[Key words: Yoruba name changes, Islam, Christianity, slave trade, colonization]. 2 .... As the Yoruba became Muslims, they adopted Arabic names. The first ...
Historical Changes in Yoruba Names*
O¢lanike¢ O¢la Orie Tulane University New Orleans, LA 70118
Running Head: Changes in Yoruba Names
*
This article is written in honor of Victoria R. Bricker, an excellent mentor and road builder, who showed
me how to expand my linguistic borders. Prior to the time I started collaborating with Vicki (for example, Orie and Bricker 2000), I had mostly worked on synchronic data and theory. However, through our collaboration, I am persuaded that diachronic research is crucial for solving language puzzles.
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ABSTRACT
Names and naming in Yoruba have undergone many changes since the 16thC. Observed changes include name borrowing, loss of names, change in use of names, disregard for lineage history in name selection, innovations in name shortening patterns and new nicknaming strategies. These changes are shown to flow from the interaction of four main factors: Islam, the transatlantic slave trade, Christianity and colonization.
[Key words: Yoruba name changes, Islam, Christianity, slave trade, colonization]
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Like any living language, Yoruba, the language of southwestern Nigeria has undergone many linguistic changes. These changes are conditioned by cultural, religious, immigration, educational, and socio-political factors. According to Bamgbos¢e (1990): ‘what we call Yoruba today is no longer what it was one hundred years ago…the language is changing imperceptibly all the time…’ The changes identified by Bamgbos¢e include word-coinage by comparison, euphemism, puns, borrowing, and so forth. In this article, I examine the changes that have occurred in Yoruba names since the sixteenth century. Observed name changes include name borrowing, loss of names, change in use of a~bi!ku! names, disregard for lineage history in name selection, innovations in name shortening patterns and new nicknaming strategies. These changes are shown to flow from the interaction of four main factors: Islam, the transatlantic slave trade, Christianity and colonization. This article is organized as follows. I begin by examining naming before the sixteenth century. Next, I discuss name borrowing from the sixteenth century to the early twentieth century, the timeframe for the entry of Islam, transatlantic slave trade, Christianity and colonization. Then I examine name loss and changes in choice and use of names. Finally, innovations in name shortening and nicknaming are discussed.
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NAMING BEFORE THE 16thC Prior to coming in contact with Islam and Christianity, a Yoruba person’s full name had three or four elements (Oduy¢o¢ye 1972, Oyelaran 1976): oru!ko¢ ‘personal name,’1
or¸!k¸~ a~b¸!so¢2 ‘attributive name,’ or¸!k¸~ a~la~je!¢ ‘nickname,’ and or¸!k¸~ or¸!le¢ ‘totem.’ Some examples are given below (examples from Orie 2002): (1)
Oru!ko¢
Or¸!k¸~ a~b¸!so¢
Or¸!k¸~ a~la~je¢!
Or¸!k¸~ or¸!le¢
ade!ye¢m¸!
a~lab¸!
ey¸!nfu!njowo!
o¢~k¸!n
‘crown befits me’
‘child who emerges
‘white teeth’
‘peacock’
agbe!ke!¢
o~wu!rubutu
o~po!
‘child to be carried
‘plump girl’
‘pillar’
singularly to be born’ o¢mo¢!de!le! ‘child arrives home’
and pampered’ akino¢la ‘valor of high status’
a~ka~nj¸!
awe¢!le¢!gbe¢~!
erin
‘child who brings
‘tall and slim’ ‘elephant’
awakening’ The choice of a name is a solemn undertaking because the Yoruba believe that one’s name has a major impact on one’s behavior (oru!ko¢ ni n! roni). A number of factors 1
The examples in this paper are given in Standard Yoruba orthography. In Yoruba orthography, e¢ = [E],
o¢ = [O], Vn = nasalised vowel, s¢ = [S], p = [k°p], an acute accent [ !] = H(igh) tone, a grave accent [ ]~ = L(ow) tone, unmarked for tone = M(id) tone, a tone-marked nasal = syllabic nasal. 2
As Oyetade (1991) observes, ori!ki~ a~bi!so¢ names are common among O¢yo¢-speaking Yoruba. Traditionally,
they are rarely used by the Ekiti, Akoko, Ondo, O¢wo¢, E¢gba and Ije¢bu. However, in recent times, ori!ki~ a~bi!so¢ names have been observed in these dialect groups.
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determine the selection of personal names. First, names may be given based on the profession, religion, or status of a child’s family. For example, many Yoruba have names beginning with the name of the deity they worship, hence, a child born into a family of diviners has a name beginning with ifa! (divination deity); a child born into a royal family has a name that starts with ade! ‘crown’; and a child born into a family of hunters is given a name beginning with o¢de¢ ‘hunter.’ It is extremely odd for a child born into a family of drummers (a~ya~n) to be given a name beginning with ade! ‘crown.’ Hence, the saying:
ile! la~ a! wo~ ka! to!o! so¢mo¢ lo!ru!ko¢ ‘one must look at a family (its status, profession, religion) before giving a name to a child.’ Second, there are a~mu!to~¢runwa! names ‘names from heaven.’ These names are given to children born in unusual circumstances of birth. For example, there are special names for twins. The first-born twin is called Ta!ye!wo~ (to¢! aye! wo~ > ta!ye!wo~) ‘taste or explore the world’ and the second-born twin is called Ke¢!h¸nde! ‘last to arrive.’ Other examples of a~mu!to~¢runwa! names are: e~¢ta o~ko~, the name given to the third of triplets; a child born with six fingers or toes is called Olu!gbo!di; and a child born with the umbilical cord tied around the wrist is Erinle.¢~ Third, a name may be given to reflect the wishes of parents. For instance, the phenomenon of a~bi!ku! ‘a child who is born to die; crib-death’ is associated with children who die in infancy in a repeated cycle of birth and death through the same mother (Oyetade 2004). These children are believed to be linked to certain spirits who determine how long a~bi!ku! children can live. Parents plagued by the a~bi!ku! phenomenon are likely to give names like ma!lo¢mo!¢ ‘do not go again,’ du!ro!jaye! ‘wait and enjoy life,’ or ku!t¸~ ‘one
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who cannot die’ to their children. These names show that parents desire that their a~bi!ku! children would not leave them. With respect to attributive names, they exhibit one of three main features (Orie 2002). First, they may depict the circumstances surrounding the birth of a child. For instance, if a woman has several male children in succession who died at childbirth, a surviving male child born after that experience is likely to be given the name a~ja~n¸! ‘fight to possess.’ Secondly, an attributive name may depict what a child is hoped to become (Johnson 1921). For instance, a~du~fe¢! is a male child that his parents hope everyone will long to love. Third, an attributive may express what the child is, as dictated by the child’s fortune (Oyelaran 1976). For example, a~d¸~sa! is a male child who is believed to have supernatural powers, which would make it impossible for evil forces to attack him. As for nicknames, they are selected based on character or physical attributes. In general, nicknames are used by women in addressing children who were born before they were married into the family (Oyelaran 1976). Examples of nicknames are e¢le!¢yinju!e¢ge!¢ ‘beautiful eyes,’ e~ji!wu~mi! ‘gapped teeth pleases me,’ awe!lo!¢ru~n ‘plum girl,’ adu!ma!rada!n ‘shiny black,’ and pupa!ye¢mi! ‘fair skin befits me.’ Among the Yoruba, people are universally known by their personal names and they are known familiarly by their attributive names (Johnson 1921). Nicknames, like attributive names, are used by familiars. However, the fourth name—totem names—is different in two respects. First, unlike the names examined above, totems are not personalized names. They are collectively owned by families. Second, they have accompanying poems, which encode information such as family origin, behavior and character, profession, religion, social status, and taboos (Babalo¢la 1967).
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The naming tradition described above was intact until the penetration of Islam into Yorubaland. Following the entry of Islam, the transatlantic slave trade started. Then Christianity came. And colonization followed. Then name changes emerged, a topic to which I now turn. NAME BORROWING Muslim and Christian Names The date of entry of Islam into Yorubaland cannot be precisely fixed (Gbadamo¢si 1978). According to oral history, contacts between the Yoruba and Islam date back into antiquity, probably between 11th and 12th centuries, when Oduduwa and Lamurudu (Nimrod) a certain Phoenician of Coptic background is said to have entered Ile-Ife. Lamurudu was said to be a Mecca prince, although there are no corresponding accounts of such people and events in Mecca. Whether the interaction of Yoruba and Islam dates back to antiquity or not, it is clear that by the sixteenth century, there was significant Muslim presence among the O¢yo¢ Yoruba. For example, Ryan (1975) reports that in the sixteenth century, Muslim clerics such as Baba Kewu ‘Master of Quranic recitation’ and Baba Yigi ‘Master of the Islamic marriage rites’ had great influence in the court of the Alaafin of Oy¢ o¢ ‘king of O¢yo¢.’ These clerics engaged in regular preaching to the court of the Alaafin and through this medium, many Islamic traditions infiltrated into Yoruba traditions (Babaye¢mi Akinrinso¢la 1990). For instance, people sought supernatural powers from the Muslim clerics, there were intermarriages between the Muslims and the people of O¢yo¢ (as indicated by the name Baba Yigi) and the Muslims helped the Alaafin to strengthen his calvary culture through the acquisition of horses and slaves from the north. Through these interactions, Islam started spreading among the O¢yo¢ Yoruba.
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Consequently, by the eighteenth century, there were many Yoruba Muslims (Babaye¢mi Akinrinso¢la 1990). As the Yoruba became Muslims, they adopted Arabic names. The first generation converts threw away the indigenous names, considering them as pagan. However, it gradually dawned on people that Yoruba names could be used to express tenets of the new faith (Oduyo¢ye 1968). Therefore, indigenous names were used in addition to the Arabic names. Examples of adopted Arabic names are given in Table I. The Islamic form is given in the first column, the male and female adaptations are given the middle columns and the meaning is given in the last column (the root morphemes in the male and female adaptations are bolded; the consonant in parentheses is elided). Table I Yoruba Islamic names Islamic name
Male
Female
Meaning
Habib
Habib-u
Habib-at-u (n)
The friend or beloved
Latif
Latif-u
Latif-at-u (n)
Servant of the subtle One
Mu’min
Mumin-I
Mumin-at-u (n)
The believer in God
As can be seen in Table 1, male Islamic names are adapted into Yoruba by adding a high vowel (i or u) to the final consonant of the word.3 This extension is required because Yoruba has open syllables, that is, syllables ending in vowels only. Vowel insertion therefore ensures that the syllables of the adapted name conform to Yoruba syllable requirements. Adapted female names also have open syllables. As shown, the full form of female names is composed of the root, the Arabic feminine gender marker suffix –at and 3
Sometimes, /a/ is added. The issue of vowel insertion in Yoruba Arabic loans is complex. Its scope is beyond this article.
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the indefinite marker –un. Following morpheme concatenations, the final consonant of the indefinite marker /n/ is elided so that each name can end in an open syllable. Consequently, the final vowel is not variable like the male names. It is systematically realized as /u/, the vowel of the indefinite marker. The root names in Table I are gender-free and may be adapted as male or female name, depending on whether the gender suffix –at is attached to the name. Other names are more gender specific. For example, only males adopt the names in table II; the names in Table III are used by females only. Table II Yoruba Islamic male names Islamic name
Adaptation
Meaning
Muhammad
Mo¢mo¢du
Prophet Mohamed
Sulayman
Sulemo¢nu
Solomon
Yusuf
Yesufu
Prophet Joseph
Table III Yoruba Islamic female names Islamic name
Adaptation
Meaning
Fawziyyat
Fausatu
Success
Sekinat
Sekinatu
Goodness
Zinat
Sinatu
Beauty
Today, indigenous names such as those cited in (1) are given in addition to Muslim names. However, Muslim clergies who officiate during naming ceremonies disapprove of the giving of personal names which reflect non-Islamic deities such as Sa¢ ngo (thunder deity) or Ifa (divination deity) (Sadiku and Sodiq 2004). Nevertheless, deity-based names
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are still used as surnames by Muslims. For example, names such as La~ti!fu~ Fa!de!le!, Fa!u!sa!tu~ S¢a~ngo!de~ji~ are common. Christianity came in 1842, a period of wars and warfare. The O¢yo¢ kingdom had just collapsed and wars among Yoruba groups and city-states continued raging. This protracted warfare left many Yoruba vulnerable to enslavement. Thus, untold numbers were sold to traders who brought them to Latin America. Because of the prevailing turbulence during this period, Christian missionary evangelism did not yield much result. Peel (2000: 242) reports that ‘nearly half a century of missionary effort [1842–1890] had only succeeded in converting roughly 1 percent of the Yoruba population.’ However, British colonialism made the difference. By the 1880s when the British started ruling the colony now called Nigeria, there was mass movement toward Christianity because of ‘the realization that the good things of life depended so much on the mastery of European knowledge (in which Christianity is included)’ (Peel 2000: 243). Like Muslim converts, Christian converts also adopted biblical names.4 Table IV shows examples of adopted names. The indigenous aliases of each name are also given. Table IV Yoruba Christian names Christian name
Adaptation
Alias
Meaning
Joseph
Jo!se!¢e¢~fu~
ala!la~a!
dreamer
Mary
Me!ri~/Ma~ri!a~
i~ya! a Je!su~
mother of Jesus
Ruth
Ru!u~tu~
abo!¢ko¢ku!
the one who dies with husband
4
Because of British Colonialism, non-biblical English names were also used by Christians; for example,
Florence (fulo¢re¢n! s~ i~), Alice (Aa!li!is~ i~) and Lawrence (Lo!re¢!n~si~).
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The manner of adaptation of the names in Table IV is similar to the pattern attested in the Islamic name adaptation. As can be seen, Christian names are adapted to fit the open syllable pattern allowed by Yoruba phonological structure. Thus, high vowels (i or u) are inserted after final consonants.5 Up till the mid twentieth century, converts preferred the use of biblical names; however, Yoruba names are more common today. Most of the indigenous names that Christians give their children involve Oluwa6 ‘the Lord’ or ‘God’ (Sadiku and Sodiq 2004). Some examples are given in Table V. Table V Yoruba Christian names Name
Meaning
Olu!wada!mila!re
The Lord justifies me
Ogoolu!wa
The glory of the Lord
E¢bunolu!wa
The gift of God/the Lord
Another respect in which Yoruba Christian names are changing involves surname modification. The examples in Table VI illustrate this change: Table VI Yoruba Christian surname change (deity names appear in bold) Original Surname
Meaning
Modification
Meaning
Ifa!gbe!miro!
Ifa sustains me
Oluwagbe!miro!
the Lord sustains me
S¢a~ngo!bi!yi~
S¢ango delivered this Je!su~bi!yi~!
O~gu!nwa!le!
Ogun comes home
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Olu!wawa!le!
Jesus delivered this the Lord comes home
See work such as Awobuluyi (1978) for discussion of English-Yoruba loan adaptation. Muslims also give their children names beginning with Oluwa because they view the God of the bible and
that of the Quoran as the same.
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The major change in these data involves the dropping of deity surnames. As shown in Table VI, the deity names are replaced with Oluwa ‘Lord’ or Jesu ‘Jesus.’ Until the late twentieth century, indigenous surnames were considered sacred. Regardless of the religious persuasion of Yoruba people, they retained their surnames no matter how pagan it may sound. However, surname modification is the current trend among Yoruba Christian evangelicals who want to disassociate themselves from deity or idol worship. In summary, the Yoruba adopted foreign names following conversion to Islam or Christianity. Outside Africa, the naming revolution continued in the African Diaspora. As slaves were sold during the transatlantic slave trade, European names were given to them. In the following section, I examine Portuguese names adopted by enslaved Yoruba in Brazil and discuss some linguistic changes in those names. Name Borrowing: the Freed Slave Returnee Factor7 As mentioned earlier, the protracted wars of the nineteenth century caused many Yoruba to be sold to slave traders who brought them to Latin America. In Brazil, the Yoruba slaves were settled in the Northern areas of the country. The most popular Yoruba-centric state in Northeastern Brazil is Bahia, which has over 80% Brazilian Africans. As slavers sold their human cargo, the slaves were given Portuguese names. Typically, the master bestowed his own surname on his slaves (Warner-Lewis 1997) with the preposition De ‘from, of’ prefixed to the name. The vowel of the preposition varies based on grammatical gender. If the noun is feminine, it is realized as Da, if masculine, it takes the form Do. This preposition serves a possessive function. For example, the name Da Silva translates literally as ‘of Silver,’ but means ‘possessed by Silver’ since the preposition is a possessive. Other given names are place names, for instance, Salvador 7
I thank Niyi Afo¢labi, who provided continuous help in discussing the Returnee Factor section.
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which is the capital of Bahia; there are also appearance-based names, for example, Gonzalo ‘goose-like person.’ Names may also reflect the pain of slavery, for example, Vera Cruz, which translates literally as ‘real cross.’ From the 1810s, some freed slaves started returning to West Africa. Upon arrival, they were well-received by the people and the colonial government. Between 1889 and 1891, population of returnees grew rapidly. As reported, at this time, one out of seven Lagosians had lived in Cuba or Brazil, and the colonial government encouraged further repatriation of freed people by subsidizing the trial voyages of a regular steamship line between Lagos and the cities of the Brazilian coast (Moloney 1889, Lindsay 1994, Matory 1999a).8 Soon, they became an elitist group, providing many of the architectural skills in colonial Lagos. With regard to names, the returnees brought their acquired Portuguese names with them. Although some returnees had Yoruba surnames,9 the majority used their foreign names as surname and adopted Yoruba personal names. Examples of common Portuguese names which are used among the Yoruba till today are given in Table VII: Table VII Yoruba Brazilian Portuguese names Portuguese name Adaptation
Meaning
Da Costa
Da Ko¢sta/Da Ko¢!si!ta~
of the coast
De Souza
Di Suza/Di Su!sa~
of suffering
Da Silva
Da Silva/Da Si!i!fa~
of silver
Da Silva
S¢o!o! Silva/S¢o!o! siifa~
show silver
Vera Cruz
Ve¢ra Kruus/Fe¢ra kru!u~si~
real cross
8
There were many returnees from Sierra Leone as well, but Sierra Leone-ian names are not discussed here for reasons of space. 9 For example, the Bamgbos¢e and Alakija families are Afro-Bahians deeply rooted in Yoruba religion.
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Gonzalo
Ga~nn~sa!lo~
goose-like person
Salvador
Safado!¢
savior; capital of Bahia
As we can see in Table VI, the major changes in the adapted names are phonological. For example, monolingual Yoruba speakers adapt the sounds and syllables to fit allowable Yoruba patterns. Consequently, Brazilian Portuguese (BP) sounds such as /z/, /v/ and uvular /R/ which are lacking in Yoruba (Y) are changed to /s/, /f/ and /r/ respectively. There are no significant vocalic changes because the vowel systems of the two languages are almost identical. Syllable-wise, the languages in contact are different. Whereas BP has consonant clusters and syllable final consonants, Y has only open syllables. Therefore, BP syllables are adapted into Y through high vowel insertion to fit the permitted Consonant-Vowel syllable structure. Apart from phonological changes, all the names retain their basic morpho-syntactic properties. There is only one exception in my data—Da Silva, which is adapted either as Da Silva or S¢o!o! Silva. Two natural questions arise from the data in Table VII. The first is why returnees changed their personal names to indigenous Yoruba names but retained their Brazilian names as surname. There are several possible factors motivating the mode of Brazilian returnee name adaptation. First, in addressing people, personal names are used more than surnames. By adopting Yoruba personal names, the returnees are identified as indigenous people rather than foreigners in day-to-day interactions. Second, Brazilian surnames are retained because surnames are used in formal settings such as business contexts—for example, providing technical skills for building colonial Lagos. In these contexts, the use of foreign names by returnees will help them to associate with whites or foreigners because that was the way to the top of society. This unique mode of name adaptation by
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Brazilian returnees paved the way for them to enjoy the best of the two worlds—the Yoruba world and the colonial world. The reciprocal influences between northeastern Brazil and late nineteenth century colonial Lagos may also foster the returnees’ use of a Yoruba name and a Portuguese name. According to Matory (1999a, b), in the 1890s, there was a mobile educated class, transnational and culturally who moved back and forth across the Atlantic. Not only did the activities of this group create and propagate Yoruba culture in Brazil, it influenced the Lagos renaissance of the 1890s. The cultural hybridity of returnees as well as their role in the making of the Yoruba culture in Nigeria and Brazil suggests that returnee name pattern is a mark of identity. It identifies returnees as Yoruba and Brazilian, and is therefore consistent with creolization models of culture and language and Skinner’s (1982) dialectic between Diasporas and homelands (Yelvington 2001). The second question is why the name Da Silva is adapted by some as S¢o!o! Silva ‘show Silver.’ To ask the question more specifically: why is the possessive preposition Da replaced with the verb show? The choice of show reflects two attitudinal factors. First, it rejects the possessive aspect of Da. That is, the aspect that directly identifies the name bearer as someone else’s property. Second, it embraces show which is a crucial word in the prestigious adage used to describe people from Lagos: ‘Eko for show.’ To understand the phrase Eko for show, we need to examine the history of Lagos. Eko, Lagos is an old Yoruba settlement, which has had a long history of contact with the Portuguese. In the fifteenth century (1472), Eko was visited by Portuguese traders who were establishing stopover ports along the coast of Africa for their ships traveling to Asia’s spice markets. The city was then named after Lagos, a port in Portugal.
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Subsequently, Lagos was developed by the Portuguese as a major center for the trade of slaves and goods until 1861 when the British governed Lagos as a crown colony. In 1914, Lagos became the capital of the Colony and Protectorate in Nigeria. From the nineteenth century to 1960, Lagos was the center of the Nigerian nationalist movement. In 1960, the city became the capital of independent Nigeria and remained so until 1991 when the federal government moved to Abuja, the new capital. In spite of this move, Lagos continues to be the heartbeat of the Nigerian economy. Immigrants from all over Nigeria and from neighboring countries flock to Lagos in search of ‘green pastures.’ Given the fact that Lagos has been the hub of Nigeria for such a long time, Eko people consider themselves special. Thus, they like to ‘show off’: Eko is for show. The adaptation of Da Silva as Show Silva is therefore an environmental adaptation, set up deliberately to reject the demeaning past in favor of the prestigious present. NAME LOSS Thus far, I have examined name borrowing among the Yoruba. Name borrowing produces lexical extension which enables speakers to have a wide variety of choices in name selection. In this section, I consider the flip side of the coin, namely, loss of names. Two types are attested, total loss and partial loss. I discuss each in turn below. A name is totally lost when the form and meaning of a name disappears. As had been mentioned, the repertoire of names increased because of contact with the Islamic and European world. However, many indigenous names have since disappeared through lack of use. Consider the following a~mu!to¢~runwa! names (m. = masculine; f. = feminine): (2)
i~do~wu! (m.) i~do~gbe! (f.)
‘child born after twins’
sa~la~ko!¢ (m.), ta~la~bi! (f.)
‘child born with umbilical cord around shoulder’
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amu!sa~!n (m.), ato (f.)
‘child born with the head covered with membrane’
olu!gbo!di (m. or f.)
‘child born with the sixth finger’
The names distinguished based on gender have lost the feminine forms; only the masculine forms are used today.10 Ido~wu! is used by both male and female but Sa~la~ko!¢ and Amu!sa#n are used by male only. Olu!gbo!di is no longer used possibly because modern medicine provides means for eliminating the extra sixth digit. Some a~bi!ku! names have also been lost, especially the ones classified as disgraceful names by Oyetade (2004). Examples are aja! ‘dog,’ i~gbe!¢ko~¢yi! ‘the bush refused this one,’ o~ku! ‘the dead one,’ o~¢bo¢tu!nde! ‘monkey has arrived,’ i~ji!me~re~ ‘brown monkey,’ and a~ki!sa~a!ta!n ‘rags are exhausted.’ Finally, the name ade! could be translated as ‘crown’ or ‘one who comes; comer.’ Abraham (1958) has a list of names beginning with these two forms, for example: (3)
Ade ‘Crown’
Ade ‘Comer’
Ade!de~ji~
Ade!ko!¢la!
‘the crown has become doubled’ Ade!do~kun ‘the crown has become an ocean’ Adewo¢le ‘the crown entered the house’
‘the comer has received honor’ Ade!le!ke! ‘the comer is on top’ Ade!ro!n!ke!¢ ‘the comer got something to pet’
In Oduyo¢ye (1972) and in more recent work such as Sadiku and Sodiq (2004), however, all the names beginning with ade! are described as crown names. The crown form, which is obviously the more prestigious interpretation, has overridden the comer interpretation. 10
When gender is used to distinguish names in Yoruba, the masculine form is unmarked while the feminine form is marked (Orie 2002). Given that languages tend to lose marked forms before unmarked forms, the loss of feminine amuto¢runwa names is not surprising.
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Partial loss may occur as a result of meaning change. For example, many a~bi!ku! names categorized as pleading names in Oyetade (2004) are no longer used in a~bi!ku! contexts, that is, contexts involving a repeated cycle of birth and death through the same mother. Today, some of these pleading names could be given as names to children born in any of the following circumstances (a) conception takes place after a long period of waiting, (b) the child is the only girl or boy, (c) the child is the last born, or (d) the pregnancy or delivery of the child was difficult. The following are examples of such pleading names: (3)
Ki!ke¢!lo¢mo¢
‘a child is to be petted’
O¢mo¢la~ba!ke¢!
‘it is a child that we would have petted’
Banko¢!le!
‘help me build the house’
Ro!ti~mi!
‘stand by me’
The forms of these names have not changed but the negative a~bi!ku! connotations are lost, resulting in semantic elevation. CHANGES IN NAME SELECTION As had already been mentioned, in olden times, before the Yoruba started converting to Islam and Christianity, a given name reflects the ancestral belief of the child’s forefathers, the family profession or social status. For instance, every Aya!nde!le! (drumming deity has arrived) plays the drums, every O¢na!da~po¢~ (art mixes together) is skilled in some art, every Ade!yi!nka! (crown surrounds me) is from the royal family and every Aki!ngbe~mi! (valor favors me) is from a family of warriors. In modern times, however, crown (Ade!) and valor (Akin) names are given to children regardless of their parental heritage. Given the Yoruba believe that a name has a
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psychological impact on a person’s behavior, the change in the manner of name choice suggests that parents wish the best for their children—that they will grow up having crown-like or valor-based character. ANOTHER CHANGE: NAME SHORTENING PATTERNS Until the mid twentieth century, names were commonly shortened by eliding the initial vowel of a name. Some examples appear below:11 (4)
Full name
Shortened Form
Meaning
Aki!nto¢!la!
Ki!nto¢!la!
valor is sufficient honor
Ade!yi!nka!
De!yi!nka!
crown surrounds me
O¢mo¢niyi~
Mo¢niyi~
a child is (synonymous with) honor
A name beginning with a consonant may be shortened to the initial two syllables: (5)
Full name
Shortened Form
Meaning
Ti!ti!lade!
Ti!ti!
crown is forever
Ko¢!la!wo¢le!
Ko¢!la!
one who brings honor to the house
Ki!ke¢!lo¢mo¢
Ki!ke¢
a child is to be petted
By the late twentieth century, the two-syllable name shortening pattern became dominant. Thus, the names in (4) and (5) were truncated in similar manner—to the initial or final two syllables:12
11 12
Only these two patterns are reported in Abraham’s (1958) Dictionary of Yoruba. Some truncated names have three syllables, for example, O¢lak! o!rede! ‘honor brings goodness’ can be
shortened as O¢la! or Kor! ede!. The crucial point from the minimality viewpoint is that the shortened form must be at least two syllables in size.
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(6)
Full name
Shortened Forms
Meaning
Aki!nto¢!la!
Akin, to¢!la!
valor is sufficient honor
O¢la!wo¢le!
O¢la!, wo¢le!!
honor enters the house
Ade!yi!nka!
Ade!, yi!nka!
crown surrounds me
I attribute the change in name shortening to noun minimality. As argued in O¢la (1995), the canonical shape of Yoruba nouns is (C)VCV, that is, two syllables. By shortening long names to two syllables, speakers are making the names sound like a canonical noun. NEW NICKNAMING STRATEGIES As indicated previously, nicknames are traditionally derived based on physical attributes, for example, a plump girl may be given the name a~gba!o~wu! ‘barrel of swelling’ and a slim girl may be given the nickname o~¢pe!¢le!¢n!ge¢! ‘the slim one.’ Since the mid to late twentieth century, new nicknaming patterns have emerged among Yoruba-English bilinguals. These patterns are derived from shortened names and they involve vowel prefixation, final vowel substitution and suffixation of /s/. Consider first the case of nicknaming by vowel prefixation, shown in (7) below: (7)
Shortened Form
Nickname
Meaning
Ti!ti!
a~-Ti~ti~
forever
Ko¢!la!
a~-Ko¢~la~
one who brings honor
Tu!nde!
a~-Tu~nde~
arrive again
To¢!la!
a~-To¢~la~
sufficient honor
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Two properties distinguish the forms in (7) as nicknames. First, is the low tone vowel /a/ is prefixed to a shortened name; second, the low tone of the prefix vowel replaces the original tones of the name. Next, we examine forms involving /a~/ prefix and vowel replacement: (8)
Shortened Form
Nickname
Meaning
Ti!ti!
a~-Ti~te¢~
forever
Wo¢le!
a~-Wo¢~le¢~
enter the house
Tu!nde!
a~-Tu!nde¢!
arrive again
To¢!la!
a~-To¢~le~¢
sufficient honor
As shown, in addition to adding the initial low tone /a/ to the name, the final vowel of the name is replaced with /e¢/. Aside from the two nicknaming patterns described above, there are two Englishrelated nicknames. The first one involves the suffixation of /s/.13 To derive this pattern, the final vowel of a shortened name is elided, then, /s/ is suffixed to the final consonant of the shortened form. Some examples are given in (9): (9)
13
Shortened Form
Nickname
Meaning
Yinka
Yinks
surround me
Tunde
Tunds
arrive again
Dapo¢
Daps
mix together
Se!¢gun
Se¢gs
conquer
A variant of nicknaming through /s/ suffixation involves suffixation of /us/, for example, Yinks becomes
Yinkus. The suffix /us/ is probably borrowed from Latin—the singular marker. During the colonial period, Latin was taught in schools but it was canceled in the early 1960s after independence.
21
There are two kinds of evidence which show that the nicknames in (9) are English-based. First, a possessive meaning is associated with these nicknames. Secondly, they produce English-like syllable-final consonant clusters which are not used in the native grammar. The second pattern is created by suffixing the English diminutive marker /i/ to a truncated name which has been further reduced through the elision of the final vowel. For example, from Wo¢le!, we derive Wo¢l + i Wo¢!l¸~; from To¢!la!, we derive To¢l + i To¢!l¸~. Notice that the original tones of the names are replaced with a fixed High-Low tonal pattern. I argue below that this tonal pattern too is derived from English. As is well known, the stress assignment principle for nouns in English is that main stress falls on the penultimate syllable.14 Thus, in English diminutives such as Jennie, Vickie, Eddie and Abbie, the penultimate syllable is stressed. Given that English diminutives are always two syllables long, one can safely say that the English diminutive has a fixed stress pattern—the initial syllable is stressed but the second and final syllable is never stressed. What is the implication of the English diminutive stress pattern for the fixed High-Low tonal pattern? The answer to this question can be found in the work of Kenstowicz (2004). This work examines tonal adaptation of English loanwords into Yoruba and shows that a stressed syllable in English is adapted with High tone while final syllables are adapted with Low tone. Assuming that the English diminutive stress pattern is borrowed along with the diminutive suffix, the fixed High-Low tone pattern receives a straightforward explanation under Kenstowicz (2004)’s stress adaptation analysis. In data such as Wo¢le!
14
Stress assignment in English is quite complicated. Factors such as syllable weight and extrametricality are required to fully account for the English system. See work such as Kenstowicz (1994) for details.
22
Wo¢!l¸~, the initial High tone corresponds to the initial stress of the English diminutives. The second syllable has a Low tone because it is the final syllable.
CONCLUSION In summary, naming and names constitute an integral aspect of Yoruba language and culture. Like any living language and culture, Yoruba language and culture are quite dynamic. In this article, I have examined name changes such as name borrowing, loss of names, changes in use of a~bi!ku! names, disregard for lineage history in name selection, new nicknaming strategies, and innovations in name shortening patterns. These historical changes, as shown, derive from Yoruba contact with Islam, the transatlantic slave trade, Christianity and colonization. REFERENCES CITED Abraham, R. C. 1958
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