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Yoruba
Èdè Yorùbá
Native to
Benin · Nigeria · Togo
Region
Yorubaland
Ethnicity
Yoruba
Native speakers
L1: 45 million (2021)[1] L2: 2.0 million (no date)[1]
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People
Ọmọ Yorùbá
Language
Èdè Yorùbá
Country
Ilẹ̀ Yorùbá
A Yoruba speaker, recorded in South Africa
Yoruba (US: /ˈjɔːrəbə/,[2]UK: /ˈjɒrʊbə/;[3] Yor. Èdè Yorùbá, IPA:[jōrùbá]; Ajami: عِدعِ يوْرُبا) is a language that is spoken in West Africa, primarily in Southwestern and Central Nigeria. It is spoken by the ethnic Yoruba people. The number of Yoruba speakers is roughly 45 million, plus about 2 million second-language speakers.[1] As a pluricentric language, it is primarily spoken in a dialectal area spanning Nigeria, Benin, and Togo with smaller migrated communities in Côte d'Ivoire, Sierra Leone and The Gambia.
Yoruba vocabulary is also used in the Afro-Brazilian religion known as Candomblé, in the Caribbean religion of Santería in the form of the liturgical Lucumí language and in various Afro-American religions of North America. Most modern practitioners of these religions in the Americas do not actually speak or understand the Yoruba language, rather they use Yoruba words and phrases for songs that for them are incomprehensible. Usage of a lexicon of Yoruba words and short phrases during ritual is also common, but they have gone through changes due to the fact that Yoruba is no longer a vernacular for them and fluency is not required.[4][5][6][7]
As the principal Yoruboid language, Yoruba is most closely related to the languages Itsekiri (spoken in the Niger Delta), and Igala (spoken in central Nigeria).
^ abcYoruba at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
^"Yoruba". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
^Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh
^Valdés, Vanessa K. (2015-03-04). "Yoruba Traditions and African American Religious Nationalism by Tracey E. Hucks (review)". Callaloo. 38 (1): 234–237. doi:10.1353/cal.2015.0025. ISSN 1080-6512. S2CID 143058809.
Yoruba (US: /ˈjɔːrəbə/, UK: /ˈjɒrʊbə/; Yor. Èdè Yorùbá, IPA: [jōrùbá]; Ajami: عِدعِ يوْرُبا) is a language that is spoken in West Africa, primarily in...
Most Yoruba people speak the Yorubalanguage, which is the Niger-Congo language with the largest number of native or L1 speakers. In Africa, the Yoruba are...
The Yoruba alphabet (Yoruba: Álífábẹ́ẹ̀tì Yorùbá) is either of two Latin alphabets used to write the Yorubalanguage, one in Nigeria and one in neighboring...
A Yorùbá name is a name that is part of a naming tradition that is primarily used by the Yoruba people and Yorubalanguage–speaking individuals in Benin...
sovereign nations that the Yoruba inhabit. Yoruba people traditionally speak the Yorùbálanguage, a member of the Niger–Congo language family. Apart from referring...
and Turpan dialects continue to be spoken. Standard Yoruba is the literary form of the Yorubalanguage of West Africa, the standard variety learnt at school...
The Yoruba religion (Yoruba: Ìṣẹ̀ṣe), West African Orisa (Òrìṣà), or Isese (Ìṣẹ̀ṣe), comprises the traditional religious and spiritual concepts and practice...
of Yoruba people and Yoruba faiths in all of Africa. Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago are the countries in the Americas where Yoruba cultural...
republic of Nigeria. In the Yorubalanguage, the word 'oba' means ruler or king. It is also common for the rulers of the various Yoruba domains to have their...
Yoruba Americans (Yoruba: Àwọn ọmọ Yorùbá Amẹrika) are Americans of Yoruba descent. The Yoruba people are a West African ethnic group that predominantly...
contains a single morpheme. Examples of widely spoken isolating languages are Yoruba in West Africa and Vietnamese (especially its colloquial register)...
may be considered official variants of the same language. Although Itsekiri and the South Eastern Yoruba dialects are mutually intelligible to varying degrees...
Nigeria and the rest of Africa. The Yorubalanguage is spoken in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo, as well as in dispersed Yoruba communities throughout the world...
Yorubaland (Yoruba: Ilẹ̀ Káàárọ̀-Oòjíire) is the homeland and cultural region of the Yoruba people in West Africa. It spans the modern-day countries of...
Oduduwa was a Yoruba man from igbo ora, Yoruba divine king, legendary founder of the Ife Empire and a creator deity (orisha) in the Yoruba religion. According...
every child is born into a patrilineal clan called idile baba in Yorubalanguage. The clan share clan names (orile), poetry (oriki), taboos (eewo) and...
development of Yorùbálanguage, arts, and culture, through collaboration with scholars, politicians, businessmen and experts in Yorubalanguage, culture, economics...
According to Lounge, the Yorubalanguage has a rather elaborate vigesimal (base-20) numeral system that involves both addition and subtraction and multiplication...
production. The first New wave film to be shown at a cinema was the Yoruba-language film Irapada (2006) by Kunle Afolayan, which was screened at the Silverbird...
An IETF BCP 47 language tag is a standardized code that is used to identify human languages on the Internet. The tag structure has been standardized by...
The major native languages, in terms of population, are Hausa (over 80 million when including second-language, or L2, speakers), Yoruba (over 54 million...
Yoruba cuisine is the numerous and diverse foods of the Yoruba people of Yorubaland (Yoruba native regions of Nigeria, Benin and Togo). Some notable Yoruba...
Togo that is closely related to the Yorubalanguage. The best-known variety is Ife. Kluge (2011) includes Yoruba within Ede. The Ede dialects include...
preferred spelling varies depending on the language in question: òrìṣà is the spelling in the Yorubalanguage, orixá in Portuguese, and orisha, oricha,...
Global Information
Nigeria
Benin
Togo
