Oríkì Typology: The Full Classification
The complete classification of oríkì by subject, orílẹ̀ through eranko, with a worked text for each kind and the boundary cases that show the categories are not airtight.
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The complete classification of oríkì by subject, orílẹ̀ through eranko, with a worked text for each kind and the boundary cases that show the categories are not airtight.
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.
yoruba-oriki for inside 02-language explain the standard way wey dem dey divide oríkì according to subject: orílẹ̀, ìnagijẹ, personal, ìlú and òrìṣà, as e follow the foundational 1974 division wey Bọlanle Awe do into towns, lineages and individuals . Dis file no repeat dat account. E go touch the edges of the classification, add two types wey dat file no treat well well, ẹgbẹ́ and ẹranko, and e give one complete text per kind so dat dem go fit see the categories clearly instead make dem just define dem.
Yoruba oral literature no dey classify oríkì the way e dey classify ìjálá, rárà, ẹkún ìyàwó and the other genres wey dem describe inside 13-oral-literature, wey dem arrange based on how dem dey voice dem. Oríkì na based on who e dey talk about dem take arrange am. Dat difference make sense: the same praise material fit come out as ìjálá through hunter, as rárà through professional chanter, or as ordinary greeting through mother, and e still remain the same oríkì orílẹ̀ through everything. The subject classification and the performance classification dey stand on dia own, and full description of any single oríkì need the two: wetin e dey talk about, and which kind voice dem take deliver am on top dat particular occasion.
For practice, the subject categories no dey strictly sealed. Personal oríkì dey usually start with lineage material (oríkì orílẹ̀ wey dem fold enter oríkì ìnagijẹ), oríkì ìlú dey usually praise the town tutelary òrìṣà, and animal oríkì na wetin dem dey regularly borrow kpatakpata enter royal panegyric as metaphor for king. The boundaries dey useful for description but dem dey mix together for performance, wey align with Karin Barber general finding say Yoruba performers dey pick material from every genre wey dey available and say dem still dey fit identify borrowed elements as wetin come from outside even inside new frame .
Dem treat am well inside yoruba-oriki and towns-oriki-orile, and with the full collection of orílẹ̀ texts wey dey the corpus inside oriki-orile-oyo-egba-ijebu, oriki-orile-ekiti-owo-ijesa and oriki-orile-okuku-lineages. The main feature: na inherit dem dey inherit am, no be wetin person choose, and e dey name group origin instead of individual deed.
Ìnagijẹ oríkì dey follow individual through nickname or epithet wey dem earn through action, wey dem record pass for rulers and military leaders, and dem separate am from oríkì orílẹ̀ specifically because e focus on personal deeds inside person lifetime instead of corporate descent . Olatunji Features of Yoruba Oral Poetry na the standard analytical source for dis category .
A worked text. The Aláàfin of Ọ̀yọ́'s ìnagijẹ, as dem document am inside study of zoonymous royal cognomens:
Ó f'ẹsẹ̀ ẹṣin s'omi rùkú rùkú rùkú; Tí ń jí kọ bí àkùkọ ìdájí; Aláàfin, ẹkùn bú, a sá.
He stirs the river violently with his horses' hooves, waking to crow like the dawn rooster, Aláàfin, the leopard roars, and we flee.
Na Ayokunmi Ojebode translate am, wey dem cite alongside S. Adeboye Babalola foundational analysis of the form .
What it says. Three animal images wey dem arrange together without any joining word: the horse violence, the rooster dawn authority, and the leopard terror. Dem no explain any of the three further; each one do im work for one line.
Significance. The record own analysis na say dis one show example of oríkì ìnagijẹ and oríkì ẹranko wey dem use together for royal praise, where the animal epithets dey function as compressed vocabulary of sovereign qualities instead of description of wetin the king actually do . Dis na the clearest documented case for the material wey dem collect wey show how boundary dey cross as dem describe above: royal ìnagijẹ wey dem build completely from borrowed ẹranko material.
Performed. Morning palace wake-up, public royal reception, installation, and ceremonial durbar procession, by royal court bards, royal wives, and palace dùndún drummers .
Notes. The onomatopoeic ideophone rùkú rùkú rùkú and how tones dey play across the three lines na, according to the source, exactly wetin hard to translate without losing phonetic texture: English fit report say the line repeat three times, but e no fit reproduce wetin the repetition dey do to Yoruba ear wey understand the tone pattern . oriki-orile-and-royal-praise (see the ìlú and ìnagijẹ file) carry second royal drummed salute, Ẹrù Ọba ni mo bà, Ọba tó!, inside the file about drummed oríkì.
As e dey different from ìnagijẹ, oríkì orúkọ or personal oríkì na wetin dem dey give for childhood, e get gender mark, and e no be the birth name but affectionate praise name wey dem dey use to soothe, address and honour person, as yoruba-oriki take explain with the standard set (Àkàndé, Àdìsá for male; Àdùké, Àbẹ̀ní for female). The harvest add one subtler case: oríkì wey dem give based on the circumstances of a birth instead of gender or lineage.
A worked text: Ìgè Àdùbí, praise for a breech-born child
Ige Adubi, Atesebi, Ige to nibiyaa le ku, koku. Bi baba le lo, komaa lo. Ohunti IgeAdubi o je o won. Elegede n be oko. Gboro Adubi n be lakitan. Odaju omo ti n nase e waye.
Dem present am without tone marks, exactly as dem print am inside the source . Dem no supply full diacritics because the source no print dem, and to supply dem go give reading wey dis corpus no fit verify.
Ige Adubi, born feet first; Ige who says if mother wants to die, let her die, if father wants to leave, let him leave. What Ige Adubi will eat is never scarce: pumpkin is on the farm, creeping vines of Adubi are on the dunghill; daring child who stretched out feet to come into the world.
Dem no mention translator name for the source; the source (one study on top oral literature and unemployment for Nigeria, wey draw from Karin Barber scholarship and one Yoruba teaching book) present the translation without naming anybody . Treat this one as compiled translation wey dem no give credit, no be academic scholarly translation.
Wetin e dey talk. Breech birth na wetin dem see bifor, and still see for some places, as unusual thing wey fit carry danger, but this text face that danger with bold heart instead of fear: the pikin wey leg come out first, dem change the story to say na person wey no dey fear anything, even if parent die or travel go, and food no go ever finish for him hand.
Why e dey important. This na oríkì àmútọ̀runwá, the category of praise name wey dem dey give based on how dem take born the pikin instead of gender or family lineage, and the source frame am as everyday house tradition of oríkì wey no need specialist, wey mama and elder women dey mainly perform to greet, calm, and shape pikin spirit from small . E dey for the most private side of the oríkì spectrum: no professional singer, no payment, and no audience pass the people inside house.
How dem dey perform am. Everyday greeting for house, calming pikin, and family compound traditional rites, wey mama, grandmama, and female household elders dey do .
Different versions. The source list more lines wey dey circulate with this text: "Ige Adubi, ehin omo, Omo owa omo ekun..." , wey dem no explain separately here.
Notes. As tone mark no dey this text, that one on its own dey teach something: e dey show how plenty oríkì material dey circulate for Yorubaland in a form wey don already lost tone information bifor person even try to translate am, and na this condition yoruba-oriki and oriki-poetics-and-untranslatability treat as normal thing instead of special case for material wey dem gather outside proper linguistic transcription.
To praise how settlement start, how e look, and the people wey dey there, oríkì ìlú get full text treatment inside oriki-ilu-ibadan-osogbo-oka. Wetin take distinguish am from oríkì orílẹ̀, according to towns-oriki-orile, na audience: ìlú dey praise town give people wey dey live inside am, while orílẹ̀ na people wey fit never live there before dey carry am.
Dem dey address am to deity and e overlap with worship, and e get full texts across the deity files wey dey this section (oriki-orisa-ogun, oriki-orisa-obatala-and-sango, and the other ones wey dey indexed for oriki-index). The Ọ̀sanyìn, Ọya, and Ìyámi Òṣòròngà texts inside this collection especially show one style wey the ones dem dey quote pass like Ògún and Ṣàngó no get: direct begging, in second person, asking the òrìṣà for specific thing, wey close pass to prayer than the third-person praise-catalogue style wey dem usually describe oríkì.
Dem no dey address Ẹgbẹ́ oríkì to lineage, town or public deity, but to person ẹgbẹ́ ọ̀run, the company of spirit companions wey dem believe say follow the person from heaven come before birth and still dey in relationship with dem throughout life. Na only one single record document this one inside the collection, and dem treat am in full, with the careful mind wey e need because the source no plenty, inside oriki-egbe-and-eranko.
Ẹranko oríkì dey honour the special power wey animal get, and na the genre wey connect pass with hunters and with ìjálá, wey dem treat the performance context for 13-oral-literature/02-ijala.md. The example inside the collection, one elephant oríkì from Babalola 1966 collection, get full treatment inside oriki-egbe-and-eranko. Wetin make sense to state on top classification: dem dey regularly recycle ẹranko oríkì enter royal ìnagijẹ, as the Aláàfin text above show, wey mean say the category dey work pass just its own subject matter. Animal oríkì no be only about the animal.
No record inside the collected material document oríkì for plant, even though towns-oriki-orile and yoruba-oriki both note plants as recognised subject class for wider scholarship . Dem state that gap instead of to fill am: this corpus no create plant oríkì just to complete the set.
What oríkì are, the different kinds, who performs them and why, and how they carry history that written records do not.
The praise poetry that attaches a person to a place of origin, why Yoruba people carry a town identity they may never have lived in, and how that identity crossed the Atlantic.
A map of this section's oriki texts, how it relates to the oriki material already in 02-language and 12-towns, and what this section does and does not cover.
How oríkì is built from independent units rather than narrative sequence, and the specific mechanisms, tonal, structural, and referential, that make it resist translation.
Karin Barber's finding that oríkì in Okuku is held and performed mainly by women, with texts showing what that custodianship does at a wedding, at a festival, and inside a marriage.
The two rarest classes of orikì in this section, praise addressed to a person's heavenly spirit companions and praise addressed to an animal, presented with honest limits on both.