|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
By Prof. Adesuyi Ajayi
I found the identity and / or overlaps between iGBO AND YORUBA equivalents of the English words both intriguing and striking. Here is a short list as sample.
Mouth [ English ] = Enu (yoruba ) = onu (igbo) I sought more profound interpretations and help from colleagues in African studies, Yoruba, Linguistics and anthropology depatments at Ife in 1998. I discovered that this has been studied only to a superficial level , but the similarities i found were not novel. It was explained to me by friends and more knowledgeable and literary-cognate family members that in Linguistic evolution and admixture, especially through migration, body parts and primary needs tend to remain unchanged. Less biologically important vocabularies especially vowels change more rapidly. The consonants remain and may exhibit a palindromic reversal ( IYAWO = IWAYIN ) but vowels are easily modified or removed . THE congent point i drew from this exposure and experience , is that Igbo and Yoruba either evolved from the same proto-language . thus suggesting that the peoples had lived together indistinguishably until recent migrations [ may be 1,000 to 500 years ago ] .While there were similarities between Hausa and Yoruba, it was less striking, and the similarities between Hausa and Igbo were virtually non-existent from our record in 1997. More studies of the interrelatedness of Nigerian linguistic groups and also DNA genetic homology are NEEDED. PERHAPS , the Almighty God infact created Nigeria !!, and Lord lugard just carried out a pre-destined ordination. A sovereign National conference . at least to study linguistic similarities may throw up more tales of the unexpected.!!!! 
|
claim no expertise neither in the field of social anthroplogy nor
linguistics. I was however struck by certain similarities and even identity
of words , when I asked my students (medical ) at the Obafemi Awolowo
University Teaching hospital. Ile-Ife, to compile a small pocket sized "
Igbo-Yoruba-Hausa dictionary ' of body parts and commonly used medical
instructions to patients, in response to the increasingly diverse and
cosmopolitan demographics of our in -patient population. I gave the list of
words and phrases in English and identified linguistically competent Hausa-,
Igbo -or Yoruba -speaking students, to translate the English words to these
languages. The aim was to reduce our collective dependence on "translators"
who sometime demand a buck or two for their 'labor'!!