Yoruba

Yoruba belongs to the Yoruboid group of languages, a group belonging to the BenueCongo branch of the Niger-Congo language family. Other Yoruboid languages include the group of dialects referred to collectively as the Akoko cluster and Igala. Yoruba has about twenty distinct dialects (for example, O. yo. , Ekiti, E. gba, Ije.bu, Ijes.a, Ife. , Igbomina, Ondo, O. wo. , Yagba). The vast majority of the speakers of Yoruba are found in Nigeria (upwards of 20 million), located particularly in Lagos, O. yo. Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti, O. s.un, Kogi and Kwara states – states that essentially make up the southwestern corner of the country. Speakers are also found in southeastern sections of the Republic of Benin, as well as central and northern Togo. It is interesting, however, that the study of Yoruba did not begin in any of the places

just mentioned. In the early nineteenth century, Yorubas began to form a large percentage of the slaves being exported from West Africa. As this period also marked the beginning of the British suppression of the slave trade, it turned out that many of the freed slaves being resettled in Freetown, Sierra Leone, were speakers of Yoruba. When linguistic work undertaken in Freetown was extended to include languages not indigenous to Sierra Leone, Yoruba (or ‘Aku’ as it was commonly called) was a natural choice for study because of the large number of speakers residing in Freetown. In fact, as early as 1831, Yoruba was selected as one of two African languages to be used as the medium of instruction in a Sierra Leone girls’ school. In the 1840s, however, the study of Yoruba began to shift to Yorubaland itself. The sending of the Niger expedition by the British government signalled the beginning of CMS (Church Missionary Society) missionary activity in Yorubaland. One of the central figures in the early study of Yoruba was Samuel Crowther. Crowther was a Yoruba slave who was liberated and settled in Freetown. There he received an education and began his study of Yoruba. After accompanying the Niger expedition to Yorubaland, he both became a priest and published his first work on Yoruba (a grammar and vocabulary). The CMS established itself in Abe.okuta; translation of the Bible

(from to 1867 – perhaps the earliest such vernacular periodical to be published in West Africa). One of the particularly important things that happened at this time was a concerted

group effort aimed at establishing an efficient orthography for Yoruba. The result, which included digraphs for certain phonemes and diacritically modified letters for others, involved contributions from scholars and missionaries in Europe, Freetown and Abe.okuta. Crowther’s adoption of the revised orthography in conjunction with his considerable success as a translator did much to establish and promote standard Yoruba. The orthography adopted by Crowther and others in the 1850s was revised in the 1960s and 1970s by the Yoruba Orthography Committee. This committee was charged with the responsibility of resolving issues pertaining to inconsistencies in the orthography. Before entering into a discussion of issues of Yoruba orthography and grammar, it is

appropriate to note the influence that Yoruba language and culture have had in a variety of areas outside Yorubaland. Yoruba slaves were extremely influential in certain areas of Brazil and Cuba. For example, the Nagos (Yorubas) of Bahia in Brazil preserved Yoruba as a ceremonial language at least until very recently. And there are reportedly still small numbers of Yorubas in Sierra Leone. Yoruba has also undergone revivals such as that exhibited in O. yo. tunji village of the United States. Even where Yoruba has ceased to be spoken, it has often exerted a considerable impact on the languages that have replaced it – such as Krio in Sierra Leone. In Yorubaland itself, Yoruba has an established and thriving literature, including books,

newspapers, picture magazines, etc. Today, Yoruba is acquired as a first language in Yoruba-speaking homes and as a second or third language by high school students who are compelled by the National Policy on Education to learn a major Nigerian language in addition to their mother tongue. At the tertiary level, Yoruba programmes are quite vibrant. Currently, Yoruba serves as the medium of instruction for courses in Yoruba linguistics and literature in several Nigerian universities. In the 1950s and 1960s, when the Yoruba curriculum consisted mainly of reading classical novels composed of themes illustrating Yoruba customs and traditions, there was no difficulty in teaching Yoruba through Yoruba. However, much difficulty was encountered as higher level technical linguistic concepts were taught in the 1970s. To address this issue, the National Educational Research Council sponsored a Yoruba Metalanguage Project, which the Yoruba Studies Association (YSA) executed. The association has produced two volumes of the Yoruba metalanguage edited by A. Bamgbos.e (1984) and O. . Awobuluyi (1988). One remarkable success of this project is that language and literature theses up to the doctoral level can now be written completely in Yoruba. In the media, Yoruba is well established as a broadcasting language for both radio and

television. It is used in government circles in the Yoruba-speaking states for political campaigns and public enlightenment. Furthermore, there is a thriving Yoruba movie industry, which is an offshoot of the traditional travelling theatre. These Yoruba movies use Yoruba language and drama to illustrate the Yoruba cultural cosmos (for example, Ayé ‘Life!’ by H. Ogunde), and are thus popular among Yorubas in Africa and Diaspora.