kn23h:


This doesn't answer my question

An analogy to make you see that words have history. I am not yoruba. You are one so you tell me. The bottom line is that many words which you think are purely yoruba words are not. They were derived. I say this because that is how it is for all languages world wide and yoruba cannot be an exception.

Opharhe:
Avwebọ (or Amebọ as it's pronounced in some parts) is an Urhobo word meaning favorite wife in a polygamous home, the least favorite being referred to as 'Avweorọvwe'.

In Urhobo culture, where polygamy was common before Christianity, the favorite wife (Avwebo) of a homestead, is loved and desired by her husband for various reasons such as beauty, submissiveness, good culinary skills or other desires qualities.

The Avwebo was looked up to not just by the husband but by the extended family and even the community, with high expectations. It was her duty to ensure that everything is in place for the husband and she was expected to be friendly with her husband's family, friends and community and try not to fall out of favour with them.

Due to the high social expectations invested in her, such a woman would normally always go out of her way to try to please everybody with the husband at the helm. Some of the things an 'Avwebo' would normally do more than the others apart from spending more nights with the man of the house include washing Oga's clothes, cooking most times, being in charge of the hospitality for oga's guests, sharing thoughts with the Husband etc. Hence she has the ears of the man of the house and will be the first to report whatever must have transpired in the compound or community while hubby was away including the misdeeds of her mate's children.

'Avwebo' was also fond of breaking the news first and telling people around the negative things she must have heard about them from others in her efforts to be in their good books.

Why "Amebo" for gossip in Nigeria parlance?

The Urhobo people metaphorically do refer to people especially females with a holier-than-thou- attitude or those who will always talk about everything that happens, sometimes to the point of exaggeration as 'avwebo'. As a result of this, other Nigerians started using the word too when referring to a notorious gossips and the name spread gradually starting from Lagos.

Peter Ikogho also gave an interesting account about this matter in an earlier post.

"... Coming to Amebo being refered to as a Gossip is a fallout of the role played by Veteran Actress Mrs Ibidun Allison in the now long rested Soap Opera/Drama series -The Village Headmaster(NTA Series) of the middle 1960s up to early 1980s - where in her effort to please everyone in the Community became a gossip/local News carrier."

'Amebo' is more common as against the 'Avwebo' mostly due to the inability of most Nigerians, non Urhobo or Edo speakers to pronounce some consonants like 'vw/vb', replacing it with 'm', though some Urhobo groups pronounce 'Amebo' in their dialect.

In Urhobo culture, where polygamy was common before Christianity, the favorite wife (Avwebo) of a homestead, is loved

Even after the advent of Christianity, polygamy is still common in Urhobo culture.

Amebo Kori Kori chicken yansh oyinbo pepper lmao

I love Nigeria

Mujtahida:

An analogy to make you see that words have history. I am not yoruba. You are one so you tell me. The bottom line is that many words which you think are purely yoruba words are not. They were derived. I say this because that is how it is for all languages world wide and yoruba cannot be an exception.

Derived from who? Ask Google to translate Yoruba word Amebo for you.

Urhobo and Yorubas tend to share some words, just like Itsekiri. However, you've offered no proof of its Urhobo origin.

Amevbo (U) is not amebo (Yoruba) abeg.

kn23h:


Derived from who? Ask Google to translate Yoruba word Amebo for you.

Urhobo and Yorubas tend to share some words, just like Itsekiri. However, you've offered no proof of its Urhobo origin.

Amevbo (U) is not amebo (Yoruba) abeg.

I'm not Urhobo. I find the Op position plausible

Mujtahida:

I'm not Urhobo. I find the Op position plausible

Understandable. You're neither Yoruba nor Urhobo. Anything is chewable.

Do they mean Amebo or Kemi Olunloyo?

kn23h:


Derived from who? Ask Google to translate Yoruba word Amebo for you.

Urhobo and Yorubas tend to share some words, just like Itsekiri. However, you've offered no proof of its Urhobo origin.

Amevbo (U) is not amebo (Yoruba) abeg.

Lols! Me sef i am confused oo. How did amewvo become amebo?
Can you imagine? It is like saying sango is not Yoruba word

Sharon6:
Solo Makinde
Gbeborun
Gbekeyide




GET RID OF STRETCH MARKS, CHECK MY SIGNATURE!

Olofofo
CNN / Satelite
Shoboyeke
Tojubole eran nuru... etc

oodualover:

Lols! Me sef i am confused oo. How did amewvo become amebo?
Can you imagine? It is like saying sango is not Yoruba word

Illiteracy in Nigeria is becoming dangerous.
Anything go just enter front page.

deji17:


Olofofo
CNN / Satelite
Shoboyeke
Tojubole eran nuru... etc

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

riczy:
In Yoruba its called "gba'boru'

Gosh who are these Yoruba wannabes?

kn23h:


Derived from who? Ask Google to translate Yoruba word Amebo for you.

Urhobo and Yorubas tend to share some words, just like Itsekiri. However, you've offered no proof of its Urhobo origin.

Amevbo (U) is not amebo (Yoruba) abeg.

Maybe the spelling is confusing you. The pronunciation is aarmeehbooor. So though it is spelt as Avwebo, it is pronounced as Amebo.

Let's not argue on who owns the word. It's not necessary. The Op's position is on how it became popular, not that the Urhobos have a patent to the word.

And of course, etymology may be relative, even when words have the same meaning, pronunciation and orthography. I can argue that "Omo" is an Urhobo word and still be as correct or as wrong as one who argues it is a Yoruba word.

fratermathy:


Maybe the spelling is confusing you. The pronunciation is aarmeehbooor. So though it is spelt as Amevbo, it is pronounced as Amebo.

Let's not argue on who owns the word. It's not necessary. The Op's position is on how it became popular, not that the Urhobos have a patent to the word.

Yoruba: Sanyo

Japanese: Sanyo

Pesin go come tell us how Sango is of Japanese origin, how Sango was married to a Japanese priestess.

U's amevbo has no link with how it's being used today(Yoruba amebo).

kn23h:


Yoruba: Sanyo

Japanese: Sanyo

Pesin go come tell us how Sango is of Japanese origin, how Sango was married to a Japanese priestess.

U's amevbo has no link with how it's being used today(Yoruba amebo).

Of course, they are the same. Did you read the Op's post? Take time and do so again.

The Urhobo man who may have little to no knowledge of pidgin knows Amebo as a word in Urhobo and like the OP explained, some measure of Semantic shift or extension has occurred to give the word its present connotation.

If you intend to make this about Yoruba supremacy then better rest your oars elsewhere. Urhobos have no issue with Yorubas. Goodnight!

kn23h:

Lol. Thank God say you mention the other guys, cos me I don't even know or care about the origin of the word. But it could be an urhobo word sha

Language is open-ended

Lol... "soboleyoke", "sofo"

FuckTheZero:
Even Ikébé (buttocks) come from the Urhobo language.

And don't get me started with their slangs

Errm Bini also has Ikebe

And according to history the Urhobo tribe migrated from Bini

Wọ davwerhe mamọ.

checkolatunji:


Your are still saying the same thing.

Amebo means Radio Kalanga or Radio Without Battery .

Yeaa lol

fratermathy:


Maybe the spelling is confusing you. The pronunciation is aarmeehbooor. So though it is spelt as Amevbo, it is pronounced as Amebo.

Let's not argue on who owns the word. It's not necessary. The Op's position is on how it became popular, not that the Urhobos have a patent to the word.

And of course, etymology may be relative, even when words have the same meaning, pronunciation and orthography. I can argue that "Omo" is an Urhobo word and still be as correct or as wrong as one who argues it is a Yoruba word.

Don't waste your my brother....what about Olorogun,olotu?etc. there similarities in languages especially in southern Nigeria.

FuckTheZero:
Even Ikébé (buttocks) come from the Urhobo language.

And don't get me started with their slangs

Your username. Are you a teetotaler?

kn23h:


Derived from who? Ask Google to translate Yoruba word Amebo for you.

Urhobo and Yorubas tend to share some words, just like Itsekiri. However, you've offered no proof of its Urhobo origin.

Amevbo (U) is not amebo (Yoruba) abeg.

.
In two urhobo dialect namely okpe & uvwie the word is still pronounced amebo

Tinyemeka:


Your username. Are you a teetotaler?

Hahaha...No. Was inspired from one though.

HajimeSaito:





Even after the advent of Christianity, polygamy is still common in Urhobo culture.

yes, but not as much as pre-colonial and colonial times. The widespread practice of Christianity by our people have surely reduced it to a large extent.

Orobo2Lekpa:
Interesting but not correct.
Amebo was a character in a TV programme from the 1970's called Village Headmaster. She was the village gossip. The character was played by Ibidun Lawson

The word Amebo as used to ascribe to a gossip came from this character in the play

It appears you don't understand the post then. Before the play(which further popularised the name) was broadcasted, the name already existed and had a cultural background which I have exposed in the post. It was from the cultural background that the name was used to give the portrayal in "The Village Headmaster".

Probz:
Where else?

Okay then. Certainly, some of the consonants common to the languages of Edo-Speaking people may not be exclusive to those languages, but just more common with them than others.
Thanks for the info anyway.

JKisOK:
The word AMEBO is purely Esan language in Edo State. It has the same meaning as the Urhobo simile, i.e. favourite wife in a polygamous marriage.

You can't claim exclusivity. Amebo is used by some Urhobo tribes like the Okpe, Uvwie around Warri and others like Esan you pointed to. Just that the larger number of Urhobo dialects use 'Avwebo' which is quite difficult for most non-Urhobos to pronounce, hence Amebo is more often used.
Again, you will notice there is a striking linguistic resemblance between Esan and Urhobo languages if you observe well, why not? They both belong to a larger language family anyway. So I understand your point but it doesn't discredit the post.

naptu2:


Other nicknames that were names of characters on The Village Headmaster include:

A gossip is known as Amebo.

A bald headed or close-shaven person is known as Gorimapa.

An Igbo shop owner is known as Okoro.

And people still use Chief Eleyinmi's catch phrases like, "immediate effect and automatic alacrity", "nonsense and ingredients", etc.

Thanks for the video you shared. Justice Esiri also played a role in this movie.

BolaAdeyemo:
Story dosent add up abeg,amebo is just a made up slangs,,how Awvebo and amebo take resemble?

You this it doesn't add up?
Why not? It resembles a whole lot. Like the post indicated, there are Urhobo dialects that use 'Amebo' instead of the more widely used 'Avwebo' too. And don't just try to pronounce 'vw'(or vb) like English because you'll miss it since it's a single consonant in Urhobo and most other Edo-Speaking languages.
The difference is the replacement of the consonant 'vw' with 'm' in this case. I've found this difficulty common also with my Yoruba friends, sometimes they just pronounce it as 'w'. Such that, Urhobo names like Rukevwe become pronounced as Rukewe, Oghene becomes Ogene etc. If you have any friend who happens to be a good Urhobo or Edo speaker, you can understand better if they explain to you in spoken terms.

Opharhe:
Thanks for the video you shared. Justice Esiri also played a role in this movie.

Here's my thread about The Village Headmaster and The New Village Headmaster if you want to know all about the series.

https://www.nairaland.com/3558068/village-headmaster-series-longest-run#52581756