Yoruba language
Template:Short description Template:Infobox Language Template:Infobox ethnonym
Yoruba (Template:IPAc-en,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Template:IPAc-en;<ref>Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh</ref> Yor. {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}}) is a Niger-Congo language that is spoken in West Africa, primarily in South West Nigeria, Benin, and parts of Togo. It is spoken by the Yoruba people. Yoruba speakers number roughly 50 million,<ref name="e28-hau">Template:E28</ref> including around 2 million second-language or L2 speakers.<ref name="e28-yor">Template:E28</ref> As a pluricentric language, it is primarily spoken in a dialectal area spanning Nigeria, Benin, and Togo with smaller migrated communities in Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone and Gambia.
Yoruba vocabulary is also used in African diaspora religions such as the Afro-Brazilian religions of Candomblé and Umbanda, the Caribbean religion of Santería in the form of the liturgical Lucumí language, and various Afro-American religions of North America. Among modern practitioners of these religions in the Americas, Yoruba is a liturgical language, as most of them are not fluent in it, yet they still use Yoruba words and phrases for songs or chants, which are rooted in cultural traditions. For such practitioners, the Yoruba lexicon is especially common for ritual purposes, and these modern manifestations have taken new forms that do not depend on vernacular fluency.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
As the principal Yoruboid language, Yoruba is most closely related to Itsekiri (spoken in the Niger Delta) and Igala (spoken in central Nigeria).
History
Template:Further Yoruba is classified among the Edekiri languages, which together with Itsekiri 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).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In present-day 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.<ref name="britannica.com">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Yoruba is used in radio and television broadcasting and is taught at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels.<ref name="britannica.com"/> Historically, Yoruba was spoken by many slaves trafficked to the Americas, particularly Latin America, during the latter period of the Atlantic slave trade.
Varieties
The Yoruba dialect continuum consists of several dialects. The various Yoruba dialects in Yorubaland can be classified into five major dialect areas: Northwest, Northeast, Central, Southwest, and Southeast.Template:Efn Clear boundaries cannot be drawn, but peripheral areas of dialectal regions often have some similarities to adjoining dialects.
- North-East Yoruba (NEY)
- Central Yoruba (CY)
- South-West Yoruba (SWY)
- South-East Yoruba (SEY)
North-West Yoruba was historically spoken in the Ọyọ Empire. In NWY dialects, Proto-Yoruba velar fricative {{#invoke:IPA|main}} 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 after Template:Circa.Template:Sfn In contrast to NWY, lineage, and descent are largely multilineal and cognatic, 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, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} can mean either 'you (pl.) came' or 'they came' in SEY dialects, whereas NWY for example has {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 'you (pl.) came' and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} '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 [ʊ:], which in Western Yoruba has been changed to [ɪ:].
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 dialects, Standard Yoruba incorporates several features from other dialects.Template:Efn It also has some features peculiar to itself, for example, the simplified vowel harmony system, as well as foreign structures, such as calques 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.Template:Citation needed 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
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Template:See also
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, a form of Arabic script.<ref>"Yoruba...written in a version of the Arabic script known as Ajami (or Ajamiyya)."[1]</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It is still written in the Ajami writing script in some Islamic circles. Standard Yoruba orthography originated in the early work of Church Mission Society missionaries working among the Aku (Yoruba) of Freetown. One of their informants 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 largely without tone markings. The only diacritic used was a dot below certain vowels to signify their open variants {{#invoke:IPA|main}} and {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, viz. Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr. Over the years, the orthography was revised to represent tone, among other things. In 1875, the Church Missionary Society (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 modified by the use of the digraph Template:Angbr and certain diacritics, including the underdots under the letters Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr, and Template:Angbr. Previously, the vertical line had been used to avoid the mark being fully covered by an underline, as in ⟨e̩⟩, ⟨o̩⟩, ⟨s̩⟩; however, that usage is no longer common.
| A | B | D | E | Ẹ | F | G | Gb | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | Ọ | P | R | S | Ṣ | T | U | V | W | X | Z |
| a | b | d | e | ẹ | f | g | gb | h | i | j | k | l | m | n | o | ọ | p | r | s | ṣ | t | u | v | w | x | z |
The Latin letters Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr are not used as part of the official orthography of Standard Yoruba and only occur in loan words from English. However, Template:Angbr 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 equivalents, except for the labial–velar consonant {{#invoke:IPA|main}} (written Template:Angbr) and {{#invoke:IPA|main}} (written Template:Angbr), in which both consonants are pronounced simultaneously rather than sequentially. The diacritic underneath vowels indicates an open vowel, pronounced with the root of the tongue retracted (so Template:Angbr is pronounced {{#invoke:IPA|main}} and Template:Angbr is {{#invoke:IPA|main}}). Template:Angbr represents a postalveolar consonant {{#invoke:IPA|main}} like the English Template:Angbr, Template:Angbr represents a palatal approximant like English Template:Angbr, and Template:Angbr a voiced palatal stop {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, as is common in many African orthographies.
In addition to the underdots, three further diacritics are used on vowels and syllabic nasal consonants to indicate the language's tones: an acute accent Template:Angbr for the high tone, a grave accent Template:Angbr for the low tone, and an optional macron Template:Angbr for the middle tone. These are used in addition to the underdots in Template:Angbr and Template:Angbr. When more than one tone is used in one syllable, the vowel can either be written once for each tone (for example, *Template:Angbr for a vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}} with tone rising from low to high) or, more rarely in current usage, combined into a single accent. In this case, a caron Template:Angbr is used for the rising tone (so the previous example would be written Template:Angbr), and a circumflex Template:Angbr for the falling tone.
| Á | À | Ā | É | È | Ē | Ẹ | Ẹ́ | Ẹ̀ | Ẹ̄ | Í | Ì | Ī | Ń | Ǹ | N̄ | Ḿ | M̀ | M̄ | Ó | Ò | Ō | Ọ | Ọ́ | Ọ̀ | Ọ̄ | Ú | Ù | Ū | Ṣ |
| á | à | ā | é | è | ē | ẹ | ẹ́ | ẹ̀ | ẹ̄ | í | ì | ī | ń | ǹ | n̄ | ḿ | m̀ | m̄ | ó | ò | ō | ọ | ọ́ | ọ̀ | ọ̄ | ú | ù | ū | ṣ |
In Benin, 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.
| A | B | D | E | Ɛ | F | G | Gb | H | I | J | K | Kp | L | M | N | O | Ɔ | P | R | S | Sh | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
| a | b | d | e | ɛ | f | g | gb | h | I | j | k | kp | l | m | n | o | ɔ | p | r | s | sh | t | u | v | w | x | y | z |
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 region of both countries.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Phonology
The syllable structure of Yoruba is (C)V(N). Syllabic nasals are also possible. Every syllable bears one of the three tones: high Template:Angle bracket, mid Template:Angle bracket (generally left unmarked), and low Template:Angle bracket. The sentence {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (I didn't go) provides examples of three syllable types:
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} — {{#invoke:IPA|main}} — I
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} — {{#invoke:IPA|main}} — not (negation)
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} — {{#invoke:IPA|main}} — to go
Vowels
Standard Yoruba has seven oral and five nasal vowels. There are no diphthongs in Yoruba; sequences of vowels are pronounced as separate syllables. Dialects differ in the number of vowels they have; see above.
- In some cases, the phonetic realization of these vowels is noticeably different from what the symbol suggests:
- The oral {{#invoke:IPA|main}} is close front Template:IPAblink, and the nasal {{#invoke:IPA|main}} varies between close front Template:IPAblink and near-close front Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfn
- The oral {{#invoke:IPA|main}} is close back Template:IPAblink, and the nasal {{#invoke:IPA|main}} varies between close near-back Template:IPAblink, close back Template:IPAblink, near-close near-back Template:IPAblink and near-close back Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfn
- The oral {{#invoke:IPA|main}} are close-mid {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, and do not have nasal counterparts.Template:Sfn
- The oral {{#invoke:IPA|main}} is open-mid Template:IPAblink, and the nasal {{#invoke:IPA|main}} varies between mid Template:IPAblink and open-mid Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfn
- The oral {{#invoke:IPA|main}} is near-open Template:IPAblink, and the nasal {{#invoke:IPA|main}} varies between open-mid Template:IPAblink and near-open Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfn
- The oral {{#invoke:IPA|main}} is central Template:IPAblink.Template:Sfn
Nasal vowels are by default written as a vowel letter followed by Template:Angle bracket, thus: Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angbr. These do not occur word-initially. In the standard language, {{#invoke:IPA|main}} occurs only in the single word {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ~ {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("that"). The status of the vowel {{#invoke:IPA|main}} is controversial. Several authors have argued it is not phonemically contrastive.Template:Efn Often, it is in free variation with {{#invoke:IPA|main}}. Orthographically, Template:Angbr is used after labial and labial-velar consonants, as in {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("gun"), and Template:Angbr is used after non-labial consonants, as in {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("to shine"). All vowels are nasalized after the consonant {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, and thus there is no additional Template:Angbr in writing ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}). In addition, the consonant {{#invoke:IPA|main}} has a nasal allophone {{#invoke:IPA|main}} before a nasal vowel (see below), and this is reflected in writing: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("inside, belly") ({{#invoke:IPA|main}} → {{#invoke:IPA|main}}).Template:EfnTemplate:Sfn
Consonants
The voiceless plosives {{#invoke:IPA|main}} and {{#invoke:IPA|main}} are slightly aspirated; in some Yoruba varieties, {{#invoke:IPA|main}} and {{#invoke:IPA|main}} are more dental. The rhotic consonant is realized as a flap {{#invoke:IPA|main}}<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> or, in some varieties (notably Lagos Yoruba), as the alveolar approximant {{#invoke:IPA|main}} due to English influence. This is particularly common with Yoruba–English bilinguals.
Like many other languages of the region, Yoruba has the voiceless and voiced labial–velar stops {{#invoke:IPA|main}} and {{#invoke:IPA|main}}: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} 'field', {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} 'all'.Template:Citation needed Notably, in Nigeria it lacks a voiceless bilabial stop {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, apart from phonaesthesia, such as [pĩpĩ] for vehicle horn sounds, and marginal segments found in recent loanwords, such as <pẹ́ńsù> {{#invoke:IPA|main}} for "pencil".<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Yoruba also lacks a phoneme {{#invoke:IPA|main}}; the letter Template:Angle bracket is used for the sound in the orthography, but strictly speaking, it refers to an allophone of {{#invoke:IPA|main}} immediately preceding a nasal vowel.
In addition to this, Yoruba lacks the breathy h that one might find in English words like house or hat. When speaking most people will add a glottal stop, {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, an approximant like {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, or just leave it silent.
There is also a syllabic nasal, which forms a syllable nucleus by itself. When it precedes a vowel, it is a velar nasal {{#invoke:IPA|main}}: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} 'I didn't go'. In other cases, its place of articulation is homorganic with the following consonant: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} 'he is going', {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} 'he is jumping'.
Tone
Yoruba is a tonal language 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 (Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket) and the grave accent for low tone (Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket); mid is unmarked, except on syllabic nasals where it is indicated using a macron (Template:Angle bracket, Template:Angle bracket). Examples:
- H: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} 'he jumped'; {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} 'spoon'
- M: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} 'he is forward'; {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} 'body'
- L: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} 'he asks for pardon'; {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} {{#invoke:IPA|main}} 'spear'.
When teaching Yoruba literacy, solfège names of musical notes are used to name the tones: low is do, mid is re, and high is mi.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Whistled Yoruba
Template:Listen 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 {{#invoke:IPA|main}}, and all vowels are changed to {{#invoke:IPA|main}}. 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 {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, which accompanies singing during festivals and important ceremonies, also uses tone.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
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,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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') of one of the vowels often takes place.<ref>See Bamgboṣe 1965a for more details. See also Ward 1952:123–133 ('Chapter XI: Abbreviations and Elisions').</ref> 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: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} → {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 'buy fish'. Sometimes, however, authors may choose to use an inverted comma to indicate an elided vowel as in {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} → {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} '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: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} → {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 'hearth'; {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} → {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 'grass'; {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} → {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 'truth'.
Vocabulary
Roots
Most verbal roots are monosyllabic of the phonological shape CV(N), for example: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 'to create', {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 'to polish', {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 'to be red'. Verbal roots that do not seem to follow this pattern are mostly former compounds in which a syllable has been elided. For example: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 'to be large', originally a compound of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 'to have' + {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 'to be big' and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 'to whistle', originally a compound of {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 'to eject wind' + {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 'a blowing'. Vowels serve as nominalizing prefixes that turn a verb into a noun form.
Nominal roots are mostly disyllabic, for example: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 'crib, barn', {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 'body', {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} 'fever'. Monosyllabic and even trisyllabic roots do occur but they are less common.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Grammar
Yoruba is a highly isolating language.<ref>Karlsson, F. Yleinen kielitiede. ("General linguistics") Helsinki: Helsinki University Press, 1998.</ref> Its basic constituent order is subject–verb–object,Template:Sfn as in {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("he beat Adé"). The bare verb stem denotes a completed action, often called perfect; tense and aspect are marked by preverbal particles such as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (imperfect/present continuous) or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (past). Negation is expressed by a preverbal particle {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}. Serial verb constructions are common, as in many other languages of West Africa.
Although Yoruba has no grammatical gender,<ref>Ogunbowale, P. O. (1970). The Essentials of the Yoruba Language. University of London Press: London.</ref> it has a distinction between human and non-human nouns when it comes to interrogative particles: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} for human nouns ("who?") and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} for non-human nouns ("what?"). The associative construction (covering possessive/genitive and related notions) consists of juxtaposing nouns in the order modified-modifier as in {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("inside box", "the inside of the box"), {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("Akande's cap") or {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("box for clothes").Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn More than two nouns can be juxtaposed: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("railway underground", "underground railway"),Template:Sfn {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("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.Template:ClarifyTemplate:Sfn
There are two prepositions: {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("on", "at", "in") and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("onto", "towards"). The former indicates location and absence of movement, and the latter encodes location/direction with movement.Template:Sfn Position and direction are expressed by the prepositions in combination with spatial relational nouns like {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("top"), {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("side"), {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("inside"), {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("edge"), {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("under"), {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ("down"), etc. Many of the spatial relational terms are historically related to body-part terms.
Numerals
{{ safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst||date=__DATE__ |$B=Template:AmboxTemplate:Main other }} {{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Yoruba uses a vigesimal (base-20) numbering system.
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, 1, is a basic numeric block.
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} = 2.
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} = 3.
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} = 4.
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} = 5.
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} = 6.
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} = 7.
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} = 8.
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} = 9.
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} = 10.
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} = 20.
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, 40, ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) = 20 multiplied by 2 ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}).
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, 60, ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) = 20 multiplied by 3 ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}).
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, 80, ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) = 20 multiplied by 4 ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}).
- {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, 100, ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) = 20 multiplied by 5 ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}).
- – 16 ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) = 4 less than 20.
- – 17 ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) = 3 less than 20.
- – 18 ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) = 2 less than 20.
- – 19 ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) = 1 less than 20.
- – 21 ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) = 1 increment on 20.
- – 22 ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) = 2 increment on 20.
- – 23 ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) = 3 increment on 20.
- – 24 ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) = 4 increment on 20.
- – 25 ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) = 5 increment on 20.
- – 30 ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) = 10 increment on 20
- -50 ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) = 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 and Turanci Hausa and Wolof in West Africa being the primary beneficiaries. Adelabu, a Ph D graduate from Damascus cited—among many other common usages—the following words to be Yoruba's derivatives of Arabic vocabularies:<ref>DELAB International Newsmagazine, November 2005 Template:ISSN link</ref>Template:Better source needed
Some loanwords
- Sanma: Heaven or sky, from {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration
- Alubarika: blessing, from {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration
- Alumaani: wealth, money, resources, from {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration
- Amin: Arabic form of the Hebrew religious term Amen, from {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} Template:Transliteration
Some common Arabic words used in Yoruba are names of the days such as {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) for Tuesday, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) for Wednesday, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) for Thursday, and {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, Jumu'ah) for Friday. By far, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is the most favourably used. This is because {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, the Yoruba word for Friday, means 'delay'. This is an unpleasant word for Friday, {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, which also implies failure, laziness, or abandonment.<ref>A lecture by Abu-Abdullah Adelabu of AWQAF Africa, London titled: "The History Of Islam in 'The Black History'" DELAB International Newsmagazine, April 2003 Template:ISSN link</ref>Template:Better source needed Ultimately, the standard words for the days of the week are {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, for Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday respectively. Friday remains {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} in the Yoruba language.
Literature
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}
Spoken literature
•Odu Ifa, •Oriki, •Ewi, •Esa, •Àlọ́, •Rara, •Iremoje, •Bolojo, •Ijala, •Ajangbode, •Ijeke, Alámọ̀
Written literature
- Samuel Ajayi Crowther
- Wande Abimbola
- Reverend Samuel Johnson
- Yemi Elebuibon
- Femi Osofisan
- Daniel Olorunfemi Fagunwa
- Adebayo Faleti
- Akinwunmi Isola
- Obo Aba Hisanjani
- Duro Ladipo
- J.F. Odunjo
- Afolabi Olabimtan
- Wole Soyinka
- Amos Tutuola
- Lawuyi Ogunniran
- Kola Tubosun
As of 2024, the Template:Ill is the most visited website in Yoruba.<ref name="The Nation 17 February 2024">Template:Cite news</ref>
Music
- Ibeyi, Cuban francophone sister duo, often sing in Lucumí, a liturgical variety of Yoruba used in Santería.
- Sakara, a Yoruba song originating from Abeokuta, 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, Afrobeat creator
See also
Notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
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- 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.
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History
Dictionaries
Grammars and sketches
- Adesola, Oluseye (2005). Yoruba: A Grammar Sketch. Version 1.0. The Afranaph Project.
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- Template:Cite book The first grammar of Yoruba. Available at the Internet Archive.
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External links
Template:Sister project Template:Sister project Template:Wikivoyage
- Yoruba Wikipedia
- Omniglot: Yoruba orthography
- Yoruba dictionary
- kasahorow Yoruba Dictionary
- Ọrọ èdè Yorùbá Template:Webarchive
- lingua: Yoruba-Online-Dictionary English-Yoruba / Yoruba-English Template:Webarchive
- Sabere d'owo Yoruba video drama series. Radio Abeokuta (2006).
- Pan-African Localization page for Yoruba
- Journal of West African Languages: Yoruba
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- Abibitumi Kasa Yorùbá Language Resources Template:Webarchive
- Yorùbá Yé Mi – A Beginning Yorùbá Textbook
- A Vocabulary of the Yoruba Language
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- Yoruba language
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- Languages of Benin
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- Subject–verb–object languages
- Whistled languages
- Yoruba culture
- History of the Yoruba people
- Yoruboid languages
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