An Inquiry into the lexical affinities between Arabic and Yorùbá languages

Abstract

There are indeed some evidences of interplay between Arabic and Yorùbá languages in spite of the distance in space between the two cultures. This invariably shows the universality of language which erodes the constraints of distance and time on social organisation and interaction. The nexus between both languages is evident in the multitude of Arabic loan words and expressions found in Yorùbá language. This paper, therefore, gives an insightful examen of the Arabic and Yorùbá languages, their speakers, as well as the varieties of both languages, vis-à-vis the standard and colloquial ones. It also probes into the influence of Arabic on Yorùbá language and culture, and equally highlights the Arabic loan words in Yorùbá language in a bid to establishing the relationship between the two languages. The paper employed the sampling method and the data were content analysed.