Standard Yoruba

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Standard Yoruba (also known as literary Yoruba, the Yoruba koiné, common Yoruba and often simply as Yoruba) is the written form of the West African Yoruba language, which is commonly taught at schools and spoken by newsreaders on the radio. Standard Yoruba has its origin in the 1850's, when Samuel A. Crowther, a native Yoruba and the first African Bishop, published a Yoruba grammar book and started his translation of the Bible. Although a large part of Standard Yoruba is based on the Ọyọ and Ibadan dialects, Standard Yoruba incorporates several features from other dialects[1]. Additionally, it has some features peculiar to itself, for example the simplified vowel harmony system, as well as its policy on foreign structures, such as calques from English which originated from early translations of religious works.

Because the use of Standard Yoruba did not result from a deliberate linguistic policy, much controversy exists as to what constitutes 'genuine Yoruba'. Some writers hold the opinion that the Ọyọ dialect is the most pure form, while and others state that there is no such thing as genuine Yoruba at all.[2]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Cf. for example the following remark by Adetugbọ (1967, as cited in Fagborun 1994:25): "While the orthography agreed upon by the missionaries represented to a very large degree the phonemes of the Abẹokuta dialect, the morpho-syntax reflected the Ọyọ-Ibadan dialects".
  2. ^ Cf. Fagborun (1994).


[edit] References

  • Ajayi, J.F. Ade (1960). "How Yoruba was Reduced to Writing". Odu: A Journal of Yoruba, Ẹdo and Related Studies (8): 49-58.
  • Adetugbọ, Abiọdun (1973). “The Yoruba Language in Yoruba History”, Biobaku, S.O. (ed.): Sources of Yoruba History, 176-204.
  • Bamgboṣe, Ayọ (1965). Yoruba Orthography. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press.
  • Fagborun, J. Gbenga (1994). The Yoruba Koiné – its History and Linguistic Innovations, LINCOM Linguistic Edition vol. 6., München/Newcastle: LINCOM Europe.
  • Hair, P.E.H. (1967). “The Early Study of Yoruba, 1825-1850”, The Early Study of Nigerian Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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