Thursday, November 19, 2015

Yorùbá: The Noun Phrase

XY is about the simplest construction in Yorùbá language, where X is a noun and Y is another noun juxtaposed to X. Noun Y qualifies noun X. The following Yorùbá names are examples:


(The)  X       (of)         Y                         Name
        Adé                   ọlá                         Adéọlá    (Thecrown of high estate)
        Ọlá                    ifá                        ọláifá        (The high estate of the oracle)
        Iyì                     ọlá                         Iyìọlá       (The prestige of high status)
       Àánú                 olú                        Àánúolú    (The mercy of God)
       Ilé                     lọ́run                  Ilélọ́run   (The house of God)

The above are about the simplest grammatical construction in  Yorùbá language.        

Yorùbá Names: The Structural and Cultural Denotation

Understanding the structure of Yoruba names is very important while teaching Yoruba language. The structure of Yoruba names mostly serves as the foundation for the structure of a speech, because Yoruba names are structured like phrases and sentences. e.g. Olú rẹ̀ mí lẹ́ kún - a sentence, the name is written as Olúrẹ̀mílẹ́kún.

There is no doubt personal and place names are some of the oldest elements in the Yoruba language. A study of these names will unveil a lot of facts about the Yoruba culture and importantly, the syntax and morphology of the Yoruba language.

I would like us to take a journey through classification of Yoruba names structurally and culturally, while I reference the book, "Yoruba names: their structure and their meanings by Modupe Oduyoye, 1971".