I rarely publish reactions to articles in my grammar column except in the Q and A series. I am breaking that tradition this week for two r...
I rarely publish reactions to articles in my grammar column except in the Q and A series. I am breaking that
tradition this week for two reasons. First, in the concluding thoughts of last week’s article I asked a couple of questions to which many readers provided
answers. I have a responsibility to share the answers with my readers. Second,
I received responses that not only broadened my own understanding of the issues
I discussed but that I think will benefit most of my readers who enjoyed last
week’s article. It’s obvious that I will have to write a sequel to the article
at some point. Meanwhile enjoy some of the insights people shared with me.
Thanks
for raising a topic that has not escaped my interest over these years. Will you
be surprised to learn that 'Abdulaziz' has another, admittedly less common,
yorubised, form like 'Laisi'? Have you also considered that 'Lam' is a further
contraction of the short form 'Lamidi'? Do you know that the name Jinadu
derives from the Arabic Junaid (dimunitive form of 'Jund')? Of course you must
have noticed names like Amusa (Hamza) and Oseni (Husain) in which the 'h' is
elided. Or Saka, which is shortened from Zakariya' and in which ‘s’ replaces
'z'.
Raji
seems to be the Fulfulde version of al-Razee, the Persian mufassir (Qur'anic
exegete) because the Fulbe tend to replace 'z' with 'j'. If so, it could have
entered Yoruba usage like other Fulbe names e.g. Bello [and Gidado, Kuranga
(Kwairanga) in Ilorin]. As for Badamasi, the fact that the Hausas also use it
suggests it might be an Arabic or Arabised toponym like al-Basri (rendered in
Yoruba as 'Busari' or 'Bisiriyu') or an occupation like al-Ghazzali (Yoruba:
'Kasali').
One
of my mother's uncles was called 'Monmonu'. It took me ages to discover that it
was actually Muhammad Nuhu!!! Similarly, the Arabic Ni'mah has morphed on the
Yoruba tongue to Limota, or the more recognisable form Nimota! Of course
'Ramota' is Rahmah.
Finally,
have you thought of the origin of the Yoruba Muslim female names like
'Simbiyat' or 'Simiyat'? The '-at' ending suggests an Arabic origin but I've
not been able to decipher its Arabic roots.
Dr. Muhammad Shakir Balogun, Zaria
Thanks
for an illuminating article, Prof. One of the references you made in the
concluding part concerns me. LOL! Raji is listed by many websites as a Muslim
name which means "hopeful" or "full of hope". Some sites
say that it is of Arabic origin while others are silent on its origin. There are
a few sites (Indian) which describe it as a Hindu name that means "one who
shines". I think its usage among the Yoruba in an unmodified form could be
due to the fact that there is little to modify in the name being a four-letter
word and already ending with a vowel. These are just my thoughts as a
non-expert. It is also possible that it actually has a longer form in Arabic
like Al-Rajih. But one reason why I suspect that the Yoruba haven't modified it
is because non-Yoruba like the Fulani in the northeast that you mentioned also
use it in the same form. The usage among Fulani in the northeast is actually
confined to Adamawa and even there, it is virtually restricted to the members
of a single clan. It was the name of the founder of the clan, who is my
great-grand-father, Modibbo Raji (1790-1866). An interesting fact is that he
wasn't a native of Adamawa but settled there in the mid-19th Century. He was a
native of Degel in the Sokoto area which means that the name was familiar to
people in those parts for a long time. A summary of his life can be found in
this Google book review on pages 434 and 435 where he is listed as Muhammad
Raji b. Ali b. Abi Bakr. http://books.google.com.ng/books?id=_nKXOThUEpcC&pg=PA437
Dr. Bello Raji, Abuja
As
usual, your take on Yoruba domestication of Arabic names is informed and
effectively educates us all. The question of bastardization or "destroying
nice names" as some have articulated is uncalled for, and only betrays
anti-Yoruba prejudice. Thanks for setting them straight. I once had a Turkish
roommate whose daughter was named Zeynep. It took me some time before I
realized that was Zainab or Senabu in Yoruba rendition. What about Turkish
rendering of the Prophet's name as Mahomet, or Mehmet as the famous Dr. OZ is
known. He is of Turkish origin.
To
get back to Yoruba names, your observation that Yoruba insists on starting
Arabic names with a consonant even when the original starts with a vowel is
extremely interesting. This practice is in sharp contrast to indigenous Yoruba
names of which 99% start with a vowel. The consonants in everyday Yoruba names
only come up when we drop prefixes such as Ade, Ogun, Oye, Ibi, omo, Ifa and
Ola.(You can see that the wonderful names of our deities all start with vowels
and they use to prefix many names). As a student of Yoruba language and
culture, I have been given one rule of thumb that is also applicable to
personal names: 99% of indigenous Yoruba nouns start with a vowel. Names are
proper nouns as we all know. So, dropping the initial vowel in Arabic names
like Ibrahim (Buraimo/Buraima) and Idris (Disu) consistently is a very
interesting finding, to say the least. I wonder what the explanation could be.
It has set me thinking.
Finally
the version of Yoruba Muslim names that you seem to prefer come from the more
Southern reaches of Yorubaland--Lagos, Ijebu, Abeokuta, etc. Amongst Northern
Yoruba like Ibadan, Ogbomoso, Iwo, etc. we do not drop the "a" sound
and substitute it with "o" as you observed. For example, Muraina is
Muraina, not Muraino. In fact, the most famous Yoruba Muraina is the fabulous
artist Muraina Oyelami, of the Osogbo School of artists; one of his beautiful
paintings presides over my home. Chief Muraina Oyelami is from Iragbiji in Osun
state. One more thing: Sunmola is not a Muslim name; it is an indigenous Yoruba
name which means move closer to honor.
Prof. Oyeronke Oyewumi, New York
This
is very educative and enlightening, but I have a disagreement with the 10th
name: Sunmola. Sunmola, I think, is a purely Yoruba name. The 'Yorubaized'
Ismaeel is Sumoila. Like you rightly noted, the initial 'I' in Ismaeel or
Ismail is omitted and the middle 'a' is replaced with 'o' then the ending vowel
'a' is added to make it 'Sumoila'. I have a Yoruba (Christian) friend that
bears Sunmola. I may have to meet this friend again for more clarity about
Sunmola.
Seko Jibril Gure, Abuja
Sunmola
is definitely from Isma'eel. Listen to the popular Yoruba musician 'Barrister'
who uses both 'Sunmola' and 'Sumoila' in the same tale, his own 'remix' of an
ancient tale. It’s an interesting consequence of the tonal nature of Yoruba
that Sunmonla (mi-mi-mi), a shortened form of Mosunmola, is being confused with
Sunmonla (do-mi-do) a variant of d Yoruba domestication of Isma'eel!
Dr. Muhammad Shakir Balogu
Modu,
Bukar, Dala, Darman, Bura, Masta, Aisa, Falta, Amodu and Laminu are the Kanuri
versions of the following Arabic names: Mohammed,Abubakar, Abdullahi, AbdulRahman,
Ibrahim, Mustapha, Aisha, Fatma, Ahmad and Amin. There are many more in Fulani
and Shuwa (Shuwaia) Arabs. Your articles are always very interesting to digest.
Keep it up!
Mohammed Khurso Zangeri, Abu Dhabi,
United Arab Emirates
Your article on top 10 Yorubaized Arabic names is
very scintillating. It draws attention of many to some unique features of
Yoruba language and how the Yorubas who adopted Islam adapted and domesticated
most of the Arabic Muslim names. Shittu is a Yorubanized shiithu, which is the
name of a prophet who was said to be among the children of Prophet Adam (A.S).
The last syllable "thu." is the third letter of Arabic alphabet
"tha," the equivalent of which the Yorubas do not have.
The
second name Raji is an Arabic name which means "Hope" or
"Hopeful," though it should be more appropriately spelt as
"Raaji" because the first syllable"ra" in Arabic has a
slight elongation.
Abdulkadir Salaudeen, Dutse, Jigawa
State
On
your article on Yoruba names, Shittu is derived from Seth or Seyth, the 3rd and
righteous son of Adam and Eve.
Nura Bature, Abuja
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