Linguistics & African Languages
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Item Linguistics Theories, Nigerian Languages, and the Quest for Development(Nigerian Languges Study, 2023) Adeniyi, K.; Odoje, C.O.This work assesses the progression of African linguistics and the application of theories to the study of African languages in light of the developmental needs of the languages. It is observed that the vast majority of African languages are yet to be adequately described for human learning and generational transmission. However, as linguists continue to adopt theories driven by language computations, descriptions needed for human learning seem to become expendable, a reality amounting to doing linguistics for the machine at the expense of humans. With attention now shifting to computation-motivated approaches, further development that can make these languages suitable for science education, security, law, medical practices and other contemporary realities in Nigerian society tends to be less rigorously pursued. Apart from Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba, there is minimal progress being made in terms of the development of Nigerian languages. Standard dictionaries and other materials designed to aid the deployment of the languages to meet contemporary human needs within the speech communities are rarely produced in the languages. This is despite the quantum of linguistic work being done. When this is viewed in light of the endangered status of the languages, it projects a critical situation. It is concluded that there is a need for synergy between linguistics for human use and the machine. This can only be championed by African linguists with the developmental needs of African languages as objective.Item Confluence of Interests in the Translations of Ake: the Years of Childhood and Aké: ní Ìgbà Èwe: An Appraisal of Language Retrieval and Translation(Faculty of Arts, University of Lagos, 2021) Odoje, C.O.There are different motivating factors for a literary artist to venture into translation business. With the introduction of Akinwumi Isola’s Language Retrieval, a new dimension to the study of African languages translations was presented, especially as regards the classification of translators and texts. This study explores the interests behind the literary translation of Wole Soyinka’s and Akinwumi Isola’s translations of Ake with a view to establishing the features of translation and language retrieval. Findings show that even though both authors employed the same strategies, e.g. language transposition and equivalence, they diverged with respect to certain features. While translation exhibits two different cultures and languages, language retrieval exhibits the same culture but different languages.Item Ife-itumo-loju: Wiwa Ord-iperi Fun Arun Kokoro-Apa-Soja-Ara (KASA) ati Ebola(Library Press @ UF, 2021) Odoje, C. O.Ọ̀pọ̀ ọ̀nà ni àwọn onímọ̀ ti dá lábàá fún ṣíṣe àwárí tàbí ìṣèdá ọ̀rọ̀-ìpẹ̀rí nínú èdè Yorùbá, lára wọn ni ìṣàlàyé, ìhùn-prọ́-pọ̀, ìfìṣàpẹẹrẹ, ìlọ́wẹ̀, ọ̀rọ̀-àyálọ̀, ìfẹ́-ìtumọ̀-lójú àti bẹ́ẹ̀ bẹ́ẹ̀ lọ. Ìfẹ́-ìtumọ̀-lójú ni ó jẹ́ ìwádìí yìí lógún nípa wíwá prọ́-ìpẹ̀rí fún àrùn Kókóró-Àpá-Sọjà-Àrà (KASA) àti Ebola. A ṣe àgbéyẹ̀wò 1572 ọ̀rọ̀ tí Yusuff, Adétúnjí àti Odòjé (2017) jẹ́ olóòtú fìlìmù, a sì fa àwọn tí wọ́n fẹ́ ìtumọ̀ wọn lójú yọ fún iṣẹ́ ìwádìí tí a ṣe. A ṣàwárí pé oríṣìíríṣìí mẹ́ta ọ̀tọ̀ọ̀tọ̀ ni irú àwọn ọ̀rọ̀ yìí; kò sì sí ìyọnu láti ní òye ìtumọ̀ tuntun tí a wá wọ àwọn ọ̀rọ̀ náà lórí wọn. Ó tilẹ̀ mú ìtumọ̀ gbé tán bá àwọn ọ̀rọ̀ tuntun tí a lò wọ́n fún.Item Translators' Personality in the Translations of D.O. Fagunwa's Igbo Olodumare(Library Press @ UF, 2019) Odoje, C.O.The concept “Translation” has been examined by many scholars from different perspectives, but little attention has been devoted to the personalities of the translators in their translation works. The concern of this essay is to consider the personalities of the translators of D.O. Fagunwa’s novel, Igbo Olodumare in line with the theories of Natural and Directional equivalence to foreground the idea that translation is heavily dependent on the translators’ personality. It was found that translators’ motive, purpose, language choice, and religious background have an immense influence on their approach to translation.Item Atunpin Akojopo-Oro Adalorf Eko Ogbufo (Reclassification of Corpus Based Translation Study)(Yoruba Studies Association of Nigeria, 2019) Odoje, C.O.Oríṣìíríṣìí ẹ̀yà àwọn àkójọpọ̀-ọrọ ni ó wà lórí ìṣàpèjúwe àti àmúlò ẹ̀ka ẹ̀kọ́ ìṣọ̀ǹgbúfò. Fernandes ti ṣe àtúnpín ìpèka tí Baker (1995) ṣe ṣùgbọ́n ìṣàtúnpín rẹ̀ yọ ohun tí Ọ̀súndáre pè ní ọ̀gbúfò ẹlẹ́wà-èdè sílẹ̀. Èyí mú kí ó di dandan láti ṣe àtúnpín iṣẹ́ rẹ̀ kí a sì fi ààyè gba àwọn àtòjọ-ọrọ àwọn ọ̀hùnkòwé ilé Áfíríkà. Ohun tí a ṣe gan-an ni láti ṣe àgbéyẹ̀wò iṣẹ́ Baker àti Fernandes, a sì lò wọ́n láti ṣe àfikún àwọn èròjà ilé Áfíríkà tí a ṣọ̀nù nínú iṣẹ́ wọn. Òpin àbájáde irú ìṣàtúnpín báyìí kò kan ní jẹ́ èròjà ìpèka lásán, yóò fẹ́ àkójọ-ọrọ àdàlórí ẹ̀kọ́ ọ̀gbúfò lójú tó bẹ́ẹ̀ tí àbájáde iṣẹ́ ìwádìí báyìí yóò sì wúlò fún ìkọ́ni àti ìlànilọ́yé.Item Human Evaluation of Close Languages: A Study of English and German Google Translate(Research in African Languages & Linguistics, 2018) Odoje, C.O.Machine translation (MT) as a multidisciplinary field has made significant attempts with resource-rich languages towards translation. There are concerted efforts to mobilize resources for resource-low languages to improve their translation outputs too. One of the recent arguments for improving the translation of MT is the consideration of very close languages. This paper, therefore, evaluated human translation and Google translate translation of German/English in line with the existing Yoruba/English translation. The Akungba Sentence Paradigm was used as an instrument, and a Nigerian who was rated A2 proficient in German was engaged as a human translator. Eleven (11) students of the Institute of Asian and African Studies, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany who are proficient both in English and German volunteered to be human evaluators. It was found that English/German has high mean score than Yoruba/English since both English and German are Germanic languages, unlike Yoruba and English. The paper suggests that attention should be paid to related African languages to set a new benchmark for African languages’ MT translations.Item The Effects of the Goal-Based Approach on the Teaching of Yoruba as a Foreign Language: Yoruba Language Centre, University of Ibadan, as a Case Study(The Linguistic Association of Nigeria, 2017) Odoje, C.O.; Tayo, O.This paper focuses on the teaching of Yoruba as a foreign language at the Yoruba language Centre, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. It is a data-based study which attempts to examine the overall effects of the Goal-Based Approach on learning Yoruba as a foreign language. The paper adopts methodological triangulation research approach. Questionnaires were administered on Seven US based students who have come to be enmeshed in the Yoruba language and culture. The results were confirmed with personal interview and critical study of some of their write-ups. It was found that incorporating students’ goals, interests, and aspirations into the language learning curriculum tends to put more load on students, but that serves as a motivator in the language-learning process.Item The Modernisation of HIV and AID’s Nomenclatures in Nigeria’s Major Languages(John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2017) Igboanusi, H.; Odoje, C.O.; Ibrahim, G.Although the level of awareness of HIV has significantly improved over the past decade following the coordinated activities of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Nigeria still remains one of the most burdened countries in the world with about 3 million people living with HIV. Increasing enlightenment campaigns on HIV and AIDS have not been able to achieve remarkable behaviour change as a result of the non-use of appropriate nomenclatures. Given the low literacy rate of Nigerians in English (about 61% based on UNESCO Institute for Statistics), communication strategies can only be effective when indigenous Nigerian languages have standardised and appropriate nomenclatures for HIV and AIDS. This study argues that the use of appropriate terms in the local languages in referring to H IV and AIDS is capable of reducing the stigmatisation and discrimination of people living with HIV and AIDS, and con sequently reduce the spread of HIV through behaviour change. Accordingly, the study embarks on the lexical modernisation of H IV and AIDS nomenclatures in Nigeria’s three major languages (i.e. Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba) in line with current developments around the world in the management of the two health conditions.Item Ebola-Associated Terms in Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba.(Creative Common Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International, 2016) Igboanusi, H.; Odoje, C.O.; Ibrahim, G.The West African Ebola outbreak of 2014 was declared a public health emergency of international concern under the International Health Regulations by the World Health Organisation (WHO) Director General. In spite of the devastating nature of Ebola, many Nigerians do not have access to information on the disease in the language they understand best. This study therefore translates Ebola-associated terms into Nigeria’s three major languages (i.e. Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba) with a view to making information on Ebola accessible to the grassroots population. It also embarked on a survey of 9 purposively selected states where the major languages are predominantly spoken as L1 in order to determine the level of stakeholders’ familiarity with Ebola as well as their opinions on the need for Ebola-associated lexicon in Nigerian indigenous languages.Item Human Evaluation of Yorùbá-English Google Translation(Creative Common Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International, 2016) Odoje, C. O.The task of Machine Translation is not just about translating the text of a language to another but also its evaluation so as to monitor its improvement particularly in fluency, accuracy and efficiency. However, the only available free machine translation on Yoruba-English is “Google Translate” which has been observed to be grossly inadequate. This paper therefore examines translations done by Google Translate as against human translation in order to investigate why machine translation applications make some errors while translating human natural language. There are many matrix evaluators to do this. This paper adopts human evaluation also known as manual evaluation which is considered to be more efficient, but costly. The paper adopts Ibadan and Akungba Structured Sentence Paradigm to evaluate the translators (Google Translate and human). The translations were sent to twenty human evaluators out of which only eleven responded. The responses were subjected to statistical analysis. Findings show that human translation fares better in terms of accuracy and fluency which are informed by the quality and the quantity of training data. This paper suggests that more data, especially literary texts, should be acquired to train the translator for general efficiency and fluency.