I can see Eastern Yoruba vibes in this Yagba dialect.

Very nice.

AreaFada2:
I can see Eastern Yoruba vibes in tis Yagba dialect.

Very nice.

Linguistically, it is considered North-Eastern.

ỌKUNRIN TO FẸ́RỌ̀N EWÓ GBỌN AYE RÈ


This is a translation of a Chinese fable titled "The man who loved money more than life".

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In ancient times there was an old woodcutter who went to the mountain almost every day to cut wood.

L'ayé atijọ, o yi lagilagi agba kọn ti re òkè gbogbo ijọ́ ati ge igi.

It was said that this old man was a miser who hoarded his silver until it changed to gold, and that he cared more for gold than anything else in all the world.

Ghọn wi arugbo mọ Amunkọnkpamọ ki se. O rọ́ mu iba kpamọ di o ba di wúrà, o ghẹn fẹ́rọ̀n wúrà gbọn gbogbo hi l'ayé.

One day a wilderness tiger sprang at him and though he ran he could not escape, and the tiger carried him off in its mouth.

Li ijọ kọn, ẹkùn aginjù kọn bẹ hi. O ha´, amọ é ri ayè yọ l'ọwọ ẹkùn nka. Bẹka ki ẹkùn nka gbe re l’arun rẹ̀.

The woodcutter's son saw his father's danger, and ran to save him if possible. He carried a long knife, and as he could run faster than the tiger, who had a man to carry, he soon overtook them.

Ọmọ lagilagi tika ri ewu baba rẹ, a ghẹn fúrè tẹle nró ri boya o rọ́ ri ayè gbà baba rẹ. O mu ihin to gun lọ, tori o rọ́ fúrè gbọn ẹkùn nka to gbudọ mu oni lọ, o ghẹn la ghọn kọja laikpẹju.

His father was not much hurt, for the tiger held him by his clothes. When the old woodcutter saw his son about to stab the tiger he called out in great alarm:

Ghọ́n ti se baba rẹ̀ se tobẹ̀ tori ẹkùn nka mu at’awu rẹ̀. L'igba lagilagi nka ri bi ọmọ se fẹ gun ẹkùn nka, o kpokiki:

"Do not spoil the tiger's skin! Do not spoil the tiger's skin! If you can kill him without cutting holes in his skin we can get many pieces of silver for it. Kill him, but do not cut his body."

"Mọ́ ba ọra rẹ jẹ́! Mọ́ ba ọra rẹ jẹ́ ! Ọ ba rọ kpa ti wé ge ihò li ọra rẹ̀, gha rọ́ gba iba yéyé ghun ọra rẹ̀. Kpa, amọ mọ́ ge ọra rẹ̀."

While the son was listening to his father's instructions the tiger suddenly dashed off into the forest, carrying the old man where the son could not reach him, and he was soon killed.

"Bi ọmọ nka si eti ghi ọrọ baba rẹ̀ , ẹkùn ha wọ igbo li òjijì. O mu arugbo nka re ibi ọmọ nka é rọ́ dé, a ghẹn kpa."


*⁠*⁠*⁠*⁠*⁠*⁠*⁠*

And the wise man who told this story said, "Ah, this old man's courage was foolishness. His love for money was stronger than his love for life itself."

Ọkunrin ọlọgbọn to p'itan mọ ghẹn wi, "Aaa!, igboya arugbo mọ́ gọ̀ . Ifẹ´ rẹ̀ ghun ewó gbọn ti ayé tika rè."

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EXPRESSING IDENTITY

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Quite often, we need to introduce ourselves and let people know what we are doing. In English, we do that with the "to be" verb and in Japanese we use "desu" or "da".

In Yagba, the same is possible as well.

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Ki....se ===== To be
Ki.....gha ===== To be (to exist in a certain state, place, or dimension).
Ko ri....... ===== To be seen as.......

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Examples


Tísà (Akọwe) ki m se ===== Tísà kim se ===== I am a teacher.

Adebayo ki m se ===== Adebayo kim se ===== I am Adebayo.

Ọmọ ilù Odo Ere kim gha ===== I am from Odo Ere.

Ọmọ ale ki we se ===== You're a bastard.

Àgbà kì ẹ se ===== You're older.

Alfa ki i se ===== Alfa kii se ===== He's an imam/pastor.

Àlejò ki ghọn se ===== Àlejò k'ghòn se ===== They are strangers.

Ọmọ ghin ki gha se ===== We're your children.

Ọmọ okun ko ri m ===== Ọmọ okun ko ri'm ===== I am seen as an Okun person.

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I discovered that I ignored the first person plural (we, us) in my earlier posts. I'll update them soon.

EXPRESSING EQUIVALENCE

How do you say something is something in Yagba? You use "ki". "Ki" works like "is" in English and "ni" in Yoruba.

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Examples

Oun ki aburo ọbaarun nka --- He's the younger one to the tortoise.
Ọlọun ki mu alafia koni --- It is God who gives good health.
Ayọnrọn'm ki nka --- That's my money.

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Following.

LightOnScams:
EXPRESSING EQUIVALENCE




Ayọnrọn'm ki nka --- That's my money.

Am I right in concluding from this that in Yagba, they don't use owo/ogho or a similar sounding word to mean 'money'?

RedboneSmith:


Am I right in concluding from this that in Yagba, they don't use owo/ogho or a similar sounding word to mean 'money'?

Generally, Yagba use "ewo". I think Mopa people use "owo" maybe due to the village's Owe influence.

I thought I used "ewo" in an earlier example sha. My bad.

The reason why I used *Ayọnrọn* was to preserve the term which has fallen *out of favour for the more friendly Yoruba version "ewo".

Infact, it is used when you want to talk about money without letting a non-native Yagba speaker know what's up .

AreaFada2:
Following.

Thanks.

LightOnScams:

Generally, Yagba use "ewo". I think Mopa people use "owo" maybe due to the village's Owe influence.

I thought I used "ewo" in an earlier example sha. My bad.

The reason why I used *Ayọnrọn* was to preserve the term which has fallen in favour for the more friendly Yoruba version "ewo".

Infact, it is used when you want to talk about money without letting a non-native Yagba speaker know what's up .

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.

You're doing a good job here. Keep it coming.

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.

You're doing a good job here. Keep it coming.

I actually meant "out of favour...".

Thanks for following sir. I'll keep it coming.

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.

Anti spam bot

The anti-spam bot has been on my neck .

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EXPRESSING EXISTENCE

In English we say "There is", in French we say "Il y a", in Ọyọ Yoruba we say "o wa".

In Yagba we say:

O yi ----- There is
É yi ----- There is not/There is no

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Examples


O yi ọbẹ̀ ílá ----- There's okra soup.
É yi ọni libẹ ----- There's nobody there.
O yi kini kọn m fẹ wi họn yin ----- There's a thing I want to tell you.

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COMPARATIVES

Unlike English, there's no morphological change to adjectives when making comparisons.

The word "gbọn" is used to connote "than".

To make comparison, we make use of the following format:

X Y gbọn Z rè

Where X=Noun, Y=Adjective, Z=Noun.

"Rè" means "to go" in Yagba, and it's optional.

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Examples



T'em hunwa gbọn imirin rè ------ Mine is better than another.

Ọbaarun ya gbọn ẹja rè ------ Tortoise is faster than fish.

Ghọn gbọ́n gbọn gha rè ------ They are wiser than us.

Wé laju gbọn'm rè ------ You're not well exposed than me (I'll explain negation later).

Ọ n'ewó gbọn'm rè ------ You're richer than me.

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What is your motivation to teach this dialect on Nairaland? I am interested in knowing.
Have you seen many Yagba express interest in the past?

scholes0:
What is your motivation to teach this dialect on Nairaland? I am interested in knowing.
Have you seen many Yagba express interest in the past?

Well, like I said before, I'm frustrated seeing many Yagba people not knowing it.

My roommate back in school was one. He grew up in Isanlu, but only understands Yoruba. Like fr? I chose not to speak in Yoruba throughout our stay due to what I tag the "Yorubanization of Okun". I don't even understand Yoruba that much, lol. I don't really care about it, it interferes with my speaking.

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Aside that, I'm working on a personal research project on the Yagba language and writing the grammar privately without sharing them feels boring. Sharing the project on Nairaland takes it off my chest and I can work on more stuff.

It's also my intention to preserve the language especially the lexicon which is being "Yorubanized". By documenting the language, I hope I play my little part in preserving the tongue of my parents for the future.

Moreover, the so called Eastern Yoruba dialects are considered the oldest of the Yoruba continum. We can't let them lose their originality. They are important to research and history. Forget the fake Okun Migration histories from Ile-Ife, they're fake. Okun are aboriginals.

About people wanting to learn the language, I've met many who want to sincerely learn the language. I may even create a video series soon.

Thanks.

LightOnScams:

Moreover, the so called Eastern Yoruba dialects are considered the oldest of the Yoruba continum. We can't let them lose their originality. They are important to research and history. Forget the fake Okun Migration histories from Ile-Ife, they're fake. Okun are aboriginals.

Well, dynastic migrations of certain classes of people in Yoruba communities are not "fake" that actually did happen. Now, whether the entire populace of entire subgroups or towns all migrated from Ife is highly unlikely. But people did indeed leave Ife to many Yoruba towns and cities spreading ideologies, religion, certain trades, certain esoteric knowledge and perhaps most importantly ruling dynasties.

LightOnScams:

Well, like I said before, I'm frustrated seeing many Yagba people not knowing it.

My roommate back in school was one. He grew up in Isanlu, but only understands Yoruba. Like fr? I chose not to speak in Yoruba throughout our stay due to what I tag the "Yorubanization of Okun". I don't even understand Yoruba that much, lol. I don't really care about it, it interferes with my speaking.

From some of the things you've said so far, I do not think the majority of your time growing up was in Yagba land. It is actually kind of obvious, lol.
As for your Isanlu friend being unable to speak Yagba, it shouldn't be that surprising that you would think it was so unusual that it should come as a such a 'shocker' to you (like fr, as you put it). it is actually quite the norm (at least these days) and increasingly so.
It is unfortunate but dialectal levelling is the norm in Languages with dialects. It is happening in Europe with German, Italian etc. Same in West Africa and Nigeria here as well.

I personally belong to a Yoruba dialectal area that is not NWY, so I very well understand the sentiment you have, but our dialects are dying unfortunately. On the overall effect of this, I am actually quite torn on the issue of whether everyone should continue speaking dialects in their own little social/clan enclaves or whether the levelling should continue and create stronger cohesion.. The thing dey dicey.

scholes0:


Well, dynastic migrations of certain classes of people in Yoruba communities are not "fake" that actually did happen. Now, whether the entire populace of entire subgroups or towns all migrated from Ife is highly unlikely. But people did indeed leave Ife to many Yoruba towns and cities spreading ideologies, religion, certain trades, certain esoteric knowledge and perhaps most importantly ruling dynasties.

That could be, but that's not the story these days. Everyone seems to want to link themselves there.

scholes0:


From some of the things you've said so far, I do not think the majority of your time growing up was in Yagba land. It is actually kind of obvious, lol.
As for your Isanlu friend being unable to speak Yagba, it shouldn't be that surprising that you would think it was so unusual that it should come as a such a 'shocker' to you (like fr, as you put it). it is actually quite the norm (at least these days) and increasingly so.
It is unfortunate but dialectal levelling is the norm in Languages with dialects. It is happening in Europe with German, Italian etc. Same in West Africa and Nigeria here as well.

I personally belong to a Yoruba dialectal area that is not NWY, so I very well understand the sentiment you have, but our dialects are dying unfortunately. On the overall effect of this, I am actually quite torn on the issue of whether everyone should continue speaking dialects in their own little social/clan enclaves or whether the levelling should continue and create stronger cohesion.. The thing dey dicey.

How's it obvious? I mentioned it already tho. Check the first page.

I no care about cohesion sha, but there are things we can't stop.

LightOnScams:

How's it obvious? I mentioned it already tho. Check the first page.

I no care about cohesion sha, but there are things we can't stop.

Like dialectal levelling.
I notice something though, which is that the Okuns who deny being Yoruba the most are those that grew up elsewhere up North (usually in mixed/multi ethnic northern metropoles), and not even the ones who grew up in their very own okun towns and villages or in the SW with their other kith. If indeed like you say... villages like Ipawo and Itapaji self identify as being Yagba and not Ekiti, then it is next to impossible for them (in this age) to not self identify with their Ijesha or Igbomina brothers. What is your assessment of this observation?

scholes0:


Like dialectal levelling.
I notice something though, which is that the Okuns who deny being Yoruba the most are those that grew up elsewhere up North (usually in mixed/multi ethnic northern metropoles), and not even the ones who grew up in their very own okun towns and villages or in the SW with their other kith. If indeed like you say... villages like Ipawo and Itapaji self identify as being Yagba and not Ekiti, then it is next to impossible for them (in this age) to not self identify with their Ijesha or Igbomina brothers. What is your assessment of this observation?

Well .
I actually spent most of my growing up in Kabba/Bunu/Lokoja. So you're not right on this .
My only time in a place close to what you'll call a Hausa speaking city was in MInna. Aside that, no.

The choice not to identify as Yoruba is against the norm, this I know. But I'm doing so for personal reasons.

scholes0:


Like dialectal levelling.

True, and there's extinction too.

scholes0:


Like dialectal levelling.
I notice something though, which is that the Okuns who deny being Yoruba the most are those that grew up elsewhere up North (usually in mixed/multi ethnic northern metropoles), and not even the ones who grew up in their very own okun towns and villages or in the SW with their other kith. If indeed like you say... villages like Ipawo and Itapaji self identify as being Yagba and not Ekiti, then it is next to impossible for them (in this age) to not self identify with their Ijesha or Igbomina brothers. What is your assessment of this observation?

I've never seen Okun people deny their Yorubaness.

BanyXchi:
I've never seen Okun people deny their Yorubaness.

This thread is not about identity issues.

Can we not digress? Everyone can chose to be what they wish to be as long as they don't force it on the rest.
It's seems you're Okun, if so, I'd appreciate your contribution. But you can also create your own thread on identity issues.

A Spanish speaker can pick up a lot of Italian language, because of the Latin roots of their language.
However, Spanish is not and will never be considered a a dialect of Italian. We shouldn't consider this language and many other languages "dialects" no matter what roots and conjugates exist. We should accept them as they are. All attempts of grouping are more political in nature.

Thanks for your submissions.