Adewole L.O(1998), HOW DO I TEACH THEM LINGUISTICS?

 

HOW DO I TEACH THEM LINGUISTICS?

Credit: Prof L. O. Adewole

Yoruba for academic purpose

1.         Introduction[1]

In Adéwọlé (1998), He discussed how the Department of African Languages and Literatures introduces a course called a Certificate Course in Yorùbá Oral Literature, the aim of which is to train students to identify, evaluate and perform the various genres of Yorùbá poetry. In one of the courses, the students are taught the importance of the sound system and the grammatical aspects of the language and their use by oral artists. As the students are born into the culture, they are very good in courses related to the oral tradition of the language but linguistics seems too technical for most of the. To let them develop some interest in the course, what one can do is to teach the course with the help of what the students know, that is, to start from known to unknown.

As he has stated above, the students are interested in Yorùbá oral tradition. Linguistics, as we know, ‘is the scientific study of language. Rules in linguistics are the linguistic behaviour of the speaker who knows his language and performs as if he is obeying certain laws allowed by the language’ (Yusuf 1997: 1). But then, the potent tool usually used for communicating, perpetuating and developing knowledge among the Yorùbá is oral literature. About ‘òwe’ (proverb), one of Yorùbá oral genres, the following Yorùbá scholars have these to say:

Òwe ‘proverb’ is a short… aphorism, a condensation into a generalization of the fruits of observed facts.

They come into use as allusions to make the hearer pause and work out their bearing on the subject under discussion (Oduyoye 1971: 96).

The Yorùbá value proverbs very highly for they are considered to be the wisdom lore of the race. And because… proverbs are considered to be traditional and originate from the observation of  national phenomena and human relation, old people are regarded as the repository of proverbs (Ọlátúnjí 1984: 170).

It is even said that ‘òwe lẹsin ọ̀rọ̀, bọ́rọ̀ bá sọnù, òwe la fi í wá a’ (proverbs are horse-footed to solve a problem, when the truth is allusive, it is proverbs that we use to discover it). What is true of proverbs is true of most of the other Yorùbá oral genres. The students understand them and they are available and can be easily used by the teacher as the base for teaching the students of this course linguistics.

2.         Phonology

Phonology is taken in this work as the ‘study of speech sounds of a given language and their function within the sound system of that language’ (Hartmann and Stork 1976: 175). Thus, on sound production, Ìṣọ̀lá (1989: 8) has shown that there are short poems in the language that describe points of articulation for certain sounds. The following poem, according to him, describes various positions of the lips and cheeks when particular sounds are produced.

Ẹni tí ó pe tọ́rọ́ a ṣẹnu tọ́ọ́sín	To say tọ́rọ́ (three pence), your lips protrude
Àgbà tí yóò pe sísì a fẹ èrìgì	To say sísì (six pence), the lips must spread
Àpèwúùkẹ́ là á pÀwááwù	To say Àwááwù (a name), your cheeks are blown
Àpèforísòpó ẹgbẹ̀ẹ́dọ́gbọ̀n	Ẹgbẹ̀ẹ́dọ́gbọ̀n (one shillings and three pence) is said as if you would knock your head against a post.

The emphasis in the first line of this poem is on the pronunciation of the ‘ọ’  in ‘tọ́rọ́’ (three pence) which, when pronounced, ‘the lips form a round shape and the tongue is bunched back in the mouth’ (Awóbùlúyì 1978: 140). It is the round shape of the lips that the poem describes as ‘protrude’. In the second line, the emphasis is on the ‘i’ of ‘sísì’ (six pence) which, when pronounced, ‘the lips do not form a round shape and the tongue is mostly in the front part of the mouth’ (Awóbùlúyì 1978: 140). The shape of the lips which is not round is described in the poem as ‘spread’. Lines three and four emphasise the consonants ‘w’ in ‘Àwááwù’ (a name) and ‘gb’ in ‘ẹgbẹ̀ẹ́dọ́gbọ̀n’ (one shillings and three pence) which their production involves two points of articulation. According to Awóbùlúyì (1978: 143), for [kp] and [gb], ‘both lips are pressed firmly together, and the back of the tongue is simultaneously made to touch the rear of the roof of the mouth. For [w], the lips are made to form a round shape, and the back of the tongue is raised close to the rear of the roof of the mouth’. The other consonant in the language whose production involves two points of articulation is ‘p’ [kp] which is not mentioned in this poem. The sound is used in the following saying, ‘ọ̀pọ̀lọpọ̀ ọ̀pọ̀lọ́ ló wa tí kò lọ́pọlọ’ (there are many frogs that have got no brains), in which the number of p’s in it makes it a useful tongue-twister for children. These types of poems, which the students know very well, can be used as a starting point for the teaching of the production of Yorùbá sounds. Other tongue-twisters that can be used for the same purpose are the following where the sound on which emphasis is laid is ‘gb’ [gb]:

Àgbọn ń gbágbọn gàgbọn	A coconut fruit is carrying a coconut fruit and climbing a coconut palm
Ọ̀pọ̀bọ-gbọ́bọ-bọ̀gbẹ́	He-who-kills-a-monkey-hides-it-in-the-bush
Bóò bá tètè gbọ́bọ bọ̀gbẹ́	If you don’t quickly throw the monkey into bush
Ọ̀bọ ó gbé ọ bọ̀gbẹ́	The monkey will throw you into the bush

                                                            (Ìṣọ̀lá 1989: 5)

‘l’ is described as a sound produced when ‘the front part of the tongue is made to touch that part of the roof of the mouth immediately behind the upper teeth’ (Awóbùlúyì 1978: 143) while ‘y’ is described as a sound produced ‘by raising the middle part of the tongue very close to the roof of the mouth’ (Awóbùlúyì 1978: 143). There is a Yorùbá proverb, known by the students, which distinguishes between these two sounds. It goes thus:

Wọ́n ní	They say
‘Akáyín, ṣé o ó jẹ̀gẹ̀dẹ̀?’	“You, whose tooth has fallen out”, will you eat bananas?
Ó ní	He says
‘Kínhàhánhátẹ́ tẹ́yẹ̀tẹ́yẹ̀?’	“What have I been looking for?’ (emphasis, ours)

(Oyèláran 1984: 26)

The emphasis here is on ‘tẹ́yẹ̀tẹ́yẹ̀ (previously/in advance/before). Normally, the word should be pronounced as ‘tẹ́lẹ̀tẹ́lẹ̀’ but because the speaker has lost the front tooth, he finds it very difficult to pronounce ‘l’ which requires touching of that part of the roof of the mouth immediately behind the upper teeth with the front of the tongue and thus replaces it with ‘y’ which does not require the touching of the upper teeth. It is also noticed in the language that children who are just growing their teeth also replace the sound ‘l’ with ‘y’ which, according to the saying above, may be because the former sound requires the use of the upper teeth with the tongue in its production.

To contrast oral and nasal vowels, there is one proverb which says

Orin gbogob ni aránmú kò le gbè	A person with a nasal twang may not be able to chorus many songs
Bó bá di paǹpáláṣigi	But when it comes to the song, ‘paǹpáláṣigi’
A ní ‘Wọ̀n-ǹ-kúnwọn	He will chorus it ‘Wọ̀n-ǹ-kúnwọn’

This proverb shows that Yorùbá oral tradition recognizes a contrast between an oral and a nasal vowel. An oral vowel is ‘produced when air passes out through the mouth only’ while a nasal vowel is produced when air passes out through both the mouth and the nose. (Awóbùlúyì 1978: 139). In the proverb above, the song, ‘paǹpáláṣigi’ is supposed to be chorused as ‘wò-ǹ-kúwọ’ where the underlined sounds, ‘‘ọ’, ‘u’ and ‘ọ’ ) are oral vowels but for a person with a nasal twang, the three sounds are produced as nasal vowels. Hence, instead of ‘wọ̀-ǹ-kúwọ’, he produces ‘wọ̀n-ǹ-kúnwọn’ where the underlined are nasal vowels.

In teaching tones, one can use, as a starting point, a Yorùbá proverb which says ‘àgbàlàgbà mẹ́ta kò lè pe èkùlù tì’ (three middle-aged men should not find it impossible to pronounce ‘èkùlù’ (crested/crowned duiker) (Oyèláran 1984: 26). The emphasis here is on the tones on the word, èkùlù. If the first person pronounces it as ekúlú, and the second, ekúlù, at least, the third person should be able to pronounce it correctly as èkùlù.

To show that tones contrast just as consonants and vowles do, one can introduce the following Yorùbá proverb, ‘àpọ́n ń yan ìyà, ó ní òun ń yan ìyá’ (a wifeless person chooses suffering but says he has chosen a mother). Ìyà (suffering) and ìyá (mother) are minimal pairs just as men/man and pin/bin are. The contrast between ìyà and ìyá are the low and high tones on the last vowel, ‘a’. From here, one can introduce other examples that will make the students understand the use of tones as minimal pairs.

3.         Grammar

By grammar, we mean ‘a level of structural organization which can be studied independently of PHONOLOGY and SEMANTICS, and generally divided into the branches of SYNTAX and MORPHOLOGY. In this sense, grammar is the study of the way WORDS, and their component parts, combine to form SENTENCES’ (Crystal 1985: 141). In teaching grammar, we can also appeal to some of the oral genres, especially ‘òwe’ (proverbs), known by the students. We shall begin with the qualifiers and modifiers.

A qualifier narrows ‘down the conceptual range or meanings of nouns’ while a modifier restricts ‘the meanings of verbs by specifying such things as the time, place, manner, condition, etc., in which the actions referred to by verbs were, or are to be, carried out’ (Awóbùlúyì 1978: 30 & 66). A proverb which can be used to introduce these two terms is ‘ìsọ̀rọ̀ ìyánrọ̀ ló pa eléǹpe ìsáájú tó ní igbá wúwo ju àwo lọ’ (making a statement without explanation was the cause of death of the first chief Eléǹpe who said that a calabash was heavier than a piece of earthenware). The chief actually meant a calabash before it was cut and its seeds removed (a fresh calabash) but the people he was addressing had a calabash after it was cut and its seeds removed (a dry calabash) in mind. The latter type of calabash is definitely lighter than a earthenware while the former is not. The people then brought out a dry calabash and the argument that ensued led to the death of the chief. This short story, which the students know very well, can serve as a takeoff to the teaching of modifiers and qualifiers.

Ìlú kì í wà kó máà lólórí’ (there is no town without a head) captures the notion ‘head’ in linguistics very well. The head or the ruler of a town is regarded as sacred. He is responsible for ensuring the safety and welfare of the people by performing state rituals. There is always a consecration ceremony at his installation. In linguistics too, the notion “head”, according to Riemsdijk and Williams (1987: 40),

is important because it embodies the insight that the head node shares some fundamental properties with the phrasal node containing it. Thus, for example, boys is the head in the noun phrase the big boys and since it is a plural noun, the whole noun phrase is a plural noun phrase.

The analysis of INFL (inflection) as the head of S (the sentence), which is regarded as IP (Inflection Phrase) like other phrasal categories such as VP and NP, is adequately captured by the term used for INFL in Yorùbá INFL is translated into Yorùbá as ‘àfòmọ́’. There is a Yorùbá proverb which says ‘àfòmọ́ kò légbò gbogbo igi níí bá tan’ (The parasite has no root, all trees are its relation). One can use the proverb to explain that although the features [+Tense] and [+AGR] which are contained in INFL may be “localized” in the verb in the “surface” structure… they are features of the sentence’ (Lyons 1966: 218).

The treatment of cyclic movement in such sentences as The story seems believed by everyone whose D-structure is This story, seems [_ip t_I to be believed t_I by everyone] (Haegeman 1991: 367) or rule ordering in which rules of a transformational grammar are ordered, at least, in that ‘each set of rules in the grammar is presented in a certain order, namely, the P-rules are first, the syntactic transformational rules are second, and, … the morphophonemic rules are third’ (Koutsoudas 1966: 37-38) can be introduced with the proverbs ‘bi igi bá wó lu igi, tòkè la kọ́kọ́ ń gbé’ (If one tree falls on another, the uppermost should be cut away first) and ‘ọ̀kọ̀ọ̀kan là ń yọsẹ̀ lẹ́bu (if one enters the place where plam-oil is extracted, one has to bring one’s legs out one by one).

On the large number of integrating theories students come across when doing any work on the structure of a language, the teacher should explain to them that ‘igba ọ̀nà ló já ọjà (many roads lead to the market, i.e. all roads lead to Rome) and that ‘bí ajá wọ agbádá iná tí àmọ̀tẹ́kùn wọ ẹ̀wù ẹ̀jẹ̀ tí ológìnní sán àkísà mọ́ ìdí, ẹgbẹ́ apẹranjẹ níí ṣe’ (if the dog wears a dress of fire, the leopard, a dress of blood and the cat just a rag tied around its body, they are all animals of the same species, which kill and eat animals) or that ‘fi omú fún ọmọ, fọmọ fún ọmú, bí ọmọ bá ti mu ọmú kò bùṣe?’ (Put the breast to the baby, put the baby to the breast, if the child sucks the breast, is that not the end of the matter?). What all the theories do is to help integrate all the pieces of information the students pick up in different parts of the course. As long as the theories’ ultimate aims are achieved, it does not matter how or by which method the work was done.

4.         Yorùbá Metalanguage

4.1       Introduction

The two volumes of the Yorùbá Metalanguage edited by Bámgbóṣé (1984) and Awóbùlúyì (1988) also go a long way in making the teaching of linguistics in the language easy. In formulating the terms in the books, the compilers exploit the indigenous linguistic resources in the language most of which are known to the students. Some of them, as noted by Awóbùlúyì (1992), are range extension, composition and internal borrowing.

4.2       Range Extension

This concerns the extension of the range of registers of an item, the extension of the distributional contexts in which an item can be found or the extension of the set of meanings an item conveys whenever it is found (ibid.: 18-19). The following are examples.

Extension of Register

Registers of items are indicated in brackets, with the newly acquired one listed second or last, as the case may be’ (ibid.: 18):

Ìró                   sound             (general, linguistics/phonetics)

ẹ̀wọ́n               node               (botany, linguistics/syntax)

ọfà                  arrow              (hunting, linguistics/syntax)

èémí                breath             (physiology, phonetics)

awẹ́                 components   (botany, linguistics/syntax)

káà                  open space    (architecture, phonetics)

                                                (ibid.: 18-19)

Extension of Meaning

This involves ‘using one word to denote or convey the meanings of two or more entities with shared characteristics’ (ibid.: 19).

àfòmọ́	A parasitic plant, affix/(INFL)	(inability to exist independently of their hosts)
túpalẹ̀	Take to pieces, analyse	(reducing things to their components)…
kì	recite a person’s praise names, define	(indicating defining features)
oríkì	Praise names, definition	(indicating defining features)
àrọ̀	An alternative, synonym	(ability to replace something else)
òdì	Opposite side, antonym	(mutual exclusion)
àpólà	A detached part of a bigger mass, phrase	(being a component of a bigger item)
òpó	An upright port, stem	(permitting the attachment of other things)

Extension of Distribution

This involves ‘the widening of the collocational range of an item and thereby enabling or licensing it to occur in combination with a greater range of other words or items than before’ (ibid: 19). Examples are

ábídí	orthography	(previously employed only as a genitival qualifier in ìwé ABD lit. book of ABC, ie. ‘a primer’, but now usable in all NP positions).
ibá	manner	(previously confined to the phrases bá yìí (in) ‘this manner’, bá/bẹ́ yẹn ‘(in) that manner’, bá wo’ (in) what manner?’, but can now also collocate with ìṣẹ̀lẹ̀ ‘happening’ in all NP positions; cf. ibá ìṣẹ̀lẹ̀ ‘aspect’).
kání	condition	(composed of the complementizer kí ‘that’, the pronoun á ‘we’, and the verb ní ‘say’ in that order and meaning lit. ‘let us say’, i.e. ‘suppose’, at the beginning of one type of protasis sentence in the language, it is now employed as a noun in all NP positions, or as a genitival qualifiers, as in gbólóhùn kání ‘conditional sentence’).
ìsọ	utterance	(previously confined to the nominalization ìsọkúsọ ‘loose talk’ (from ìsọ-kí-ìsọ lit. ‘saying any saying’), this item is now used freely, with or without an accompanying qualifier, in all NP positions).

4.3       Composition

This is the creation of ‘new indigenous words or expressions denoting foreign objects or concepts hitherto unknown to a language… for that language’ (ibid.: 21) Some examples are:

Description

Function/Purpose

òfin ayẹ̀dà	Equi-NP rule	(lit. the rule that deletes copies) …
ọ̀rọ̀-àpèjúwe	adjective	(lit. word for describing) …
atúmọ̀-èdè	dictionary	(lit that which interprets languages)

Manner of Production/Application

àfúnnupè	fricative	(lit. pronounced with constricted mouth)
àfèrìgìpè	alveolar	(lit. pronounced with the velum)
àséèsétán	approximant	(lit. blocked but not completely)
àtamọ́	clitic	(lit. that which is stalked to something else)

Appearance

àkámọ́-onídodo	braces	(lit. brackets having protruding navels)
alójúlódì	binary	(lit. having front and back)

Behaviour

awẹ̀yìn

anaphor

(lit. that which looks back)

Loan Translation

Word Translation

gbólóhùn àsọdorúkọ	Nominalised sentence	(lit. sentence that-has-been-nominalised)
ajọgbawẹ́ gbólóhùn	Clause-mate	(lit. co-existing segments of sentences)
ègé adápelení	Autosegment	(lit. segment having-its-own-level/tier)
ìgbésókè	raising	(lit. moving-up)
ìgbésódò	lowering	(lit. moving-down)

Feature Translation

àfòyemọ̀	abstract	(lit. that which is received with the intellect)…
àwíjàre	counter-argument	(lit. argument that is an exception to an earlier argument)…
àrànmọ́	assimilation	(lit. spreading to something else)
ìmọ̀ọ̀nú	assumption	(lit. that which one knows inside him)…
ìfọ́nká aláìṣèyàtọ̀	complementary distribution	(lit. distribution that creates no (semantic) differences)…
àpèjúwe akúnjúùwọ̀n	descriptive	(lit. description that is full or up to the mark)

                                                                        (Ibid. : 21-24)

Internal Borrowing

These are words ‘adopted into the language whether from earlier forms of the language itself or from any of the dialects’ (ibid.: 26), Examples are

wúnrẹ̀n	Item	(from the Ẹ̀gbá dialect)
ọfọ̀/afọ̀	discourse speech	(from the Ọ̀wọ̀ dialect)
pọ́n-na	ambiguity	(from the Ọ̀yọ́ dialect)

                                                                        (ibid.)

5.         Conclusion

The question once again is how do we teach the students of Yorùbá oral literature linguistics? As we have discussed above, the approach should be from what the students know best, which are the Yorùbá oral tradition and the indigenous linguistic resources in the language. This approach will be in line with another Yorùbá proverb which says ‘ohun tó jọ ohun la fi ń wé ohun’ (we liken one thing to another of its kind).

Bibliography

Adéwọlé, L.O. (1995). ‘Yorùbá Poetry in Music as a Follow-up Material for Teaching Yorùbá to Non-speakers of the Language’. Research in Yorùbá Language and Literature 5: 25-32.

Adéwọlé, L.O. (1998). ‘Towards the Preservation of Oral Tradition: The Ifẹ̀ Example’, AAP 56.

Ajíbọ́lá, J.O. (1971). Òwe Yorùbá. Ìbàdàn: OUP.

Awóblúyì, O. (1978). Essentials of Yorùbá Grammar. Ìbàdàn: UPL.

Awóblúyì, O. (ed.) (1988). Yorùbá Metalnaguage (Èdè-Ìperí Yorùbá) Volume 2. Lagos: NERDC.

Awóblúyì, O. (1992). ‘Lexical Expansion in Yorùbá: Techniques and Principles’, Research in Yorùbá Language and Literature 2: 14-30.

Bámgbóṣé, A. (ed.) (1984). Yorùbá Metalanguage (Èdè-Ìperí Yorùbá) Volume 1. Lagos: NERDC.

Crystal, D. (1985). A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Délànọ̀, I.O. (1960), Àgbékà Ọ̀rọ̀ Yorùbá (Appropriate Words and Expressions in Yorùbá). Oxford: OUP.

Dẹ́lànọ̀, I.O. (1970). Òwe lẹṣin Ọ̀rọ̀ (Yorùbá Proverbs… Their Meaning and Usage). Oxford: OUP.

Haegman, L. (1991). Introduction to Government and Binding Theory. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Hartmann, R.R.K. and F.C. Stork (1976). Dictionary of Language and Linguistics. London: Applied Science Publishers Ltd.

Ìṣọ̀lá, A. (1989). ‘Oral Literature as Source for Written Children Literature in Yorùbá’, Seminar Series 2, pp 1-22. Ifẹ̀: Department of African Languages and Literatures.

Koutsoudas, A. (1966). Writing Transformational Grammar: An Introduction. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.

Lyons, J. (1968). Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics. London: OUP.

Odùyọyè, M. (1971). Yorùbá Religious Discourse. Ìbàdàn: Daystar Press.

Oyèláran, O. (1984). “Ìtàn Ìdàgbàsókè Ẹ̀kọ́ Ìmọ̀ Èdè Yorùbá láti Ìbẹ̀rẹ̀ Pẹ̀pẹ̀’, in Yorùbá: A Language in Transition (Ìdàgbàsókè Ẹ̀kọ́ Ìmọ̀ Ìjìnlẹ̀ Yorùbá), edited by O. Ọlátúnjí, pp. 16-58. Lagos: Ọdúnjọ Memorial Lectures Series.

Ọlátúnjí, O.O. (1984), Features of Yorùbá Oral Poetry. Ìbàdàn: UPL.

Riemsdijk, Henk van and Edwin Williams (1987), Introduction to the Theory of Grammar. Cambridge: MIT.

Yusuf, O. (1987). Transformational Generative Grammar: An Introduction. Ìjẹ̀bú-Òde Shebiotimọ Publications.