Vulgarity in Yorùbá Proverbs: Its Implications and Sociological Effect

Timothy Adeyemi Akanbi

Studies in Social Sciences and Humanities, 2015, vol. 2, issue 3, 173-181

Abstract: The Yorùbá are people who hold their culture in high esteem. When it comes to conversation, there are words that they regard as taboos which they will not just say openly or utter in a way that may be regarded as offensive. For such words, the YoruÌ€baÌ have a kind of euphemism they normally use instead of the words regarded as taboos. This type of communication informs the YoruÌ€baÌ to say that GbogboaṣỠká» Ì laÌ€ nÌ á¹£aÌ loÌ oÌ€ruÌ€n “It is not all cloths that are spread in the sun†. And that GbogboohuntoÌ juÌ baÌ riÌ ká» Ì lẹnuÌ nÌ sá» ; “It is not all that the eyes see that the mouth talks about†. However, some YoruÌ€baÌ proverbs have no regard for euphemism. Such proverbs, which are limited in number in the language, are normally given in their sexually explicit forms. The focus of this paper is on such proverbs. We shall present these types of proverbs for analysis and thereafter, we will discuss their implications to the YoruÌ€baÌ norms, culture and tradition.

Keywords: Proverbs; Taboos; Euphemism; Offensive; Culture. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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