One of the most impressive thing about the Yoruba language is it's scientific nature. It has the ability to validate scientific inputs if new finding is linguistically correct or accurate.

Last time I tried to establish "ro', it led me to discover ancient Yoruba understanding of the water cycle. Something like it is also in the offing: the Yoruba language is scientific.

A scientific language is a thinking language. "Ìwò", which is a variant of ewo is the direct opposite of the subject matter. Assume where Ewo means "entry barred", Iwo would mean "entry".

Oduduwa Atewonro

Now in ancient Yoruba, ewon is not the same as prison, instead it's a chain. A good instance is the case of Paul and Silas. They were chained and thrown in jail, but the fetters became straws, or broke up like straw.

Exactly what it means that Oduduwa a te ewo/ewon ro. To be imprisoned in ancient times, you are first tied, then thrown to the prison. That's breaking the law and facing the justice. The law is E-wo, the justice system is E-won. That's how claims agrees to make fact.

E wo is identical with ko-wo or "ko boju mu", or "ko sun won". Ko sun won means "ko sun iwon". Meaning it doesn't sleep on the zero degree of the standard. Both ewo and ewon were legal terms. E-wo is deep rooted in Yoruba antiquity, likewise E-won.

E wo is the penal code. If you break the penal code, you will stand before the scale where your actions will be measured. Won is to go through trial, metaphorically. As such, the first stage is to break E-wo, then face E-won.

In order words, won is identical with scale or the rule of law, something that cannot be compromised. E wo is akin to an ancient agreement or a primitive form of constitution, it was established by one ancient Yoruba ancestor known as Orisa, hence it's said "E-wo Orisa".

Won in Yoruba can mean break, it's a case where something metallic with a handle break off from the point it's sold to the body. In that sense, we can say "owo ajiga yen ti won" meaning, the handle of the bucket is broken.

The other sense of won is to be expensive, because when place on scale, the mass becomes "massive" or "grossly" and "costly" by implication. Won is to tilt the measurements upward in a scale against the standard.

Iwon is to drag down the balance against the standard, as if the count of the crime will be read against the degree displaced by each count of whatever represent the weight of the crime dropped in the weighing cup against the standard. The standard will be point zero degree

Ìwò As Hook

In Yoruba, the word Iwo also stands for "hook". As a result, the sensibility of this meaning is that it's the "entry" point that the fish swallows. It is what "enter" into the fishes mouth.

Observe how this is used in a proverb: "mofinu wenu, mo jewo" (I took every motive as mine and ate the poison) here, the speaker had a friendly disposition to all, believing everyone who are in his life were good friends, he ended up being poisoned.

The poison here is not majele but iwo, which is a killer-hook disguised as treat from a friend (an enemy pretending to be a friend). The unsuspecting victim ate the Iwo only to realize his mistake at the point of death.

Majele is quite different from Iwo: majele kills instantly, it is majele because the person who eat it won't eat another. But Iwo incapacitate the victim and make him a captive to the adversary. As such, the difference is clear.

Iwo As Question Mark

Then there's something about the shape of the hook, it looks like question mark. Question mark looks like "iko". Iko is prefix in "ikoti" a weapon ascribed to the Ota, possibly a variation of ele in [Iganmode a]fele ja.

Now let's look at this together, when the Yoruba says "nko", it's a question, a different form of "question" is "abi", "ibere" or "ibini". A dialectic variation is Ijesha's "siko" and another, "wo" among the Awori.

Then if you grew up before the millennium, we used to say "asko o" and make a sign of the hand with it. It equally looks like the question mark or sickle. All these reminisces the question mark.

Iko, curve, sickle, siko, asko, wo, bend. This is not the only place you have sometthing like that, the phenomenon abounds. The harrower looks like number seven, it is called akoro in Yoruba, meaning "dash and slant": a~ that which, ko~ hook up, ro~ bend.

absoluteSuccess:
Osuwon: The meeting point

Justice is Osuwon in the sense that, it is the balance of deed. Do the crime, serve the term. So, the Yoruba would say "Osuwon e kotii kun" (your cup is yet to be filled) to mean, you are still enjoying the time of grace.

This is an evidence that the metaphor derived from a justice system accurately depicted by today's judicial system with an image holding an ancient scale in one hand and sword in the other hand.

This justice system is not alien to the ancient Yoruba. It existed somewhere in Yoruba history. In fact, it's exactly this same scenario that Jesus was alluding to, when he answered the mother of Zebedee.

"If they were able to drink from the cup that I will drink from" or when he prayed at the garden of Gethsemane, that "if this cup will pass over me, but thy will be done". The cup is figurative of trial, or the scale cup.

Ofin: rule
Olofin: ruler
Arufin: defaulter
Afin: Court
Aafin: Yoruba palace.

Sewon: to be wanting before the scale; 'Se' inequity, not measured up to, "not fit in". Ese, excess, a degree of want against the scale when the item that is equivalent of the crime is dropped in the measuring cup.

Wò As Content ~ With Won As Context

Another angle is wò, to enter. This is the angle that implies "content". Here, Iwo is what goes inside a container. Iwo is the unit of item that goes into the container, while iwon is the total number of items that the container can take or the "volume" of the container itself.

At the end, iwo is like the inbound item and the container used to do the measurements is iwon. Therefore, Iwo and E-won technically describe relationship between "inbound" and "inlet".

The difference is that Iwo could be a thing or many things, at which point Iwo becomes iwon: in the same vein, iwonba thus means "a moderate measure". Moderate is "iba" in this combination, and also moderate is a function of quantity.

Iwon is therefore a measure of quantity. Won is the scalar calibration of measurements that a container can carry. This is not immediately visible linguistically. Compare the sentence "E won De Rica rice meji" meaning, "measure 2 derica of rice".

Won in Yoruba language is measurements of all kinds. As a result, E-won is not actually prison in "the prison", but the "measure of term" that the convict will serve. Iwo is to initiate the measurements by commiting a crime, whereby, ewo is the inertia.

Now let's look at Iwo as meaning "entry": it's this clear that Iwo is nesting, which if apply to a human being would mean solitary confinement. Iwo is therefore to enter into (trouble) legal wise, hence it's said "o ti wo gau".

Iwo and ewon are thus composite ancient legal terms. Iwo is the content, while iwon is the context in which the content is served. Iwo is the content, iwon is the volume of content to a container.

On the other hand, Ewo is "the deterrent" that negates iwo, while owo is the "immunity" that prevents someone from becoming a victim of the law, as Oluwo. In extension, owo is divine immunity against accident, attacks from criminal elements or malevolence forces.

Now if you are painstakingly tracking Yoruba language and it's semantics, given that you are accurate in your work, then provident will guide you on. Note where I claimed "won" means "break" of an iron?

The reward

There are 16 ancient chapters of Ifa, each is coined from words derived from recess of classic events in ancient Yoruba history. For instance, the sixth chapter of Ifa is named "owonrin meji". The question is, what is owonrin?

Well it's a good piece of clause. However, owonrin has fascinated our fathers of old and priests of ancient Yoruba who have tried to interpret the clause with anecdotes to be found in Ifa.

One of such systematically interpret owonrin in half as "scarcity". But going by the sense of the phrase, owonrin doesn't have anything to do with scarcity.

Rather, owonrin simply implies "iron breaker". That's a phrase that has been formed from the ancient Yoruba idea of divine justice, a strong hero that cannot be shackled in iron or imprisonment.

Now, going by this discovery, the thought that a shackle breaker tradition exist in Yoruba of old validate my claim on ateworo.

absoluteSuccess:
Oduduwa Atewonro

Now in ancient Yoruba, ewon is not the same as prison, instead it's a chain. A good instance is the case of Paul and Silas. They were chained and thrown in jail, but the fetters became straws, or broke up like straw.

Exactly what it means that Oduduwa a te ewo/ewon ro. To be imprisoned in ancient times, you are first tied, then thrown to the prison. That's breaking the law and facing the justice. The law is E-wo, the justice system is E-won. That's how claims agrees to make fact.

E wo is identical with ko-wo or "ko boju mu", or "ko sun won". Ko sun won means "ko sun iwon". Meaning it doesn't sleep on the zero degree of the standard. Both ewo and ewon were legal terms. E-wo is deep rooted in Yoruba antiquity, likewise E-won.

E wo is the penal code. If you break the penal code, you will stand before the scale where your actions will be measured. Won is to go through trial, metaphorically. As such, the first stage is to break E-wo, then face E-won.

In order words, won is identical with scale or the rule of law, something that cannot be compromised. E wo is akin to an ancient agreement or a primitive form of constitution, it was established by one ancient Yoruba ancestor known as Orisa, hence it's said "E-wo Orisa".

Won in Yoruba can mean break, it's a case where something metallic with a handle break off from the point it's sold to the body. In that sense, we can say "owo ajiga yen ti won" meaning, the handle of the bucket is broken.

The other sense of won is to be expensive, because when place on scale, the mass becomes "massive" or "grossly" and "costly" by implication. Won is to tilt the measurements upward in a scale against the standard.

Iwon is to drag down the balance against the standard, as if the count of the crime will be read against the degree displaced by each count of whatever represent the weight of the crime dropped in the weighing cup against the standard. The standard will be point zero degree

The bolded is the context from where the phrase owonrin was coined. The verb is almost obsolete.

Won as "break" is the source code for Owonrin, combined with irin, Yoruba for iron. The phrase became an entry in Ifa as of old.

The priests of old could not break the phrase because the source of the phrase has to be known before it can be decrypted.

Back in basic chemistry, we were told that the elements that occupied the 8th column of the periodic table are Noble gases, because they don't take electron or discharge electron.

Noble~owo, honor.

Inert, at the point of rest. A body will continue at a point of rest or on constant motion. That is the inert state of every body in existence. Any disturbance on this order is the inertia.

absoluteSuccess:



Wò As Content ~ With Won As Context

Another angle is wò, to enter. This is the angle that implies "content". Here, Iwo is what goes inside a container. Iwo is the unit of item that goes into the container, while iwon is the total number of items that the container can take or the "volume" of the container itself.

At the end, iwo is like the inbound item and the container used to do the measurements is iwon. Therefore, Iwo and E-won technically describe relationship between "inbound" and "inlet".

The difference is that Iwo could be a thing or many things, at which point Iwo becomes iwon: in the same vein, iwonba thus means "a moderate measure". Moderate is "iba" in this combination, and also moderate is a function of quantity.

Iwon is therefore a measure of quantity. Won is the scalar calibration of measurements that a container can carry. This is not immediately visible linguistically. Compare the sentence "E won De Rica rice meji" meaning, "measure 2 derica of rice".

Won in Yoruba language is measurements of all kinds. As a result, E-won is not actually prison in "the prison", but the "measure of term" that the convict will serve. Iwo is to initiate the measurements by commiting a crime, whereby, ewo is the inertia.

Now let's look at Iwo as meaning "entry": it's this clear that Iwo is nesting, which if apply to a human being would mean solitary confinement. Iwo is therefore to enter into (trouble) legal wise, hence it's said "o ti wo gau".

Iwo and ewon are thus composite ancient legal terms. Iwo is the content, while iwon is the context in which the content is served. Iwo is the content, iwon is the volume of content to a container.

On the other hand, Ewo is "the deterrent" that negates iwo, while owo is the "immunity" that prevents someone from becoming a victim of the law, as Oluwo. In extension, owo is divine immunity against accident, attacks from criminal elements or malevolence forces.

Now if you are painstakingly tracking Yoruba language and it's semantics, given that you are accurate in your work, then provident will guide you on. Note where I claimed "won" means "break" of an iron?

Good day bro! Mo yo fun e, mo yo fun ara mi!

When I try to stay away from here you always deploy something to return me. . Not that I complain. Reading you is a mental therapy. . God continue to bless and make your ways easy and profitable.

In networking technology there is a function called packet sniffing. You have billions of packets going through a tunnel and you are looking for a particular data stream. To find it you do what is called "tcp dump". It is a filtering process to deep dive and extract what you need from the multitude. Another way I will explain it is taking a chaotic information, descramble it, then reassemble it, and recompose before presenting in a new format where it is clear to an audience. In its original form it is useless to the audience. As the agent of clarity you have produced value, and an outcome.

I see your "dump" as exactly that function of value and outcome. Once more, may the Almighty bless you all days of your life.


Coming to this subject, I cannot dispute all you wrote here and generally in the series. I have always viewed "wo" as a threshold. That point where input and outcomes tilt one way or another. A line of equity as you said....or balance as you illustrated with the symbol of Lady Liberty and her scales.

"wo" is the function of DOs and DONTs. It is the rulebook of social interaction and balance in the total ecology of living and non-living.

I mentioned in one of our earlier lengthy threads that AWO is the Yoruba equivalent of LAW in English. In which case, Babalawo is Lady Liberty, overseeing the threshold of DOs and DONTs.

I will shut up here. You have done a fantsastic job highlighting this subject. I love you man!

MetaPhysical:


Good day bro! Mo yo fun e, mo yo fun ara mi!

When I try to stay away from here you always deploy something to return me. . Not that I complain. Reading you is a mental therapy. . God continue to bless and make your ways easy and profitable.

In networking technology there is a function called packet sniffing. You have billions of packets going through a tunnel and you are looking for a particular data stream. To find it you do what is called "tcp dump". It is a filtering process to deep dive and extract what you need from the multitude. Another way I will explain it is taking a chaotic information, descramble it, then reassemble it, and recompose before presenting in a new format where it is clear to an audience. In its original form it is useless to the audience. As the agent of clarity you have produced value, and an outcome.

The fact that the Yoruba language is adaptable to scientific principles and technicalities of engineering, pure and applied sciences beat my understanding. Hence interacting with them from the cellular level is crucial.

It's not patronizing my language but trying to find out more and analyze 'yet to be identified secrets' in each terminology of interest. Each of the word of knowledge push us forward in knowledge.

I see your "dump" as exactly that function of value and outcome. Once more, may the Almighty bless you all days of your life.


Coming to this subject, I cannot dispute all you wrote here and generally in the series. I have always viewed "wo" as a threshold. That point where input and outcomes tilt one way or another. A line of equity as you said....or balance as you illustrated with the symbol of Lady Liberty and her scales.

"wo" is the function of DOs and DONTs. It is the rulebook of social interaction and balance in the total ecology of living and non-living.

I mentioned in one of our earlier lengthy threads that AWO is the Yoruba equivalent of LAW in English. In which case, Babalawo is Lady Liberty, overseeing the threshold of DOs and DONTs.

I will shut up here. You have done a fantsastic job highlighting this subject. I love you man!

Amen and amen to your prayers boss.

Inu mi dun lati ka atejade yin. I'm so delighted reading your post yesterday on the Farooq Kperogi Yoruba Larubawa names. With people like you, I believe I've not worked in vain, we're the keepers of the precious remnants of an ancient time, possibly time travellers we are.

You see, each time you drop a word, it's like a peep into the foundational oracle. In line with your thoughts, I recently stumbled on the meaning to the obsolete English word, "saw". It means "so", which is Yoruba for say.

Say was "saw" in ancient English. Now let's look at awo. The closest sound in English to this is cow. The next question is, what relationship exist here? Cow is also known as kine. In Yoruba, Awo uses Ikin to divine.

Wò, the predominant morpheme in this business is the "reading aid", but the "reading" in this sense is "seeing the invisible". The invisible is "the verbal recitation" that determine what is cast upon the opon Ifa.

The invisible are relics from many broken pieces of the law made into oral records. The babalawo as you said were the lawyers of old. Awo, cow; heifa, Ifa; Ikin, kine. From this linguistic metamorphosis comes the word "alphabet".

Alpha is "inverted cow head", beta is "house", etc. The mystery comes from the fact that "writing" won't have been originally intended for "education", but some form of oracular or temple practice that eventually survived their original use.

The priests were the "professors" who have the knowledge of this divining (reading) and were in extension the custodians of the law. Ifa is perpetuated in Yoruba language as evidence of the writing culture coming before the oral version of Ifa.

In that sense the art of divining of the Yoruba is a shift that tries to retain it's original sense in a different clime and practice in incognito. Here, idibo replace the word for making a scroll or "tying up the covered" literally.

Idibo is divining. Originally, what is it that was idi (tied) and bo (covered)? Scrolls. So, divining is consulting "idibo". Ifa is more like a figurative word equivalent to "letters" as meaning "record", like Paul said "letter killeth" or we say "man of letters", or Solomon says "much learning is wearisome to the soul".

By this token, Ifa was the book of letters that the original verses of Ifa were written. It was lost at some point where the culture could not be sustained by the emigrants to the forest, and the fathers made a replacement with the present canticles. Ifa is thus an oral scripture.

Education, derived from Latin for training. Etymology, e~ducere: e (out) ducere (draw, to lead). Where education means "drawn out".

Odu Ifa

What is Odu in Yoruba? I don't know, but Ifa agreed with "drawn out" or as you would say, bami gbe ifami wa (fetch me the water drawer) from this we understand Ifa as "drawer".

We're far below the level of linguituc and spiritual intelligence of our progenitors, we've only achieved material advancement that comes with population growth and development foster by global peace and trade.

The content is Odu, while the context is Ifa. You may not know what an Odu says, but you know it's Ifa they were talking about when we say babalawo.

absoluteSuccess:
Ìwò As Hook

In Yoruba, the word Iwo also stands for "hook". As a result, the sensibility of this meaning is that it's the "entry" point that the fish swallows. It is what "enter" into the fishes mouth.

Observe how this is used in a proverb: "mofinu wenu, mo jewo" (I took every motive as mine and ate the poison) here, the speaker had a friendly disposition to all, believing everyone who are in his life were good friends, he ended up being poisoned.

The poison here is not majele but iwo, which is a killer-hook disguised as treat from a friend (an enemy pretending to be a friend). The unsuspecting victim ate the Iwo only to realize his mistake at the point of death.

Majele is quite different from Iwo: majele kills instantly, it is majele because the person who eat it won't eat another. But Iwo incapacitate the victim and make him a captive to the adversary. As such, the difference is clear.

The wicked are wicked by nature.

RIP man.

Always be safety and security conscious.

https://www.nairaland.com/7842897/mohbad-something-added-water-ndlea#up

Won is cut, as you won, you cut part of a bulk to yourself. In another sense of the word, Owon is to be far away from the place or person who wants you. Therefore, o-won means "missed" or wanting in presence, that is, absence but desired in presence. This has to do with the shade of love or affection. But that's not all of it.

Lets say "I want [to buy] grains", in Yoruba. That would be "mo fe [won] yere". Won would be to "measure", but more aptly, to weigh. The moment you buy the grain, it becomes part of your body-mass "on the move". So, you "weigh" the grain. This makes "won" a shift from a mass (storage) to another mass (stock). In a technical sense of the word, won is still in sync with cut-out of substance from a source to a destination.

This scientific consistency shows that the smallest sonic atom of the Yoruba word follow a scientific sequence that cannot be broken in meaning, except its misunderstood. By implication, an error of interpretation can only happen in dealing with a given Yoruba word, but not at its conception level. this brings us to the fact that a very strong sort of knowledge and knowledgeable people invented or device the Yoruba language.

Won, (sprinkle) is another shade of the word in our consideration. We either sprinkle salt or water on anything of our interest: "wonmi si" (sprinkle water on it); "wonyo si" (sprinkle salt on it). The very act of sprinkling is bulk-breaking. You take "a" from "A" and reduce to "a++".

That is, you take a lump or handful of a desired substance and "sprinkle", or break same into granular sizes of dispersed grains on another surface. Compare with won (weigh), won (sprinkle) is also a scalar function, a droplet-measure of substance in liquid or granular state.

won: measure, weigh.
won: sprinkle.

Sprinkle is a measure that can be weighed in spite of its minuscule size. For instance, a pint of salt or a droplet of water is measurable. The Yoruba language in extension is capable of describing cellular-unit of a matter.

Kekere: ike-ikere, small of the small.
Omolekun: omo-le-kun - content of a unit cell.
Kinkinni: kin-ni-ikin-ni, least of the least: the smallest possible form or measure of a given matter.

'kin' is Yoruba for the click sound, its the mental-metric of "the least audible sound possible", such that whatever makes the sound is the last visible matter thought possible: So the word can be reduced to its morphemes: kin (pin-sound-size) ni (at) ikin (period) ni (first). This describes something hardly visible at first appearance, an object at microscopic level.

kekere; kenkele, kinkin; kinkinni.

Meanings give birth to Yoruba words, not the other way round. Therefore, words and their interpretation is the forth of Yoruba language.

absoluteSuccess:
The reward

There are 16 ancient chapters of Ifa, each is coined from words derived from recess of classic events in ancient Yoruba history. For instance, the sixth chapter of Ifa is named "owonrin meji". The question is, what is owonrin?

Well it's a good piece of clause. However, owonrin has fascinated our fathers of old and priests of ancient Yoruba who have tried to interpret the clause with anecdotes to be found in Ifa.

One of such systematically interpret owonrin in half as "scarcity". But going by the sense of the phrase, owonrin doesn't have anything to do with scarcity.

Rather, owonrin simply implies "iron breaker". That's a phrase that has been formed from the ancient Yoruba idea of divine justice, a strong hero that cannot be shackled in iron or imprisonment.

Now, going by this discovery, the thought that a shackle breaker tradition exist in Yoruba of old validate my claim on ateworo.



The bolded is the context from where the phrase owonrin was coined. The verb is almost obsolete.

Won as "break" is the source code for Owonrin, combined with irin, Yoruba for iron. The phrase became an entry in Ifa as of old.

The priests of old could not break the phrase because the source of the phrase has to be known before it can be decrypted.

Great effort though seeing your zeal to always inform. But, Owonrin, is more of letting the past be for a solidifying the present and things to come.

My widow's might

Olu317:
Great effort though seeing your zeal to always inform. But, Owonrin, is more of letting the past be for a solidifying the present and things to come.

My widow's might

Thanks for the widow's mite dear brother, I really appreciate it. One man can't claim monopoly of knowledge.

As to what the philosophical connotation of Owonrin means, I can't claim to know it all and there are tens of poetry under this title in Ifa, being one of its major entries. Tradition would say Orunmila knows it all.

However, my take is 'etymology' (Itunmo oro), which is the meaning of a word that is found in the grammar of a language. This has absolute nothing to do with oral traditions as its a branch of knowledge on its own.

Owon: Scarce. If we look deep into this word (just as we use to employ it as "dear" in letter writing), we would see the value it connotes in the covert. It seems to have derived from "breakup" part of the dearness than "affection" (ife) part of the word.

We would naturally assume that "Ore mi Owon" means "my dearest friend", but underneath, it means "my most wanted friend". Here, o-won means the "off-cut part" (of me). Now lets look at what ore itself connote: a "cut off". Re is to cut a part of an object off the whole body. Thus, a friend in ancient Yoruba psyche is an external part of a pair.

In support of this notion, lets compare a translation of the same thought I just expounded. We know Olukumi to be 'my friend' in Yoruba, but its a testament to ore mi in the sense that it means 'my remnant'. As such, Olu-ku-mi means "the remaining part of me". Ku in Yoruba is remain: se o se ku? "is there a remnant" o lu ku mi: "the remnant me".

Scarcity and Abundance

In harmony with its English counterpart, to be dear means something is not abundantly available in supply. Therefore, when a good is scarce or won- it simply means break in supply compare to its inherent even-flow before the scarcity ensued. Therefore, won is 'break in availability' or 'scarcity of supply'.

1. Owon: Break. An owon is something that breaks from its root, something that has attain a sort of independence, something in liberty. This was behind the name "Awonrin" which is the ancestral name of founding fathers of Lagos. Awonrin means "a-won-rin", shakle breakers, people at liberty. This explains the meaning of Eyo, that is "acquitted."

2. Owon: Sprinkling: When you take from a mass and cast it abroad in bits, you are breaking the lump into pieces. This must have been the root source of the word "won" as in the sense "wonmi si i" or "won yo si i". The won in this sense is to reduce handful size of liquid or crystal to its particle sizes.

3. Awon: Measuring. Lets say a net used to fish. But the net is a net because grammatically speaking, its a network of fine metrics (won) of outlets that permits in and out movement of a network of regular (iwon) sizes of an object (or matter) in their forms or states.

4. Awon: They, them. But awon as "they" means "cut out". The opposite is "Iwo", this connote "you", but also Yoruba homonym for "nest". A nest is a face in the net. a cell sort of. Therefore, its the unit form of Awon in some linguistic sense where the word and its opposite "Iwo" derive. Iwo is the content, while awon is the context.

5. Awon: Net. No, not net as fishing equipment, but total. The total is a combination of plus and minus, where the 'iwon' is the minus and 'awon' is the source of the minus and the reducing balance. Osuwon is the metric while iwonba is the balance in both ends of the divide after won-separation into two unequal parts.

iwon: measure
iwon: measurement
iwon: sprinkling

6. Ewon: Prison: a measured confinement, a unit, a cell. Now looking at the prison, its either a tubu, a seclusion or ewon, fetter. But fetter is also a network of iron, a chain is an in-to-in iron rings that combines and now stretch to become a long rope.

Ewon: Shackles.

The Yoruba language is a knowledge-based language. The Yoruba language unbundles and teaches whoever pays rapt and scientific attention to its network of meanings. Each underlying inflection is a formidable thought that reinforce the front-end meaning.

I love this language.

Awon: they
Awon: net

Iwo: you
Iwo: fishing line

The Yoruba language in this little piece shows a mysterious harmony. 'Net' and 'hook' belongs to the same line of thought, as 'they' and 'you'. We may write different words the same way, but net and they were never pronounced the same way. So we can say "oto l'awon, oto l'awon". What is spectacular here is the fact that two sets of words sharing the same lettering have their opposites sharing the same lettering as well.

It validate the fact that all that the ancestors did was make a deflection of the same original words with new intonations to create a new set of word form for their target idea. As such, "awon" (where it means plural form of "you" ) connotes "substantial", "divisible", "measurable", or "multiple" as opposed to "Iwo" meaning "entry" or "droplet" measure. 'Awon' is a function of multiple carriage, while 'Iwo' is a single entry.

So also 'Awon', i.e. net comes from deflective intonation in the same sense as 'Iwo', meaning hook. The sense in this is clear: the hook will never catch two fish at once save for the only one fish that allow the hook to be swallowed. The act of swallowing the hook is the moment of "iwo", entry. On the other hand, casting the net abroad is iwon, like "won yo si" where the network is spread over an area.

Tradition is born out of historical facts.

Growing up, my grandmother would observe a Sabbath-like ritual every five days, from sunset to sunset. It involved refraining from eating until the next sunset, this is known as her "jegangbe." Returning to my family in the village during holidays usually expose me to Egun culture, sometimes creating a culture-shock that required continuous learning.

On Jegangbe, my confusion arose when my mother was informed that my older brother had an accident sometimes ago and was caught in a trap set by one of my uncles, (her cousin). They said, "E jegan," meaning "he-got-ironed." My confusion stemmed from the fact that the same word was associated with my grandmother's "holy day." This was not clear to me.

"Ho tho jan ayo kanse!" (It is the root of every word that you always inquire about), my cousins remarked. I dared not ask my grandmother many questions, as she had already concluded, "oho te jan ayo de haa depoe," meaning I was always up for discussions! As everyone in the village prepares to go to the farm, I didn't want to be seen as the lazy boy.

Left to figure it out on my own, I discovered that "jegangbe" referred to the day of being held in iron. Translated to Yoruba, it's "Ojo Ose" — the day of the offender or maybe "the day of the originator". The sound favored "ojo o se," meaning "the day of issuing (secretion)," which could also be "ojo isun." Good, i got somewhere "Orisun" and "ise(da)" are alternatives. In Yoruba, "ise" can mean both "origin" and "offense."

Ti ko ba si ise, ise i deede se says it all. An offense is anything that can put someone in shackles, and "ogan" in Egun means anything made of "iron," including a prison, similar to Yoruba. Therefore, "Jegan gbe" is like the "first day in prison." However, in another sense, 'Je' is 'Oje' in Yoruba. 'Ogan' is 'leader' in Egun but 'Oga' in Yoruba, and "gbe" is "day" in Egun. These are the "shadow meanings."

In Yoruba, the equivalent of "Egun" is "Eegun" (Egungun). The word "Egun" derives from the same matrix as Egun, which the Yoruba adopted as a name for the masquerade. Similarly, the equivalent of Egun as a tribal name is "Oje" in Yoruba. The leader of the Oje clan is called "Iya A-gan." To Egun people, Oje is Je, Oga is Ogan.

How does this harmonize with the topic? Egun: Je-gan; Yoruba: wo-rin; idea: wewon (wo ewon), i.e., to be docked. Another traditional term is for wewon is "ibode," meaning "being tied up." Only Ose, (the original offender), would have been docked. interestingly, the Yoruba have "Ose" as a title in Ifa, specifically Odu Ose Meji.

Translated, we have Odu, who broke (ose-) the country into two (-meji), signifying the original sin. Let's explore if there's a similar concept in folklore. Let's equate the world "ewon" (prison) to "ide" (bondage). The only person in Yoruba history associated with ide was Osun.

Onide de o, saworo dede Osun,

Osun ki, eyin ipako re rodorodo,

Iyaare dobo, o daguntan,

Kara l’ata wa mOta, kara Onide wa mode,

Peu, peu, peu, Onide wa mode re.

Onide?

Bangbede oko iya mi.

End.

in the above folk song, there seems to be ample evidence that the ancient Yoruba wrote the poetry and the reader memorise it, then share the memorized version with the subsequent generation, on and on till it got to us.

how so?

the last line of the folk naration says "peu, peu, peu." this is no ordinary word or happenstance but vocation of hyphen. in that wise, just a peu would mean full stop. That given, the anciient Yoruba could write. Many of the Yoruba tradition of ages tallie with one another without missing.

Its not by memory alone but what preceded it, records. From written records, we have Yoruba oral records, and from Yoruba oral records we have Yoruba oral traditions. In Yoruba psyche, Itan is "oral record". But Aroba is oral tradition. However, you can't jump from nowhere to itan.

You first have to become a trained graduate of aroba as a beginner, then if you are chosen, you can advance your course and embrace a life of research. Mine has span from my chuldhood to this day and still learning the building bricks of Yoruba tradition. Example is finding out about the hyphen.

Another Independent Evidence

the equivalent of antiquity I've is going back to village during holidays. I cherish and look forward to it as though its Christ second coming. I had my childhood in the village anyway and my older siblings and friends (cousins) were all there. there was a childhood song we used to have in the village as well.

Teni teji teta tegbe kreun Yehweh Dosu plaba jete kleun, kokro ajagbre, wedo tiren tiren alagbado nse, inawo, inawo, gbeto ja, pohan po, peun. Kokro ajagbre is a fowl with the dreadlock feather , I don't know what they are called in English, it says "corn dealer is having a party, people are coming with songs"

The last word of the song is peun. Peun is period. meaning, this neigbours have equal glimpse of an ancient writing tradition that never survived. while this may have come to us from childhood plays at moonlight, there;s actually a more religious tradition that traces back to the Ifa priest in Yoruba enclaves.

Akosejaye

that's a word with deep meaning: yes we all know what it means as Yoruba, but what does the word itself, without its applicable meaning (direct meaning) means? A-ko-se-ja-ye. Thats what the word mean. A-[the] ko-[writ] se-[found-] j-[congre] ye-[mankind]. When we put the phonemes together, the word become illuminated.

Akosejaye simply means "the writ of the founder of the congregation of mankind". Another word for this is "Isentaye". the writ had earlier existed and its what made Babalawo, "babalawo", father who help to check it out. Now the Yoruba were trying to find out what the writ says about their children. The question is why.

Although the writing of the founding fathers did not survive, but the dept of their literary invention and that of their posterity is in a class of its own. Yoruba words are nuggets, Yoruba historical words are oracles, making wiser the simple. This understanding kept us digging to their roots, just like my folks says way back.

Owonrin

The Yoruba ancestors understood the concept of infinity[i][/i], (that is exactly what the symbol on Tinubu's cap depicts). People has been fighting for freedom and liberty from time immemorial by struggling against privileged wicked group of people or rulers who become a terror against some of their own people.

The heroes who break off shackles of iron are indeed, O-won-rin. Boston tea party, leading to the declaration of independence raise Washington and the likes against king George of England. From thence came the mantra of liberty, which the settlers has sought aforetime to West indies.

The ancestors of Yoruba has sought the same much earlier in history. and that's why the Egun regard the Yoruba as Ayo-nu, meaning "people who breaks free." May we continually break free from the sneers that the wicked might prepare against us till infinitum.

I rest my golden pen.