₦airaland Forum

dangerzone: More than scary..it is fucking creepy, that keeper is a fucking BASTARD ,oloriburuku person haba

dont talk like that. pressure is 2much oo. i dont think i would be able to handle it.

Nooo, this is scary.

I think it's sad to see people flex with expensive cars and not thinking "hey, with the money I spent on this car, I could've started a school".

Very sad. keep am coming, one day you will not be so happy.
Congratulations with your car, I hope you earned it rightfully.

I see. Thank you for giving me some insight! I really appreciate it.

Hello, again!

I was listening to dami duro by Davido, and was wondering what exactly it means.
I know duro means stop, and mi - me, so I assume ema dami duro means don't try to stop me, followed by the emi omo baba olowo (I'm a rich man's/father's son) but what does the da in dami mean?

I looked up try/attempt and i I found dan and da aba, so maybe the da is dan, so it means try? Would make sense. The reason I'm in doubt is because all the words set together is what I find very hard to learn.

Very happy news! Congratz

While this is a terrible crime, killing Okechukwu Nwabueze, as he is called, is wrong. I don't understand why anyone would want more blood shed for the already shed blood.

It is as the Yoruba proverb says: obo ni yo para e. This man, in a sense, already killed himself when foolishly shooting an innocent girl. Whether it be physical or mentally, remains to be seen. If there is no regret, then he should be put on life time and we should leave the rest to God.

Thank you so much, Seanfly!

Your help is invaluable.

Hello!

I have a new question.

It says in my book that láti dé means "to come back", but I thought the correct word was láti bò(ọ) or láti padà wá. It seems to be contradicting itself, unless these words means the same thing.

I just checked with my dictionary, since I was in doubt after your comment. It does say onirele means peaceful (peace = irele). But peaceful is synonym with calm, so their meaning is very similar. When it comes to jeje, it also says that when used as an adverb, it means peacefully/quietly. And according to this book,http://books.google.no/books?id=CzUV4oKBiSIC&pg=PA66&lpg=PA66&dq=jokoje+yoruba&source=bl&ots=rGwHC8hVWV&sig=qZwOlAFglbj5XYvM3GhoVvUQKJc&hl=no#v=onepage&q=jokoje%20&f=false
jokoje means sit quiet(ly). So I believe this is just a case of synonym-crashing, and nuances in the language when it comes to meaning. All in all, languages can rarely be translated with 100% accuracy, so I would think in this case no one is wrong.
So after my research, written Yoruba or standard Yoruba (it's based mostly on Oyo and Ibadan dialects, but there are aspects from other dialects as well), so it might differ a little bit from the spoken dialects, and it that case, the blame is on me.


Also, how would you say "all is calm/peaceful now"? as asked previously.

Hmm! I believe you are correct.

Ka is count, so yes!

chey.. why go public with this efizy of his? i dey laugh ooo. I like Davido's music, but abeg, dont be a fool and flex with your pride. its not good.

dont understand all the hype around this phone. there is nothing "big" about it at all.

hmm, so sad oo
these omilas never go stop with their wickedness.

Rest in peace, Wunmi.

Hehe, thank you! I am actually learning Yoruba as we speak. So this thread is nice for me to test my skills.

I will take a look at that post now.

EDIT: I recognize the word eka and I believe it is ékà which is a way of measuring. (Acre I believe is the English word if I remember correctly). Hard to tell without the tones, but that is the only "eka-word" I know of anyway.

Jokoje = jókòó jé, maybe? Not sure of the meaning. Jokoo means sit, jé is be/exist. There is another possibility, the word jéjé means quietly. So if this is the case, it would be sit quietly. Still need someone to confirm.

ifyalways: kindly translate to read,bicycle,all is calm/peaceful now,sit there in Yoruba as a Yoruba woman.
this thread is for learning and for every of my post,I add a disclaimer.You'll either correct me(share knowledge) or hit the highway.

Luckily, the first once are easy. I will write them for you with tones. (The letters below are the proper letters, but this site won't let me write dot letters with tones).

To read: Láti káwè.

Bicycle: Kékè.
(ẹ ẹ)

Sit there: Jókòó níbè.
(ọọ) (ẹ)

Peaceful: Onìrèlè
(ẹ ẹ)

I don't know what it is calm/peaceful now would directly translate to, sorry. Maybe gbogbo onìrélé ìgbá yìí.

seunfly: we have standard yoruba which i think is oyo dialect, this i think every yoruba person understand. You can try find that oyo standard and you are good to go.

Oh ok, ó yé mi.

O/Ẹ ṣe.

Kóyò!

Íyé mwén é norwegian. (How would you say this norwegian?)

Ok, so I tried writing it with tones, I know only a few words with tones, I'm sure there's a mistake somewhere (grammar?)! Please correct. Other than that is is no problem, I just thought it was a bit strange that you wanted to know.

Khian zepke!

Hello, Ezotik. May I assume you're the same Exotik I know from earlier?

I'm not entirely sure why this question would be of interest to you, but I will not discuss it in this thread.

HellO!

I've been reading up a little on Yoruba dialects. As I understand it, standard or written Yoruba is a mix of these dialects. I am a bit worried that I will have problems understanding Yoruba in oral form.
How well will I be able to fare in for example Eko when speaking standard Yoruba? That goes for both understanding and being understood. Are these dialects mutually intelligble? I assume after some time spent, I will adjust to the dialect, but just as a question of interest.

There are a couple of Yotube clips with some of these dialects, and they sound a bit distinct from each other. That's why I'm wondering.

Congratulations!! This is good news.

[quote author=*Ileke-IdI]Authentic Yoruba is hard for me to read too. don't give up.

The accents (do re mi) can be hard to read.[/quote]Yes, the tones are what I'm currently struggling the most with. Currently I have bì - to throw up, bi - to ask and bí - to deliver a baby, in my head. To me they sound so much alike. Oh well, not giving up!

I see. So that would mean that there is no language pack available.

Shame, really. But oh well, no need for you to make a ROM. Thanks anyway!

I'm currently learning Yoruba and naturally I want to surround myself with the language. Is there any way to get Yoruba on Android (4.0 to be exact)? And by that I mean system language.

My phone model is htc one x if it matters.

food is food, whether you eat it with hands or cutlery. I see nothing wrong here.

Africaman: Congratulations Starflux and good luck with your learning.

You might find this useful: http://www.africa.uga.edu/Yoruba/pronunciation.html


odabo.

Oh, very nice! Thank you again!

EnuguMan: StarFlux, this is such a wealth of information. Thank you soo much!! I am eternally grateful to you!

It's no problem! The learning material available in pidgin is a bit limited, but you can learn a lot by just reading these forums, and if there's something you don't understand, you try look up the words either with one of the links I provided or elsewhere. If you are going back to Nigeria at some point, I would also recommend looking for books there. Available material outside of Nigeria is very limited.

It's always nice to see people wanting to learn a new language. Even in Nigeria, some parents don't teach their kids their language. So people like you can make them open their eyes. Rich culture which you find in Nigeria is nothing to be ashamed of.

EnuguMan: MsDarkSkin, what difference does my screen name or understanding of pidgin make to you? ...and why are you writing this on my post? I never said I was from Enugu...my screen name is just that...a screen name!! So please, if you don't have something positive to contribute..please keep your comments to yourself. Thanks!

Don't think too much about it.

If you want to pick up pidgin fast, I suggest surrounding you with people speaking it. It shouldn't be too hard for you as you already understand English.

Amazon.com offers several books about Nigerian pidgin:
http://www.amazon.com/Nigerian-Pidgin-Background-Prospects-Elugbe/dp/9781291737/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1343667155&sr=8-5&keywords=Nigerian+pidgin

Here you can see search results for Nigerian pidgin for yourself:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Nigerian+pidgin&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3ANigerian+pidgin
https://www.google.com/search?q=nigerian+pidgin&btnG=S%C3%B8k+i+b%C3%B8ker&tbm=bks&tbo=1&hl=no (List from Google Books)

THere are also internet sources to consider:
http://naijalingo.com/
http://www.onlinenigeria.com/pidgin/ (this site contains a lot of vocabulary, but it is very slow).
http://www.transparent.com/learn-pidgin-english/overview.html
http://www.digitalniyi.com/slangsofnaija/learn-anp.html
http://www.scribd.com/doc/65726745/Nigerian-Pidgin-English-learn-To-Speak-Pidgin-English-Fast (Online book)

The sentence structure/grammar is more similar to other Nigerian languages, so learning pidgin will actually be a bit of help if you plan on learning Igbo.

For Igbo you have:
http://www.amazon.com/Igbo-Beginners-Joyce-Okwumo/dp/0615293352/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1343667575&sr=8-4&keywords=igbo
http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Course-Foreign-Service-Institute/dp/0884326071/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1343667575&sr=8-8&keywords=igbo (Basic course)
http://www.amazon.com/Igbo-English-English-Igbo-Dictionary-Phrasebook-Hippocrene/dp/0781806615/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343667575&sr=8-1&keywords=igbo (Dictionary)
http://www.amazon.com/Teach-Yourself-IGBO-ebook/dp/B0050Z3D3G/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343694094&sr=1-1&keywords=teach+yourself+igbo (If you have Kindle)
https://www.google.com/search?q=Igbo&btnG=S%C3%B8k+i+b%C3%B8ker&tbm=bks&tbo=1&hl=com (List from Google Books)

Igbo on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2QWo8IJ10c

Here you can see the available Igbo material from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=igbo

Software for learning Igbo: http://2speaklanguages.com/learn-igbo/

There are also internet sources:
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/igbo.htm
http://learnigbo.com/
http://www.igbofocus.co.uk/html/learn_igbo.html
http://ilc.igbonet.com/
http://www.igbo911.com/
http://www.umuigbo.com./

More pidgin:
http://www.amazon.com/Nigerian-Pidgin-Descriptive-Grammars-Faraclas/dp/0415022916/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1343693461&sr=8-7&keywords=Nigerian+pidgin (I have no idea why it's so expensive).
http://www.amazon.com/Nigerian-Pidgin-Lagos-Language-variation/dp/1903292107/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1343693461&sr=8-16&keywords=Nigerian+pidgin

I am sure there is more material for you out there, just keep googling and searching. I cannot however, speak for the quality of the items linked.
Good luck on your journey!

It's truly a shame. Imagine, they build somewhere else, when their country is in dire need of investment. Why?

chey, i dey wonda for these people's mind oo.

My pidgin is very limited, but I will try my best.

Zikky, agree that you have seen. Now you have been talking like this/ talk behind back. Ok, you want to make me feel guilty, isn't it so? Can't you find my mouth/make me talk? Now don't get angry/upset. You know that it is (njakilri, no idea what this means). Please, stay away from Yemi. He will not be on your side. Yemi! Please, get over it/go away/overcome. (Not sure exactly what jump and pass means). Jor is an expression of despair I think.

Palala (name I think), you know that you are my friend, I will not do anything bad to you (and for that ofe mmanu boy i 4 yaby him) but the thing is, I'm hustling/stealing from their side. If I talk, he will call boko boyz to come bomb my warehouse. (The rest looks like Igbo).

Sorry I couldn't be of more help. I saw that you didn't get any replies so I jumped in. At least you can get an idea what it means.

So I recieved my books yesterday (if anyone is interested) and so far they all seem great. However, browsing through the first pages of the Beginner's Yoruba by Kayode J. Fakinlede it seems like it does not adress the issue as to how you should adress elders and such. In that way, it is more informal (and so it says in the introduction, although I might've skipped it or maybe it will come later). However, the book really seems to give you a very good start (I liked the start better in this book than the other, and the included CDs are excellent). I'm sure there are cons and pros to both.

As for Colloquial Yoruba: The Complete Course for Beginners (as the othe book is called) by Antonia Yetunde Folarin Schleicher it does say how to adress elders. The CDs are also excellent.

These are only first impressions and both books seems to be very solid. The CDs are amazing and are of tremendous value. The dictionary, Yoruba-English/English-Yoruba Modern Practical Dictionary also by Fakinlede, is surprisingly big and contains a lot of words.

[quote author=PAGAN 9JA]how did you know death did not defeat him is he part of justice league or star wars and why are you running away not that i expected much from you. . [/quote]Well my friend, the best advice I can give to you is to pray to God and ask for forgiveness, share your troubles and questions with Him - search for God with all your heart. I believe I have said what is necessary in this thread, and I will not bite on your attempt to ridicule.

Be safe.