₦airaland Forum

Juliearth:
Do you know the meaning of recreation and wanna-be (as used in this context)?

But there’s no minced meat or anything of that nature so it’s not even a recreation. More like a stew/sauce (which is fine, and it does look nice anyway).

Enugu?

consqe:
Life is cruel. Men, we gaz hustle ooooo.

Hustle for what? Does money stop untimely death altogether?

It ain’t bolognese-lite, man. Let’s be real.

LightOn, what you’re saying is tantamount to saying that anyone who’s not from the Nri-Awka-Okigwe-Onitsha area (which is a broad axis but those places are either prototypal ancestrally or used as central/unifying dialects) doesn’t have a chance in hell of speaking Igbo by way of indigenous lect or that one has to live in Buckingham Palace before you’re kicked out for trespassing and getting annoyed with Lady Hussey for asking too many culturally-personal questions before you’re regarded as speaking true bona-fide English. But that ain’t it and you know it.

LightOnScams:
I do get your point, but my post wasn't about the cultural aspect. The use of the term "dialect" in African languages seems to be flawed. The whites started it. That's my argument on Itsekiri alongside its evolution in isolation.

Can you compare the supposed English dialects with Ijebu/Ekiti to Yoruba? Except you've never heard an Ekiti man speak before.

When the term "Yoruba" is used in my writings, I'm referring to the Oyo Yoruba itself.

I see what you mean but English is known for having many, many distinct lects. The way someone from the Black Country (Birmingham-ish) speaks isn’t the way a Toxteth or Dingle Scouser (Liverpool) speaks, nor is that like New York English or Cockney. And none of it’s like the Queen’s (the latest prince to be king over at the Buckingham monarchy will never be relevant or interesting like that) English. But they’re all shades of the same language.

LightOnScams:
Why are you insisting on making Itsekiri a dialect of a newer member (Oyo) of the Yoruboid group? That's something I don't understand.

Listen, I totally get that Itsekiri is culturally distinct from Yoruba (they’re closer to Urhobo than anyone-else in that regard) and for that reason I’d never even think about calling my Itsekiri friends Yoruba. Itsekiri to me is beautifully-unique but as a lect it’s also a dialect of Yoruba and that can’t be negated earnestly. The term “Yoruba” is a comparatively new-ish term, I definitely know that, but it includes subgroups who speak more distinct and complicated/“weird” dialects/broad lects like Ijebu, Ekiti and Okun. Itsekiri by the same token/technical convention falls under Yoruba as a language and that’s just how it is. No-one’s denying that they’re culturally distinct.

LightOnScams:
You don't seem to get the point. Can we go the other way round?

The emboldened were nuclear dialects I listed that belong to geographical relative peripheries so you’re proving my point. Unless you want to tell me that what they speak in Ngor-Okpala, Nkwerre and Issele-Uk(w)u isn’t Igbo proper. It is and it’s pure. Cultural affinity [which may or may not differ somewhat in the Deltan/Issele-Uk(w)u cohort] is something different but linguistically they are what they are. I’m not one of the people who extend the same token of pan-Igbotic-ness to Kwale/Ukwuani | Agbor/Ika [Bendel I(g)bo] people by-default, by the way. I feel like there’s a difference between Bendel/Kwale/Ika “Ibos” and real Delta-Igbos (Enuani - Ogwashi/Issele-Ukwu/Ahaba/etc.) and that the former have enough leverage (both linguistic and, importantly, cultural) to identify as more-or-less non-Igbos, Ika can only pass for anything like nuclear Igbo on a good day when it’s spoken by an Eastern-leaning speaker who doesn’t vibe with Bini/Edo culture and intonation as much (I know people like that in the U.K. who are fully rooted and affiliated in and with the nuclear pan-Igbo communal identity publicly/with general Igbos at-least) and it just … yeah. It’s definitely not by force to regard Igbanke people as Igbo-Igbos and Igala people have their own thing going on (they’re more like linguistic second cousins to the Yoruba than sisters) but Itsekiri is actually a straight-up dialect of Yoruba. I’m not sure what there is to gain on any side by denying that fundamental fact.

Lovely stuff. Thanks for sharing.

I’m not going to say it’s not nice but you can’t really call it anything like bolognese without there being any kind of actual minced meat.

LightOnScams:
Yoruba, like we all know, is a recent ethnic term. According to Akin Ogundiran (2021), the term "Yoruba" evolved from the word "Yagba" in the 19th century during the slave trade era.

We understand that Itsekiri was left out in the formation of the Yoruba identity. But considering them a sub-group or dialect is what I don't agree with.

Agree or disagree, it doesn’t really matter objectively. Itsekiri is to Yoruba what light Ikwerre is to Igbo linguistically. There’s more than enough cultural divergence between Itsekiri and Yoruba for me not to consider Itsekiri people Yoruba (and to be honest I don’t; they’re more like Deltan, where their men often tie a George wrapper and things like okro/egusi pepper-soup; banga soup/rice and Deltan-influenced jollof rice, maybe with a hint of gbafilo spice, are the indigenous norm more than ewedu and amala of the NW Yorubas particularly could ever be) but they speak a dialect (a sweet one, no less), not a language. I’m sure the average Yoruba could understand Itsekiri far better than the typical Igbo can understand the Abakaliki/Izzi dialect of Ebonyi State.

I … ya, I’m not gonna argue with you about the etymology of the word “Yoruba”. That’s neither here nor there, really.

Oh, well. Anyone can go out there and get laid if they really want to, if only they stop being so overly-insular in their thinking.

What hair are they really going to have by that age anyway?

No.

The guy’s likely from somewhere else. Awka people don’t act like this.

This is going to keep happening until Americans do the right thing.

seanwilliam:
Lol, na una Dey chop oyinbo food. Nothing fit seperate me and akara

You can eat both akara and burgers whenever you want.

Rice.

RedboneSmith:
OK. Thanks for the explanation. The word Ayọnrọn sounds very close to the words people use across Yoruba and Igbo (I'm not sure of Edo) to refer to cowrie shells. This is what raised my curiosity.

[B]You're doing a good job[/B] here. Keep it coming.

Very good job.

Shut up, man. The world doesn’t solely revolve around Nigeria.

Well, that was disappointing.

Agbegbaorogboye:
Keep quiet. Tinubu can't get 70%
Highest he'll get is 60%
Saraki is a poor politician compared to his father. Kwara was a low hanging fruit he could have picked easily

Kwara’s an understated state that boasts of similarly-underrated musicians. They deserve more credit than that.

If an Igbo person finds a decent Kwara-nite without any Fulanised-Yoruba streaks of Islamic fanaticism (not that there’s anything wrong with moderate Islam per-se) and anti-Igbo-ism the two of them can get on for life and even fall in love. There’s no reason why Peter Obi can’t win support there.

Pclemenza:
Congratulations to her and congratulations to obi

Ditto.

TheZeezle:
See this one.. You must be a pastor's son.

Lol.

Wishing him a speedy recovery.

Nicely-comprehensive listings. Well done.

LightOnScams:
UPDATE: Turns out Mr. Deji is from Ayere in Kogi . This makes the frustration more legit given the nature of the town's original language.

I came across a 2018 tweet where the so called activist, Deji Adeyanju, claimed he couldn't speak his language (Yagba). Ọmọ, I wan mad!!! Like fr?

Let's be clear, there are few excuses for not speaking your mother's tongue. It should be the primary means of communication between you and her.

About the excuse of not growing up at home, it's invalid. I grew up in a densely populated Hausa street and I still managed to learn Yagba despite speaking only English/ Little Bassa for the first 10 years of my life.

There are little room for excuses. By all means, strive to learn your language. It's your identity. It's your root. When I meet a Yagba person, if they don't speak Yagba, we talk in English. Every attempt to switch to Yoruba will be nulled by me .

Enough of the rant sha . Let's get to business.

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The Yagba Language

The term "Yagba" refers to a Yoruboid speaking people of Kogi, Kwara, and Ekiti States who fall under the Yoruba Language group known as Okun.

Let's leave the identity and political issue for another thread. Be certain that over 90% of Yagba people identify as Yorubas, but a tiny percentage of us chose to be called just Yagba, or at worst, Okun.

Note, Okun is not synonymous with Yagba. Under Okun, we have about six other dialects with their unique tongues. Owé (Kabba) happens to be the most popular given the history of the old Kabba province in Northern Nigeria.

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This thread is about the Yagba Language. It aims to preserve the grammar and lexicon of the language for the future generations. I'm actually working on a book, but I feel sharing my works will keep the motivation going.

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Please pitch your tent with me to learn this beautiful tongue of mine .

UPDATE
NB: The version of Yagba I'll be using is the Ilai tongue, which according to many, is the oldest in Yagba(east)land. Nevertheless, since we are looking to document native lexicons, any version of a word that differs a lot from Yoruba and shares close proximity with other dialects will be given higher priority.


Itẹhiwaju ki ai gha lọin .

Very interesting.

They really don’t. Believe you me.

Foodie1:
it is well, God knows the best, he was the only son.

If you’re not working today, why don’t you have a good nap and just take that time out to process what happened to your friend? Sometimes it’s better to sleep on things.

Foodie1:
This boy was my school mate back then in Yola, Adamawa state.

Rip chidera.

Ndo, o?

Smokkio7:
This is such a mysterious death

It’s tragic but not mysterious.