ktravula – a travelogue!

Tweet Yoruba Day 2013

On March 1, 2013, twitter users who speak Yoruba will tweet all day in their mother tongue.

This practice began last year as a means to pressure Twitter to include Yoruba in the list of languages into which the platform is being translated. There was a partial success in form of a response by a twitter translation desk official who assured that while the message has been heard, it would take a little while more to include the language, for logistic reasons.

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We have had a second contact with Twitter official @lenazun, this time to help with the question about what accepted dialect of Yoruba is generally used in official Yoruba writings and translation. (The answer is the North-West, Oyo Dialect of Yoruba). Besides that, nothing else.

The Tweet Yoruba Day on March 1, 2013* is to continue the annual tradition, but with less emphasis on pressuring Twitter but on celebrating the beauty and importance of the mother tongue usage in the age of modernity. It might never happen anytime soon that the only means of communication online would be any of these local languages with a limited number of speakers (Yoruba has over 30 million), but as long as these means of communication exist, there would always be new ways of transmitting culture and a distinct worldview.

The hashtags to use, like last year, would be #tweetYoruba and #twitterYoruba. For those still interested in reminding twitter of our intention to have the platform translated into Yoruba, copy your tweets to @twitter and @translator.

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*February 21 is The International Mother Tongue Day

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Here is the official poster. Feel free to share on your social networks:

TweetYorub2013 (1)

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speakafrica

 

Tweeters with the most creative tweets during the event will receive “I Can Speak Yoruba” T-shirts and tote bags courtesy of @SpeakAfricaApps, a supporter of the event, and Recharge Cards courtesy of Think Oyo (@ThinkOyo), another supporter. The project is brought to you with help from Molara Wood, writer (@MolaraWood), Alakowe Yoruba (@AlakoweYoruba), The Yoruba Cultural Insittute (@yorubaculture), and Kevin “Kayode” Barry (@KayodeOyinbo).

 

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Kàá ní Yorùbá

Tweet Yoruba Day 2013 was published on February 21st, 2013, with the tags , , under the Linguistics category. There are currently 15 comments on this article so far.

Ojo Siso Yoruba Ni Twitter 2013

Lọjó Kinni, Osù Kẹta (Ẹrẹnà) 2013, àwọn olùlo twitter tó gbọ Yoruba yóò sọọ láti àárọ dálẹ.

A bẹrẹ ètò yìí lódún tó kọjá láti fá Twitter lẹsẹ kí wọn ba le fi ọn ba le fi èdè Yorùbá sí ọkan lára àwọn èdè àgbáyé  tí a ti lè lo gbàgede náà. A se aseyọrí díẹ nígbà tí Twitter dá wa lóhùn padà láti ẹnu òsìsẹ ògbifọ wọn kan tí ó sọ wípé wọn ti gbọ ohùn wa, sùgbọn yó se díẹ kí wọn tó fi ọn tó fi Yorùbá kún-un nítorí àwọn ètò díẹ tí wọn ní láti se kí ó tó le seése.
imagesA tún ti bá wọn sọrọ lẹẹkan síi nígbà tí òsìsẹ Twitter miran @lenazun wá láti bèèrè irú èka Yorùbá tí a máa n lò láti se ògbifọ àti láti kọ ìwé ìjọba ní Yorùbá. (Ìdáhùn rẹ ni Yorùbá Àríwá-Ìwọ Oòrùn, tí a n sọ ní Òyó). Léyìn èyí, nkò gbọ ohun mìràn.

ỌJọ Sísọ Yorùbá Ní Twitter ní March 1, 2003* jẹ láti tẹsíwájú èyí tí a bẹrẹ lódún tó kọjá, sùgbọn nísìnyí láti fi ẹwà èdè abínibí wa hàn nínú ayé ẹrọ ayélujára tí a n gbé nísìnyí. Ó lè má sẹlẹ rárá wipe ọjọ kan yóò wà tí èdè tí gbogbo aráyé yóò máa sọ lórí ayélujárá yóò jẹ èdè abínibí nìkan, torípé àwọn tó n sọ wón kò pọ púpọ (Yoruba tíẹ sí ní ju ọgbọn million lọ), sùgbọn bí ọnà láti sọ èdè yìí bá ti se wà, bẹẹ náà ni a ó se ní àìmọye ojúlówó ọnà láti fi àsà àti ìse wa hàn fún gbogbo àgbáyé

Bí a se seé lésìí, àwọn hashtags láti lò lọdún yìí ni #tweetYoruba àti #twitterYoruba. Fún àwọn tí wón bá tún fẹ fa Twitter lẹsẹ wípé kí wọn jẹ kí á se ògbifọ gbàgede náà sí Yorùbá,  kí wón sèdà tweeti wọn sí @twitter àti @translator.

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*February 21 ni Ọjọ Tí a Yà Sọtọ Lágbàáyé Fún Sísọ Nípa Èdè Abínibí

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Èyí ni atọka ètò náà. Jọwọ fi han gbogbo àwọn ènìyàn rẹ lórí èrọ ayélujára

TweetYorub2013 (1)

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speakafrica

Àwọn olùlo twitter tí ó bá kọ àwọn oun tó mọgbọn wá jùlọ ní ọjọ yìí yóò gba asọ “Mo Le Sọ Yorùbá” àti báàgì ìfàlọwọ láti ọwọ @SpeakAfricaApps tí ó n se ìgbọwọ ètò yìí, ati kirediti lati owo  Think Oyo (@ThinkOyo). Ètò yìí tún wá pẹlú àjọsepọ àwọn wọnyìí náà: Molara Wood, ònkọwé (@MolaraWood), Alakowe Yorùbá (@AlakoweYoruba), The Yoruba Cultural Insittute (@yorubaculture), àti Kevin “Kayode” Barry (@KayodeOyinbo).

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Read page in English

Ojo Siso Yoruba Ni Twitter 2013 was published on February 21st, 2013, with the tags , , , , under the Fun, Linguistics category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

The Origin of “Oyinbo”

I have come across the  most convincing story yet of the source of the word oyinbo. Of all the previous stories about the source of the word, the current entry in Wikipedia makes use of cognates and probable historical anecdotes. See below:

it… means “white person” generally used in the country, which originates from Igbo Language . The first “White people” to settle in Nigeria as colonial masters were the English people. In Igbo language demonym takes the form ” onye + the place of origin” of the person, hence, and Igbo person is called ” Onye Igbo”. A Yoruba person is called ” Onye Yoruba”. A German is “onye Germany”. Thus the first white people were called “onye ocha” for singular and “ndi ocha” for plural meaning “white person and white people” respectively. This was because the Igbo people of those days did not know from where the white people came. Interaction between the Igbos and the white people resulted in the white people trying to refer to the Igbos with a name similar to what the Igbos called them, but there was problem in pronouncing Igbo words due to presence of double lettered alphabets which involve nasal pronunciation,in some of the consonants such as ‘ch’, ‘gb’, ‘gh’, ‘gw’, ‘kp’, ‘kw’, ‘nw’, ‘ny’, ‘sh’. These were not present in English language hence the difficulty in the white man’s effort in giving the Igbos similar demonym as the Igbo people had given to him, instead a name resulting from a mutilation of Igbo words was produced “Oyi ibo’ instead of ” onyi igbo’ meaning ‘Igbo person’ just as he ‘the white man’ was called ‘ onye ocha’ meaning ‘white person’. It was this ‘oyi ibo’ that the Igbos later started referring to as ‘white person’ in a way of mocking the white man for his inability in saying “Onye Igbo”. This would later be adopted by other Southern Nigerian tribes as the standard name for the white man and coupled with dialect variance one obtains different pronunciations such as “Oyinbo’ in Yoruba and other western Nigerian tribes…

As a linguist, this makes more sense than any other story that breaks the word down as “oyin + bo” or any other permutation.

The Origin of “Oyinbo” was published on February 4th, 2013, with the tags , , under the Academic, Linguistics category. There are currently 5 comments on this article so far.

Dying in Many Tongues

One of the things that worried me a couple of days ago while watching the immigration debate in the US Senate press conference was a seeming consensus that ALL intending immigrants wishing to benefit from the quasi-amnesty/path-to-citizenship MUST learn to speak English before they can qualify. The discomfiture eventually turned to laughter when the senators making the point at the conference then began to speak in Spanish, in turn, to get the message across to their desired audience across the land. My sense of outrage, being sufficiently neutered by that irony, went away, and I went on Facebook to poke fun at my American friends who promptly defended the country’s one-common-language policy. They had a point: for every country/civilization to survive, and for the sense of unity, it must have a common language. (Never mind that people who already live and work in the country probably already speak the language or a version of it, or would do so eventually, to survive, without having to be compelled by law. And that if they don’t, their children would eventually do as it had been for generations, and the generations after them).

Today, however, I came across another second level of outrage, this time coming from American parents who were riled up that their children were reciting the American Pledge of Allegiance in a different language, this time in Arabic! Also important: the pupils, members of a social club, had already spent previous weeks reciting the same pledge in French and Spanish, with no uproar. The problem: the phrase “under God” is impossible to translate into Arabic without the word “Allah” appearing in it. Outrage! Sound the alarms: the children are now batting for the terrorists!

Watch a “discussion” about it below, via Fox News:

I was beside myself with laughter at the end, this time at the Chyron on the screen that read “Pledge of Allegiance to Allah?”

So instead of this post being about the needlessness of outrage, and the benefits of multilingualism, or even the beauty of childhood innocence and experimentation, or – horror of horrors – the importance of an open mind that assimilates instead of dictating, it shall merely be about the pleasures of sampling the varying shades of American outrage.

To end, here’s a VW ad that has now also spawned a lot of American cable tv outrage for the use of Jamaican accent by a white American dude from Minnesota. Judge for yourself.

These are interesting times for lingua fracas.

Dying in Many Tongues was published on February 1st, 2013, with the tags , , , , under the Uncategorized category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

Chika Unigwe in Lagos

154155_525183577503551_1026276156_n…on January 31st, 2013. 

But before then at the University of Nsukka on January 29th to read from her works.

Chika is the winner of the NLNG Nigerian Prize for Literature 2013 and the author of On Black Sister’s Street.

Chika Unigwe in Lagos was published on January 23rd, 2013, with the tags , , , under the Literature, News category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.