Yoruba

Story

Yoruba belongs to the Volta-Niger branch of Niger-Congo and is a three-tone language where pitch distinguishes words, so the same syllable can mean different things depending on whether it is spoken high, mid, or low. Standard Yoruba orthography was created in the 1850s by Samuel Ajayi Crowther, himself a formerly enslaved Yoruba man who became Africa's first Anglican bishop. The Ifa divination corpus, which is associated with the Yoruba deity of wisdom, is recognised by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and relies on an enormous oral-literary tradition in the language. Enslaved Yoruba people carried the language and its religious traditions to the Americas, where it continues to underpin religions like Candomble and Santeria in Brazil, Cuba, and Trinidad.

At a glance

• Also known as: Ede Yoruba
• Family: Niger-Congo
• Region: West Africa
• Speakers: 50M (total speakers (l1 plus l2), ethnologue estimate (2023): approximately 48 million l1 plus 2 million l2)
• Writing system: Latin (Yoruba alphabet)
• Greeting: E kaabo (welcome / hello)

Spoken in

Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Gambia

Common questions