Language Centre Resources - Yoruba

Yoruba

A Niger-Congo language and a member of the Kwa family of languages (sometimes also assigned to the Benue-Congo family), spoken by c. 17 million people mainly in south-west Nigeria, where it has official status, with some further speakers in Benin and Togo.

Standard Yoruba is a blend of two closely similar dialects, Oyo and Lagos, although there is a variety of other dialects spread over. It was one of the earliest West African languages to be codified in the 19th century. From the 1920s on an extensive written literature has been produced in Yoruba. There is also a large oral literature of poetry, myths, and proverbs. The language is spelt in the Roman alphabet.

Tone in Yoruba is of cardinal phonemic importance. There are three contrastive tones - high, mid and low.

CLASSIFICATION = Niger-Congo family    SCRIPT = Roman

Courses

Beginner's Yoruba YOR CBEG 1 (PACK)
Colloquial Yoruba : the complete course for beginners YO C.1; YO C.1:1-2(CD)
Jé k'á ka Yorùbá YO C. 3
Yoruba (Teach Yourself) EZ 496.4 EK.1
Yoruba basic course YO CA 0a-46 (Cassettes*)

Listening

The north wind and the sun : basic collection LP M 5a-e
'Our father' in 31 languages LP M 17

Reading

abd : Yoruba : fún àwon omodé àti alàkoobèrè EZ 496.4 EL. 1

Films

Thunderbolt YO L 2(DVD) *

Documentaries

AFRO@DIGITAL YO L 1(DVD) *

Related materials

Twelve Nigerian Languages 496 (Dewey section)