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A sociolinguistic analysis ofYoruba greetingsFemi Akindele aa Department of English Language , ObafemiAwolowo University , Ile‐IfePublished online: 21 Mar 2007.

To cite this article: Femi Akindele (1990) A sociolinguistic analysisof Yoruba greetings, African Languages and Cultures, 3:1, 1-14, DOI:10.1080/09544169008717707

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African Languages and Cultures 3, 1 (1990):

A SOCIOLINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF YORUBA GREETINGS

Femi Akindele

1. Introduction

In every sociolinguistic community, there are norms that guide behaviourpatterns, organised in implicit rules of conduct that serve as a guide tobehaviour for group members. This is well articulated in Goffman (1956:477) when he says 'the rules of conduct constitute part of the etiquette of thegroup and impose on each member an obligation to conduct himself in aparticular way toward others'. Greeting is one such practice. It is informedby rules of conduct, and is an inevitable part of everyday conversation.Greetings regularise patterns of reciprocal behaviour among group members.They are an integral part of interactional discourse and serve as prelude to theestablishment of social relationships. They facilitate predictability and stabilityin interpersonal relationships and, at the same time, minimise negative feelingsor general misunderstanding.

The few attempts that have been made to consider the phenomenon ofgreeting in Yoruba either catalogue its types or explain how and when greetingtakes place (Daramola and Jeje 1967 and Fadipe 1970) and there is a study ofits effect on Yoruba English (Ayoola 1984). However, no attempt has beenmade to examine the structure of greeting sequences and the socio-culturalfactors that might account for that structuring.

1.1. The data base

The data for this paper were collected in Ile-Ife, Akure and Abeokuta, Nigeria.Ile-Ife is an important ancient city noted for its archaeological and historicalsignificance, and today for the presence of Obafemi Awolowo University(formerly University of Ife). Akure and Abeokuta are the capitals of Ondo andOgun States, respectively. They are cosmopolitan centres accommodatingpeople from different parts of these states. The Yoruba people of these citiesshare many things in common and the mode of communication via greetings issubstantially the same.

The collection of the data involved audio recording of greeting events,observation of people greeting each other, discussion with informants andparticipants, and, in addition, I used my own experience of greeting and myinternalisation of its rules.

2. Overview of greetings

Greetings can be described as the exchange of expressions, pleasantries orgood wishes between two people interacting for the purpose of fulfilling social

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2 Femi Akindele

obligations, or for the establishment of interpersonal relationships. Greetingstake place at the opening of an interaction or as a marker of its closing.Greeting can be regarded as a necessary opening to every new encounter.Greetings must occur between two persons visible to each other, out on theroad, at work, shopping, at the coffee shop, at the club house or pub, atmeetings, at social functions, and so on. Greetings also occur in telephoneconversations and phone-in media programmes. For instance, in discussingtelephone conversational openings, Schegloff (1968) observes that they openwith a greeting sequence. This is based on a distribution rule for firstutterances whereby the answerer speaks first whether the utterance or greetingbe 'hello' or 'yeah'. The ringing of the telephone marks the beginning of thetelephone conversation and this is clearly followed by the opening greetings -'hello/hello' - (for a full discussion of telephone conversational openinggreetings, see Schegloff 1968). However, this paper is concerned mainlywith face-to-face greetings.

2.1. Greetings in the Yoruba community

The system of greetings in Yoruba society is not the same as that of theEnglish. Whereas in English society a greeting typically performs the functionof phatic communication, i.e. it is used for establishing social relationships,this cannot be taken for granted within Yoruba culture where greeting alsoappears to serve for the passing on of information. There are several forms ofgreetings for every significant occasion and for all human interactional activity.These include among others, greetings employed for seeking informationabout the well-being of a person and his or her loved ones, to identify in tryingmoments and to rejoice with the person when success or when good fortuneoccurs (Fadipe 1970, Ayoola 1984).

The socio-cultural factors accounting for the type and structuring ofYoruba greetings include age, sex and occupation. There are culturalassumptions of inequality and about the character and motivations of unequalpersons. The younger person typically initiates greeting whenever theoccasion arises. This is considered as a mark of deference to the older person.However, older persons sometimes initiate greetings, for example when theyounger has not caught sight of the older, or when the older does so out ofrespect for the achievement of the younger, as in the subordinate/bossrelationship in offices. Age also forbids the younger person to continue thegreeting sequence after initiating it with older persons. Also, younger personsare not expected to ask certain questions of older persons in the greetingsequence unless the latter stimulate them to do so.

Another factor is the sex of the participants. In Yoruba culture, a womanis expected to greet a man before he greets her, and this will be followed bythe male participant's contributions to the greeting. He makes a series ofenquiries about the welfare of the husband, children (if married) and the

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A sociolinguistic analysis ofYoruba greetings 3

household of the female counterpart, and finally concludes the greetingsequence. However, if the female participant is an old woman and the male isyoung, it is the male who greets first in deference to the age of the woman.

Another factor is the Yoruba ethical code in which it is a duty to greetpeople engaged in different activities. Hence, there is a salutation for everyconceivable occasion and situation. It is generally believed that a child whodoes not know how to greet is defective in his or her upbringing (Daramola &Jeje 1967). Greeting persons at work is regarded as a matter of respect inone's occupation. Failure to offer such greetings in the appropriate contextusually gives rise to bad feelings especially among close friends and relativesto the extent that it can lead to suspicion of sorcery or witchcraft.

Finally, greetings demonstrate good upbringing (Fadipe 1970: 301). Oneshould be able to greet others and ask not only about their welfare but also thatof their family, friends and relations, even when one has quarrelled with them.This perhaps accounts for the patience of the participants in greeting and fortheir paying attention to each other's welfare. Consequently, this not onlyexplains the type and elaborate structure of Yoruba greetings, but also certainYoruba proverbs such as:

Enit i 6 ki ni kaabO, a padanii ku i l6'Whoever does not welcome, does not deserve a greeting'

Bi pmod6 ba dup6 oore an£, a tun r l bmiran gba'A child who gives thanks for a gift or favour paves the way for more ofsuch'

2.2. Types of Yoruba greetings1. Morning greetings

J:A:A:J:A:J:A:J:A:J:

E kaar6E kaar6$e da"adaa l a j i ?A dup6>Awpn omo nk6?W6n waIyawo nkc)?OwaBA mi k i won'W6n & gb6

Gloss

J: Good morning.A: Good morning.A: Did you wake up well?J: We thank (God).A: How are your children?J: They are (in good health).2

A: How is your wife?J: She is (in good health).A: Help me to greet them.J: They will hear.

1 A dup£ does not necessarily imply 'thank you'. It suggests 'We thank God formaking it possible for such an activity to take place.'

2 The verb here, wa, is 'to be', in the sense of 'exist'.

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4 Femi Akindele

2. Afternoon greetings

3.

Gloss

F:MT:F:MT:F:MT:F:MT:F:MT:

E k&as&nE k£asa"nS'alaafiani?Adup6116 nk6?W6n waQmo rikO?W0n waB& mi ki wonW$n &gbO

Evening greetings

A:Y:A:.Y:A:Y:A:Y:A:Y:

A:

Y:A:

Y:

E kur616E kur616Se d^ad^a n i?Mo dup6tyaw6 rik6?OwaQmQ rikcj?W6nwaSe i s6 nlpd66d66?Mo dup$ - ??6

Qk6 nk6

0 n?is6 d^adiaB^mi k i l 6

W6n & gb6

F:MT:F:MT:F:MT:F:MT:F:MT:

Good afternoon.Good afternoon.How are you?We thank (God).How is your house(hold)?They are (in good health).How are your children?They are (in good health).Help me to greet them.They will hear.

Gloss

A:Y:A:Y:A:Y:A:Y:A:Y:

A:

Y:A:

T:

Good evening.Good evening.Is (everything) well?I thank (God).How is your wife?She is (in good health).How are your children?They are (in good health).Is your work going well?I thank (God that it is goingon well) - thank you.How is (your) car?(lit. 'your canoe')It is doing its work wellHelp me to greet yourhousehold.They will hear.

Note that the morning greeting took place between persons of unequal age andstatus. It was initiated by the younger participant, J. But the older participant,A, took over the greeting (line 3) by asking about the welfare of the younger.The afternoon and evening greetings were as if between persons of equal ageand status.

4. Night greetings

L: 6 dadrO-101a

Gloss

I a 6 j i L: Good night - May we wakeup (happily) tomorrow.

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A sociolinguistic analysis ofYoruba greetings

5.(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

F:L:F:L:F:

6 d&arOK& sun re o6 dh&zi)Kd sun re o6 dMrO

Casual GreetingsT:F:T:

F:

B:

G:B:

G:

N:

L:

K:

T:

D:

J:

Ep$16Oo e pfel^E $6 hn&

Oo k61 '<?p£

E hl$ mb$ un

Oo e p$l£E ku &b$wd knA -

E ku IdldeK6 t '0p6

Ep$l£

0?<§

Kuis6

O?e

W& Jeun / 01>2 mi re

E s6

F:L:F:L:F:

Good night.May we sleep well.Good night.May we sleep well.Good night..

GlossT:F:T:

F:

B:

G:B:

G:

N:

L:

K:

T:

D:

J:

Hello.3

Hello.Thanks for (what you did forme) yesterday.Not at all.

Hello there, hope all is wellwith you.Hello.Greetings for your visit ofyesterday —Greetings for coming.Not at all.

(You) Sorry (accept mysympathy).Thank you.

Greetings for (being at)work.4

Thank you.

Come and eat (with me) /You meet me well.Thank you.

Note that the utterance p£l$ has variants of e pfel£, e fil£, and pfel6. P$l£ isa type of greeting which can be equated with 'hello'. It is typically uttered byan older person greeting a younger one. E hl£ may also be used by an olderperson greeting a younger one, or by persons of equal social status either interms of age, education or wealth, as in 5 (b). E pfel6 is very often used whena younger person greets an older one: E is the honorific plural 'you' used as a

3 This greeting has particular relevance when someone stumbles or trips, hence arange of colloquial English equivalents: 'watch your step', 'take it easy', or just'hello'. The usual pidgin equivalent is 'sorry'.

4 Often rendered in pidgin English as 'well done'.

5

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6 Femi Akindele

mark of deference, as in 5 (c). P610 may also be used as an expression ofsympathy, as in the same example.

One other interesting feature of the greeting sequence is a distinctionusually made between the initiation and response of greetings made by peopleof different social status.

In example 5 (c), E pfel6 was initiated by a younger person while itsresponse was given by an older person. The support for this claim can beseen in the use of the honorific second person plural marker 'you' E. Theresponse carries no such mark of deference, hence 0 in 0 s6 'thank you',which is a second person singular marker.

The reverse is the case in 5 (e) where the initiator was the older participant,hence the use of 0 in 0 ba mi re and the E in E se 'thank you'. E se thusincludes the honorific second person plural marker of deference, while 0 s6has the non-honorific second person singular marker. The same explanationcan be given for 0 in 0 ku or i i re '(you) accept my congratulations' and E in Ek\i or i i re '(you) accept my congratulations'.

(f) O: 6t '6j6meta D: (It's been) quite an age.H: 0j6kanp£lue H: Yes - long time no see.

(lit. 'one day with you')O: Is6rik6 O: How is your work?H: A rigbiyan ju H: I'm trying.

6. Marriage/Wedding Ceremonies Gloss

W: E ku or i i re t i iyaw6 / W: Congratulations on yourEhin iyaw6 kd ni meni o wedding. / May the wife not

be barren.F: E se F: Thank you.

The Yorubas attach much importance to having children. Indeed, marriage isseen as being synonymous with child-bearing, hence the important prayer forthe newly wedded: Ehin iyaw6 k6 ni meni o.

7. On Preparations Gloss

J: Ekuipa'lfemO J: Happy preparations!A: E se A: Thank you.J: Ki Olprun ki 6 m6 jo 16w6 J: May God keep us safe

till then!A: Amin - e se A: Amen - thank you.

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A sociolinguistic analysis ofYoruba greetings 7

8. Others Gloss(a) New Year festivities

E: E ku ewuodun t i t u n E: Happy New Year!V: Ekuodun V: Compliments of the season!

Similar greetings are used for Easter and other festivities.

(b) BereavementP: E ku 6f6 P: (You) accept my sympathy.J: E s6 J: Thank you.

(c) Pregnant womenF: A s6 ka ' 16 anfaani F: (I wish you) a safe delivery.J: E s6 J: Thank you.

(d) New babyF: E ku o r i r e Omo tuntun F: Congratulations on your new

baby. /1 greet you on thesafe delivery of your baby

J: E s6 J: Thank you.

(e) TripsA: 0k6 a rfe f6 F: Safe journey.

(lit. 'your canoe will travelsafely')

M: 0 s6 - 6 d'abb M: Thank you - goodbye.A: 6 d'abb A: Goodbye.

9. Occupations Gloss(a) Hunting expeditions

T: A r i pa o T: May your expedition befruitful. / May you find gameto kill.

D: A a ?e5 D: May it be so.

(b) Hair DressingY: E ku ewa Y: Greetings for beauty.N: Oo e 56 N: Thank you.

Note that this greeting can only be used of women. For a male barber thegreeting is simply the usual 'greetings for work'.

5 A & ?e is the older Yoniba equivalent of Arain 'amen'.

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8 Femi Akindele

There are also set greetings for weather, famine, escape from death, and soon, as in the following examples:

10. Weather(a) Dry season

L: E ku Ogbelfe y£

. B: E 56

(b) Rainy season

T: E ku 6g ln l t i n yi

O: Oo <= s6

11. Famine

N: E ku ly&n yi o /Owcjn 'g6g6ounje

F: Oo e 56

12. Escape from misfortune

N: E ku ewu / o r i i r e

H: Ooe s6

Gloss

L: I greet you for this dryseason.

B: Thank you.

T: I greet you for this rainyseason.

O: Thank you.

N: I greet you for this seasonof famine or food scarcity.

F: Thank you.

N: Congratulations on yoursafety / luck!

H: Thank you.

2.3. The structure of greetings in Yoruba

I draw on the theoretical framework of discourse analysis as proposed bySinclair and Coulthard (1975), and further developed in D. O. Akindele(1986) and Femi Akindele (1989). Interactional discourse is organised aroundat least two participants. One of them initiates and another responds; andthese two successive utterances form the basis of verbal interaction which,following Sinclair and Coulthard, I refer to as an exchange. This is theminimal interactional unit in a spoken discourse. It is marked by an initiatingmove or utterance which predicts a response; but the predicted move orutterance does not set up any expectation of a precise response, though avoluntary move can occur following it, as in the following opening salutation:

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A sociolinguistic analysis of Yoruba greetings

exchangeBayo:

Tolu:

E kaar6 |

E kaar.6 J

Bayo: Se'daadaa l a j i

Tolu: Adup6

Bayo:Tolu:

Bayo:

Tolu:

Good morningGood morning

I hope you woke

up well

We thank (God

that we did)

Two of the types of exchange proposed in Akindele (1986) are prefatory andinformatory. Prefatory exchange is the minimal interactional exchange whichhas no content information as far as the business of the talk is concerned, butprovides an opportunity to make the participants available for more talk. It istherefore a type of preliminary, preparatory talk or phatic communication. Ithelps to establish social contacts before the actual topic or subject matter of thetalk is introduced (Akindele 1986: 180). Informatory exchanges, on the otherhand, are units of interactional discourse concerned with negotiating thetransmission of information, or the topic of discourse (Akindele 1986: 183).

Ordinarily, one does not greet with the opening greetings alone, and oneshould continue with 'how is your family / your children / your work', and soon, depending on the status, age, sex and occupation of the participants. Inother words, the structure of a sequence of greetings in Yoruba can beunderstood in terms of the two types of exchange defined above; that is,prefatory and informatory exchanges. The greeting sequence does not usuallyterminate with the opening or preliminary greeting exchange but goes on tointroduce the business of the talk, as in the example overleaf.

In the diagram, note that egb$n in Yoruba means 'senior' (while aburomeans 'junior'). However, £gbon does not necessarily mean that the personaddressed has any blood relationship to the addressee; it may mean someonewho is merely older. It is used by a younger person while addressing an olderone, always as a mark of deference. On the other hand, an older person usesthe word abur6 as a mark of endearment for the younger addressee. Thegreeting sequence was initiated by the younger participant.

It will be noted that immediately after B's opening greeting, K took overthe initiating of all the informatory greeting types. It is generally consideredhonourable by the Yoruba that it should be the older participant in this type ofsetting who first asks about the welfare of the younger participant.

As will also be observed, the first part of the greeting sequence is theprefatory element in the interaction, while the second part of the sequence isthe informatory. Both forms, prefatory and informatory, are obligatory in thissequence of greetings, which can thus be represented structurally as:

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10 Femi Akindele

PrG + InfG

This type of greeting sequence can be called the 'normal greeting': it usuallyinvolves friends, relations or close acquaintances, and lasts two minutes ormore. Thus:

opening / prefatory

greeting

B:K:

K:

B:

K:

B:

K:

B:

K:

B:

K:

B:

K:

B:

K:

B:

E kciasdn (6gb6

Ka^asan

Se alaa" f ia ni?

Adup6

116 nk6?

W6nwa

OmQ iikd>?

Wc>nwa

I?$ rik6?

0 rilo ci66d^6

Qk6 rik6?

0 ri$e ddad^a

Mamd B61i rik6?

Da'ada'a 16 wa

BA mi k i won

W6n d gb<>

333333

Type 2

Type 2

Typel

Type 2

Type 3

Typel

informatory

greetings

In some situations, greeting can be casual and this terminates as the prefatorysequence only. This form of greeting occurs less frequently than the fullgreeting or normal greeting. The prefatory type of greeting is what, followingIrvine (1974: 172), I call the 'passing greeting'. It occurs if a person is in ahurry for some legitimate reason, for example, rushing to catch a bus, toattend to some urgent business, and so on. If used while strolling or at a timeof leisure, this type of greeting will be regarded as brusque or rude. Passinggreeting is illustrated in the following examples:

1. J:H:

Eftl6rib£unOo

J:H:

Hello there!Hello!

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A sociolinguistic analysis of Yoruba greetings 11

2.

3.

4.

5.

P:F:

D.L:

K:N: .

E:N:

EkuOo$

EkriEkti

I*Eku

kaifes6

o

P:F:

D:L:

K:N:

E:N:

Good day!Thank you.

Good evening!Good evening!

Sorry!Thank you.

Well doneThank you

The Greeting sequences 1-3 can be regarded as phatic or prefatory, and theycompare favourably with the type of greetings common with native speakersof English. Type 4 is a casual expression of sympathy to someone who tripsor slips. This is in contrast with the native English 'watch out' or 'be careful'.The onlooker in Yoruba culture has to greet a person who slips or trips evenwhen, as might be suggested by the English gloss 'sorry', he or she is notresponsible for the other person's tripping or slipping (Adetugbo 1979: 139).Type 5 greeting sequence is used in a Yoruba context as a greeting forsomeone who is at work of any kind. The English gloss suggests high praisefor someone who has excelled at doing something, whereas the Yorubagreeting is for anyone at work, and in fact there is no English equivalent.

The structure of casual or passing greeting is:

P rG + (InfG)

where Inf G is an optional element in the greeting sequence.A comparison of normal greeting and passing greeting does not only show

that they are different in terms of structure but also in the context in which theycan occur. Indeed, normal greeting, as exemplified above, is unique in thesense that even the obligatory second part of the greeting sequence (i.e. theinformatory) has three sub-parts which I label type 1, type 2, and type 3.These three sub-types of greetings are introduced by specific questions whichdeal with the state of health of the person greeted, the state of his work,questions about his family or children, or his property, and questionsconcerning the state of other persons or relations. It is obligatory to ask atleast one of these questions immediately after the prefatory greeting sequence.The questions that initiate the sub-types of greetings are summarised asfollows:

(a) Questions about the health and state of the co-participant. This isobligatory.(b) Questions about the health and state of the co-participant's family or thestate of his or her property, e.g. car. This is optional.

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12 Femi Akindele

(c) Questions about the whereabouts of the co-participant's friends andrelations. This is optional.

As shown in the example of normal greeting above, the questions used in agreeting of this type are stereotyped and are followed by stereotypedresponses. For instance, when B was asked about the welfare of his wife'sfriend Mama" B61&, his response was D&ad^a 16 wa 'She's fine', even if theperson in question was on her sick bed. The true information about the personmay emerge later in the conversation, after the greeting is over. The structureof this type of normal greeting can be re-formulated thus:

(i) PrG + InfG(ii) Inf G 11, + (Inf G t2) + (Inf G t3)

where Inf G t l , t2 and t3 imply informatory greeting types 1,2 and 3.There are variations of this type of greeting. For example, it is possible to

have the usual preliminary or opening greeting followed by an expression ofappreciation or well-wishing, as in the following examples:

K: E ftl6

G: Oo e5 0 P rGfil$o J

K: E s e ,

InfG

G: K61 '0P$

A: E ku r61e

S: Eku

A: Eku _ _ „ , M G

S: K6 t 'c

K:G:

K:

G:

A:

S:

A:

S:

HelloHello

Thanks for yesterday's

(visit / gift, etc.)

Not at all

Good evening

Good evening

Thanks for yesterday's visit

Not at all

It should be pointed out that this greeting type occurs in situations when theparticipants are in a hurry for some legitimate reason, otherwise the greetingsequence would have developed into the type described above as 'normal' or'full greeting'. The structure of this type of greeting is:

Pr G + Inf G.

There are yet some other types of greeting whose structure is Inf G, that is,informatory greeting only. Instances of this greeting type are marketgreetings, wedding greetings, greetings for travelling, hunting expeditions,and so on as is 9 (a) and (b), above.

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A sociolinguistic analysis of Yoruba greetings 13

It should be stressed that although there seems to be an apparent differencein structure between the types of greetings I have labelled prefatory andinformatory, normal and casual, nevertheless the entire system to some extentappears phatic. However, there are some circumstances in which theinformatory nature of a greeting may elicit precise information rather than thenormally expected phatic response. The following example illustrates thepoint:

J: 6 ma t'0j<>meta J: (It's been) quite some timePrefatory

F: Beeni - OjO kan p£lu £ F: Yes - quite an age

time*"!

J: S6 k6 s i t ' a o r i ? J: I hope nothing was wrong

that made you not visit us

F: 6 r§ mi ni F: I was ill

J: P$10 o J: Sorry

Informatory

CasualF: E s6 F: Thank you

As can be seen in the example, both prefatory and casual greetings perform thefunction of phatic communication. But the informatory type elicits preciselythe response that is given by participant F, namely'the reason why she has notbeen to J's house. The main reason for this is that she was ill. The responseled to the expression of sympathy by J.

3. Conclusion

This paper has attempted to consider the types and structure of greetings inYoruba. The analysis has shown that greeting is more than a normal routinemeant for the establishment of interpersonal relationship or social contact. It isalso a serious business of topic introduction and development, since itinvolves knowing about the person being greeted, her or his family, property,job and relations or friends. The paper also suggests that the type andorganisation of Yoruba greetings are influenced by sociological factors such asage, sex, status and occupation of the participants.

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