Yoruba Language Research Articles

Philosophy of Body: Practicing Logic, Managing Diversity and Telling about that Practice and Management: the African Contribution to the Practice of Philosophy

While in predicating and designating, quantifying and generalizing, and in numbering, English speakers use one/many figuring, Yoruba speakers do the same in whole/part as they, like their English counterparts, do the little embodied rituals (with hands, eyes, gestures) that go with these acts. Numbers as used in English and Yoruba languages reveal two systems of abstraction constructed in two diverse systems of categorization. The disparity in the two strings of abstraction is the divergence between Yoruba and English, regarding the forms of actions that bodies do, actions that are in turn coded as the language users engage in predication and designation. As a part of grammar, natural number is a historical product; an attempt at giving meaning. It has been naturalized, and is no longer seen as a social product. Establishing how the truths numbers form come into existence, Verran explains quantifying as resulting from ritualized and routinized collective embodied acting. She renders an account of generalization in the explanatory frame of “emergent worlds.” She tells of the experience of doing quantification and managing diversity in a manner that allows a “going-on together” in Yoruba classrooms, markets, and civil administration. She tells of practicing diversity and telling about that practice, a responsible communication of diversity as practicable and amenable to matters of mutual concern. She also recounts an ‘irresponsible’ doing and telling of difference (conservativist universalism and liberalist relativism), a contriving that legislates a moral order, presenting difference as undoable and unmanageable. Contemplating worlds as outcomes of reciprocally rebelling and cooperating co-players, we find explanatory frames that not only celebrate difference and sameness, and appreciate the place of the inanimate in the animate (human), but also that do not radically sever the symbolic from the material.

Diacritic Restoration for Yoruba Text with under dot and Diacritic Mark Based on LSTM

Abstract
 Yoruba is a tonal language spoken primarily in Nigeria, some West African countries, and other parts of the world by over 40 million people. Many Yoruba texts written online lack tone marks, which can be confusing, ambiguous, and difficult for Natural Language Processing. This paper presents a method, which combines syllable-based approach and long short-term memory (LSTM) for diacritics restoration of standard Yoruba text.By enhancing the built-in varnishing gradient of RNN, the aim is intended to recover lost diacritics in Yoruba text for both characters that carry diacritic signs and underdot and return it with the proper diacritics. Data were acquired from Yoglobavoice, BBC Yoruba new and Yoruba words collected from literate indigenous writers. 27050 Yoglobalvoice datasets, 2000 Yoruba words extracted from BBC Yoruba news, and 1470 Yoruba words collected from a Yoruba language teacher.In addition, syllabic module was developed to group the tokenized word into different syllables. The output of the syllabication algorithm was fed into the Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) module for training, the LSTM model was trained using 70% of the dataset and validated using 30% of the dataset. The result obtained showed 96% accuracy. From the result, it was observed that the use of LSTM for restoring diacritic gave an improved restoration of both character with under dot and character that contains tone-marks.

Development of a XLM-Encoded Machine-Readable Dictionary for Yoruba Word Sense Disambiguation

The development of the disambiguation component of a Yorùbá to English machine translation system is hindered by several factors. One of these is the lack of machine readable sense inventory for ambiguous Yorùbá words. This study addressed the problem by developing a machine readable dictionary for ambiguous Yoruba verbs. To achieve this, ambiguous Yorba verbs and their translations were collected from existing bilingual dictionaries. The collected lexicons were transformed into machine readable format using the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Format. The accuracy of translation of the machine readable dictionary was evaluated using mean opinion score, with a score of 4.37 over the scale of 5. This study covered the total number of ninety-three (93) monosyllabic verbs with two hundred and forty-one (241) senses, which gives a coverage of 69.5% of the ambiguous monosyllabic verbs in Yoruba Language. The sense inventory was also used as a component of a Yoruba Word Sense Disambiguation system, and an accuracy of 94.6% was achieved. This study concludes that the digitized data can increase the accuracy of Word Sense Disambiguation component of a Yorùbá to English machine translation system.

Language Visibility and Audibility: Discussing the Dominant Status of Yoruba on Social Media

In recent times, there is evidence of the emergence of new linguistic dynamics in the social media communication engagements in the Nigerian social media culture which have consequently impacted the visibility of the Yoruba language. The use of Yoruba has become part of a lot of users’ everyday social communication practices thereby promoting the language to be more visible in the arena of social media platforms. This study is interested in evaluating the nature of and the extent to which the language is used on social media, understanding its presence to the development of social media repertoire, and how it has become the dominant local medium through which many Nigerian social media users negotiate and express their identities. The motivation for this practice, and how it is employed as a discoursal means of language promotion will also be investigated. The data contain Instagram comments that exhibit pure Yoruba and code mixing between Yoruba and English/Nigerian Pidgin English; and from the data, it is evident that Yoruba is gaining more popularity on social media networks amidst the dense multilingualism of Nigeria. The findings reveal that social media provide a discursive platform for the users to be able to reinforce dominant representation of the language. The paper concludes that Yoruba is emerging as a popular language of the Nigerian internet culture.

Language Preference and Selection during Nurse-Patient Service Encounter at Adeoyo Teaching Hospital, Yemetu, Ibadan

This study examines language preference and selection during nurse-patient service encounters as well as the motivations and effectiveness of such selection by nurses at Adeoyo Teaching Hospital, Ibadan. The study adopted quantitative and descriptive research using a self-designed questionnaire administered to a sample population of fifty (50) nurses selected using stratified random sampling. The data assessing the four phases of nurse-patient service encounters was analyzed using simple percentages and then subjected to a descriptive analysis using Peplau's (1997) Theory of Interpersonal Relations and Giles' (1991) Communication Accommodation Theory. The study finds that language preference at the orientation phase of the nurse-patient service encounters was Yoruba (20%), Yoruba and English Language (56%), while only (24%) opted for the use of the English Language. During the identification and exploitation phases, (86%) adopted the Yoruba language, while (4%) and (10%) adopted English and Nigerian Pidgin English (NPE), respectively. During the resolution phase (80%) adopted the Yoruba Language, while (16%) and (4%) used the English Language and NPE, respectively. Language preference by nurses at the different phases of service encounter, therefore, is Yoruba followed English and then NPE during healthcare provision. Nurses’ motivations for converging or diverging to and from the patients’ preferred language were on the grounds of faster healthcare delivery (96%), emotional stability of the patients (96%), level of education (100%), prestige (64%), ease of communication and comprehension (99%), detailed information (88%), language preference (62%), and patient’s language competence(62%). The Yoruba language was found to be effective during orientation, identification, exploitation, and resolution phases of nurse-patient service encounters as it was considered to depict nurses as emphatic (80%), achieve delivery of patient-centred healthcare (88%), a more coordinated service delivery (84%), effective patient evaluation as well implementation of treatment (98%). Yoruba was also found to keep patients emotionally stable (96%) and ensure effective follow-up of healthcare delivery (100%). The study has shown that linguistic affiliation by the selection of patient’s language preference, which is often the use of the Yoruba language, was found to be effective in ensuring effective health care before, during, and the follow-up care of patient-nurse service encounters at Adeoyo Teaching Hospital. It is suggested that linguistic orientation for better healthcare delivery should be mandated in the healthcare sector. Research on language preference during service encounters among nurses and their patient interaction in the hospital from the viewpoint of the patients is also suggested.

Dynamicism in Yoruba Translation of the Quran

The appearance of a published complete translation of the Qur'an into Yoruba language was a recent occurrence phenomenon compared to the early contact of Islam with Yorubaland. This has been attributed to the fact that the early Imams and Arabic and Islamic teachers concentrated on the teaching of Arabic Language. This article discussed the activities of the Qur'an translators and examined the impact of that on the target audience. A number of grey areas in the Yoruba translations are brought to the fore for possible adjustment. The article employed historical and analytical methods in gathering information from primary and secondary sources. The translation of the Qur'an into Yoruba language remains a major intellectual contribution of the Yoruba Muslim scholars to the dissemination of Islamic teachings. However, the translators are yet to take cognizance of the conditions and prerequisites of translating the Qur'an. This has led to adverse effects on most of the translations of the Qur'an into Yoruba. The article has also brought to focus some improvements in translation of the Qur'an including the nature of the contributions, their merits and demerits. The study proposes a template for improvement so that subsequent translations will not only address contemporary needs but also benefit from an extensive circulation of the Quranic message

Impact of Communication Filters on the Speeches of Female Yoruba and Igbo Speakers

Differences in the ways that men and women use language have long been of interest in the study of discourse and sociolinguistics. Despite extensive theorizing, actual empirical investigations have yet to converge on a coherent picture of gender differences in language. The male/female sex biological categories are assumed to have a bearing on the masculine/feminine gender social categories. This categorization is assumed to affect almost every aspect of human living, including the use of language by the different genders. This work is a study of works and assumptions on sex-conditioned language or genderlect, with special attention on the characteristics of female speech. This aspect identified the observed linguistic filtering devices in female speech in an attempt to establish them as stereotypes. The study further attempted a survey of filtered female speech and established pragmatic bases for the models. A clear attempt was made to identify and classify the semantic constraints inherent in the connotative properties of the utterances of some female speakers of the English, Igbo and Yoruba languages while also attempting a possible literal and contextual interpretation of the utterances and the possible 'misunderstandings' that may arise from the 'filtered' utterances. Oral discussions and unobtrusive observations were conducted to get data related to the manifestation of genderlect in female speech. The findings affirmed the thesis of differences in gender speech styles.

Nature and Functions of Vowel Epenthesis in Yoruba Loanwords

Vowel epenthesis processes vary in their characteristics, and many aspects of their typology are still under continuous study even in English, wherein a lot of academic work has been done, much less so in Yoruba and other African languages where a large part of academic research on the phenomenon is still evolving. The focus of this work is on the identification of form and pattern as well as on the diversity of vowel epenthesis processes in loanwords in Yoruba language. The work also attempts to identify the functions performed by epenthetic vowels in ensuring the complete adaptability of loanwords into the language by examining nature and processes. In addition to identifying and classifying vowel epenthesis as it appears in Yoruba loanwords, this work also examined some empirical questions on the causes and functions of vowel epenthesis, as well as the location and quality of epenthetic vowels in Yoruba loanwords. This study revealed that vowel epenthesis processes in Yoruba loanwords are diverse in nature, functions and position.

Digital resistance: Discursive construction of polarization and otherness in Oduduwa secessionists’ social media discourse

This paper investigates the discursive strategies employed by Oduduwa secessionists to construct polarization and otherness on Twitter. Using the socio-cognitive approach to CDA combined with social media CDA, the study illustrates how socio-cultural and spatiotemporal contexts are embedded in digital performances of resistance. Findings show that the secessionists employ four main discursive strategies, namely: (1) vitriolic socio-cognitive labels and coinages; (2) generalization and ethnocentrism; (3) language of threat; and (4) use of Yoruba language to legitimize their resistance, accentuate their ideological stances, construct polarization and otherness, and do social mobilization. These strategies are achieved via discursive, linguistic, and stylo-orthographic resources made available by digital technology. The paper concludes that the discursive strategies employed by the secessionists do not directly reflect polarization but are simply constitutive of it.

HANDSHAKE ACROSS THE NIGER: A STUDY OF LINGUISTIC OUTCOME IN YORÙBÁ-HAUSA CONTACT

This paper examined the relationship between the Yoruba people of South-western Nigeria and the Hausa people of Northern Nigeria within the scope of linguistics. The objective of this paper is to analyze the relationship that exists between these two tribes using linguistic evidence which include analysis of Yoruba borrowed words from Hausa language and Hausa related Yoruba proverbs and proverbial expressions. This work is descriptive in nature and data were gathered from existing literature and from ideal native speakers of Yoruba language with the aid of selected Hausa language helpers. The research findings revealed that Yoruba borrowed words from Hausa language can be classified into two classes which are Alternative borrowing and Non-alternative borrowing. It also discovered that Hausa related Yoruba proverbs and proverbial expressions can be classified to Derogatory Hausa related proverbs which show some form of hate speech and Non-derogatory Hausa related Yoruba proverbs.

Yoruba Language Use in Lagos State Legislative Assembly: Challenges and Prospects

Abstract
 This study examined the challenges and prospects of the use of the Yoruba Language for legislative business in the Lagos State House of Assembly. The Assembly adopted the use of the Yoruba language for its deliberation every Thursday in 2007. This study made use of an in-depth interview guide to elicit responses from research subjects, who were drawn from among the Legislative officers, aides, and assistants, totaling ten. In addition, we consulted archival notes, Order Paper, Proceedings of the House, newspapers, and other recorded material. Our findings revealed that there is an insufficient number of Yoruba legislative reporters, while some legislators are still trying to grapple with the use of Yoruba. Similarly, most statutory committee members do not speak the Yoruba language during meetings or public hearings. The prospects of the initiative include, among others, bringing legislative practice to the doorstep of the common man. For instance, the House has now passed a bill into law making Yoruba language compulsory both as a subject and a language in Lagos State public schools toward the growth of the economy of Lagos State.

“Their Yoruba Was Pure. It Was Archaic, It Was Native”: Racioreligious Linguistic Ideologies in (Re)constructing Ritual, Language and Identity

ABSTRACT This research proposes racioreligious linguistic ideologies to conceptualize systems of belief that conflate categories of language, spirituality, and peoplehood, with implications for contemporary education. While theories on the semiotics of race (raciosemiotics) and on the interplay of language and race (raciolinguistics) are positioned well to understand how multiple identities co-craft personhood, they have not been regularly applied in exploring religion’s role (alongside language and race) in identity co-construction. This article presents the case of Yoruba language education in the Brazilian city of Salvador to explore its grounding in the semiotic values that language practices have acquired within racioreligious linguistic ideologies. I examine the positioning of Yoruba in ethnographic interviews with three lifelong students who practice African-matrix cosmologies of ancestral devotion and seek a “pure” form of Yoruba. These data highlight how people in this location of the African diaspora are (re)constructing identity, ritual, and ancestral linguistic practices through language education.

Indigenization and Educative Implication of Otito Lo Ye Ka Se by Kayode Samuel

The advent of British colonialism gave rise to Western education, Christian religion, and art music in Nigeria. Consequently, since many Nigerians have embraced Western art music, there have been sustainable efforts to indigenize and promote Africanism in Nigerian art music. Part of these efforts owes much to a number of Nigerian ethnomusicologists and composers, one of whom indeed, is Kayode Samuel whose outstanding scholarship and advocacy of nationalism cannot be overemphasized. His creative composition, which involves the use of a pentatonic scale attributed to the African scale, stands as the backdrop of this study. Thus, this study examines the promotion of indigenization and the sociocultural educative lessons embedded in the understudied composition, Otito Lo Ye Ka Se. A textual analytical technique is adopted for the study to unravel how the composer captures the alteration of the lexical tone of the Yoruba language. The theoretical framework for this study is the indigenous standpoint theory stated by Coatest, S.K., and Trudgett 2002. Findings reveal that the Africanism of the under-study piece stands as a solid medium through which indigenization is captured in cross-examined composition. Also, the embedded sociocultural educative lessons in the composition show that telling lies is a destructive behaviour that negates the promotion of healthy living, and should not be promoted in any society. Keywords: Indigenization, Otito Lo ye Ka se, Creative application, Nigerian art music, and Kayode Samuel

Knowledge of resilience strategies in livestock management during dry periods in southwestern Nigeria

Recurring elongated dry seasons in South west Nigeria pose a significant threat to livestock production. Knowledge of adaptation strategies to build resilience and lowers vulnerabilities to climate change among livestock farmers is limited. This study assessed livestock farmers’ knowledge of resilience strategies in farm management during dry seasons in southwest Nigeria. Using a purposive sampling procedure, a total of 118 farmers were interviewed on knowledge of livestock management during dry periods, specific challenges to management, and opinions on efficient livestock management. The result shows that increased feed costs challenged farmers during the dry season while insufficient funds were identified as the most severe constraint. Knowledge of management was high among 42% of farmers and 89.5% of them disagreed on the mechanism for temperature control structure in livestock building. Knowledge of good management practices was influenced by farmers’ ability to read and write in Yoruba language (χ2= 9.179; p < 0.05) and constraints faced (r = 0.21; p < 0.05). Climate change information in local languages will improve livestock farmers’ resilience to challenges induced by unpredictable climate change.

Patient-Reported Outcome Measures in Key Sub-Saharan African Languages to Promote Diversity: A Scoping Review

ObjectivesSub-Saharan Africa is a world region rich and diverse in cultures and languages; yet, it is also challenged with regard to resources that may facilitate the cultural adaptation or development of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). Systematic exclusion of patients’ “voices,” because of gaps in the availability of PROMs, may perpetuate health inequity. Hence, the objective is to describe the availability of PROMs in the non-English, sub-Saharan African languages. MethodsA scoping review was conducted to identify PROMs that had been translated, validated, or developed for use in 32 selected, non-English, sub-Saharan African languages pertaining to health outcomes. Four databases were searched (May 7, 2021), and additional articles were identified through reference screening and via corresponding authors. Data were extracted in terms of country, language, population, construct, and PROM characteristics (eg, number of items). ResultsA total of 220 unique articles were included from 7451 records, leading to the identification of 126 unique PROMs. Most studies were conducted in either Ethiopia, Nigeria, or South Africa. As such, prevalent languages included Amharic, Yoruba, and non-English languages common to South Africa (eg, Setswana, Xhosa, and Zulu). No PROMs were identified in any of the languages for 27 sub-Saharan African countries or 10 of the 32 included languages. ConclusionsThere are significant gaps in the availability of PROMs across the non-English African languages included. Nevertheless, the PROMs that were identified largely align with core outcome sets relevant to the prevalent disease burden in this world region. Consensus-based priority setting may inform the most pertinent gaps to be addressed.

Information Needs of Rural Secondary School Students on HIV/AIDS in Katsina State, Nigeria

The study was conducted to determine information needs of rural secondary school students on HIV/AIDS in Katsina State. Multi-stage sampling technique was employed in selecting 180 students. Data were collected with the aid of structured questionnaire and analysis was carried out using frequency counts, percentages, Chi square and Pearson product Moment Correlation. Results revealed that majority (54.4%) were within secondary school age of 16-20 years; non-boarded (67.8%), awarenrss (83.3%) and 43.9% have family size of 11-20. Radio (¯x=2.01), school authority (¯x=1.99), television (¯x= 1.61) and posters (¯x=1.57) were information sources though; school authority (¯x=2.62), radio (¯x=2.44), television (¯x=2.26) and posters (¯x=1.96) were the most preferred sources of awareness. Access to information sources was mostly constrained by lacks of power supply (¯x=1.54), television viewing centre in school (¯x=1.52), and contact with change agents (¯x=1.51) and poor coverage of HIV/AIDS news on newspapers/magazine/newsletters (¯x= 1.48). Majority (63.3% had high level of constraint. Also level of information needs was high to majority (67.2%). Symptoms (¯x=2.68), choice of marriage partners (¯x=2.66), availability of antiretroviral drugs (¯x=2.63) and sources of infection (¯x=2.62) were major areas of information needs. It is concluded that secondary school students’ information needs on HIV/AIDS in Katsina State is high. The distinct peculiarities of school as a culturally heterogeneous community should be studied and noted. In this sense, appropriate use of three major Nigerian languages: Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba languages are sin qua non in HIV/AIDS awareness creation in schools.

DEEP REINFORCEMENT LEARNING WITH HIDDEN MARKOV MODEL FOR SPEECH RECOGNITION

Nowadays, many applications uses speech recognition especially the field of computer science and electronics, Speech Recognition (SR) is the interpretation of words spoken into a text. It is also known as Speech-To-Text (STT) or Automatic-Speech-Recognition(ASR), or just Word-Recognition(WR). The Hidden-Markov-Model (HMM) is a type of Markov model, which means that the future state of the model depends on the current state, not on the entire history of the system and the goal of HMM is to learn a sequence of hidden states from a set of known states. The Long-Short-Time-Memory (LSTM) network is a type of Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) that can learn long-term dependencies between time steps of sequence data. The LSTM network is trained by the network in order to predict the values of subsequent time steps in a series-to-series regression. Deep Neural Network (DNN) models are better classifiers than Gaussian Mixture Models (GMMs), they can generalize much better with a smaller number of parameters over complex distributions. They model distributions of different classes jointly, called “distributed” learning, or, more properly “tied” learning. This work is aimed at developing a speech recognition model that will predict isolated speech of some selected fruits in Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba language by using the predicting power of Mel-Frequency-Cepstral-Coefficient (MFCC), LSTM and HMM algorithms. The findings of the study would improve the development of better automatic speech applications systems and would benefit the academic and research community in the field of Natural Language Processing.

Utilization of primary health care facilities in Lagun Community of Lagelu Local Government Area of Oyo State Nigeria

Poor funding and mismanagement were identified as a major setback to healthcare service delivery in Nigeria and of which is a prominent factor affecting its coverage and quality. This study examined the gap in the utilization of primary healthcare facilities in Lagun Community of Lagelu Local Government Area of Oyo State Nigeria. A cross-sectional study design using multi-stage random sampling technique to select 80 respondents that met the criteria were given the opportunity to participate in the study. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect information from respondents. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square were used for data analysis at 0.05 significance level, results showed that mean age of respondents was 30.5±17.0, where majority (97.4%) speaking indigenous Yoruba language. More than half (56.2%) were Christians, 56.6% had secondary education, and two-fifth (40.0%) of respondents being traders. Relationship between utilization and other factors at (X2=1.000, df=1, p=0.183) showed that awareness and availability were good, while accessibility and affordability were below the expectation as recommended by World Health Organization. Also, utilization of facilities that embraced health-for-all projected for the year 2020 millennium development goal would have assisted better improvement in achieving an holistic medical architecture through government and other health agencies proactive approaches if more enlightenment, intervention, health insurance accessibility, unalloyed cooperation of the dwellers with various health professionals anticipating in promoting utilization of health facilities in the community.

Assessment Of Indigenous Radio Broadcasters' Translation Strategies And Words Usage: A Study Of Sobi 101.9 Fm Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria

This paper discusses the translation style and methods adopted by Sobi FM 101.9 Ilorin broadcasters to find equivalent versions for some selected English lexis and structure, translated into the Yoruba language. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the relevance of translation and trace the etymological foundation of the lexis and structure which compel radio broadcasters to use self-lexical coinage and neology. The work was carried out within the purview of Newmark levels of translation (level of naturalness, Referential, cohesive level) to trace the content and function of the lexis and structure. The theory adopted for this work is the knowledge gap theory; the main thrust of this theory is to bridge the language gap that exists in media through the use of the native language. Data for this research were gathered through the elicitation of a recorded news item from Sobi 101.9 FM Ilorin. Our research findings show that most translations from the source language (English) to the target language (Yorùbá) by broadcasters are self-invented, which could either suit the original version in the target language or not. It was observed that radio broadcasters adopt suitable translation methods to retain the content of messages broadcast in a bilingual program. We conclude our work by saying categorically that broad knowledge of the source language helps the productivity of a translator to transmit the message to the audience in the language without any vacuum or gap, and that radio broadcasters adopt any translation method in as much as the audience comprehension of the intended messages are the same with the target language.

An African Perspective on the Nature of Mind: Reflections on Yoruba Contextual Dualism

Abstract The problem of the nature of mind has lingered for a long time. Generated by the question of whether the mind is an independently existing entity or merely an aspect of bodily events and processes, the problem of the nature of mind has divided Western philosophers into two opposing camps, namely dualism and physicalism. Contemporary discourse of the nature of minds, within the Western philosophical tradition, continues to privilege physicalism over dualism, because it avoids the theoretical impasse engendered by the dualist inability to account for how two radically different entities manage to interact with each other. Although physicalism avoids the dualist pitfalls, it, however, encounters the problem of plausibly accounting for the possibility of conscious experience without commitment to the dualist ontology of a realm different from the body. In this article, we provide an African (Yoruba) perspective to the question of the nature of mind as an alternative to the Western perspective represented by dualist and physicalist theories. We develop a variant of dualism called “contextual dualism,” which accepts the dualist basic tenet of the duality of body and mind but diverges from it by permitting that some physical organs of the body also function in the capacity of the mind. Using ethnological analysis and the Yoruba linguistic hermeneutics as theoretical frameworks, the paper argues that the difference between when a physical organ functions as body and when it functions as mind is revealed in Yoruba language through their contexts of use. The paper concludes that contextual dualism drives a reconciliatory wedge between mainstream dualism and physicalism.