of those words that has multiple translations? If so, is one translation more commonly used than the rest?

Whoa! So my dictionary is wrong! Because it said "ara" was "skin" as in a human's skin. I'm glad I asked.

Oh, I don't mean guardian in the foreign biblical sense. I just mean "a guardian" in the general sense. Like a protector of a temple or of a person.

Booshman:

Oh the "low", the "mid", and the "high" tones. That's something that I'm trying to get used to, because it changes the word completely. That is one of the things that makes Yoruba such a fascinating language. On top of the words themselves, you have to account for the subtle pitch changes. Now are those pitch changes only on the vowels, or is it all letters?

Thanks for the clarification, btw!

The tone-marks are put only on the vowels -- A, E, E(with the dot beneath it), I, O, O(with the dot beneath it), U.   The seven vowels.
In Yoruba lang., the tone marks are used to differenciate words. Each syllable in a yoruba word must have it's own tone mark.
There are three tone marks in the Yoruba lang. They are: DO(\), RE, MI(/).  Notice that I didn't put anything in parenthesis for "RE", that is because when a syllable has a "RE" sound, we don't put anything on the vowel.
The tone marks are, again,  put only on vowels.

For example-- The word -- "Ara"(skin/body) has only two syllables (A and RA), which means it's gonna have 2 tone marks.
The first tone mark is gonna be on the first  "A" and the second tone mark is gonna be on the other "A".

The tone marks for this word are "RE" "RE", which means it will be written as --"ara" --no sign needed (Remember what I said earlier)

But, as for the word "Ara"(thunder), the pitches here are diff., which means diff. tone marks. The tone mark for this one is "DO" "MI".  It's gonna be written as " àrá ".


If you need additional--i'll be glad to help.

BABE!:

The tone-marks are put only on the vowels -- A, E, E(with the dot beneath it), I, O, O(with the dot beneath it), U. The seven vowels.
In Yoruba lang., the tone marks are used to differenciate words. Each syllable in a yoruba word must have it's own tone mark.
There are three tone marks in the Yoruba lang. They are: DO(\), RE, MI(/). Notice that I didn't put anything in parenthesis for "RE", that is because when a syllable has a "RE" sound, we don't put anything on the vowel.
The tone marks are, again, put only on vowels.

For example-- The word -- "Ara"(skin/body) has only two syllables (A and RA), which means it's gonna have 2 tone marks.
The first tone mark is gonna be on the first "A" and the second tone mark is gonna be on the other "A".

The tone marks for this word are "RE" "RE", which means it will be written as --"ara" --no sign needed (Remember what I said earlier)

But, as for the word "Ara"(thunder), the pitches here are diff., which means diff. tone marks. The tone mark for this one is "DO" "MI". It's gonna be written as " àrá ".


If you need additional--i'll be glad to help.

BABE!:

^ If you need anything else---bring it.

Booshman:


Lightning -- monamona pronounced as moh-nor-moh-nor (intonation = do do mi mi)

Soul -- Okan pronounced as hor-kon (intonation = mi do)

Blade -- Abe fele pronounced as harbea- feh-leh (intonation = re re mi mi)

Guardian -- Alagbato pronounced as ha-la-gba-tor (intonation = re mi do mi)

firestar:

I commend you for aiming at accuracy especially when it comes to a culture like ours. Mark my words, your work will pass through alot fiery tests here and other Yoruba speaking groups elsewhere because as with other cultures, we are proud of it.

ikooko:

Hello Booshman, am a Yorubaman, above is my contribution. Hope you find it useful.

rabzy:

Conquer- Segun (shell without the 'll' and 'gun' as in japanese 'shogun'

rabzy:

if you go to youtube search for yoruba movies, you will recognize and get to hear some of these words pronounced.

Booshman:

That's actually an interesting comment, because I actually prefer many Nigerian movies over many American ones. Simply because the actual acting is really good, in comparison to how stale and emotionless many American actors are. And while I'm typing, about a half hour ago, I hit another temporary creative roadblock because I didn't know these four words:
Shift (as in the body movement)
Shock (as in an electric shock)
Silver
Blood
This happens a lot, if you haven't noticed. All because I'm just that devoted to being accurate.

rabzy:

Blood-Eje, i.e e as in air, je as in je-lly.