Talk:Obatala

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I moved this page back from Obàtálá (leaving a redirect) because Wikipedia:Naming conventions (common names) dictates using the name as it is mostly commonly used by English-speakers. It does, however, allow the use of more accurate names in the text of the article, so I have added the marks into the body. Tuf-Kat 05:05, Mar 25, 2004 (UTC)

Do you realize that Yoruba's tonality makes it nearly impossible to understand what one is referring to without those tonal markers? Yoruba is like Chinese in that many words can have exactly the same spelling under the common English orthography, so your moving the article actually creates needless ambiguity. --User:Abiola Lapite (Talk) 12:22, 25 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Obatala is the word used by most English-speakers, who do not need tonal markings to understand the meaning of the word, and for whom the tonal markings would not prevent any ambiguity anyway because few know what they mean. If the word Obatala has other encyclopedic English-language meanings, then disambiguation is necessary -- the tonal markings may or may not be the best way to do so, probably not, IMO, because their meaning is obscure to most of en Wikipedia's readers, though I'm sure they would be required in the nascent Yoruba Wikipedia. Tuf-Kat 20:55, Mar 25, 2004 (UTC)

I have taken the liberty of adding several of the paths of Obatala. When I can look up more paths I will add them along with brief descriptions of each path.

OloObatala

Is the phrase "Yoruba Mythology" correct when describing an extant religion? I nearly altered this article to read "Yoruba Religion" but decided this would be better. Daniel Hawthorn 10:15, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

Followed the link, which leads to Yoruba Religion. Altering the main article here accordingly. Daniel Hawthorn 10:17, 2 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Trivia/note

Obatal (apparently Cuban spelling) is apparently Fidel Castro's pledged saint. It would seem that this might be an important tidbit to add. 128.2.101.22 (talk) 21:50, 21 February 2008 (UTC)