International records / OpenAlex research

Comparative Notes on Yoruba and Lucumí

Lucumí is a term here used to refer to a language spoken in Cuba by practitioners of the religion known as Santería. In Cuba both the santeros and the language are often called Lucumí, a form of which the origin has been discussed by William Bascom. Bascom seems to have been the first to assert positively that Lucumí is derived from Yoruba, a language of southwestern Nigeria. This view is supported by the folklore of Lucumí-speakers, which often contains propositions like these: Lucumí is Yoruba; Lucumí and Yoruba are the same thing; Lucumí is a dialect of Yoruba; Lucumí is a mixture of Yoruba…