Igbo and the Yoruba people are brothers and sisters who used to live together as members of the same community.

Osariemen12:



Don't mind them. They only claim us to get the number for their own political gains. We're wiser now. Jonathan's defeat in southwest and Obaseki's re-election bid exposed many things about their cunning nature. To be honest with you, everyone in Benin City today understands that it is better to have no political ally than to have them as one.

Before now, our votes have always aligned with them but I can't remember one project executed in Edo State by the Obasanjo administration despite our massive support. We've decided to stand alone or join forces with the old eastern region just like Delta State has done and has never regretted doing so.

We can trust the Igbo man better than them. Let them keep writing nonsense about Edo State because we rejected their evil party.

duro4chang:
I am surprised at your outburst against yoruba. Tony Aninih was a minister of works under obasanjo. What did he do for edo? Igbinedion was your governor for 8 years with nothing to show

Osariemen12:


And which state in Nigeria had no minister under Obasanjo? You are trying to tell us it's the minister who decides the location of a project ahead of the president.

Maybe someone will wake up one day and ask you what Aregbe did for Osun as a minister apart from announcing public holidays.

Every governor works in his own capacity with Igbinedion to no exception. What did Edo gain from our massive support for Obasanjo, a Yoruba man.

MimiSheWrote:
Lol people are really naive... You only need common sense to know that OP is making sense... Cos an apple doesn't fall far away from its tree.

Yoruba and Igbo are too close geographically not to have shared the same ancestors or language at some point... Language evolves faster than you can imagine.

If you managed to travel back in time to about 2000 years ago as an Igbo or yoruba, I doubt you would understand a single word coming out of your ancestors mouth.

The only sad thing about we Africans is that our history wasn't properly documented. Just some embarrassing mythical stories

duro4chang:
Tony ,Igbinedion are edo. Jonathan is from SS. They are not yoruba yet they could not do anything for Edo. One will expect you to attack them not yoruba for absence of project in Edo. Obasanjo did nothing for Ogun state too. Let us all be objective. Yoruba, Hausa, Edo etc are not the problem but bad leadership and followership.

Osariemen12:



True as your words are, no one should criticise us for our present political leaning and alignment for we had no benefits in the ones we've had with the people who called us BROTHER. I refuse to agree we are though.

duro4chang:
All right. It is good to jaw jaw than to war war.

Osariemen12:


Acknowledged. Peace unto your household.

duro4chang:
What has yoruba done for you? I was told yoruba and Edo are related and also united

Olu317:
Leave these pro Yoruba/Ibo ancient relationship theorists.

All these linguistic relationship between ibo and Yoruba came to be a result of Igala influx into Eastern Region. And the time frame is about six hundred years or thereabout.

There is no iota of doubt about this fact. Core linguistic comparison between Yoruba and Ibo is farfetched.

Olu317:
Leave these pro Yoruba/Ibo ancient relationship theorists.

All these linguistic relationship between ibo and Yoruba came to be a result of Igala influx into Eastern Region. And the time frame is about six hundred years or thereabout.

There is no iota of doubt about this fact. Core linguistic comparison between Yoruba and Ibo is farfetched.

duro4chang:
That means both tribes have nothing in common

UGBE634:
Igala not Edo, thank you because some of the words for something as basic as body parts,sleep etc between Edo and yoruba/Igbo seem to be starkly different

Olu317:
I will never never state such. But certainly, people who fled Igodomigodo during Oranyan invasion were a bridge between Yoruba and Ibo/Eastern Igbo. The Kaaba Igala interaction seal it more.

Infact there are Abia indgenes (some Ohafia people)who claimed they migrated from Idanre axis many centuries ago to their new homestead.

And it can be clearly understood the reason there are people trying to forcefully claim Yoruba and Ibo were of the same stock when infact, the cause of such was a result of close proximity through intermarriages. Anything outside this is on emotional basis.

duro4chang:
We learn everyday.

Olu317:


Infact there are Abia indgenes (some Ohafia people)who claimed they migrated from Idanre axis many centuries ago to their new homestead.

duro4chang:
We learn everyday.

macof:

Lmao. You didn't see a better person to learn from.

seeme2:
Igbo people came from Ile-Ife. Both the Ooni and Obi of Onitsha agree on that.

seeme2:
Igbo people came from Ile-Ife. Both the Ooni and Obi of Onitsha agree on that.

AjaanaOka:

Who are these Abia indigenes that claim they migrated from Idanre axis? I am aware of more recent claims by Ohafia to have come from Benin. I call them recent claims, by the way, because the claims appeared on record questionably recently, and are not contained in older documentations of the Ohafia origin story.

Idanre origins in Abia, I've never heard before. Where did you source this information from?

Olu317:
You may not had heard but people know their history. State formation is with its dynamism.

And I expect people to do more research here on any information being posted on what I posted on Ohaafia people. It is important to note here that the whole of Ohafia didn't come from Idanre axis.

And importantly, I didn't posit here that Ohafia are Yorubas but that historically, some groups are posited to had migrated from Yoruba axis

My question is,how intelligible is Ohaafia dialect is to central Ibo language ?

How many other Ibo/Igbo speaking groups hears Ohaafia(spelling my be wrong )dialects ?

Olu317:
You may not had heard but people know their history. State formation is with its dynamism.

And I expect people to do more research here on any information being posted on what I posted on Ohaafia people. It is important to note here that the whole of Ohafia didn't come from Idanre axis.

And importantly, I didn't posit here that Ohafia are Yorubas but that historically, some groups are posited to had migrated from Yoruba axis.

My question is,how intelligible is Ohaafia dialect is to central Ibo language ?

How many other Ibo/Igbo speaking groups hears Ohaafia(spelling my be wrong )dialects ?

AjaanaOka:


All I got from this rather circuitous part of your response is that there are no such claims of Idanre pedigree in Ohafia, otherwise you wouldn't have had any problems discussing your source(s), or at least defending the 'theory' with anthropological/ethnological/linguistic facts. Thank you.



You actually didn't answer my own question about how you came about the claim of Idanre descent in Ohafia. However, I'll answer yours. I am from Awka in Anambra State, but grew up in Enugu, where our next door neighbours were a nice Ohafia family. They spoke the Enugu Township dialect that everyone else there spoke, but when their relatives visited from Ohafia, they spoke the Ohafia dialect with them. Yes, it wasn't easy to understand them, but when they spoke slowly, it was considerably easier. We made fun of some of the differences in the way they said things. For example, when they said "Come and bathe", it sounded like, "Come and drink water". And their word for "sorry" , sounded like "vehicle" to us. All in all, I could converse with their relatives if they spoke slowly and if a random strange word here and there were explained to me.

The thing to understand about Igbo, as with other dialect continuums including your own Yoruba, is that mutual intelligibility decreases as you move away from the centre towards the periphery. Ohafia is on the periphery of the Igbo-speaking space, on the border with the Ibibioid groups. Other Igbo-speaking people in that axis (including Abiriba, Arochukwu, Item, even Bende etc) will have no difficulty holding a conversation with an Ohafia man. As you move from that periphery into the hinterland from the Ohafia axis, mutual intelligibility progressively drops, until mutual intelligibility becomes noticeably low. But nowhere along the line does intelligibility break down completely.

This is not much different from the Yoruba-speaking space, where an Ikale man may not have the easiest of time holding a conversation with an Ibarapa man, but the same Ikale man may converse with greater ease with people from nearby dialect areas like Owo or Ijebu.

Probz:


What Yoruba axis would Ohafia people have migrated from if that’s the case?

I feel like there’s a certain synergy between certain parts of Imo State and Ekiti/Oyo Yorubas in some very distant way (purple introverted intuition tells me so) but Ohafia people are more Cross River than anything else non-Igbo. I mean, look at you. You can’t even spell Ohafia properly.

Napata77:
Historians and anthropologists have long known that Igbo and Yoruba are just linguistic derivatives of an original shared super language. Other language groups in Nigeria and the West African sub-region may also be speaking derivatives of this ancient super language we once shared.

Nothing proves these connections more than the multiplicity of words and meanings shared by the two ethnic groups, Yoruba and Igbo.

It also proves that there was a time when these two groups were ONE, and that Igbos and Yorubas are brothers and sisters from deepest antiquity.


By Kelechi Wachuku

Linguist & Anthropologist


This isn’t a fully comprehensive list, but these include a fair number of words and other similarities. [1] The Igbo word comes first with the corresponding Yoruba word right after.

Here’s a list of many cognates and similar words:

Animals:

ikwiikwii (Igbo) = owl
owiwi (Yoruba) = owl
agu (Igbo) = leopard
ẹkun (Yoruba) = leopard
adịdị (Igbo) =young female fowl, hen
adie (Yoruba) =fowl, hen
ehi/efi (Igbo) = cow
efon (Yoruba) = buffalo
ewu = goat
ewúrẹ= goat
azụ = fish
eja = fish
enyi = elephant
erin = elephant

Other similar words that may be the result of borrowing (Animals):

toro toro = turkey
tolotolo = turkey

Body Parts/Words Relating to the Body:

ọnụ = mouth
ẹnu = mouth
ire = tongue
ede = tongue, especially in the sense of "language."
ntị = ear
eti = ear
agba=chin
agbọn=chin
ụbụrụ = brain
ọpọlọ = brain
aka = hand
ika = finger
ikiaka = elbow
ejika = elbow
imi = nose
imu = nose
isi = head
ori = head
ụkwụ = foot, leg
-kun in “orokun” = knee
ezé = tooth
eyin/ehin = tooth
afọ = stomach
ifun = intestines
ike = buttocks, anus
ikun = stomach
ọkpụkpụ = bone/skeleton
egungun = bone/skeleton
olu = neck
ọrun = neck
ọdụ = tail
iru = tail

Miscellaneous:

ri = eat
jẹ = eat
bịa = come
wa = come
ogo = height
iga = height
obi = heart, king
ọba = king
ume = breath, energy
imi = breath
also umi in central yoruba (same meaning)
okwu = speech, word, utterance
ohun = voice, utterance
uche= mind
ọkan = mind
úgwù = circumcision
egun = circumcision (seldom used)
ọría = disease
arun/aarun = disease
also related to yoruba aarẹ and arirẹ
ụra = sleep
orun = sleep
nso nso = menstruate
osuosu = menstruate
gba= shoot in igbo
gba = kick in yoruba (used in certain expressions)
ogwu = thorn
ẹgun = thorn
re = sell
ra = buy

Similar Words (likely due to borrowing):

iba=fever
iba=fever

Possible cognates:

ikiri ụkwụ = heel
igigirisẹ = heel
akụ́ = arrow (1 of 2 possible words for “arrow”).
ọkọ = spear

Numbers:

atọ = three
ẹta/(m)ẹta = three
anọ = four
ẹrin/(m)ẹrin = four
Many Igbo words, especially numbers, are prefixed by a “ke-” or sometimes “nke” when they become adjectives. A similar process is seen in Yoruba numbers.
nke atọ, keanọ, keise, nke isii, keọkara = 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, half in Igbo
kẹta/ikẹta, kẹrin/ikẹrin, karun/ikarun, kẹfa/ikẹfa = 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th in Yoruba

Possible Cognates:

abụọ = two
(m)eji = two
Words with “-j-“ in Yoruba (IPA: -dʒ-) frequently evolved from -b-“ in Yoruba as a result of palatalization. So, words like “eje (blood)” were once “ebye.” Thus, “-ji” in “eji” may have at one point been something like “ebye” or “ebyi,” which would be more similar to “abụọ.”

Pronouns:

ọ or o= he/she/it (3rd person subject pronoun)
o or ó = he/she/it (3rd person subject pronoun)
oun/ọ or also un = he/she/it
m/mụ = I/me (1st person singular subject and object)
also mean "my" if put after, say, a noun.
aka m(ụ) = my hand
mo = I (1st person singular subject)
mi = me (1st person singular object)
also mean "my" if put after, say, a noun.
ika mi = my finger
emi = 1st person singular emphatic.
ha = they
(a)wọn = they
ụnụ = you (plural)
ẹyin = you (plural)
gini = what
ki(ni) = what
Land Features/Environment:

ala = land
ile = land in yoruba
okute/okwute = stone/rock
okuta = stone/rock
afufe = wind
ifufe = wind
oyi = cold
oyii = wind in Central Yoruba
osisi = tree/plant
ose = fruit

Similar Words (likely due to borrowing):

ọka = corn
ọkà = grain/wheat yoruba

Possible Cognates:

ji = yam
iṣu = yam
ụwa = earth in igbo
yoruba cognates (iwa, wiwa, hardly used except for in names, like Oluwa); (oni/olu = owner, “oluwa=owner of the earth”), oduduwa (great one who created the earth) (odu=great or mighty one→ god sent down from heaven in ile ife) (pg 148)[2]

Above: Oduduwa

ebe = place
ibi = place
ugwu = moutain/hill
oke = mountain
(m)miri = water
omi = water in Yoruba

Religious/Community Terms:

ute = mat
itẹ=throne in yoruba
ife = to worship, to wave, to adore
ife = love, desire, affection in yoruba
afa = divination, sorcery
ọfọ = mourning, sorcery
ifá = divination
ụlọ=house in igbo
ile/ule=house in yoruba
ilu = city in yoruba
ụlọ mmụọ/ụlọ nsọ = shrine
ileumole/ileorisha = shrine
mmụọ = spirit
ụmọle = another word for any generic god in Central Yoruba
ẹmi also means spirit, life, soul in yoruba
ọlịsa = God in some Igbo dialects
also alụshị/alụsị = minor god in standard Igbo
orisha = god in yoruba
uru = gain, profit
ere = gain, profit
efu = free (adverb)
ofo = free, as in “ṣ’ofo” (yoruba)
osi/isi/esi = cook in igbo
ase = cook in yoruba
apo=bag in yoruba
akpa=bag in igbo

Possible Cognates:

ígwè = iron
ogun = Yoruba god of iron
(eke)le = greeting
(iki)ni = greeting

Family/Interpersonal Words:

ụmụ = children
ọmọ = child
nwa=child
ewe=child, youth in certain dialects
oyi = companion, friend, lover
aayo = favorite, preferable, beloved person, favorite person, favorite wife
ọká=expert or distinguished indivual (oka mgba=wrestler)
ọgá = boss
ọgbọ = age-mate
ẹgbẹ = age-mate
“emeka bu ogbo m(ụ)” (Igbo) = Emeka’s my agemate
“egbe mi ni emeka” or “emeka jẹ egbe mi” (Yoruba)= Emeka’s my age-mate

Note: egbe is now commonly used for group, association, or guild, and in igbo, ọgbọ can mean generation.

oru/ohu = job, labor, duty, employment, slave
ẹru = slave
oke = man, male, masculine
akọ= man, male, masculine
onye = one who, who, person
eniyan = person, human
also ẹni/ọni/ ọniyan in Central Yoruba
ọni can mean “one who” in yoruba, as in “oniwaasu” (preacher/one who preaches)
nwuye = wife
-aya/iyawo = wife
nwanyị = woman, female person, wife
-aya/iyawo = wife
iko = adultery
ọkọ=husband
nta = marksmanship/hunting
ụta = bow in igbo
ọta = marksman, shooter
ịyaa = mother, aunt, term of deference for an elder cousin who was one’s nanny
iya = mother, term of deference for an elderly woman
agha = war
ogun = war
ebo = clan, kindred, lineage, tribe
ẹbi = family

https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-similar-words-in-the-Igbo-and-Yoruba-Languages

Napata77:
.
.
My Submission that Yoruba, Igbo Have The Same Parent Language – Aremo


A retired Associate Professor of English and ex-Head, Department of English, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Dr. Bolaji Aremo, talks about his research findings that Yoruba and Igbo languages had the same parent language.

INTERVIEW

You stated in your book ‘How Yoruba and Igbo Became Different Languages’ published in 2009, that the two languages are historically from the same parent language. How is this so?

We can conclude that two or more languages are historically derived from the same parent language when we compare the languages and find in both of them very many basic vocabulary words that are similar in sound and in meaning. For example: Igbo imi/ Yoruba imu = ‘nose’; Igbo nti/Yoruba eti = ‘ear’; Igbo onu/ Yoruba enu = ‘mouth’; etc. Basic vocabulary words are essential words, such as words for body parts, for which every human language normally has its own native equivalents.

Thus, for instance, it is not likely that the Yoruba examples just given can originally have been borrowed from Igbo, or that the Igbo examples can originally have been borrowed from Yoruba. And so, the very many vocabulary words which are similar in sound and in meaning found across Igbo and Yoruba can only have resulted from the fact that the two languages are indeed from one and the same parent language.

What are some of the linguistic correlations manifest in the two languages to underscore the findings?

The most easily identified indication of genetic relationship between two languages is found at the vocabulary level. And as just explained, there must be a substantial number of basic vocabulary words similar in sound and in meaning which are found across the languages that are thought to be the daughter languages to a prehistoric parent language. Of course, we can also find additional manifestations of the genetic relationship elsewhere in the languages, especially at the sub-level of morphology, which deals with the structure or forms of the words.

Does it mean that the two tribes were of the same ancestral stock?

What can indeed be inferred from our historical linguistic findings is that they used to live in prehistoric times in the same community, in the same restricted culture area. But there are strong suggestions from both Igbo and Yoruba oral traditions that the two ethnic groups were of the same ancestral stock.

You further claimed that many West African languages such as Igbo, Yoruba, Bini, Ewe and Twi are genetically related. In what areas are the noticeable similarities since Yoruba is regarded as a highly tonal language?

It has, in fact, been the claim of linguists that Igbo, Yoruba, Bini, etc. are all tonal languages, and are all genetically related. That is to say, they are all languages in which word meanings are dependent on such voice pitch levels as High [/] and Low [\]. Thus, for instance, depending on the tones used, the Yoruba word ojo could mean ‘rain’, ‘cowardice’, or ‘name given to a type of male child’. Similarly, depending on the tones used, the Igbo word ala could mean (among other things) ‘madness’, ‘breast’, ‘ground’, or ‘bottom’. There must also be other similarities that can be found among them all, since the linguists’ claim is also that they are actually all genetically related. But until more thoroughgoing research like the one on Yoruba and Igbo is undertaken, we cannot say in quite concrete terms what the similarities are like between Igbo or Yoruba on the one hand and any one of the other West African languages on the other hand.

In the book, you noted that it would in fact be absolutely right to conclude not only that Igbo and Yoruba used to be one language, but also that the Igbo and the Yoruba people are brothers and sisters who used to live together as members of the same community. Historically, where did the two tribes inhabit before separation and what caused the division?

From the totality of the historical linguistic evidence available, the conclusion can be reached that they lived together in Ile-Ife. Then, of course, it cannot have been the case that some of the people living together in Ile-Ife were known as ‘’Igbo’’ and the others as ‘’Yoruba’’.

The terms ‘’Igbo’’ and ‘’Yoruba’’ were acquired not too long ago, i.e centuries after the separation had taken place. What caused the separation? The answer to that lies deep in prehistory, beyond the reach of our historical linguistic tools. What seems clear, however, is that those were times when a group of friends or relations could, from sheer love of adventure or freedom to do one thing or another their own way, decide to emigrate to some strange unoccupied lands and start off their own pet kingdom.

To what would you attribute the marked differences in the syntactic structure and the other linguistic variations in both languages if they used to be one?

Like other things which endure in time, language is constantly changing, though slowly. Therefore, if two or more groups of speakers of a language are separated and prevented in some way from communicating with one another, each of the groups will eventually develop its own version of the original language.

After a long period of time, the various versions of the original language developed by the different groups will become so different from one another that they will be mutually unintelligible, i.e. they will for all practical purposes become separate languages and there will be nothing like the original language in existence. It may be pointed out, however, that when the changes in the different versions are not so great as to block mutual intelligibility, they are just regarded as regional dialects of the original language.

Thus, Oyo, Ekiti, Egba, Owo, Ife, etc. are just regional Yoruba dialects, because their different speakers can still manage to understand one another, even when they speak the actual dialects and not the general, communicative norm (based mainly on the Oyo dialect). For the same reason, Ahoada, Bende, Ika (Western Igbo), Ikwerre, Owere (Owerri), Onicha (Onitsha), etc., are just regional dialects of Igbo. But Yoruba and Igbo, which were originally dialectal versions of the same language, are now different languages because they are no longer mutually intelligible. The original parent language, the proto-Yoruba/Igbo language, no longer exists.

Would you agree with the declaration of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, during the 2019 Aje festival that the Igbo and the Yoruba are aboriginal to Ife?

Oh, absolutely! From the available historical linguistic evidence, the Ooni must be right. I understand a spokesperson for the Ohanaeze has said the Igbo were the first settlers in Ile-Ife, and that the Yoruba later came to join them there. ....

In the book, you advised the two ethnic groups to “for the good of all, try and jettison their patently counter-productive legacy of mutual distrust and once again relate with one another as real brothers and sisters.’’ How do you think this can be achieved considering the disturbing deepening distrust and disagreement between the two ethnic groups?

It is indeed a shame that two of the most highly educated and enlightened ethnic groups in the black world, the Yoruba and the Igbo, can allow themselves and their children to be hooked on the counter-productive legacy of mutual distrust. It is very unfortunate. I think it is all political rivalry of the self-defeating type.

And they have been at it right from the Zik/Awo election quarrel of 1951, working at cross purposes ever since, even at critical moments when their working together would have steered our country away from the murky depths in which we have all been wallowing till today. I would like to believe that common sense will soon prevail, and members of the two groups will once again be relating with one another as real brothers and sisters – for the good of all!

https://punchng.com/my-submission-that-yoruba-igbo-have-same-parent-language-not-political-aremo/#:~:text=But%20Yoruba%20and%20Igbo%2C%20which,Igbo%20language%2C%20no%20longer%20exists.

https://www.africanbookscollective.com/books/how-yoruba-and-igbo-became-different-languages