Arabismos activos en los teónimos lucumíes (1517-1870) cubanos Ob[b]atala y Oxala/ Osha[n]la/Ochala

Abstract

This research analyzes the semantic evolution of two Cuban African loanwords (16th-19th centuries), Ob[b]atalà and Oxala/Osha[n]la/Ochala, which come from the Arabisms Abdalá ('Abd Allāh) and ojalá (Law šāʼa Allāh /In šāʼa Allāh) active in peninsular Spanish since the arrival of Islam at the beginning of the 8th century. These two Arabic Koranic terms pass into the linguistic heritage of Caribbean Spanish through population diaspora, mostly motivated by the African black slave trade. These two afro-black words are the result of a semantic change originated in the koine al-luga al-fuṣḥà or normative use of the Arabic language in the Koranic text. This results in a standardization of lexicon and liturgical expressions of Santeria orisha/oricha/ocha. This two theonyms arise from the contact between the various linguistic variants spoken by the Yoruba arrived in Cuba (16th-19th centuries) and those of Caribbean Spanish that would give birth to the Lucumí language. The applied interdisciplinary methodology (philology, Arabic and Islamic studies, and history) starts from the definition of the aforementioned linguistic phenomenon, the historical and creedal causes that originate it, based on foreign influence and the demand for a new name. In order to understand the semantic change produced, we describe the etymology of the selected active Lucumí lexicon and the two essential processes of the given change –reduction and adoption of new meanings– as Arabisms which illustrate the cultural transformation in the Lucumí linguistic community. We conclude that the standardization of the liturgical Arabic language has been a determining instrument in the standardization of Lucumí to stop the disintegration of the language and enhance the identity of the Yoruba community in the diaspora in the Americas.