HOW DO WE SAY 7,979,797,979 IN YOUBA LANGUAGE?
Julius Fakinlede
Lovers of Yoruba language, how do we say the number 7,979,797,979 in our language. Or 12,345,678 for that matter. How do we say any number larger than, may be a thousand or one as small as a thousanth in any way that will quick, easily comprehensile by the listener and usable by the Yoruba nation as a whole?
In the sciences, we have to use numbers that are infinitely small and extensively large. The European languages, and for that matter, almost all language communities as big as ours, or even smaller ones, have ways of representing numbers in terms of powers, logarithms, etc.
If you are a lover of our language, and you want it to be accorded the respect it deserves, please let us join hands to debate this issue. It is posing a major obstacle in our bid to develop our language in the science and technology area.
Ire o
FAKINLEDE
J Adetunji
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Bayo Omolola
Iba nla onipele: billion
Iba onipele gobi: trillion
... gobigobi
😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀
Okanjua n dagba, ogbo n rewaju. Imo ko duro soju kan. Ka tan an siwa, tan an seyin ni i je kadie ribi lugo yeyin, Ko si raaye saba re lojugbo. Aba ni i dooto. Oro yii dorin awon asaju.
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On Mon, 9/25/17, J Adetunji <jade...@gmail.com> wrote:
Subject: Re: Yoruba Affairs - HOW DO WE SAY 7,979,797,979 IN YOUBA LANGUAGE?
To: yorubaaffa...@googlegroups.com
Cc: "Yoruba Affairs" <yoruba...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Monday, September 25, 2017, 6:10 AM
Michael Afolayan
You see, the Yoruba counting system does not have room for those bogus figures - they are meant for the selfish, western culture of consumerism and empty avarice. As a matter of fact, in Yoruba, number does not exist as a grammatical category. That's why we if I say "mo nílé," you can't tell if I mean I have a house or I have houses. If I like, I can quantify it by saying mo nílé kan or mo nílé meta, etc. Once the English speaker says "I have houses," we know right there it's more than one. This is technical, and so we don't need to delve into that aspect other than to know that we do have a better way of expressing numbers, especially large ones. The Yoruba don't worship numbers; they just use them. Numbers serve them; they don't serve numbers. Let's take a look at some of these:
"Ojú òrun tó'gba eyeé fò láìfapá lu'ra" - a Yoruba proverb (the sky is vast enough for "200" birds to fly without locking up wings). What does the word "igba" mean there? It means myriads - millions, billions, trillions, quadrillions, quintillion, sextillion, etc., etc.
"Egberun irawo l'o n be l'ojude orun" a song by Hubert Ogunde (One thousand stars are out there in the space of our known universe). What does "Egberun" mean in this context? It means myriads - millions, billions, trillions, quadrillions, quintillion, sextillion, etc
"Meloo l'a o ka ninu eyin adipele? Tinu orun, tode ojo, otalenirinwo erigi l'o fori mule laiyo" - a Yoruba proverb (How many are we to count in the mouth of a person with defected gums? Inside are 100; outside are 160; and 460 of them are buried beneath the cavity without even coming forth). So, what do all these figures mean to the Yoruba? It captures the equivalent of the English word, "many." And that's all!
"Ogun ni mo bi omoo kooko; ogbon ni mo wo, omo eruwa; kaka k'a begberun obun, k'a kuku bi okansoso oga . . ." - a Yoruba proverb (Bragging about having parented twenty children, worth the value of the grass; or having parented thirty children, worth the value of the shrubs; rather than being father to a thousand dirty skunks, it is better to be father to one child that is decent . . .). What are these figures 20, 30, 1000 signifying here? They make cultural preference for quality, not quantity; value, not volume.
"A ii ka omo f'ólómo" - a Yoruba saying (You don't count someone else's children). What does it mean? It means putting a figure behind the number of someone's children is a useless exercise. The point is clear: someone's children could be as many as possible, including extended family children and even one's offspring, and mentees for generations to come. Why put a number behind something that sacred village square?
In essence, the Yoruba have a penchant for discounting numbers, especially large ones. They would rather say, "Òké àìmoye" (sacks of uncountable numerics) to describe all those nonsensical "-llions" of western construct. That is why my friend, Dr. Akintunde Oyetade, just reminded me of one of the saying of our elders that underscore that point, when they say, "Bí ogó ba ti n di ogówàá, t'ó ń di ogókànlá, ó ti ń di ogówèrè nù un." I have three radio programs with my wife here but I am the sole anchor to one of them and it is in Yoruba, titled "Òrò T'ó ń Lo" (Current news). I do not translate figures into Yoruba - I just say them as they are. Last week, I reported the controvertial salaries and "benefits" of Nigerian legislators. How else would you say 27 million Naira in Yoruba other than to say it as it is. No true Yoruba mind has the room for wasting its time converting that to Yoruba. Our fore-fathers simply called such "Owó Èjè (Blood Money) and the meaning is clear. Figures would make sense if they are accessible to the market women (the Ìyalájé and the Ìyálójà); everything else is useless to them.
===
Michael Afolayan
As always, I greet Alagba Fakinlede. He is consistently provoking our thoughts with his love for Yoruba, and we are constantly being drawn to that orchard of knowledge where we are fed with culturally nourishing fruits. As a lifelong student of Yoruba, whenever I see things like this I set everything else I am doing aside to ponder over them. This is a great question that Dr. Fakinlede raised and it triggered our curiosity of the cultural norms that guide Yoruba grammar. Anthropologists have long concluded that the best way to understand a culture is to pay close attention to the grammar of that culture. It sounds strange but it is very true. Number is a very important aspect of the Yoruba grammar.
You see, the Yoruba counting system does not have room for those bogus figures - they are meant for the selfish, western culture of consumerism and empty avarice. As a matter of fact, in Yoruba, number does not exist as a grammatical category. That's why we if I say "mo nílé," you can't tell if I mean I have a house or I have houses. If I like, I can quantify it by saying mo nílé kan or mo nílé meta, etc. Once the English speaker says "I have houses," we know right there it's more than one. This is technical, and so we don't need to delve into that aspect other than to know that we do have a better way of expressing numbers, especially large ones. The Yoruba don't worship numbers; they just use them. Numbers serve them; they don't serve numbers. Let's take a look at some of these:
"Ojú òrun tó'gba eyeé fò láìfapá lu'ra" - a Yoruba proverb (the sky is vast enough for "200" birds to fly without locking up wings). What does the word "igba" mean there? It means myriads - millions, billions, trillions, quadrillions, quintillion, sextillion, etc., etc.
"Egberun irawo l'o n be l'ojude orun" a song by Hubert Ogunde (One thousand stars are out there in the space of our known universe). What does "Egberun" mean in this context? It means myriads - millions, billions, trillions, quadrillions, quintillion, sextillion, etc
"Meloo l'a o ka ninu eyin adipele? Tinu orun, tode ojo, otalenirinwo erigi l'o fori mule laiyo" - a Yoruba proverb (How many are we to count in the mouth of a person with defected gums? Inside are 100; outside are 160; and 460 of them are buried beneath the cavity without even coming forth). So, what do all these figures mean to the Yoruba? It captures the equivalent of the English word, "many." And that's all!
"Ogun ni mo bi omoo kooko; ogbon ni mo wo, omo eruwa; kaka k'a begberun obun, k'a kuku bi okansoso oga . . ." - a Yoruba proverb (Bragging about having parented twenty children, worth the value of the grass; or having parented thirty children, worth the value of the shrubs; rather than being father to a thousand dirty skunks, it is better to be father to one child that is decent . . .). What are these figures 20, 30, 1000 signifying here? They make cultural preference for quality, not quantity; value, not volume.
"A ii ka omo f'ólómo" - a Yoruba saying (You don't count someone else's children). What does it mean? It means putting a figure behind the number of someone's children is a useless exercise. The point is clear: someone's children could be as many as possible, including extended family children and even one's offspring, and mentees for generations to come. Why put a number behind something that sacred village square?
In essence, the Yoruba have a penchant for discounting numbers, especially large ones. They would rather say, "Òké àìmoye" (sacks of uncountable numerics) to describe all those nonsensical "-llions" of western construct. That is why my friend, Dr. Akintunde Oyetade, just reminded me of one of the saying of our elders that underscore that point, when they say, "Bí ogó ba ti n di ogówàá, t'ó ń di ogókànlá, ó ti ń di ogówèrè nù un." I have three radio programs with my wife here but I am the sole anchor to one of them and it is in Yoruba, titled "Òrò T'ó ń Lo" (Current news). I do not translate figures into Yoruba - I just say them as they are. Last week, I reported the controvertial salaries and "benefits" of Nigerian legislators. How else would you say 27 million Naira in Yoruba other than to say it as it is. No true Yoruba mind has the room for wasting its time converting that to Yoruba. Our fore-fathers simply called such "Owó Èjè (Blood Money) and the meaning is clear. Figures would make sense if they are accessible to the market women (the Ìyalájé and the Ìyálójà); everything else is useless to them.
===
Tunde Adegbola
Femi Kolapo
Eku'waju o. I second your view, sir, and also like to add my thoughts. Like all languages, Yoruba language has borrowed from and lent to other languages. When people are brought in contact with something new, they very quickly and easily come up with new or borrowed words to express it. It always surprises me how Yoruba came about using the onomatopoeic word Alupupu to name the motorbike so effectively and so precisely. In many cases, it might be inefficient to try to invent something new when Yoruba can or is already borrowing and adapting borrowed words, phrases, and sounds. I may be wrong, but growing up as a Yoruba kid, I have known buredi to mean bread, suga to mean sugar, adua to mean prayer, meli to mean mile, woli to mean prophet, etc. and they are precise. I don't see that any harm will be done accepting and incorporating milionu (million) and trilionu, into Yoruba numeration as Yoruba school kids seem to have already done.
Something that can help us is to have a Yoruba forum adopt one of our science journals and begin to systematically translate its back issues or perhaps a secondary school science textbook or maths book, engaging Yoruba scholars, and especially students (pupils who, when they do their homework and explain books they read, shift automatically bteween English/French to Yoruba), and professionals like awon Mekaniki, brikila, etc, who daily in their lifeworks engage with technical, scientific words, with foreign tools and technology, all of which they have given or are giving names to that they consider appropriate. It is more natural for these latter groups to efficiently appropriate, adopt, and or adapt foreign scholarly words into the Yoruba vocabulary.
But certainly, to be able to safely land a rocket on the moon using Yoruba as the language of its science, Yoruba needs to be able to calculate the exact distance between planets. It should be able to express the idea behind the speed of light as well as be capable of measuring at the nanoscale, and to do that, precision in measurement down to the atom is required, otherwise, we won't be able to do much cutting-edge science.
Femi J. Kolapo
------------------------
Managing Editor,
SPREAD Journals of African Education
African Journal of Teacher Education
Review of Higher Education in Africa
Recreation and Society in Africa, Asia and Latin America
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2017 6:04 AM
To: Yoruba Affairs
Subject: Yoruba Affairs - Re: HOW DO WE SAY 7,979,797,979 IN YOUBA LANGUAGE?
Julius Fakinlede
seems to me as if,when it comes to forwarding ideas that will propel our language into the future, our scientists are found wanting. The way we call numbers and count is definitely crucial in developing a language and making it relevant. We see that in other aspects of knowledge acquisition and use, the Yoruba language is adequately represened. Ajayi Crowther translated the Bible to Yoruba more than a century ago, and today, we Yorubas, boast of world-class religionists. In commerce, Communications, etc. our language is doing very well.
However, when it comes to the sciences and science related areas we simply do not have adequate representation or any vibrant discussion going on. For example, we do not have any radio and television programs, magazines, organizations devoted to propagating scientific ideas in Yoruba to our young and inquisitive ones. We leave this area of educational endeavor to Mickey Mouse. This is shameful!
What then are we propagating in our universities? Colonial mentality or European education? We want to see the white man more clearly, love him more dearly and above all, follow him always and more closely from behind.
The idea of calling numbers and how to count is about the most important area of science as a whole. And for our language to do wihout being able to express numbers quickly and adequately without resorting to another person’s language, in the twenty first century, is a shame on all of us who consider ourselves as scientists.
I can reasonably project that Yorubas will not be relevant in the science and technology area for the foreseeable future if we do not begin to teach science and technology to our children as early as they can learn. It does not take a rocket scientist to understand this simple logic.
If we, as Yoruba people continue with the hairbrained idea of teaching our children English first before we propagate scientific ideas to them, how do we compete with the people who own the language and started teaching their own children those ideas from the get go?.
Without a well articulaed, easily understandable and teachable number system, any language is definietly moribund. Our language, Yoruba is heading in that direction.
YORUBA SCIENTISTS, E RONU
Fikayo Adeyemo
KolaThomas
From: Fikayo Adeyemo <fikayo...@gmail.com>
To: Yoruba Affairs <yoruba...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2017 10:02 AM
Subject: Yoruba Affairs - Re: HOW DO WE SAY 7,979,797,979 IN YOUBA LANGUAGE?
Fikayo Adeyemo
Ẹ ṣé o, arákùnrin Kola Thomas fun ọ̀rọ̀ ìwúrí yìí.
Kí Ọlọ́run ọba òkè máa ran gbogbo wa lọ́wọ́ lati gbe èdè Yorùbá síbi gíga láwùjọ awọn èdè ẹ̀dá adáríhurun.
Iṣẹ́ gbogbo wa ni ìpènijà nla yìí.
Àkókó si ti tó láti múu lọ́kùnkúndún. Áá júwaáṣe o.
Fikayo Adeyemo