Pronunciation Guide
How to read the diacritics and tone marks used throughout this corpus, with worked examples and links to audio resources.
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How to read the diacritics and tone marks used throughout this corpus, with worked examples and links to audio resources.
The Yorùbá wey dem quote, the proverbs, oríkì, ẹsẹ Ifá, word list headwords, Odù names and citations dey exactly as the corpus record dem, for every language.
Dem write Yorùbá for inside dis corpus with full diacritics, because di marks na part of di spelling and if you commot dem, di meaning go lost. Dis file dey explain wetin each mark dey do. Fifteen minutes here go make you fit read every Yorùbá word for inside di corpus with roughly di right shape, wey no be di same thing as to speak am well, but e dey enough to make you no read am wrong.
Two different types of mark dey, and dem dey do different work completely. Mark wey dey under letter dey change di letter itself. Mark wey dey on top letter dey set di pitch. Dem dey join together anyhow, so one single vowel fit carry di two.
Yorùbá dey use three letters wey dot dey under dem to separate dem, and na separate letters of di alphabet dem be, no be say na accented version of di plain ones .
| Letter | Sound | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| ẹ | [ɛ] | like di English bet |
| e | [e] | e dey closer to di vowel inside they, without di glide for di end |
| ọ | [ɔ] | like di British thought |
| o | [o] | e dey closer to di vowel inside go, without di glide |
| ṣ | [ʃ] | di sh sound |
| s | [s] | plain s |
If you commot di dot for under, e go join words wey suppose dey different together. Ọ̀ṣun wey be di river and òrìṣà no be Osun, and òrìṣà no be orisa. Anywhere wey you see dem spell dis words without di dot for under, na because keyboard limit dem, no be say na another spelling.
Yorùbá get three phonemic tones: High, Mid and Low . Pitch na part of di word di same way consonant be, so if you miss di tone, no be accent issue, na another word you don talk.
| Tone | How dem dey write am | Example |
|---|---|---|
| High | acute accent, á | rá, to disappear |
| Mid | no mark, a | ra, to rub |
| Low | grave accent, à | rà, to buy |
ra, rá and rà get di same consonant and di same vowel, but dem be three different words .
Di way wey make sense pass to understand am na like music. Low roughly be like do, Mid roughly be like re, High roughly be like mi . Dis ones depend on di person voice range, no be say na fixed pitch for everybody, and na level tones dem be, no be slide or glide.
Mid na di default wey no dey get mark, so vowel wey no get any mark for on top no mean say e no get tone, na mid e be.
One vowel fit carry both dot for under and tone mark for on top at di same time, and you need di two.
Ọ̀ṣun: ọ with dot for under and grave accent, so na di open [ɔ] vowel on top low tone, den ṣ as sh, den un.
Ṣàngó: ṣ as sh, à low, den ngó high. Di n here dey show say di vowel wey dey before am na nasal, no be separate consonant.
Èṣù: è low, ṣ as sh, ù low.
Ifá: i mid, fá high.
Òrìṣà: ò low, rì low, ṣà low. Three low tones follow each other, na why e dey flat dey drop down when dem dey speak am.
Àṣẹ: à low, ṣẹ mid on top di open [ɛ] vowel.
Ọlọ́dùmarè: ọ mid, lọ́ high, dù low, ma mid, rè low.
Three of dem dey confuse readers wey think say na English sound dem get .
p no be English p. E dey represent [k͡p], wey dem dey pronounce by closing lips and di soft palate at di same time and releasing dem together. Plain [p] no dey inside native Yorùbá words. Ọpọ́n, di divination tray, dey start with dis sound.
gb na di voiced pair to am, [ɡ͡b], one single sound and one single letter for di alphabet, no be g wey follow b. English no get anything like am. Ẹbọ no get am, but gbogbo, meaning all, na dis sound full inside.
r na tap, e closer to Spanish single r pass di English one.
Di alphabet as dem dey normally teach am get 25 letters, and e no get c, q, v, x, z, and e no get plain p like di English one .
Five vowels dey nasalised, and dem dey write dem with n for front: in, ẹn, an, ọn, un . Di n no be separate consonant wey you go pronounce; na mark to show say di vowel na nasal, say breeze dey pass through nose. Na why ìwọ̀n, measure, na two syllables instead of three.
Nasal consonant fit be syllable on im own and carry im own tone, na why e dey show with tone mark: ń, ǹ . E dey show inside continuous marker ń and inside words like ǹkan, meaning thing. For syllabic nasal, dem dey write mid tone with macron, n̄, instead of leaving am without mark .
Yorùbá syllables dey come in three shapes: consonant plus vowel, vowel alone, or syllabic nasal . Consonant cluster no dey, and consonant no dey end syllable for native words, na why borrowed words dey change shape when dem enter: school dey turn to sùkúù, bread dey turn to búrẹ́dì.
Wetin dis one mean for reading na say you fit divide any Yorùbá word into CV chunks and read dem equally. Ba-ba-lá-wo. Ọ-lọ́-dù-ma-rè. Ì-yẹ̀-ro-sùn. Yorùbá no get English stress, so make you no try press one syllable pass di others; di tone marks dey do di work wey stress dey do for English, and if you add stress put on top syllable, e go make you harder to understand instead of easier.
Dis words dey show up regularly for inside di corpus.
| Word | Rough shape | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Ifá | i-FÁ (mid, high) | di divination system |
| Òrìṣà | ò-rì-ṣà (low, low, low) | a divinity |
| Àṣẹ | à-ṣẹ (low, mid) | efficacy, power to make things happen |
| Orí | o-RÍ (mid, high) | head, inner head, destiny |
| Ìwà | ì-wà (low, low) | character |
| Èṣù | è-ṣù (low, low) | di messenger òrìṣà |
| Ẹbọ | ẹ-bọ (mid, mid) | offering |
| Odù | o-DÙ, mid den low | a sign of Ifá |
| Babaláwo | ba-ba-LÁ-wo (mid, mid, high, mid) | Ifá priest |
| Ọmọlúàbí | ọ-mọ-LÚ-à-bí (mid, mid, high, low, high) | person of good character |
To read tone mark no be di same thing as to hear tone, and book page no fit replace audio. Dis na di free resources wey make sense to use.
Forvo, na pronunciation dictionary wey people dey contribute to wey get Yorùbá section, for https://forvo.com/languages/yo/ . Na users dey record and vote on di recordings; di quality dey vary, and dem no dey always identify di speaker dialect .
The Yorùbá Dictionary wey University of Wisconsin dey host, na dictionary wey give context for people wey dey learn, with sound and pronunciation note dem, for https://wisc.pb.unizin.org/yorubadictionary/front-matter/yoruba-sounds-and-pronunciation/ .
The University of Iowa Center for Language and Culture Learning get list of Yorùbá language material dem wey include pronunciation guide and grammar book dem, for https://clcl.uiowa.edu/language-resources/yoruba-language-and-culture-resources .
YorubaName.com, na dictionary of Yorùbá name dem wey different people contribute to, wey get tone mark and audio for many of dem. E dey useful well-well because na for name majority of readers of this corpus don already get vocabulary, and na there dem go quick notice say dem dey pronounce their own name wrongly before.
For òrìṣà name dem, festival recording dem, and drum pattern dem, the arts section of this corpus dey point go audio collection dem wey dey archive.
People dey often write Yorùbá without diacritics for newspaper, sign board, most Nigerian online use, and almost all English writing about the Yorùbá. Readers dey manage read am because context dey make the meaning clear most of the time. This corpus write dem anyway, for two reason: the confusion wey context dey resolve for person wey sabi the language well no be wetin learner fit resolve, and corpus wey remove the marks dey teach people to read version of the language wey dem no fit pronounce from the page. To write Yorùbá without tone near to writing English without vowel pass writing English without italics .
Spoken Yorùbá tone and phonology develop over centuries across Yorùbáland as part of Niger-Congo language family, wey pass from generation to generation through oral performance, palace of oba dem, and religious practice . For pre-colonial time, the military and administrative expansion of Ọ̀yọ́ Empire spread one standard northern speech style across large territory dem, wey set wide rule dem for spoken communication and court recitation . As Ọ̀yọ́ collapse and the nineteenth-century Yorùbá civil war dem scatter whole community dem, e make different dialect meet and mix words together quick-quick across new urban center dem like Ìbàdàn and Abẹ́òkúta .
Missionary contact for the 1840s bring the first systematic effort to write the language with Latin alphabet . Church Missionary Society linguist dem, under the leadership of the liberated Yorùbá clergyman Samuel Ajayi Crowther, face the problem of how to represent Yorùbá tone dem and open vowel dem wey English orthography no get . Crowther publish im first vocabulary and grammar book dem for 1843 and 1852, where e put subdot and tone accent dem to make meaning clear for Bible translation dem . The 1875 Church Missionary Society orthography conference for Lagos formally adopt the system of subdot dem and three phonemic tone mark dem .
Under British colonial rule for the twentieth century, colonial education policy dem and administrative printing make standard written Yorùbá solid well-well, even as mechanical typewriter dem often leave out tone mark dem because of technical limitation . After Nigeria get independence for 1960, academic body dem and national orthography committee dem for 1974 further clean up standard Yorùbá spelling rule dem for school curriculum and official publication dem . Today, digital communication and movement across the world don create new dynamics for Yorùbá phonology and script . For African diaspora, especially for Lucumí liturgical tradition dem for Cuba and Candomblé Ketu for Brazil, sacred chant dem preserve old tonal and word pattern dem even where everyday speaking don reduce . At the same time, modern linguist dem, keyboard developer dem, and digital platform dem dey actively use Unicode tool dem to make sure say diacritics and tone mark dem continue to work fully across modern software .
Alphabetical glossary of Yorùbá terms used across the corpus, each with diacritics, a literal gloss where one is documented, a plain definition, and the section that treats it fully.
Four ordered routes through the corpus with time estimates, for the curious newcomer, the diaspora Yorùbá reconnecting, the reader who came for Ifá as an information system, and the parent teaching children.
What Ifá is, how the divination actually works step by step, how the binary structure produces 256 addresses into a memorised corpus, and what is true and false in the claim that it is an ancient computer.
The Yorùbá sound system and its three tones, with worked minimal pairs showing how pitch alone changes a word's meaning.
An analysis of the Yorùbá three-level register tone system, demonstrating through minimal pairs and grammatical operations why tone is an essential phonemic component rather than optional decoration.
What an òrìṣà is, how the pantheon is organised, who the major figures are, how devotion actually works, and why the demon framing does not describe any of it.