Yoruba (, ;
Yor. ) is a
Niger-Congo language that is spoken in
West Africa
West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...
, primarily in
Southwestern and
Central Nigeria, Benin, and parts of Togo. It is spoken by the
Yoruba people
The Yoruba people ( ; , , ) are a West African ethnic group who inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo, which are collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute more than 50 million people in Africa, are over a million outsid ...
. Yoruba speakers number roughly 50 million,
including around 2 million second-language or L2 speakers.
As a
pluricentric language
A pluricentric language or polycentric language is a language with several codified standard forms, often corresponding to different countries. Many examples of such languages can be found worldwide among the most-spoken languages, including but n ...
, it is primarily spoken in a dialectal area spanning
Nigeria
Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...
,
Benin
Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as Dahomey. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its po ...
, and
Togo
Togo, officially the Togolese Republic, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Ghana to Ghana–Togo border, the west, Benin to Benin–Togo border, the east and Burkina Faso to Burkina Faso–Togo border, the north. It is one of the le ...
with smaller migrated communities in
Côte d'Ivoire
Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest city and ...
,
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...
and
The Gambia
The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. Geographically, The Gambia is the List of African countries by area, smallest country in continental Africa; it is surrounded by Senegal on all sides except for ...
.
Yoruba vocabulary is also used in
African diaspora religions
African diaspora religions, also described as Afro-American religions, are a number of related beliefs that developed in the Americas in various areas of the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Southern United States. They derive from traditional ...
such as the Afro-Brazilian religion of
Candomblé
Candomblé () is an African diaspora religions, African diasporic religion that developed in Brazil during the 19th century. It arose through a process of syncretism between several of the traditional religions of West and Central Africa, especi ...
, the Caribbean religion of
Santería
Santería (), also known as Regla de Ocha, Regla Lucumí, or Lucumí, is an African diaspora religions, Afro-Caribbean religion that developed in Cuba during the late 19th century. It arose amid a process of syncretism between the traditional ...
in the form of the liturgical
Lucumí language
Lucumí consists of a lexicon of words and short phrases derived from the Yoruba language and used for ritual purposes in Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and their Diasporas. It is used as the liturgical language of Santería in the Spa ...
, and various Afro-American religions of
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
. Most modern practitioners of these religions in the Americas are not fluent in the Yoruba language, yet they still use Yoruba words and phrases for songs or chants—rooted in cultural traditions. For such practitioners, the Yoruba
lexicon
A lexicon (plural: lexicons, rarely lexica) is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Greek word () ...
is especially common for ritual purposes, and these modern manifestations have taken new forms that do not depend on vernacular fluency.
As the principal
Yoruboid language, Yoruba is most closely related to these languages
Itsekiri
The Itsekiri (also called the Isekiri, ''iJekri'', ''Itsekri'', ''Ishekiri'', or Itsekhiri) are an ethnic group who mainly inhabit Nigeria's Niger Delta area. They speak a Yoruboid languages, Yoruboid language and can be found in Ondo State, Ondo ...
(spoken in the
Niger Delta
The Niger Delta is the delta of the Niger River sitting directly on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean in Nigeria. It is located within nine coastal southern Nigerian states, which include: all six states from the South South geopolitic ...
) and
Igala (spoken in central Nigeria).
History
Yoruba is classified among the
Edekiri languages, which together with
Itsekiri
The Itsekiri (also called the Isekiri, ''iJekri'', ''Itsekri'', ''Ishekiri'', or Itsekhiri) are an ethnic group who mainly inhabit Nigeria's Niger Delta area. They speak a Yoruboid languages, Yoruboid language and can be found in Ondo State, Ondo ...
and the isolate
Igala form the
Yoruboid group of languages within the
Volta–Niger branch of the
Niger–Congo family.
The linguistic unity of the Niger–Congo family dates to deep pre-history, with estimates ranging around 11,000 years ago (the end of the
Upper Paleolithic
The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories ...
). In present-day
Nigeria
Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...
, it is estimated that there are around 50 million Yoruba primary and secondary language speakers, as well as several other millions of speakers outside Nigeria, making it the most widely spoken African language outside of the continent. There is a substantial body of literature in the Yoruba language, including books, newspapers, and pamphlets.
Yoruba is used in radio and television broadcasting and is taught at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels.
Varieties
The Yoruba
dialect continuum
A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...
consists of several dialects. The various Yoruba dialects in
Yorubaland
Yorubaland () is the homeland and cultural region of the Yoruba people in West Africa. It spans the modern-day countries of Nigeria, Togo and Benin, and covers a total land area of . Of this land area, 106,016 km2 (74.6%) lies within Niger ...
can be classified into five major dialect areas: Northwest, Northeast, Central, Southwest, and Southeast. Clear boundaries cannot be drawn, but peripheral areas of dialectal regions often have some similarities to adjoining dialects.
* North-West Yoruba (NWY)
**
Egba,
Ibadan
Ibadan (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the List of Nigerian cities by population, third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano (city), Kano, with a total populatio ...
,
Ọyọ,
Lagos (Eko),
Onko,
Ibarapa
* North-East Yoruba (NEY)
**
Yagba,
Owe, Ikiri,
Ijumu,
Oworo, Gbede,
Abunu,
Okun.
* Central Yoruba (CY)
**
Igbomina
The Ìgbómìnà (also colloquially Igboona or Ogboona) are a subgroup of the Yoruba people, Yoruba ethnic group, which originates from the north central and southwest Nigeria.
They speak a dialect called Yoruba language, Ìgbómìnà or Igbonna, ...
,
Ijesha,
Ifẹ
Ifẹ̀ (, ''Ilé-Ifẹ̀'') is an ancient Yoruba people, Yoruba city in south-western Nigeria founded sometime between the years 1000 BC and 500 BC. By 900, 900 AD, the city had become an important West African emporium producing sophisticate ...
,
Ekiti (including
Akurẹ),
Ẹfọn, Western
Akoko.
* South-West Yoruba (SWY)
**
Ketu,
Awori,
Sakété,
Ifè (Togo),
Idasha,
Anago.
* South-East Yoruba (SEY)
**
Ondo,
Ọwọ,
Remo
Remo Inc. is an American musical instruments manufacturing company based in Valencia, California, and founded by Remo Belli in 1957. Products manufactured include drum kits, drumheads, drums, and drum hardware, hardware, and various percussio ...
,
Ijẹbu,
Ikale, Eastern
Akoko (Akoko, Ào),
Ilaje
Ìlàje is a Local Government Area in Ondo State, South-West Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Igbokoda. The Ilajes are a distinct migratory coastal linguistic group of Yoruba peoples spread along the coastal belts of Ondo, Ogun, ...
,
Usẹn.
North-West Yoruba was historically spoken in the
Ọyọ Empire. In NWY dialects, Proto-Yoruba velar fricative and labialized voiced velar /gʷ/ have merged into /w/; the upper vowels /ɪ/ and /ʊ/ were raised and merged with /i/ and /u/, just as their nasal counterparts, resulting in a vowel system with seven oral and three nasal vowels.
South-East Yoruba was most likely associated with the expansion of the
Benin Empire
The Kingdom of Benin, also known as Great Benin, is a traditional kingdom in southern Nigeria. It has no historical relation to the modern republic of Benin, which was known as Dahomey from the 17th century until 1975. The Kingdom of Benin's c ...
after . In contrast to NWY, lineage, and descent are largely
multilineal and
cognatic
Cognatic kinship is a mode of descent calculated from an ancestor counted through any combination of male and female links, or a system of bilateral kinship where relations are traced through both a father and mother. Such relatives may be know ...
, and the division of titles into war and civil is unknown. Linguistically, SEY has retained the /ɣ/ and /gw/ contrast, while it has lowered the nasal vowels /ĩ/ and /ʊ̃/ to /ɛ̃/ and /ɔ̃/, respectively. SEY has collapsed the second and third-person plural pronominal forms; thus, ''àn án wá'' can mean either 'you (pl.) came' or 'they came' in SEY dialects, whereas NWY for example has ''ẹ wá'' 'you (pl.) came' and ''wọ́n wá'' 'they came', respectively. The emergence of a plural of respect may have prevented the coalescence of the two in NWY dialects.
Central Yoruba forms a transitional area in that the lexicon has much in common with NWY and shares many ethnographical features with SEY. Its vowel system is the most traditional of the three dialect groups, retaining nine oral-vowel contrasts, six or seven nasal vowels, and an extensive vowel harmony system. Peculiar to Central and Eastern (NEY, SEY) Yoruba also is the ability to begin words with the vowel
�: which in Western Yoruba has been changed to
�:
Literary Yoruba
Literary Yoruba, also known as ''Standard Yoruba'', ''Yoruba koiné'', and ''common Yoruba'', is a separate member of the dialect cluster. It is the written form of the language, the standard variety learned at school, and that is spoken by newsreaders on the radio. Standard Yoruba has its origin in the 1850s, when
Samuel A. Crowther, the first native African Anglican bishop, published a Yoruba grammar and started his translation of the Bible. Though for a large part based on the
Ọyọ and
Ibadan
Ibadan (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the List of Nigerian cities by population, third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano (city), Kano, with a total populatio ...
dialects, Standard Yoruba incorporates several features from other dialects. It also has some features peculiar to itself, for example, the simplified
vowel harmony
In phonology, vowel harmony is a phonological rule in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – must share certain distinctive features (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is typically long distance, meaning tha ...
system, as well as foreign structures, such as
calque
In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language ...
s from English that originated in early translations of religious works.
Because the use of Standard Yoruba did not result from some deliberate linguistic policy, much controversy exists as to what constitutes 'genuine Yoruba', with some writers holding the opinion that the Ọyọ dialect is the "pure" form, and others stating that there is no such thing as genuine Yoruba at all. Standard Yoruba, the variety learned at school and used in the media, has nonetheless been a decisive consolidating factor in the emergence of a common Yoruba identity.
Writing systems

The earliest evidence of the presence of Islam in Yorubaland goes back to the 14th century. The earliest documented history of the people, traced to the latter part of the 17th century, was in Yoruba but in the Arabic script called
Ajami. This makes Yoruba one of the oldest African languages with an attested history of Ajami (Cf. Mumin & Versteegh 2014; Hofheinz 2018). However, the oldest extant Yoruba Ajami exemplar is a 19th-century Islamic verse (waka) by Badamasi Agbaji (d. 1895- Hunwick 1995). There are several items of Yoruba Ajami in poetry, personal notes, and esoteric knowledge (Cf. Bang 2019). Nevertheless, Yoruba Ajami remained idiosyncratic and not socially diffused, as no standardized orthography existed. The plethora of dialects and the absence of a central promotional institution, among others, are responsible.
In the 17th century, Yoruba was written in the
Ajami script
Ajami (, ) or Ajamiyya (, ), which comes from the Arabic root for 'foreign' or 'stranger', is an Arabic script, Arabic-derived script used for writing Languages of Africa, African languages, particularly Songhai languages, Songhai, Mandé languages ...
, a form of
Arabic script
The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic (Arabic alphabet) and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world (after the Latin script), the second-most widel ...
. It is still written in the Ajami writing script in some Islamic circles. Standard Yoruba
orthography
An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis.
Most national ...
originated in the early work of
Church Mission Society
The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British Anglican mission society working with Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as ...
missionaries working among the ''Aku'' (Yoruba) of
Freetown
Freetown () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, e ...
. One of their
informants
An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a "snitch", "rat", "canary", "stool pigeon", "stoolie", "tout" or "grass", among other terms) is a person who provides privileged information, or (usually damaging) information inten ...
was Crowther, who later would proceed to work on his native language himself. In early grammar primers and translations of portions of the English Bible, Crowther used the
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...
largely without tone markings. The only diacritic used was a dot below certain vowels to signify their
open
Open or OPEN may refer to:
Music
* Open (band), Australian pop/rock band
* The Open (band), English indie rock band
* ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969
* ''Open'' (Gerd Dudek, Buschi Niebergall, and Edward Vesala album), 1979
* ''Open'' (Go ...
variants and , viz. and . Over the years, the orthography was revised to represent tone, among other things. In 1875, the
Church Missionary Society
The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British Anglican mission society working with Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as ...
(CMS) organized a conference on Yoruba Orthography; the standard devised there was the basis for the orthography of the steady flow of religious and educational literature over the next seventy years.
The current orthography of Yoruba derives from a 1966 report of the Yoruba Orthography Committee, along with Ayọ Bamgboṣe's 1965 ''Yoruba Orthography'', a study of the earlier orthographies and an attempt to bring Yoruba orthography in line with actual speech as much as possible. Still similar to the older orthography, it employs the
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...
modified by the use of the
digraph and certain
diacritic
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacrit ...
s, including the
underdot
When used as a diacritic mark, the term dot refers to the glyphs "combining dot above" (, and "combining dot below" (
which may be combined with some letters of the extended Latin alphabets in use in
a variety of languages. Similar marks are ...
s under the letters , , and . Previously, the vertical line had been used to avoid the mark being fully covered by an
underline
An underscore or underline is a line drawn under a segment of text. In proofreading, underscoring is a convention that says "set this text in italic type", traditionally used on manuscript or typescript as an instruction to the printer. Its u ...
, as in ⟨e̩⟩, ⟨o̩⟩, ⟨s̩⟩; however, that usage is no longer common.
The Latin letters , , , , are not used as part of the official orthography of Standard Yoruba and only occur in loan words from English. However, is used in certain Yoruba dialects, like the Ao dialect.
The pronunciation of the letters without diacritics corresponds more or less to their
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standard written representation ...
equivalents, except for the
labial–velar consonant
Labial–velar consonants are doubly articulated at the velum and the lips, such as . They are sometimes called "labiovelar consonants", a term that can also refer to labialized velars, such as the stop consonant and the approximant .
Labial ...
(written ) and (written ), in which both consonants are pronounced simultaneously rather than sequentially. The
diacritic
A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacrit ...
underneath vowels indicates an
open vowel
An open vowel is a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned approximately as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels (in U.S. terminology ) in reference to the low position of the tongue ...
, pronounced with the
root of the tongue retracted (so is pronounced and is ). represents a
postalveolar consonant
Postalveolar (post-alveolar) consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the ''back'' of the alveolar ridge. Articulation is farther back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but n ...
like the English , represents a
palatal approximant
The voiced palatal approximant is a type of consonant used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ; the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is j, and in the Americanist phonetic notation i ...
like English , and a
voiced palatal stop , as is common in many African orthographies.
In addition to the underdots, three further diacritics are used on vowels and syllabic
nasal consonant
In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majo ...
s to indicate the language's tones: an
acute accent
The acute accent (), ,
is a diacritic used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin alphabet, Latin, Cyrillic script, Cyrillic, and Greek alphabet, Greek scripts. For the most commonly encountered uses of the accen ...
for the high tone, a
grave accent
The grave accent () ( or ) is a diacritical mark used to varying degrees in French, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Catalan and many other Western European languages as well as for a few unusual uses in English. It is also used in other ...
for the low tone, and an optional
macron for the middle tone. These are used in addition to the underdots in and . When more than one tone is used in one syllable, the vowel can either be written once for each tone (for example, * for a vowel with tone rising from low to high) or, more rarely in current usage, combined into a single accent. In this case, a
caron
A caron or háček ( ), is a diacritic mark () placed over certain letters in the orthography of some languages, to indicate a change of the related letter's pronunciation.
Typographers tend to use the term ''caron'', while linguists prefer ...
is used for the rising tone (so the previous example would be written ), and a
circumflex
The circumflex () is a diacritic in the Latin and Greek scripts that is also used in the written forms of many languages and in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from "bent around"a translation of ...
for the falling tone.
In
Benin
Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as Dahomey. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its po ...
, Yoruba uses a different orthography. The Yoruba alphabet was standardized along with other Benin languages in the
National Languages Alphabet by the
National Language Commission in 1975, and revised in 1990 and 2008 by the
National Center for Applied Linguistics.
In 2011, a Beninese priest-chief by the name of Tolúlàṣẹ Ògúntósìn devised a new script for Yoruba, based on a vision received in his sleep which he believed to have been granted by
Oduduwa. This
Oduduwa script has also received support from other prominent chiefs in the
Yorubaland
Yorubaland () is the homeland and cultural region of the Yoruba people in West Africa. It spans the modern-day countries of Nigeria, Togo and Benin, and covers a total land area of . Of this land area, 106,016 km2 (74.6%) lies within Niger ...
region of both countries.
Phonology
The syllable structure of Yoruba is (C)V(N). Syllabic nasals are also possible. Every syllable bears one of the three tones: high , mid (generally left unmarked), and low . The sentence (''I didn't go'') provides examples of three syllable types:
* — — ''I''
* — — ''not'' (negation)
* — — ''to go''
Vowels
Standard Yoruba has seven oral and five nasal vowels. There are no
diphthong
A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of ...
s in Yoruba; sequences of vowels are pronounced as separate syllables.
Dialect
A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...
s differ in the number of vowels they have; see
above
Above may refer to:
*Above (artist)
Tavar Zawacki (b. 1981, California) is a Polish, Portuguese - American abstract artist and
internationally recognized visual artist based in Berlin, Germany. From 1996 to 2016, he created work under the ...
.

* In some cases, the phonetic realization of these vowels is noticeably different from what the symbol suggests:
** The oral is close front , and the nasal varies between close front and near-close front .
[Bamgboṣe (1969:166)]
** The oral is close back , and the nasal varies between close near-back , close back , near-close near-back and near-close back .
** The oral are close-mid , and do not have nasal counterparts.
** The oral is open-mid , and the nasal varies between mid and open-mid .
** The oral is near-open , and the nasal varies between open-mid and near-open .
** The oral is central .
Nasal vowels are by default written as a vowel letter followed by , thus: , , , , . These do not occur word-initially.
In the standard language, occurs only in the single word ''ìyẹn'' ~ ''yẹn'' 'that'. The status of the vowel is controversial. Several authors have argued it is not phonemically contrastive. Often, it is in free variation with .
Orthographically, is used after labial and labial-velar consonants, as in ''ìbọn'' 'gun', and is used after non-labial consonants, as in ''dán'' 'to shine'. All vowels are nasalized after the consonant , and thus there is no additional ''n'' in writing (''mi, mu, mọ''). In addition, the consonant has a nasal allophone before a nasal vowel (see
below
Below may refer to:
*Earth
*Ground (disambiguation)
*Soil
*Floor
* Bottom (disambiguation)
*Less than
*Temperatures below freezing
*Hell or underworld
People with the surname
* Ernst von Below (1863–1955), German World War I general
* Fred Belo ...
), and this is reflected in writing: ''inú'' 'inside, belly' ( → ).
Consonants
The voiceless plosives and are slightly aspirated; in some Yoruba varieties, and are more dental. The
rhotic consonant
In phonetics, rhotic consonants, or "R-like" sounds, are liquid consonants that are traditionally represented orthography, orthographically by symbols derived from the Greek alphabet, Greek letter Rho (letter), rho (Ρ and ρ), including R, , i ...
is realized as a flap or, in some varieties (notably Lagos Yoruba), as the
alveolar approximant
The voiced alveolar and postalveolar approximants are types of consonantal sounds used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents the alveolar and postalveolar approximants is , a lowercase lett ...
due to English influence. This is particularly common with Yoruba–English bilinguals.
Like many other languages of the region, Yoruba has the
voiceless
In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies v ...
and
voiced labial–velar stop
Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced.
The term, however, is used to refer ...
s and : 'field', ' 'all'. Notably, in Nigeria it lacks a
voiceless bilabial stop , apart from
phonaesthesia, such as
ĩpĩfor vehicle horn sounds, and
marginal segments found in recent loanwords, such as
͡pɛ́ńsù~pɛ́ńsùfor "pencil".
Yoruba also lacks a
phoneme
A phoneme () is any set of similar Phone (phonetics), speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible Phonetics, phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word fr ...
; the letter is used for the sound in the orthography, but strictly speaking, it refers to an
allophone
In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is one of multiple possible spoken soundsor '' phones''used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, the voiceless plos ...
of immediately preceding a nasal vowel.
There is also a
syllabic nasal
A syllabic consonant or vocalic consonant is a consonant that forms the nucleus of a syllable on its own, like the ''m'', ''n'' and ''l'' in some pronunciations of the English words ''rhythm'', ''button'' and ''awful'', respectively. To represe ...
, which forms a
syllable nucleus
A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...
by itself. When it precedes a vowel, it is a velar nasal : 'I didn't go'. In other cases, its place of articulation is
homorganic
In phonetics, a homorganic consonant (from Latin and ) is a consonant sound that is articulated in the same place of articulation as another. For example, , and are homorganic consonants of one another since they share the bilabial place of ...
with the following consonant: 'he is going', 'he is jumping'.
C, Q, V, X and Z only appear in words borrowed from English or French.
Tone
Yoruba is a
tonal language
Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning—that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All oral languages use pitch to express emotional and other para-linguistic information and to convey emphasi ...
with three-level tones and two or three contour tones. Every syllable must have at least one tone; a syllable containing a long vowel can have two tones. Tones are marked by use of the acute accent for high tone (, ) and the grave accent for low tone (, ); mid is unmarked, except on syllabic nasals where it is indicated using a macron (, ). Examples:
* H: ó bẹ́
� bɛ́'he jumped'; síbí
íbí 'spoon'
* M: ó bẹ
� bɛ̄'he is forward'; ara
�ɾā'body'
* L: ó bẹ̀
� bɛ̀'he asks for pardon'; ọ̀kọ̀
�̀kɔ̀'spear'.
When teaching Yoruba literacy,
solfège
In music, solfège (British English or American English , ) or solfeggio (; ), also called sol-fa, solfa, solfeo, among many names, is a mnemonic used in teaching aural skills, Pitch (music), pitch and sight-reading of Western classical music, W ...
names of musical notes are used to name the tones: low is ''do'', mid is ''re'', and high is ''mi''.
Whistled Yoruba
Apart from tone's lexical and grammatical use, it is also used in other contexts such as whistling and drumming. Whistled Yoruba is used to communicate over long distances. The language is transformed as speakers talk and whistle simultaneously: consonants are devoiced or turned to
and all vowels are changed to
However, all tones are retained without any alteration. The retention of tones enables speakers to understand the meaning of the whistled language. The Yoruba
talking drum
The talking drum is an hourglass-shaped drum from West Africa, which can be used as a form of speech surrogacy by regulating its pitch and rhythm to mimic the tone and prosody of human speech. It has two drumheads connected by leather t ...
, the ''dùndún'' or ''iya ilu'', which accompanies singing during festivals and important ceremonies, also uses tone.
Tonality effects and computer-coded documents
Written Yoruba includes
diacritical marks not available on conventional computer keyboards, requiring some adaptations. In particular, the use of the sub dots and tone marks are not represented, so many Yoruba documents simply omit them. Asubiaro Toluwase, in his 2014 paper, points out that the use of these diacritics can affect the retrieval of Yoruba documents by popular search engines. Therefore, their omission can have a significant impact on online research.
Assimilation and elision
When a word precedes another word beginning with a vowel, assimilation, or deletion ('
elision
In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run to ...
') of one of the vowels often takes place. Since syllables in Yoruba normally end in a vowel, and most nouns start with one, it is a widespread phenomenon, and it is absent only in slow, unnatural speech. The orthography here follows speech in that word divisions are normally not indicated in words that are contracted due to assimilation or elision: ''ra ẹja'' → ''rẹja'' 'buy fish'. Sometimes, however, authors may choose to use an inverted comma to indicate an elided vowel as in ''ní ilé'' → ''n'ílé'' 'in the house'.
Long vowels within words usually signal that a consonant has been elided word-internally. In such cases, the tone of the elided vowel is retained: ''àdìrò'' → ''ààrò'' 'hearth'; ''koríko'' → ''koóko'' 'grass'; ''òtító'' → ''òótó'' 'truth'.
Vocabulary
Roots
Most
verbal root
In vascular plants, the roots are the plant organ, organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often bel ...
s are
monosyllabic
In linguistics, a monosyllable is a word or utterance of only one syllable. It is most commonly studied in the fields of phonology and morphology. The word has originated from the Greek language
Greek (, ; , ) is an Indo-European languages, Ind ...
of the
phonological
Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often prefer ...
shape CV(N), for example: ''dá'' 'to create', ''dán'' 'to polish', ''pọ́n'' 'to be red'. Verbal roots that do not seem to follow this pattern are mostly former compounds in which a
syllable
A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...
has been elided. For example: ''nlá'' 'to be large', originally a compound of ''ní'' 'to have' + ''lá'' 'to be big' and ''súfèé'' 'to whistle', originally a compound of ''sú'' 'to eject wind' + ''òfé or ìfé'' 'a blowing'. Vowels serve as nominalizing prefixes that turn a verb into a noun form.
Nominal roots are mostly
disyllabic
A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...
, for example: ''abà'' 'crib, barn', ''ara'' 'body', ''ibà'' 'fever'.
Monosyllabic
In linguistics, a monosyllable is a word or utterance of only one syllable. It is most commonly studied in the fields of phonology and morphology. The word has originated from the Greek language
Greek (, ; , ) is an Indo-European languages, Ind ...
and even
trisyllabic roots do occur but they are less common.
Grammar
Yoruba is a highly
isolating language
Social isolation, Isolation is the near or complete lack of social contact by an individual.
Isolation or isolated may also refer to:
Sociology and psychology
*Social isolation
*Isolation (psychology), a defense mechanism in psychoanalytic theo ...
. Its basic constituent order is
subject–verb–object,
[Rowlands, Evan Colyn. (1969). Teach Yourself Yoruba. English Universities Press: London.] as in ''ó nà Adé'' 'he beat Adé'. The bare verb stem denotes a completed action, often called perfect; tense and aspect are marked by preverbal particles such as ''ń'' 'imperfect/present continuous', ''ti'' 'past'. Negation is expressed by a preverbal particle ''kò''.
Serial verb constructions are common, as in many other languages of
West Africa
West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...
.
Although Yoruba has no
grammatical gender
In linguistics, a grammatical gender system is a specific form of a noun class system, where nouns are assigned to gender categories that are often not related to the real-world qualities of the entities denoted by those nouns. In languages wit ...
, it has a distinction between human and non-human nouns when it comes to
interrogative
An interrogative clause is a clause whose form is typically associated with question-like meanings. For instance, the English sentence (linguistics), sentence "Is Hannah sick?" has interrogative syntax which distinguishes it from its Declarative ...
particles: ''ta ni'' for human nouns ('who?') and ''kí ni'' for non-human nouns ('what?'). The associative construction (covering
possessive
A possessive or ktetic form (Glossing abbreviation, abbreviated or ; from ; ) is a word or grammatical construction indicating a relationship of possession (linguistics), possession in a broad sense. This can include strict ownership, or a numbe ...
/genitive and related notions) consists of juxtaposing nouns in the order modified-modifier as in ''inú àpótí'' 'the inside of the box', ''fìlà Àkàndé'' 'Akande's cap' or ''àpótí aṣọ'' 'box for clothes'. More than two nouns can be juxtaposed: ''rélùweè abẹ́ ilẹ̀'' (railway underground) 'underground railway', ''inú àpótí aṣọ'' 'the inside of the clothes box'. Disambiguation is left to context in the rare case that it results in two possible readings. Plural nouns are indicated by a plural word.
There are two 'prepositions': ''ní'' 'on, at, in' and ''sí'' 'onto, towards'. The former indicates location and absence of movement, and the latter encodes location/direction with movement. Position and direction are expressed by the prepositions in combination with spatial relational nouns like ''orí'' 'top', ''apá'' 'side', ''inú'' 'inside', ''etí'' 'edge', ''abẹ́'' 'under', ''ilẹ̀'' 'down', etc. Many of the spatial relational terms are historically related to body-part terms.
Numerals
Yoruba uses a
vigesimal
A vigesimal ( ) or base-20 (base-score) numeral system is based on 20 (number), twenty (in the same way in which the decimal, decimal numeral system is based on 10 (number), ten). ''wikt:vigesimal#English, Vigesimal'' is derived from the Latin a ...
(base-20) numbering system.
* Ogún, 20, is a basic numeric block.
* Ogójì, 40, (Ogún-méjì) = 20 multiplied by 2 (èjì).
* Ọgọ́ta, 60, (Ogún-mẹ́ta) = 20 multiplied by 3 (ẹ̀ta).
* Ọgọ́rin, 80, (Ogún-mẹ́rin) = 20 multiplied by 4 (ẹ̀rin).
* Ọgọ́rùn-ún, 100, (Ogún-márùn-ún) = 20 multiplied by 5 (àrún).
* - 16 (Ẹẹ́rìndínlógún) = 4 less than 20.
* - 17 (Ẹẹ́tàdínlógún) = 3 less than 20.
* - 18 (Eéjìdínlógún) = 2 less than 20.
* - 19 (Oókàndínlógún) = 1 less than 20.
* - 21 (Oókànlélógún) = 1 increment on 20.
* - 22 (Eéjìlélógún) = 2 increment on 20.
* - 23 (Ẹẹ́tàlélógún) = 3 increment on 20.
* - 24 (Ẹẹ́rìnlélógún) = 4 increment on 20.
* - 25 (Aárùnlélógún) = 5 increment on 20.
* - 30 ( Ogbòn) = 10 increment on 20
* -50 (Aadota) = 10 less than 60
Arabic influence
The wide adoption of imported religions and civilizations such as Islam and Christianity has had an impact both on written and spoken Yoruba. In his ''Arabic-English Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Quran and Sunnah'', Yoruba Muslim scholar
Abu-Abdullah Adelabu argued Islam has enriched African languages by providing them with technical and cultural augmentations with
Swahili and
Somali in
East Africa
East Africa, also known as Eastern Africa or the East of Africa, is a region at the eastern edge of the Africa, African continent, distinguished by its unique geographical, historical, and cultural landscape. Defined in varying scopes, the regi ...
and
Turanci Hausa and
Wolof in West Africa being the primary beneficiaries.
Adelabu, a Ph D graduate from
Damascus
Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...
cited—among many other common usages—the following words to be Yoruba's derivatives of Arabic vocabularies:
Some loanwords
*''Sanma'': Heaven or sky, from
*''Alubarika'': blessing, from
*''Alumaani'': wealth, money, resources, from
*''
Amin:'' Arabic form of the Hebrew religious term
Amen
Amen (, ; , ; , ; , ) is an Abrahamic declaration of affirmation which is first found in the Hebrew Bible, and subsequently found in the New Testament. It is used in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic practices as a concluding word, or as a respons ...
, from
Some common Arabic words used in Yoruba are names of the days such as ''Atalata'' () for Tuesday, ''Alaruba'' () for Wednesday, ''Alamisi'' () for Thursday, and ''Jimoh'' (,
Jumu'ah
Friday prayer, or congregational prayer (), is the meeting together of Muslims for communal prayer and service at midday every Friday. In Islam, the day itself is called ''Yawm al-Jum'ah'' (shortened to ''Jum'ah''), which translated from Arabic me ...
) for Friday. By far, ''Ọjọ́ Jimoh'' is the most favourably used. This is because ''eti'', the Yoruba word for Friday, means 'delay'. This is an unpleasant word for Friday, ''Ẹtì'', which also implies failure, laziness, or abandonment.
[A lecture by Abu-Abdullah Adelabu of AWQAF Africa, London titled: "The History Of Islam in 'The Black History'" ''DELAB International Newsmagazine'', April 2003 ] Ultimately, the standard words for the days of the week are Àìkú, Ajé, Ìṣẹ́gun, Ọjọ́rú, Ọjọ́bọ, Ẹtì, Àbámẹ́ta, for Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday respectively. Friday remains Eti in the Yoruba language.
Literature
Spoken literature
•
Odu Ifa, •
Oriki, •
Ewi, •Esa, •Àlọ́, •Rara, •Iremoje, •
Bolojo, •Ijala, •Ajangbode, •Ijeke, Alámọ̀
Written literature
*
Samuel Ajayi Crowther
Samuel Ajayi Crowther ( – 31 December 1891) was a Yoruba linguist, clergyman, and the first African Anglican bishop of West Africa. Born in Osogun (in what is now Ado-Awaye, Oyo State, Nigeria), he and his family were captured by Fulani sl ...
*
Wande Abimbola
*
Reverend Samuel Johnson
*
Yemi Elebuibon
*
Daniel Olorunfemi Fagunwa
*
Adebayo Faleti
*
Akinwunmi Isola
*
Obo Aba Hisanjani
*
Duro Ladipo
*
J.F. Odunjo
*
Afolabi Olabimtan
*
Wole Soyinka
Wole Soyinka , (born 13 July 1934) is a Nigerian author, best known as a playwright and poet. He has written three novels, ten collections of short stories, seven poetry collections, twenty five plays and five memoirs. He also wrote two transla ...
*
Amos Tutuola
*
Lawuyi Ogunniran
*
Kola Tubosun
Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún (; born 22 September 1981) is a Nigerian linguist, writer, translator, scholar, cultural activist and film-maker.
As of 2024, the is the most visited website in Yoruba.
Music
*
Ibeyi, Cuban francophone sister duo, often sing in
Lucumí, a liturgical variety of Yoruba used in
Santería
Santería (), also known as Regla de Ocha, Regla Lucumí, or Lucumí, is an African diaspora religions, Afro-Caribbean religion that developed in Cuba during the late 19th century. It arose amid a process of syncretism between the traditional ...
.
*
Sakara, a Yoruba song originating from
Abeokuta
Abeokuta is the capital city of Ogun State located at the south western part of Nigeria. It is situated on the east bank of the Ogun River, near a group of rocky outcrops in a wooded savanna; north of Lagos by railway, or by water. , Abeokut ...
, Ogun Nigeria. One of the first performers of this type of music was in Lagos in the 1930s.
*
Apala, Apala (or Akpala) is a percussion-based music genre originally developed by the Yoruba people of Nigeria during the country's history as a colony of the British Empire. It originated in the late 1970s.
*
Fuji, a popular, contemporary Yoruba musical genre.
*
Jùjú, a style of Nigerian popular music derived from traditional Yoruba percussion.
* Àpíìrì, a popular music common among Ido and Igbole Ekiti environs of Ekiti State. The musical instruments usually consist of beaded Calabash gourds and gongs supported with harmonic lyrics
*
Fela Kuti
Fela Aníkúlápó Kútì (born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti; 15 October 1938 – 2 August 1997) was a Nigerians, Nigerian musician and political activist. He is regarded as the principal innovator of Afrobeat, a Nigerian music genre t ...
,
Afrobeat
Afrobeat (also known as Afrofunk) is a West African music genre, fusing influences from Nigerian (such as Yoruba) and Ghanaian (such as highlife) music, with American funk, jazz, and soul influences. With a focus on chanted vocals, complex i ...
creator
See also
*
Yoruba numerals
Notes and references
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*Oyètádé, B. Akíntúndé & Buba, Malami (2000) 'Hausa Loan Words in Yorùbá', in Wolff & Gensler (eds.) ''Proceedings of the 2nd WoCAL, Leipzig 1997'', Köln: Rüdiger Köppe, 241–260.
*
History
*
*
*
*
Dictionaries
*
*
*
*
Grammars and sketches
Adesola, Oluseye (2005). ''Yoruba: A Grammar Sketch. Version 1.0.'' The Afranaph Project.*
*
*
*
Available at the Internet Archive.* The first grammar of Yoruba
Available at the Internet Archive.*
*
*
External links
Yoruba WikipediaYoruba dictionarykasahorow Yoruba DictionaryỌrọ èdè Yorùbá
lingua: Yoruba-Online-Dictionary English-Yoruba / Yoruba-English
Sabere d'owo Yoruba video drama series Radio Abeokuta (2006).
Pan-African Localizationpage for Yoruba
Journal of West African Languages: Yoruba*
Abibitumi Kasa Yorùbá Language Resources
Yorùbá Yé Mi – A Beginning Yorùbá TextbookA Vocabulary of the Yoruba Language
{{Authority control
Analytic languages
Isolating languages
Languages of Benin
Languages of Nigeria
Subject–verb–object languages
Whistled languages
Language
Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...
Language
Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...
Yoruboid languages
Languages of the Caribbean
Languages of Trinidad and Tobago
Languages of Jamaica
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