₦airaland Forum

[quote author=عبدالكريم]this just proves that the west african nations have arabs in themselves, just like the english have people who descend from french speakers within their nation[/quote]That is also true Abdul-Karim

5. Tele - to follow
9. Ara - Thunder
16. Imale - Malian
17. Iwaju - front
19. Suru - patience


These 5 from the 22 in the list are pure Yoruba words...
"Imale" being wat we called the Malians

Oduduwa wasn't no arab prince - just because he allegedly "came from the east" doesn't mean he was an arab... Are you sure there were even arabs on this planet at that point in history??

there were arabs then but were black.not the yellow we see today

thearbiter i disagree with the meaning of number 15, Imole is a pure yoruba word with fully means "elesin imole" i.e the practitioners of an enforced religion. it has no link to mali-an or arabic origins

words such as "fitina" are also derived from the arabic word "fitnah" which means unrest or uprising

Fulaman198:
I agree with that statement

yes of course, it was the hausa/fulani jihadists who propagated the "deen" of islam in southern 9ja

They dnt know they push us to blessing,the the Arab of today are mix of blackwoman eve and satan the caucasian i.e white man lied to us that is snake,God created just two group black and white people,they are the jinn created first,and the curses is still effective till today as projenitors of both will forever be enemies and they will sit on our wealth i.e total,chevron,agip etc and our kids,but we allwill never learn as black people,we always love our enemies.

huninaija:
Its sad to note that no credit tends to be given to africans in any matter concerning civilisation, history etc we are disregarded like beggars on the street, like we africans didn't have an impact on some of the languages spoken today.. Yoruba is an historic language and some of the words spoken by the arab world as pointed out by the OP where derived from africans and not the other way round...

I read somewhere that a very very long time ago, the places we call the middle-east today where inhabited by west-africans, including nigerians, until we where pushed through wars, further down into what we term today as W.africa.. Will try and post the link.

Yeàh and also if say mummy po in Igbo OS same with mummy pe o in Yoruba.I.e mummy is calling you.

kingingkinging:
That is language for you. There are some words in Igbo language that are similar/ same with some Yoruba words eg. Yoruba (Okuta-stone); Igbo ( Okute-stone), Yoruba (imu-nose); Igbo (imi-nose),Yoruba (elubo-cassava powder); igbo (alubo-cassava powder). There are others like that.

Languages are like that.

Arabs call mosques masjid, and hausas call mosques masallaci, the prefix ma is hausa and suffix sallah (prayer) is arabic which roughly translates to place of prayer when put together. In many cases you find the yoruba words are closer to hausa than arabic, for instance, arabs call onion basl, and hausas call it albasa, notice the prefix "al" another very common hausa prefix (almakashi, almajiri, algungumi), yorubas could have gone with any version of "basl" but they went with "alubosa". It should also not be unusual that the word for onion was borrowed as onions were not originally found in this region and we tend to use the names used by those who popularize such things, in the case of onion it was the arabs. Another example is sirr in arabic, which is asiri in hausa, yorubas could have gone with any variation of sirr but they went with asiri? Another coincedence? how about fitila? Amfani? barka? all coincedences? i think not. Trade was not uncommon between hausa and yoruba empires in the old days, its a very simple explanation, anyone who starts trying to link this with some hebrew origin mumbo jumbo has completely lost the plot.

Macof, i would love to hear your take on this. lets see which conspiracy theory you come up with.

VomeSchakleton:
Arabs call mosques masjid, and hausas call mosques masallaci, the prefix ma is hausa and suffix sallah (prayer) is arabic which roughly translates to place of prayer when put together. In many cases you find the yoruba words are closer to hausa than arabic, for instance, arabs call onion basl, and hausas call it albasa, notice the prefix "al" another very common hausa prefix (almakashi, almajiri, algungumi), yorubas could have gone with any version of "basl" but they went with "alubosa". It should also not be unusual that the word for onion was borrowed as onions were not originally found in this region and we tend to use the names used by those who popularize such things, in the case of onion it was the arabs. Another example is sirr in arabic, which is asiri in hausa, yorubas could have gone with any variation of sirr but they went with asiri? Another coincedence? how about fitila? Amfani? barka? all coincedences? i think not. Trade was not uncommon between hausa and yoruba empires in the old days, its a very simple explanation, anyone who starts trying to link this with some hebrew origin mumbo jumbo has completely lost the plot.

Macof, i would love to hear your take on this. lets see which conspiracy theory you come up with.

why would you say that? @ emboldened

well I disagree with Asiri. .. That's a pure yoruba word

macof:
why would you say that? @ emboldened

well I disagree with Asiri. .. That's a pure yoruba word

Nah! Asiri, gafara, adua,... were gotten from contacts with those to the north of Yorubaland. 'Asiri' is 'imule' in the old language, e.g., òrò ìmùlè = òrò àsírí. If you look hard enough sef, you'll still find other synonyms to asiri that are (or appear) native to the Yorubas. Salaam!

macof:
why would you say that? @ emboldened

well I disagree with Asiri. .. That's a pure yoruba word

Which somehow means the same thing in Arabic and hausa. Sure!

Ghost01:
Nah! Asiri, gafara, adua,... were gotten from contacts with those to the north of Yorubaland. 'Asiri' is 'imule' in the old language, e.g., òrò ìmùlè = òrò àsírí. If you look hard enough sef, you'll still find other synonyms to asiri that are (or appear) native to the Yorubas. Salaam!

Imule is more like a vow/oath not secret
the word "asiri" makes every sense you can think of as a yoruba word

VomeSchakleton:
Which somehow means the same thing in Arabic and hausa. Sure!

does it really mean the same thing? translate pls

Asiri in proper Yoruba is awo.

Some of the words the Arab dans are bandying around for some religious validation are not of Arab or Hausa origins.

TheArbiter:
The Arabic roots of many contemporary Yoruba words has been investigated. Titled “On Arabic Loans in Yoruba,” it was written by Professor Sergio Baldi, a well-regarded Italian linguist, who presented it at the Annual Conference on African Linguistics in California, USA, in March 1995.

Below are excerpts from the article as presented by Farooq A. Kperogi. To download a copy or read the complete article CLICK HERE.

1. Abere. This Yoruba word for “needle” traces its etymology to the Arabic “ai-bra,” which also means needle.

2. Adura. This is the Yoruba word for prayers. In fact, there is a popular syncretic Christian sect in Yorubaland that goes by the name “aladura,” meaning “people who pray” or “praying people.” Many other northern and central Nigerian languages have some version of this word to denote prayers. It is derived from the Arabic “du’a,” which also means prayers.

3. Alubosa. This Yoruba word for “onion” was borrowed from the Hausa “albasa,” which in turn borrowed it from the Arabic “al-basal.”

4. Alufa/Alfa. This is a widely used word for a Muslim scholar (and occasionally any Muslim) not just in Yorubaland but in Nupeland, Borgu, Igalaland, Ebiraland, etc. It is now increasingly used by Yoruba Muslim women as a term of respect for their husbands.

Surprisingly, the word is absent in the Hausa language. It came as no surprise therefore when Professor Baldi suggested that the word came to the Yoruba language—and many other central Nigerian languages—through the Songhai. It is derived from the Arabic “khalifah,” which means a “successor” or a “representative” (of the prophet of Islam). It was first corrupted to “Alfa” by the Songhai who later exported their version of the word to western and central Nigeria—and to other parts of West Africa. Many Songhai were itinerant Islamic preachers who traveled all over West Africa.

5. Atele/itele. It means “following” in Yoruba, and it is derived from “at-talin,” which also means “following” in Arabic.

6. Amodi. It means “disease” in Yoruba and is derived from “al-marad,” the Arabic word for disease.

7. “Amo.” It is a conjunction in Yoruba, which performs the same function that the word “but” performs in English; it introduces contrast. It is rendered as “amma” in Hausa, which is the way it is rendered in its original Arabic form.

8. Anfani. This Yoruba word for “utility” or “importance” also occurs in Hausa, Batonu, and many northern and central Nigerian languages. It is derived from the Arabic “naf,” which means “advantage, profit.”

9. Ara/ apaara. The word means "thunder" in Yoruba, and is derived from the Arabic “ar-ra’d.”

10. Asiri. It means “secret” in Yoruba, Hausa, and in many other Nigerian languages. It is derived from the Arabic “as-sirr” where it also means “secret.”

11. Barika. This is the Yoruba word for “congratulations.” It is rendered as “barka” in Hausa. The word’s original Arabic form is “al-baraka,” which means “greetings.”

12. Borokinni. It means a “gentleman, respected man in a secure financial position.” The word is also found in many Borgu languages, such as Batonu and Bokobaru, where “boro” means a “friend.” It is derived from the Arabic “rukn,” which means “support, corner, basic element.”

13. Faari. It means “showing off” or “boastfulness” or “ostentatious display” in Yoruba. It has the same meaning in many Borgu languages. It is derived from the Arabic “fakhr,” which means “glory, pride, honor.” (Note that “kh” is a guttural sound in Arabic, which is close to a hard “h” in English. That sound was dropped by Nigerian languages).

14. Fitila. It means any kind of lamp. Its roots are located in the Arabic word for lamp, which is “fatil.”

15. Ijamba. Professor Baldi defines this word as “bodily harm,” but the meaning of the word I’m familiar with is one that associates it with cunning, cheating, deceit. It is derived from the Arabic “danb,” or “danba,” which means “sin, crime.” (Note that Arabic frequently dispenses with end vowels (that is, a, e, i, o, and u) in words, whereas many Nigerian languages almost always end words with a vowel—and add them to words they borrow from other languages if such words lack an end vowel).

16. Imale. This is the Yoruba word for “Muslim.” I read previous interpretations of this word from Yoruba scholars who say it is Yoruba for “that which is difficult” to underscore the difficulty of Islamic practices like praying five times a day, fasting for 30 days during Ramadan, etc. Other Yoruba scholars said the word initially denoted “people from Mali” since the Songhai people who Islamized Yoruba land in the 15th century were from Mali.

But Baldi argues that “imale” is the corruption of the Arabic “Mu’alim,” which means a teacher. In the Hausa language, the word is rendered as Maalam. It’s interesting that “Mallam” has become the synonym for Hausa (or northern) Muslim in southern Nigeria.

17. Iwaju. It’s the Yoruba word for “front part.” I didn’t imagine that this word had an Arabic origin until I read Baldi’s article. It is derived from the Arabic “al-wajh,” which means “front” or “face.”

18. Iwaasu. It is the Yoruba term for “preaching” or “sermon.” It is used by both Christians and Muslims in Yorubaland, and is derived from the Arabic “waz,” which means “admonition” or “sermon.” (The Yoruba language has no “z” sound, so it substitutes “z” with “s” when it borrows words from other languages with “z” sounds).

19. Suuru. It means “patience” not only in Yoruba but in many languages in central and northern Nigeria. It is derived from the Arabic “sabr,” which also means “patience.”

20. Talaka. It means the poor. It came to Yoruba by way of Hausa, which borrowed it from the Tuareg (where it is rendered as "taleqque" and where it means “a poor woman”). It’s also used in Mandingo, Songhai languages, Kanuri, Teda, and many West African languages. Baldi says this word has no Arabic origins. On the surface, this may be true. After all, the Arabic word for a poor person is “fakir” (plural: “fuqura”).

However, “talaq,” as most Muslims know, is the Arabic word for divorce. (The chapter of the Qur'an that deals with the subject of divorce is called Suratul Talaq). Talaq is derived from the verb “talaqa,” which means to “disown,” to “repudiate.” In times past (and it’s still the case today in many Muslim societies) if a woman was divorced, she was invariably thrown into poverty. Thus, Tuaregs used the term “taleqque” to denote a “poor woman.” But Hausa, Kanuri, Yoruba, Mandingo, and other West African languages expanded the original Tuareg meaning of the word to include every poor person. This is my theory.

21. Tobi. This Yoruba word for “women’s knickers” is derived from the Arabic “taub,” which means “garment,” “dress,” “cloth.” Another tonal variation of this word leads to a different Yoruba word, which means “big.”

22. Wahala. Well, this isn’t just a Yoruba word by way of Hausa; it’s made its way into most Nigerian languages—and into West African Pidgin English. It means “trouble,” and it’s derived from the Arabic “wahla,” which means “fright,” “terror.”

^^^^^^^^^
Nice post on the Arabic influence on the Yoruba language...

Many languages have loan words in them.

It may interest you all to know that the Spanish language has
up to 40% of words loaned from Arabic words due to the
invasion of the Iberian Peninsula [Spain and Portugal] by
the Moors and Arabs who lived there for over 700 years
before Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand led their
forces to eject the Muslim Moors from Spain in 1492!


In fact Arabic language evolved a lot from the Aramaic language
which was the universal language of the Persian Empire.

kabiyesiii:
@ maclatunji:


Your above argument is so weak, it is full of wishful thinking. How do you know that Islam predates idolatory?

In ancient Arabia, the sun-god was viewed as a female goddess and the moon as the male god, Allah. Allah, the moon god, was married to the sun goddess and they both had three daughters. These daughters of Allah, who became goddesses, were called Al-Lat, Al-Uzza, and Manat.

The daughters of Allah, along with Allah and the sun goddess were viewed as "high" gods, placed at the top of the pantheon of Arabian deities.

The Quraysh tribe into which Mohammad was born was particularly devoted to Allah, the moon god, and especially to Allah's three daughters who were viewed as intercessors between the people and Allah.

The name of Muhammad's father was Abd-Allah. His uncle's name was Obied-Allah. These names reveal the personal devotion that Muhammad's pagan family had to the worship of Allah, the moon god. =>> like “Ogun” in Ogunṣina

The moon god, Allah, was set up at the Kaaba along with all the other idols of the time. The pagans prayed towards Mecca and the Kaaba because that's where their gods and goddesses were located.

Do you know why the symbol of Islam is “the crescent moon and the star”? Because they represent the moon and the morning star, the planet Venus. These are two of the 360 deities of Arabia.

Allaah wasn't the moon god, the moon god is Sin. Moon god wasn't worshipped where Prophet Muhammad was which is Northern Arabia but in the South.

Konquest:
^^^^^^^^^
Nice post on the Arabic influence on the Yoruba language...

Many languages have loan words in them.

It may interest you all to know that the Spanish language has
up to 40% of words loaned from Arabic words due to the
invasion of the Iberian Peninsula [Spain and Portugal] by
the Moors and Arabs who lived there for over 700 years
before Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand led their
forces to eject the Muslim Moors from Spain in 1492!


In fact Arabic language evolved a lot from the Aramaic language
which was the universal language of the Persian Empire.

Arabic is a very old language, Arabs have existed as far back as Abraham when his son got married to a lady from an Arabian tribe.

And which of the Persian empires was Aramaic its universal language, was it the Sassanid, Parthian, Achaemenid, Samanids or Safavids?

All you need know about breastfeeding
https://momsall.com/breastfeeding-how-long-should-breastfeeding-take/

kabiyesiii:
Arabic, like most languages, borrowed tons of words from Ancient Egyptian/Nubian language. In addition, through Jihad, the Arabs absorbed many loaned words from the Berbers, Tuaregs, Persians, Turks, Chinese and Indians. We tend to give Arabic too much credits on loaned words. Are we intellectually lazy?

There's no language that doesn't have any influence of another language, but your problem with Arabic is just based on the fact they're mostly Muslims. Today in Egypt, they speak Arabic but their dialect is different from others. If you're certain of the loaned words, start mentioning them.

alaoeri:
Abraham & Egypt which first exist or u don't forget that Arabs are descendant of Abraham, its just that civilisation stated in Egypt which doesn't make it older than the Arabs beside most egyptian sees themselves as Arabs.

There are some Arabs that existed before Abraham and some are progeny of Abraham

DuduNegro:
Yoruba culture has an esoteric dimension to it and it's not Ifa. Ifa is the scripture or manuscript of God and creation and Ifa dwells repeatedly on the subject of IWA but it does not explain what Iwa is. To understand Iwa one has to observe the esoteric or mystical aspect of Yoruba customs and worship. The study of duality in nature and the attachment and significance of it to Yoruba culture should be explained using esoteric understanding.

Look at these two words ORUNMILA and IRUNMOLE..

Reduce both to their root consonants and you will end up with R-N-M-L. To those who are interested, go and study what R-M-L is. This is where the science of cosmogeny and atmosphere and environment will be found. There are two halves of a calabash, one is the base or container and the other is the lid or cover. It is the base for energy and force: the 1/0, the on/off, the male/female, the positive/negative, the left/right, the malevolent/benevolent, the proton/electron, the black/white.....and so on of paired polarities. Paired polarities are static and balanced and so you need a third force to induce animation or to give life and dynamism to the pair.

The presence of this third force is the action contained in R-M-L. It is expressed numerically as the 1-2-3 force. 1 representing GOD, 2 representing partnership or pairing and 3 representing outcome or result or net force or awareness or creativity or production..

IWA is the object of human worship. IWA is what in religion they term "righteousness", but in actuality righteousness is inadequate to fully define or qualify IWA. IWA is infinite and is immortal. A person may die and long after the passage the IWA is still alive . IWA is actually IHWH and the equivalent to the tetra YHWH.

Quite interesting and thought provoking .

Olu317:
Quite interesting and thought provoking .

Olu, where did you dig this up from...and who is that guy?

MetaPhysical:
Olu, where did you dig this up from...and who is that guy?

I came across his post through nisai. Seeing and reading it opened my eyes to his interpretation of IWA and possible connection to YHWH if one understand the history of IWA as an identity of righteousness and be able to link it up with Noah–NUA–UA–IWA. Unfortunately, some Hebrew linguists do know the meaning of YHWH and pegged the meaning of Noah- nu’ahh also as ‘rest'.

MetaPhysical:
Olu, where did you dig this up from...and who is that guy?

MY OGA HABA

What is the meaning of "Talika darun, Mekunu rogo" ?

tpia5:
most arabic words in yoruba language are probably of hausa origin.

U are right and alot of yoruba today dont know they are much more closer to Hausa than igbo as i know yoruba have made a contact with hausa for a very long time and thats lead them to exchange some words like Gele thats veil in yoruba but its originally a hausa word for veil and Karuwa means prostitude but its has a yoruba origin its a phrase in yoruba not a word Karu means prostitude in yoruba and Wa means come here .

macof:
why would you say that? @ emboldened

well I disagree with Asiri. .. That's a pure yoruba word

you are right the yoruba are much more related to Hausa than Arab .
And these are my observation about yoruba example the word Albasa in hausa and Alubasa in yoruba actually yoruba are prone of using vowels in the middle or at the end of a word they share with Hausa and yoruba the word gbadomosi in yoruba but its originally a hausa word known as Badamasi , Fatimo in yoruba and fatima in both arabic aNd Hausa , kamaru in yoruba and kamalu in hausa .
all of this has happened due to our early contact with yoruba so yoruba are more related to hausa

Demmzy15:
There are some Arabs that existed before Abraham and some are progeny of Abraham

egyptians are not real arabs they adapt arabic due to coming of islam or middle easteners and there original anciant language has gone extinct

labani06:
egyptians are not real arabs they adapt arabic due to coming of islam or middle easteners and there original anciant language has gone extinct

And who told you that I was referring to Egyptians? I'm talking about the some tribes of Yemen. Ishmael married from them, but they were Arabs before him.

labani06:
U are right and alot of yoruba today dont know they are much more closer to Hausa than igbo as i know yoruba have made a contact with hausa for a very long time and thats lead them to exchange some words like Gele thats veil in yoruba but its originally a hausa word for veil and Karuwa means prostitude but its has a yoruba origin its a phrase in yoruba not a word Karu means prostitude in yoruba and Wa means come here .

omg, why do Nigerians immediately think/say prostitute whenever they refer to me?

Is it because I'm Nigerian?