Second level meanings of names in Je k'a so Yoruba and Je k'a ka Yoruba: Reflections on and extension of content.

Abstract

This paper will focus on the names of some characters in two Yoruba language-learning textbooks written by Antonia Schleicher (1993 and 1998). The focus is more on the literature inherent in language learning. The chapter will also direct attention to how names add to the stories by providing cultural pointers for the learners during and after reading the specially constructed monologue or dialogue. Names such as those chosen for two sisters in a story in Je k'a ka Yoruba, Kilanko and Omoleré will be used to illustrate the notion that writers choose names carefully to extend the plot. The question to ask will include why Kilanko in the story is the bad girl while Omoleéreé is the child of profit (or a profitable child) in the same story. King (1998) explains that, names speak of a condition of the spirit through which the name bearer gains ground for locating self and elucidating his or her reason for existing” (p. 3). The writer presents the reason for existing by creating situations in which the characters live out their lives. Characters, unlike human beings, justify their existence in a plot or a narrative as planned by the writer. The other language learning book (Je k'a ka Yoruba) for intermediate learners written by Schleicher, (1998) is also not in short supply of names, which point to interesting cultural meanings. A reader may want to know why a street is named Témidire (mine has turned into blessing) and the local chiefnamed Elder Bamitale who is 65 years old. Do these names give away the plot to insiders of the culture while outsiders need someone to unlock the wisdom in the names? Apart from a deconstruction of the names, are there other pedagogical issues that can be derived from names of characters in monologues and dialogues in the two books under review?