The Opening Formula and the Teller
The extended Àlọ́ Ìjàpá opening formula in Yorùbá with interlinear glossing, the praise-name run for the tortoise embedded in it, and what the collectors record about the apàlọ̀ and his drum.
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The extended Àlọ́ Ìjàpá opening formula in Yorùbá with interlinear glossing, the praise-name run for the tortoise embedded in it, and what the collectors record about the apàlọ̀ and his drum.
The Yorùbá wey dem quote, the proverbs, oríkì, ẹsẹ Ifá, word list headwords, Odù names and citations dey exactly as the corpus record dem, for every language.
àlọ́ no dey start without formula, and yoruba-alo document the short form: the person wey dey tell story go shout Ààlọ́ o and the audience go answer Ààlọ̀. Dis file carry wetin dat other file no carry, an extended opening formula wey dey recorded for Yorùbá with word-by-word glossing, where praise-names for Ìjàpá himself dey follow the call-and-response. E still gather wetin the nineteenth-century collectors record about the storyteller as professional.
The extended formula dey important because e show say the genre dey do sometin wey the short form dey hide: dem dey announce the story by praising the main character, like wetin dey happen for oríkì, before dem even talk one word of the story.
Na Ọbádélé Kambon print am with interlinear morphological glossing, and e cite Adeboye Babalọlá's Yorùbá-language collection Àkójọpọ̀ Àlọ́ Ìjàpá (1973), p. 1 . Kambon put the second line for bold as the standard answer from audience, while the storyteller dey talk the rest.
Àlọ́ o! Àlọ̀! Àló mi dá gbàá Àló mi dá gbòó Àló mi dá fììrìgbágbòó Ó dálérí Ìjàpá, Tìrókò, ọkọ Yánníbo Ẹsẹ̀ danindanin bi àran ọ̀pẹ. T'ó kọ́lé, kọ́lé t'ó fi ìrán bà á jẹ́ Tí ń lọ l'áàrin èpà Tí ìpàkó rẹ̀ ń hàn fírífírí Ó ní ọpẹ́lọpẹ́ pé òun ga
Idiomatic English (Kambon's translations, as printed) Translator: Kambon, Ọbádélé
Story! Story! My story strike like dis My story strike like dat My story strike fall and bounce like so E strike tortoise for head, of the silk cotton tree, husband of Yánníbo wey im legs tight like palm tree fruit Wey dey build houses Wey dey destroy dem with the seat of im shell wey dey waka among groundnuts wey the back of im head dey show indistinctly wey say na thanks to the fact say e tall
Another call and response fit follow Kambon own make the main story begin proper :
Teller: Ní ìgbà kan ('Once upon a time') Audience: Kan, kan ('Once, once') Teller: Ọba kan wà ('There was a king') Audience: Ó wà bíi ẹwà ('He was there like beauty')
Three tins for inside dis text no dey survive enter English.
The ideophones. Kambon just explain Gbàá, gbòó and fììrìgbágbòó simply as IDEO, ideophone, and translate dem as "like this," "like that," "falling and bouncing like so." Dem be sound-words wey dey describe how sometin take hit, and the third one na expansion of the first two into longer shape wey dey tumble. English no get dat kind class of words at all, so the translation gats turn sound into deixis, wey dey point to manner wey e no fit pronounce. The point wey dem dey make na say the story dey strike, and the ideophones dey explain how hard and which way e take strike.
The rhyme of ìgbà kan and kan, kan. Wetin audience answer to "once upon a time" na just the number wey dem repeat, and to "there was a king," ọba kan wà, the answer na ó wà bíi ẹwà, "he was there like beauty," wey dey play with the way wà (to dey) and ẹwà (beauty) almost sound alike. The response na wordplay on the last word wey the storyteller talk. English no fit carry dis one and Kambon no even try am.
The tone difference for the opening pair. Àlọ́ o and Àlọ̀ get different tone, as yoruba-alo explain, na why the exchange dey look like meaningless repetition when dem translate am. Make you note say the way Kambon print am here slightly different from the form wey dey inside yoruba-alo from Adegbodu, Ààlọ́ o against Àlọ́ o; dem record both of dem and the corpus no dey judge between two published orthographies of the same spoken formula.
The main point na say lines 6 to 13 na praise poetry. Dem arrange dem exactly as dem describe oríkì for inside yoruba-oriki: name, praise name wey follow lineage style, den long line of relative clauses wey each of dem dey start with tí or t'ó, "person wey do dis and dat," wey dey pile up attributes instead of to dey narrate wetin happen.
Wetin dem talk say Ìjàpá get deserve close reading:
Tìrókò, ọkọ Yánníbo. Dem give am tree and wife, wey be the standard shape of Yorùbá praise identification. Yánníbo na im wife across the tradition, and e appear by name for alo-ijapa-and-the-babalawo, where the medicine wey kill am na for am dem prepare am. Make you note say the title of Olagoke Ojo Yorùbá-language collection, Ìjàpá Tìrókò Ọkọ Yannibo, na dis line of the formula dem use as book title .
T'ó kọ́lé, kọ́lé, t'ó fi ìrán bà á jẹ́. Person wey dey build houses and destroy dem with the seat of im shell. Dis na short statement wey capture the moral shape of the whole cycle: e dey build and den destroy wetin e build, using the part of im body wey still be permanent record of im punishments. alo-why-the-tortoise-shell-is-marked gather the stories about dat shell.
Tí ń lọ l'áàrin èpà, tí ìpàkó rẹ̀ ń hàn fírífírí. Person wey dey waka pass inside groundnut, wey di back of im head dey show faintly. Di tortoise close to ground so tey as e dey waka inside groundnut farm, person hardly dey see am. Compare di proverb wey dem record inside owe-tortoise-ijapa-trickster for entry 2, wia tortoise dey brag say as e dey waka pass groundnut farm, di groundnut dey pop enter im mouth one by one. Di same image, tortoise inside groundnut, dey show inside proverb as brag about expertise, and e dey inside dis formula as observation about im height.
Ó ní ọpẹ́lọpẹ́ pé òun ga. Wey say na because im tall. Di last line na joke and e land directly on top di previous line. As dem just finish describe am say e short reach ground so tey na only faint back of im head dey show above di crops, dem come quote am dey praise im own height. Di formula finish by giving di trickster one line to take praise imself, wey di line before am don already disprove.
So di audience, before di tori start, dem don already tell dem di kind creature wey dis one be: e marry, e get link with tree, e dey spoil im own plan, e dey invisible inside farm, and e still dey boast on top am.
Ellis record di titles of di storyteller and di working conditions of di work for 1894 :
Person wey dey tell tori, wey dem dey call akpalo (k'a-alo), "maker of alo," na person wey people dey respect well-well, and dem dey find am plenty for social gatherings. In fact, some men dey take story-telling as profession, and dem dey waka from place to place dey tell tori. Dem dey call dat kind man akpalo kpatita, "person wey dey do business of telling fables."
E add say "just as e dey among Ewe tribes, di professional storyteller dey often use drum, wey im rhythm dey fill di pauses inside di story," and say as e dey gather audience, di storyteller go shout "My alo dey about so-and-so," dey call di name of di hero or heroine, or "My alo dey about man (or woman) wey do so-and-so" . Every story inside Ellis dey open with dat formula, and dem put am for head of each Ellis story for dis section.
Ellis spelling akpalo and akpalo kpatita na im 1894 orthography for wetin modern orthography dey write apàlọ̀; yoruba-alo give di modern forms and di pair term agbààlọ̀ for di audience member. Im derivation k'a-alo na im own analysis.
The drum detail matters. Professional teller wey hold drum for hand dey change how several stories for dis section dey read. alo-ijapa-singing-drum depend entirely on top drum wey dey sing, and alo-the-king-and-kini-kini get drum text inside, tinliki, tinliki, tinli-puru, wey dem print as syllables. If di teller hold instrument, di parts wey drum suppose play, na play dem play am instead of just describing am. yoruba-drum-poetry talk about di wider practice.
Ellis make one clear difference wey easy to miss and wey good make dem keep :
Person no suppose confuse di professional storyteller with di arokin, or narrator of national traditions, wey several of dem dey attached to each king or paramount chief, and wey person fit take as keepers of di ancient chronicles.
E add say di chief of di arókin na councillor wey get title Ọlọ́gbọ́, "person wey hold di old times," and e cite one proverb, "Ologbo baba arokin," Ọlọ́gbọ́ na di father of chroniclers . Di Yorùbá print without tone marks and na so dem reproduce am.
Di difference dey between fiction and record. apàlọ̀ dey tell àlọ́, wey di opening formula clearly mark as something wey person make up; di arókin dey keep royal history and e dey attached to palace. To confuse di two go make di Ìjàpá cycle look like body of historical claims, wey be di exact thing wey di framing formula dey try prevent. yoruba-oral-genre-system treat di genre boundaries, and yoruba-alo treat di framing function.
The evening storytelling tradition, the call-and-response frame that opens it, riddles as a separate discipline, and the Ìjàpá cycle read as a body of ethical and comic literature.
A tortoise tale in which Ìjàpá rescues a drowning hunter's son on condition of enslaving him, hides him inside a drum that appears to sing by itself, and loses him when he drinks himself unconscious at a dance.
What A. B. Ellis's 1894 collection contains, why its tale texts are usable, and exactly where its colonial framing has to be refused.
What oríkì are, the different kinds, who performs them and why, and how they carry history that written records do not.
The dùndún as a literary instrument rather than a technical curiosity: oríkì and proverbs delivered on the drum, what the drummer composes from, and how drummed, sung and spoken text relate in one performance.
Twenty-nine Yorùbá proverbs built around Àjàpá the tortoise, the tradition's central trickster animal, presented with the original, a literal gloss, a named translation, and the situation each is spoken in.