A linguist and expert in Portuguese and Translation Studies from the Lagos State University, LASU, Professor Tayo Julius Ajayi has called for a renewed cultural and academic partnership between Nigeria and Brazil, with a special focus on the Yoruba language.
He made this call while delivering the 109th inaugural lecture took place at the Buba Marwa Auditorium, Main Campus, Ojo with the title: “Interlinguistic Interactions and Resultant Phenomena: Agglutinative and Inflectional Languages”.
To maintain the legacy of Yoruba contributions to Afro-Brazilian culture and language, Prof. Ajayi proposed a number of actionable initiatives. He urged the Brazilian federal government to introduce African languages, especially Yoruba, into its overseas postgraduate scholarship programmes.
This, he said, would allow Brazilian students to explore and master African languages abroad, particularly in Nigeria, where such languages are natively spoken.
He further advocated for Yoruba to be formally introduced as a course of study in Brazilian colleges, initially as a specialization and eventually as a full undergraduate programme. This academic inclusion, he noted, would acknowledge the language’s historical and cultural relevance in Brazil, especially in regions with a strong Yoruba ancestral presence.
Turning to Nigeria, Prof. Ajayi called on the Federal Government to establish scholarship opportunities for Brazilian students interested in studying Yoruba in Nigeria. Such scholarships, he argued, would foster mutual understanding and allow Brazil’s Afro-descendant population to connect more intimately with their linguistic roots.
Another significant recommendation was for the deployment of Nigerian Yoruba language instructors to Brazil. Prof. Ajayi proposed a cultural and technical exchange model in which the Nigerian government would be responsible for the instructors’ remuneration, while the Brazilian government would handle in-country logistics. He emphasized that such a programme could significantly deepen the teaching and understanding of Yoruba across Brazilian institutions and cultural centres.
In his broader vision for cross-continental collaboration, Prof. Ajayi called for stronger ties between African and Brazilian linguists and anthropologists. He argued that only through such collaborations can the full depth of African heritage in Brazil be studied, preserved, and appreciated.
To complement these academic efforts, he encouraged practitioners of Afro-Brazilian religions and other cultural advocates to travel to Nigeria to experience the Yoruba language, traditions, and people firsthand.
“These efforts,” he said, “will ensure that African languages like Yoruba take their rightful place in Brazilian consciousness and cultural expression.”
Earlier in the lecture, Prof. Ajayi provided a scholarly analysis of how interlinguistic interactions particularly between agglutinative and inflectional language give rise to unique linguistic outcomes. Drawing on examples from Portuguese and Yoruba, he explained how language contact results in what he described as “linguistic decals” or semantic borrowings. These are instances where words are translated into the receiving language based on concept equivalence, often carrying the cultural weight of the source language.
He pointed out that in Brazil, especially among Afro-Brazilian communities, Yoruba has significantly influenced Afro-Brazilian Portuguese not only lexically but also morphosyntactically. He noted that during the colonial era in Bahia, Yoruba-speaking enslaved people formed the majority of the black population and their language became a lingua franca. As a result, many Afro-Brazilians became bilingual in Yoruba and Portuguese, creating fertile ground for deep and lasting linguistic fusion.
“Portuguese is an inflectional language,” Prof. Ajayi explained, “while Yoruba is agglutinative. Despite this fundamental difference, the two languages share important syntactic similarities, which allows for a mutual influence.” These similarities include syllabic structure, word order, and grammatical constructions that facilitate borrowing and integration.
He also highlighted that Yoruba loanwords in Brazilian Portuguese are particularly prevalent in religion and cookery, areas where Yoruba cultural practices were strongly preserved through oral tradition and daily use. The significant presence of Yoruba in these domains, he said, is due to both cultural reverence and the historic role played by Yoruba women in colonial Brazilian households.
While acknowledging that lexical interference is a natural outcome of language contact, Prof. Ajayi emphasized the need to protect the original character of the Yoruba language, especially in traditional songs, chants, and oríkì (praise poetry). Without deliberate efforts, he warned, this rich cultural heritage risks dilution over time.
In closing, he called for more proactive cultural exchange programmes and a shared sense of responsibility between Nigeria and Brazil to preserve their linguistic and historical ties. “Let us revalue the Yoruba contribution to Brazilian language and culture,” he said, to resounding applause.
The lecture was chaired by LASU’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, mni, NPOM, and attended by members of the university’s management, academic colleagues, students, friends, and family members of the lecturer.
