Omolaye 2023 as a Source for Yorùbá Folktale
The one modern peer-reviewed source in this section that names its informants and prints Yorùbá song text, and the one defect in it that governs how every song from it is reproduced.
Four tori for inside this section come from one open-access article: Bamidele Omolaye, "Aesthetics and Utilitarian Essence of Selected Yorùbá Folktales," wey dem publish for Accelerando: Belgrade Journal of Music and Dance for 2023 . Omolaye dey the Department of Music for Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ifẹ̀.
Na im be the most valuable source for this section by far, and e get one defect wey shape every quotation wey dem carry from inside am.
Why e be the best source here
E mention the names of im informants. The article get table wey dey show, for each tori, the informant name, age, sex, town, and date wen dem collect am: Pa. Oduremi Eluwole, 80, of Oke-Ola Modakeke, 12 March 2022; Elder Adeoye Olarewaju, 75, of Akodi-Aga, Ile-Ifẹ̀, 3 February 2022; Mr. Adisa Yusufu, 68, of Oke-Oniti, Oshogbo, 26 January 2022 . If you compare am with Ellis, wey no mention anybody name (alo-ellis-1894-as-a-source), and Ogumefu, wey no mention anybody name and no state any method (alo-ogumefu-1929-as-a-source), na the difference between record and ordinary book be this.
The deep standard wey this corpus dey follow require make person name the people wey carry tradition. For three of the tori for this section, that one dey possible, and na because of this article e take possible.
E print the songs in Yorùbá. The three Ìjàpá songs and the Olúrónbí song dey inside Yorùbá with line-by-line English translation. Almost no oda thing wey this compiler get access to do dat kain thing. Ellis print only one Yorùbá refrain word across ten tori; Parkinson print one line wey e no translate; Ogumefu no print anything at all.
E treat the songs as music. Omolaye supply staff-notation transcriptions and describe the musical setting: hemitonic pentatonic scale, compound duple metre, pitch wey the lead singer set . E also classify the songs by form, as e separate strict call-and-response (wey the lead dey call line wey dey change and group dey answer with fixed text) from solo-and-chorus antiphony . Three out of the four tori use the first form, and Olúrónbí use the second one. Na this kain detail dey make yoruba-alo account of àpagbè dey concrete instead of abstract.
Dem peer-review am and e dey open access. Dem receive am on 28 November 2022, accept am on 25 December 2022, publish am on 23 February 2023 .
E state the reason why dem dey tell the tori. For each tori, Omolaye report the lesson wey dem intend am for, wey be point about teaching use instead of analyst reading wey dem just put on top am later.
The defect
The article no print any subdot. Not even one. No ẹ, no ọ, and no ṣ dey anywhere for inside im Yorùbá text, as person fit confirm if dem search the article. Grave and acute accents dey, so the tone marking dey partially, but the subdot layer of Yorùbá orthography (wey dey differentiate seven vowels from five, and ṣ from s) no dey at all throughout.
Na typesetting loss this one be, no be dialect feature or transcription choice: the accents remain but the dots under the letters no dey, wey be clear sign of font or encoding failure somewhere between manuscript and publication.
Wetin this corpus do about am. Nothing, by choice. Every song from this source, dem reproduce am exactly as e print, without subdots, and dem flag am for the file where e appear. The rule wey dey the corpus build note state say anywhere wey source print Yorùbá without full diacritics, dem go reproduce am for dat state and mark am, because to put the marks wey dey missing go mean to provide reading wey the source itself no give.
The temptation to correct am dey real here, because for most cases the intended form dey clear to Yorùbá reader: bé bè clearly mean bẹ̀bẹ̀, tó se clearly mean tó ṣe, omo rè clearly mean ọmọ rẹ̀. But "clearly" dey do work wey compiler no suppose do in secret, and corpus wey quietly dey upgrade im sources, person no go fit check am against them. Where the intended form dey completely clear, this section note am for inside the literal gloss and state say na so e dey do.
One consequence wey make sense to state: the literal glosses of Omolaye songs for this section na the compiler own, wey e build on top Omolaye English, and na why e carry medium confidence be dat. E supply translations, no be word-by-word glosses.
Wetin dey inside the article
Four tori, wey three of dem na Ìjàpá tori:
- Ìjàpá àti Babaláwo, the fertility medicine wey dem taste three times.
alo-ijapa-and-the-babalawo - Asín àti Òkéré, the shrew rat and squirrel, wey dey explain the tortoise nose.
alo-why-the-tortoise-nose-is-small - Ìjàpá àti Erin, the elephant wey dem sweet-talk go fake coronation.
alo-ijapa-and-erin-the-false-coronation - Olúrónbí àti Olúwéré, the child of vow.
alo-oluronbi-and-the-iroko
One gap dey the apparatus: the informant table carry number 1, 2, 4, e skip 3, and e give informants for only the first three tori. Dem no record any informant for Olúrónbí.
Im argument
The way the article frame the matter na say globalisation dey wash African folktales comot, and say dem suppose digitise dem so dat the indigenous knowledge system inside dem go dey preserved for future generations . Omolaye describe the traditional setting as moonlight storytelling, especially during harmattan season, wen children dey gather after the day work, and e argue say African children today sabi foreign cartoons pass this kain material .
The corpus record this one as the author position. E close to the account wey yoruba-alo give about how the genre take dey shift comot, and the two agree on the facts; the recommendation wey follow am, wey be digitisation, na Omolaye own personal advocacy and dem just report am instead of to endorse am.