Yorùbá

Yorùbá is one of the four official languages of Nigeria and is a member of the Niger-Congo family of languages. It is spoken by about 22 million people in southwest Nigeria, Benin, Togo, the UK, Brazil and the USA.

Yorùbá first appeared in writing during the 19th century. The first Yorùbá publications were a number of teaching booklets produced by John Raban in 1830-2. The person who made the biggest contribution to Yorùbá literacy was Bishop Ajayi (Samual) Crowther (1806-1891), who studied many of the languages of Nigeria, including Yorùbá, and wrote and translated in some of them. Crowther was also the first Christian bishop of West African origin. A Yorùbá orthography appeared in about 1850, though it has undergone a number of changes since then.

The Yorùbá Alphabet (Abidi Yorùbá)

Yorùbá Alphabet

Yorùbá is a tonal language with three tones: high, mid and low. The high tone is indicated by an acute accent (á, é, ẹ́, í, ó, ọ́ and ú). The mid tone is not marked and the low tone is marked with a grave acute (à, è, ẹ̀, ì, ò, ọ̀ and ù).

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Yoruba

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Yoruba language courses and dictionaries

Links

Learn Yorùbá - online lessons
http://www.learnyoruba.com/

YorubaWorld - online lessons, games and other resources
http://www.kazicom.cwc.net/yorubaworld/frame.htm

Online Yoruba dictionary
http://www.yoruba.georgiasouthern.edu

Other Niger-Congo languages

Akan, Bambara, Bemba, Chichewa, Duala, Ewe, Ewondo, Ga, Ganda, Herero, Igbo, Kirundi, Kpelle, Lingala, Mende, Shona, Southern Sotho, Swahili, Twi, Wolof, Xhosa, Yorùbá, Zulu

Other languages written with the Latin alphabet