Back Joroeba Afrikaans لغة يوربا Arabic اليوروبيه ARZ Idioma yoruba AST Yoruba dili Azerbaijani Ёруба (мова) Byelorussian Ёруба (мова) BE-X-OLD Йорубски език Bulgarian ইয়োরুবা ভাষা Bengali/Bangla Yoroubeg Breton

Yoruba language

Yoruba
Èdè Yorùbá
PronunciationIPA: [jōrùbá]
Native toBenin · Nigeria · Togo
RegionYorubaland
EthnicityYoruba
Native speakers
L1: 45 million (2021)[1]
L2: 2.0 million (no date)[1]
Early form
Latin (Nigerian Yoruba alphabet, Beninese Yoruba alphabet)
Yoruba Braille
Arabic script (Anjemi)
Oduduwa script
Official status
Official language in
 Nigeria
Recognised minority
language in
Language codes
ISO 639-1yo
ISO 639-2yor
ISO 639-3yor
Glottologyoru1245
Linguasphere98-AAA-a
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.
PeopleỌmọ Yorùbá
LanguageÈdè Yorùbá
CountryIlẹ̀ Yorùbá

Yoruba (US: /ˈjɔːrəbə/,[2] UK: /ˈjɒrʊbə/;[3] Yor. Èdè Yorùbá, IPA: [jōrùbá]) is a language that is spoken in West Africa, primarily in Southwestern and Central Nigeria. It is spoken by the Yoruba people. Yoruba speakers number roughly 47 million, including 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 African diaspora religions such as the Afro-Brazilian religion of Candomblé, the Caribbean religion of Santería in the form of the liturgical Lucumí language, and various Afro-American religions of North America. Most modern practitioners of these religions in the Americas are not fluent in the Yoruba language, yet they still use Yoruba words and phrases for songs or chants—rooted in cultural traditions. For such practicioners, the Yoruba lexicon is especially common for ritual purposes, and these modern manifestions have taken new forms that don't depend on vernacular fluency.[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).

  1. ^ a b c Yoruba at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed access icon
  2. ^ "Yoruba". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
  3. ^ Laurie Bauer, 2007, The Linguistics Student's Handbook, Edinburgh
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ Warner, Maureen (1971). "Trinidad Yoruba — Notes on Survivals". Caribbean Quarterly. 17 (2): 40–49. doi:10.1080/00086495.1971.11829073. ISSN 0008-6495. JSTOR 40653205.
  6. ^ "History of Oyotunji". Oyotunji. Retrieved 2020-10-13.
  7. ^ Nigeria, Know (2017-04-13). "The Oyotunji Village: a Mini Yoruba Empire in the USA". Inspire Afrika. Retrieved 2020-10-13.

Developed by StudentB