TWO POETIC GRAMMARS IN YORUBA JÙJÚ MUSIC: AN OPTIMALITY-THEORETIC ACCOUNT

Abstract

Standard Yorùbá generally tolerates vowel hiatus and employs vowel deletion, vowel coalescence, and vowel assimilation as its principal native hiatus-resolution strategies; however, the language does not productively employ intervocalic [r]-insertion to resolve vowel hiatus across morpheme boundaries. This article investigates a productive pattern of intervocalic [r]-insertion in the poetic language of Yoruba Jùjú music. Drawing on a corpus of performances by four prominent Yorùbá Jùjú musicians, the study demonstrates that the phenomenon occurs systematically across five morphophonological environments and therefore constitutes a productive phonological process rather than an isolated stylistic deviation. The article further argues that the process exemplifies Mukařovský’s notion of foregrounding, whereby poetic language deliberately departs from the conventions of ordinary language to achieve aesthetic effect. Evidence from the corpus also suggests the coexistence of two poetic grammars within the same musical genre, reflected in the productive use of intervocalic [r]-insertion by lead vocalists and, where comparable renditions are available, the more conservative realizations of backing vocals. The study adopts Optimality Theory (OT) as its analytical framework and demonstrates that the coexistence of two poetic grammars in Yorùbá Jùjú performance can be accounted for through distinct rankings of the same set of markedness and faithfulness constraints. The findings contribute to Yorùbá phonology, performance linguistics, and Optimality Theory by showing how poetic performance may license a productive phonological process unavailable in the corresponding standard language.