Yoruba language and Oread: Difference between pages

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{{Greek myth (nymph)}}

{{language|name=Yoruba|nativename=Yorùbá

In [[Greek mythology]], '''Oreads''' (ὄρος, "mountain") were a type of [[nymph]] that lived in mountains. They were associated with [[Aphrodite]].

|familycolor=orange

|states=[[Nigeria]], [[Benin]], [[Togo]], others

|region=[[West Africa]]

|speakers=>20 million|rank=49

|family=[[Niger-Congo languages|Niger-Congo]]<br />

&nbsp;[[Atlantic-Congo languages|Atlantic-Congo]]<br />

&nbsp;&nbsp;[[Volta-Congo languages|Volta-Congo]]<br />

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[[Benue-Congo languages|Benue-Congo]]<br />

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[[Defoid languages|Defoid]]<br />

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[[Yoruboid languages|Yoruboid]]<br />

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[[Edekiri languages|Edekiri]]<br />

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'''Yorùbá''' <!-- Source: Ethnologue -->

|nation=[[Nigeria]]

|agency=''unknown''

|iso1=yo|iso2=yor|sil=yor}}

=== Oreads ===

'''Yoruba''' (native name ''Yorúbà'') is a [[dialect continuum]] of sub-[[Sahara]]n Africa. The native tongue of the [[Yoruba]] people, it is spoken, among other languages, in [[Nigeria]], [[Benin]], and [[Togo]] and traces of it are found among communities in [[Brazil]] and [[Cuba]] (where it is called Nago). It belongs to the [[Benue-Congo]] branch of the [[Niger-Congo]] language family, and has over 22 million speakers. Yoruba is an [[isolating language|isolating]], [[tone (linguistics)|tonal language]] with [[SVO]] syntax. Apart from referring to the dialect cluster and its speakers as a whole, the term Yoruba is used for the standard, written form of the language.

#[[Britomartis]]

#[[Cynosura]]

#[[Echo (mythology)|Echo]]

#[[Oenone]]

#[[Pitys]]

#[[Pleiades (mythology)|Pleiades]]

##[[Merope|Aero]]

##[[Asterope]]

##[[Dryope]]

##[[Electra]]

##[[Maia]]

##[[Merope]]

##[[Taygete]]

##[[Celaeno]]

##[[Alcyone]]

[[Category:Nymphs]]

{{IPA notice}}

[[de:Oreade]]

==History==

[[lt:Oreadės]]

The ancestor of the Yoruba speakers is, according to their oral traditions, [[Oduduwa]], son of Olúdùmarè, the supreme god of the Yoruba. Although they share a common history, it is only since the second half nineteenth century that the ''children of Oduduwa'' share one name. Before the abolition of the slave trade, some Yoruba groups were known among Europeans as ''Akú'', a name derived from the first words of Yoruba greetings such as ''Ẹ kú àárọ̀'' ‘good morning’ and ''Ẹ kú alẹ́'' ‘good evening’.{{ref|Aku}} At some stage the term ''Yariba'' or ''Yoruba'' came into use, first confined to the Ọyọ Kingdom; the term was used among the Hausa also but its origins are unclear. Under the influence of [[Samuel Crowther]] and subsequent missionaries, and for a large part due to the development of a written version of the language, the term ''Yoruba'' was extended to include all speakers of related dialects.

[[nl:Oreaden]]

[[ru:Оры]]

==Dialects==

[[sv:Oreader]]

The Yoruba dialect continuum consists of over fifteen varieties which can be classified into three major dialect areas: Northwest, Central, and Southeast.{{ref|Adetugbo}}

*Northwest Yoruba.

**Abẹokuta, Ibadan, Ọyọ, and Ọs&#x323;un areas

*Central Yoruba

**Ekiti, Akurẹ, Ẹfọn, and Ijẹs&#x323;a areas.

*Southeast Yoruba

**Okitipupa, Ondo, Ọwọ, Ṣagamu, and parts of Ijẹbu.

===Standard Yoruba===

[[Standard Yoruba]] (also known as ''literary Yoruba'', the ''Yoruba koiné'', ''common Yoruba'' and often simply as Yoruba) is a separate member of the dialect cluster. It is the written form of the language, the standard variety accepted by most of the dialect speakers. Standard Yoruba has its origin in the 1850's, when Samuel A. Crowther, native Yoruba and the first African 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{{ref|Ade1967}}. Additionally, it has some features peculiar to itself only, for example the simplified vowel harmony system, as well as foreign structures, such as [[calque]]s from English which originated in early translations of religious works.

Notably, the use of Standard Yoruba did not result from some deliberate linguistic policy and as a result, much controversy exists as to what constitutes 'genuine Yoruba'. Standard Yoruba has nonetheless been a powerful consolidating factor in the emergence of a common Yoruba identity.

==Phonology==

The three possible syllable structures of Yoruba are consonant+vowel (CV), vowel alone (V), and syllabic nasal (N). Every syllable bears one of the three tones: high &nbsp;́, mid {{unicode|&nbsp;&#x304;}} (generally left unmarked), and low &nbsp;&#x300;. The sentence '{{unicode|n&#x304; ò lo&#x323;}}' ''I didn't go'' provides examples of the three syllable types:

*{{unicode|n&#x304;}} &mdash; {{IPA|[ŋ&#x304;]}} &mdash; ''I''

*ò &mdash; {{IPA|[ó]}} &mdash; ''not'' (negation)

*lo&#x323; &mdash; {{IPA|[l&#x254;]}} &mdash; ''to go''

===Vowels===

The vowel phonemes of Yoruba are:

{|class="wikitable"

! rowspan=2 | &nbsp;

! colspan=2 | [[Oral vowel]]s

! colspan=2 | [[Nasal vowel]]s

|-

! [[Front vowel|Front]]

! [[Back vowel|Back]]

! Front

! Back

|-

! [[Close vowel|Close]]

| align=center | {{IPA|i}}

| align=center | {{IPA|u}}

| align=center | {{IPA|ĩ}}

| align=center | {{IPA|ũ}}

|-

! [[Close-mid vowel|Close-mid]]

| align=center | {{IPA|e}}

| align=center | {{IPA|o}}

| &nbsp;

| &nbsp;

|-

! [[Open-mid vowel|Open-mid]]

| align=center | {{IPA|ɛ}}

| align=center | {{IPA|ɔ}}

| align=center | {{IPA|ɛ̃}}

| align=center | {{IPA|ɔ̃}}

|-

! [[Open vowel|Open]]

| align=center colspan=2 | {{IPA|a}}

| colspan=2 | &nbsp;

|}

The status of a fifth nasal vowel, {{IPA|[ã]}}, is controversial. Although the sound does occur in speech, several authors have argued it to be not phonemically contrastive; often, it is in free variation with {{IPA|[ɔ̃]}}.{{ref|an}} Ortographically, nasal vowels are represented by an oral vowel symbol followed by n, i.e. in, un, e&#x323;n, o&#x323;n.

===Consonants===

{| class="wikitable"

! &nbsp;

![[bilabial consonant|Bilabial]]

![[labiodental consonant|Labiodental]]

![[alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]

![[postalveolar consonant|Postalveolar]]

![[palatal consonant|Palatal]]

![[velar consonant|Velar]]

![[labial-velar consonant|Labial-velar]]

![[glottal consonant|Glottal]]

|-

|'''[[plosive consonant|Plosive]]'''

| align=center | {{IPA|b}}

| &nbsp;

| align=center | {{IPA|t&nbsp;&nbsp;d}}

| &nbsp;

| align=center | {{IPA|ɟ}}

| align=center | {{IPA|k&nbsp;&nbsp;g}}

| align=center | {{IPA|k͡p&nbsp;&nbsp;g͡b}}

| &nbsp;

|-

|'''[[nasal consonant|Nasal]]'''

| align=center | {{IPA|m}}

| &nbsp;

| align=center | ({{IPA|n}})

| &nbsp;

| &nbsp;

| &nbsp;

| &nbsp;

| &nbsp;

|-

|'''[[fricative consonant|Fricative]]'''

| &nbsp;

| align=center | {{IPA|f}}

| align=center | {{IPA|s}}

| align=center | {{IPA|ʃ}}

| &nbsp;

| &nbsp;

| &nbsp;

| align=center | {{IPA|h}}

|-

|'''[[Approximant]]'''

| &nbsp;

| &nbsp;

| align=center| {{IPA|ɾ}}

| &nbsp;

| align=center| {{IPA|j}}

| &nbsp;

| align=center| {{IPA|w}}

| &nbsp;

|-

|'''[[lateral consonant|Lateral approximant]]'''

| &nbsp;

| &nbsp;

| align=center | {{IPA|l}}

| &nbsp;

| &nbsp;

| &nbsp;

| &nbsp;

| &nbsp;

|}

Like many other languages of the region, Yoruba uses [[labial-velar consonant|labial-velar]] [[stop consonant|stop]]s {{IPA|/k&#865;p/}} and {{IPA|/g&#865;b/}}, where stops are pronounced at both [[place of articulation|places of articulation]] simultaneously, and in fact lacks a simple [[voiceless bilabial plosive]] (''p'' in English). Unusually, it also lacks a [[phoneme]] {{IPA|/n/}}; though the letter &lt;n&gt; is used for the sound in the orthography, it strictly speaking refers to an [[allophone]] of {{IPA|/l/}} which immediately precedes a nasal vowel.

There is also a [[syllabic nasal]], not shown on the above table, which forms a [[syllable nucleus]] by itself. When it precedes a vowel it is a velar nasal {{IPA|[ŋ]}}. In other cases its [[place of articulation]] is homorganic with the following consonant.

{|class="wikitable"

| Before:

| Pronounced:

|-

| {{IPA|b, m}}

| align=center | {{IPA|m}}

|-

| {{IPA|f}}

| align=center | {{IPA|ɱ}}

|-

| {{IPA|t, d, s, l, ɾ}}

| align=center | {{IPA|n}}

|-

| {{IPA|ɟ, ʃ, j}}

| align=center | {{IPA|ɲ}}

|-

| {{IPA|k, g, w, h}}, vowel

| align=center | {{IPA|ŋ}}

|-

| {{IPA|k͡p, g͡b}}

| align=center | {{IPA|ŋ͡m}}

|}

===Tone===

The [[tone (linguistics)|tonemes]] of Yoruba are:

{|class="wikitable"

! Tone

| align=center | As written over ''a''

| align=center | As written over syllabic ''n''

|-

| High

| align=center | á

| align=center | {{IPA|ń}}

|-

| Mid

| align=center | a

| align=center | {{IPA|n̄}}

|-

| Low

| align=center | à

| align=center | {{IPA|ǹ}}

|}

==Writing system==

Yoruba orthography originated in the early work of Crowther. In early translations of portions of the English Bible, Crowther used the Latin alphabet without tone markings. The only diacritic used was a dot below certain vowels to signify their [[open vowel|open]] variants {{IPA|[ɛ] and [ɔ]}}, viz. ẹ and ọ. Over the years the orthography was revised to take care of tone marking among other things. In 1875 the Church Missionary Society (CMS) organised 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 Ayo&#x323; Bamgbos&#x323;e's 1965 ''Yoruba Orthography'', a major reform of the earlier orthographies. It employs the [[Latin alphabet]] modified by the use of the [[digraph (orthography)|digraph]] ''gb'' and certain [[diacritic]]s, including the traditional vertical line set under the letters {{unicode|E&#x329;/e&#x329;}}, {{unicode|O&#x329;/o&#x329;}}, and {{unicode|S&#x329;/s&#x329;}}. In many publications the line is replaced by a dot (E&#x323;/e&#x323;, O&#x323;/o&#x323;, S&#x323;/s&#x323;).

{| cellpadding="3"

|A||B||D||E||Ẹ||F||G||Gb||H||I||J||K||L||M||N||O||Ọ||P||R||S||{{unicode|&#7778;}}||T||U||W||Y

|-

|a||b||d||e||ẹ||f||g||gb||h||i||j||k||l||m||n||o||ọ||p||r||s||{{unicode|&#7779;}}||t||u||w||y

|}

The Latin letters ''c, q, v, x, z'' are not used.

The pronunciation of the letters without diacritics corresponds more or less to their [[International Phonetic Alphabet]] equivalents, except for the [[labial-velar consonant|labial-velar]] [[stop consonant|stops]] {{IPA|kp&#865;}} (written as /p/) and {{IPA|[gb&#865;]}} (written as /gb/), in which both consonants are pronounced simultaneously rather than sequentially. The diacritic underneath vowels indicates an [[open vowel]], pronounced with the [[Vowel#Vowel qualities|root of the tongue retracted]] (so {{IPA|''e&#809;''}} is pronounced with an [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] {{IPA|[&#603;&#793;]}} and {{IPA|''o&#809;''}} with an IPA {{IPA|[&#596;&#793;]}}). {{IPA|&lt;s&#809;&gt;}} represents a [[postalveolar consonant]] {{IPA|[&#643;]}} like the English ''sh'', &lt;y&gt; represents a [[palatal approximant]] like English ''y'', and &lt;j&gt; a [[voiced palatal plosive]], as is common in many African orthographies.

===Tone markings===

In addition to the vertical bars, three further diacritics are used on vowels and syllabic [[nasal consonant]]s to indicate the language's tones: an [[acute accent]] for the high tone, a [[grave accent]] for the low tone, and an optional [[macron]] for the middle tone. These are used in addition to the line in {{IPA|''e&#809;''}} and {{IPA|''o&#809;''}}. When more than one tone is used in one syllable, the vowel can either be written once for each tone (for example, *''òó'' for a vowel {{IPA|[o]}} with tone rising from low to high) or, more rarely in current usage, combined into a single accent. In this case, a [[caron]] is used for the rising tone (so the previous example would be written ''ǒ'') and a [[tilde]] for other possibilities.<!--ô looks more logic than õ, though-->

{| cellpadding="3"

|Á||À||Ā||É||È||Ē||Ẹ/{{unicode|E&#809;}}||Ẹ́/{{unicode|É&#809;}}||Ẹ&#768;/{{unicode|È&#809;}}||{{unicode|Ẹ&#772;}}/{{unicode|Ē&#809;}}||Í||Ì||Ī||Ó||Ò||Ō||Ọ/{{unicode|O&#809;}}||Ọ́/{{unicode|Ó&#809;}}||Ọ&#768;/{{unicode|Ò&#809;}}||Ọ{{unicode|&#772;}}/{{unicode|Ō&#809;}}||Ú||Ù||Ū||{{unicode|&#7778;}}/{{unicode|S&#809;}}

|-

|á||à||ā||é||è||ē||ẹ/{{unicode|e&#809;}}||ẹ́/{{unicode|é&#809;}}||ẹ&#768;/{{unicode|è&#809;}}||{{unicode|ẹ&#772;}}/{{unicode|ē&#809;}}||í||ì||ī||ó||ò||ō||ọ/{{unicode|o&#809;}}||ọ́/{{unicode|ó&#809;}}||{{unicode|ọ&#768;}}/{{unicode|ò&#809;}}||{{unicode|ọ&#772;}}/{{unicode|ō&#809;}}||ú||ù||ū||{{unicode|&#7779;}}/{{unicode|s&#809;}}

|}

==Notes and references==

===Notes===

<div style="font-size:85%">

# {{note|Aku}} Fagborun 1994:13.

# {{note|Adetugbo}} This widely followed classification is based on Adetugbọ’s (1982) dialectological study &mdash; the classification originated in his 1967 PhD thesis ''The Yoruba Language in Western Nigeria: Its Major Dialect Areas''.

# {{note|Ade1967}} Cf. for example the following remark by Adetugbọ (1967, as cited in Fagborun 1994:25): "While the orthography agreed upon by the missionaries represented to a very large degree the phonemes of the Abẹokuta dialect, the morpho-syntax reflected the Ọyọ-Ibadan dialects".

# {{note|an}} Notably, AyoŃ BamgbosŃe (1966:8).

</div>

===References===

*Adetugbọ, Abiọdun (1982) 'Towards a Yoruba Dialectology', in Afọlayan (ed.) (1982) ''Yoruba Language and Literature'', pp. 207-224.

*Bamgboṣe, Ayọ (1965) ''Yoruba Orthography''. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press.

*Bamgboṣe, Ayọ (1966) ''A Grammar of Yoruba''. [West African Languages Survey / Institute of African Studies]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

*Crowther, Samual Ajayi (1852) ''Yoruba Grammar''. London.

*Fagborun, J. Gbenga (1994) ''The Yoruba Koiné – its History and Linguistic Innovations''. LINCOM Linguistic Edition vol. 6. München/Newcastle: LINCOM Europe.

*Fresco, Max (1970) ''Topics in Yoruba Dialect Phonology'' (Studies in African Linguistics Supplement Vol. 1). Los Angeles: University of California, Dept. of Linguistics/ASC.

==External links==

{{InterWiki|code=yo}}

*[http://www.learnyoruba.com Learn Yoruba]

*[http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=yor Ethnologue report for Yoruba]

*[http://yo.wikipedia.org Yorùbá Wikipedia]

*[http://www.omniglot.com/writing/yoruba.htm Omniglot: Yoruba orthography]

*[http://geocities.com/edeawoyoruba/ Learn Ifa language, Yoruba (French Version!)]

[[Category:Yorùbá]]

[[Category:Languages of Benin]]

[[Category:Languages of Nigeria]]

[[Category:Languages of Sierra Leone]]

[[Category:Languages of Togo]]

[[Category:Defoid languages]]

[[de:Yoruba (Sprache)]]

[[fr:Yoruba]]

[[ja:ヨルバ語]]

[[nl:Yoruba (taal)]]

[[pt:Língua Yoruba]]

[[tr:Yoruba]]

[[wa:Yorouba]]