Right now we celebrate christmas all over the world.
But how do you call christmas in your local dialect?

In my father tongue Idoma we call it "esimesi"

In my mother tongue yoruba it's "ekeresimesi"

Now you know.
Let's hear yours

Ekeresimesi in Igbo. Surprised it's the same in Yoruba.

Kérésìmesì in Yoruba

Does anybody even use these expressions? Even old uneducated people in the most isolated villages in Igboland will not say ekeresimesi. At best what you may hear is 'kirisimaasi'.

Surely it’s easier to just say Christmas.

In Igbo it is "ụ̀ká kíríīsí"... Means Christ Mass
Ụka is mass or church service whilst kíríīsí is the transliteration of Christ, implying look/gaze (at the) head

Keresimesi

I think in hausa it's called "krismati"

All these elongated versions of Christmas are just adaptations of the word itself as the world knows it. Saying otherwise is like claiming that osikapa is an indigenous Igbo word for rice when, in-fact, Igbo and Igala (who share the term, likewise for okpa Waawa) borrowed it from Hausa (shinkafa). Not every term needs to be nichely-adapted. People in conc. villages are capable of pronouncing “Christmas.”

“oshikapa jelloffu.” It’s jollof rice, man. There’s no shame or over-ajeboness in saying it normally. There’s no harm in adding a touch of crayfish (no matter what Flo. Chinyere - as good as she is generally - says) but there’s no harm in using a term what’s just easier on the tongue.

RedboneSmith:
Does anybody even use these expressions? Even old uneducated people in the most isolated villages in Igboland will not say ekeresimesi. At best what you may hear is 'kirisimaasi'.

Do me a favour and ask it louder for the people in t’back. Honestly, man. If I wanted a tongue-twister I’d just go with Peter Piper.

Probz:
All these elongated versions of Christmas are just adaptations of the word itself as the world knows it. Saying otherwise is like claiming that osikapa is an indigenous Igbo word for rice when, in-fact, Igbo and Igala (who share the term, likewise for okpa Waawa) borrowed it from Hausa (shinkafa). Not every term needs to be nichely-adapted. People in conc. villages are capable of pronouncing “Christmas.”

“oshikapa jelloffu.” It’s jollof rice, man. There’s no shame or over-ajeboness in saying it normally. There’s no harm in adding a touch of crayfish (no matter what Flo. Chinyere - as good as she is generally - says) but there’s no harm in using a term what’s just easier on the tongue.

you have a point, but some words don't have local interpretation so we just use adaptations like the hausa "mangoro" for mango gwaiba for guava. I think that's where christmas comes in.

cheruv:
In Igbo it is "ụ̀ká kíríīsí"... Means Christ Mass
Ụka is mass or church service whilst kíríīsí is the transliteration of Christ, implying look/gaze (at the) head

This looks like your personal coinage. You should emphasise that so that readers don't go thinking Igbo people actually say this. Neither in written Igbo Izugbe nor in the spoken forms have I ever seen anyone use uka kiriisi.

MandelaLives:
Ekeresimesi in Igbo. Surprised it's the same in Yoruba.

There are some words that's almost the same with both language

Ewu: Goat
Ewure: Goat

Iba: Fever
Iba: Fever

etc

RedboneSmith:


This looks like your personal coinage. You should emphasise that so that readers don't go thinking Igbo people actually say this. Neither in written Igbo Izugbe nor in the spoken forms have I ever seen anyone use uka kiriisi.

Moreover only a certain number of Igbos (maybe 50-55%) are Catholic in the first place. I understand a personal pan-Igbo coinage being derived from that in the ’80s but beyond that (literally) I wouldn’t ascribe mass to anyone other than Ireland, the raggedy side of Rome and t’pope.

yesloaded:


There are some words that's almost the same with both language

Ewu: Goat
Ewure: Goat

Iba: Fever
Iba: Fever

etc

Igboid, Edoid and Yoruboid languages (with Igbo probably being the oldest of all branch-derivatives, especially the Awka, and to a lesser extent Nri, prototype/s) all share a common ancestral root so it is what it is. There’s definitely more to the Igbo-Yoruba relation than what needs the eye but over-tribalism and lack of documentation means that those differences go untapped and it’s a shame.

Probz:


Igboid, Edoid and Yoruboid languages (with Igbo probably being the oldest of all branch-derivatives, especially the Awka, and to a lesser extent Nri, prototype/s) all share a common ancestral root so it is what it is. There’s definitely more to the Igbo-Yoruba relation than what needs the eye but over-tribalism and lack of documentation means that those differences go untapped and it’s a shame.

I don talk am before say all these Nairaland Igbo and Yoruba people bickering here just dey deceive themselves. Dem be brother and sister.

Yoruba demon nor dey use eye see Ngozi, Nkechi, Chichi, Adaobi and co. Dem go lose their sense. Na so Chinedu and Ifeanyi dey lust after the ample back instrument of Bolanle, Bose and Modinatu.

Make dem resolve their fierce political competition make 9ia for settle. North dey take advantage of this division.

AreaFada2:

I don talk am before say all these Nairaland Igbo and Yoruba people bickering here just dey deceive themselves. Dem be brother and sister.

Yoruba demon nor dey use eye see Ngozi, Nkechi, Chichi, Adaobi and co. Dem go lose their sense. Na so Chinedu and Ifeanyi dey lust after the ample back instrument of Bolanle, Bose and Modinatu.

Make dem resolve their fierce political competition make 9ia for settle. North dey take advantage of this division.

I’m still torn between Nigeria and Biafra but yeah. Pretty much.