Yoruba: A Grammatical Sketch

Yoruba: A Grammar Sketch: Version 1.0

by Oluseye Adesola

1 General Information

Yoruba is a Benue-Congo language spoken mainly in Nigeria by about 30 million native speakers. It is spoken in the western states of Nigeria. Its loan words are mostly from Arabic, English, Hausa and Igbo languages. Its dialects include: Egba, Ijebu, Oyo/Ibadan, Ekiti, Igbomina, Ijesa, Ikale, Ife and Onko.

2 Grammar

2.1 Phonology

2.1.1 The Yoruba Sound System

Yoruba has eighteen consonants (1) and seven oral vowels (2).[1] It also has five nasal vowels (3)[2].

(1)

	Bilabial	Labio-dental	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labio-velar	Glottal
Stop	b		t d		ǰ	k g	kp͡ gb͡
Fricative		f	s	ʃ				h
Nasal	m		n
Trill			r
Lateral			l
Glide					y		w

(2) i u (3) ĩ ũ

e o

ɛ ɔ ɛ̃ ɔ̃

a ã

Furthermore, Yoruba has three level tones: high, mid and low represented with [ ʹ ], [ ˉ ] and [ ̀ ] respectively.[3] Tones usually occur on vowels.[4] The three level tones determine the meanings that each word has in Yoruba. For example, a form that has the same form (i.e. vowels and consonants) can have different meanings depending on the tones that it has:

(4) Igba ‘two hundred’

Igbá ‘calabash’

Ìgbà ‘time’

Ìgba ‘the season when perennial crops have the least production’

Ìgbá ‘garden egg’

Igbà ‘climbing rope’

(5) ọkọ ‘husband’

ọkọ́ ‘hoe’

ọ̀kọ̀ ‘spear’

ọkọ̀ ‘vehicle’

Out of the three basic (high, mid and low) tones that are attested in the language, only the high tone cannot occur on a word initial vowel (Ola 1995, among others). This is why potential words such as those given in (6) are not possible in the language.

(6) * órí (cf. orí) ‘a head’

* ígò (cf. ìgò) ‘a bottle’

*épè (cf. èpè) ‘a curse’

* éwúro (cf. ewúro) ‘bitter leaves’

2.1.2. The Syllable Structure

Yoruba allow only open syllables. This is why the following forms are excluded from the language.

(7) * [a.tak] (cf. Ata ‘pepper’)

* [o.kef] (cf. òkè ‘mountain’)

* [ i.lal] (cf. ilá ‘okra’)

* [i.bot] (cf. ìbò ‘election’)

Loan words that have closed syllables in the source languages are made to conform to the forms acceptable in the language:

(8) ṣẹ̀ẹ̀tì ‘shirt’

kọ́ọ̀sì ‘course’

Here, vowel /i/ is inserted to re-syllabify the coda from the English loan.

Consonant clusters are not allowed in Yoruba either. Therefore consonant clusters in the loan words are re-syllabified. The most common method for consonant cluster simplification is vowel insertion. For example, vowel /i/ is inserted to simplify consonant clusters in (9).

(9) síléètì ‘slate’

kíláàsì ‘class’

dẹ́rẹ́bà ‘driver’

térélà ‘trailer’

2.2 Morphology

Yoruba has some productive methods of word derivation. The main morphological processes in the language include: affixation, compounding and reduplication.

2.2.1 Affixation

Yoruba uses prefixation and infixation to derive new words. Each of the Yoruba oral vowels (except /u/ in the standard dialect) can be used as a prefix to derive a new word. Each of the usable six oral vowels – a, e, ẹ, i, o, ọ - has two forms as a prefix: mid toned and low toned. They are attached to verbs to derive nouns (10).

(10) i. Low toned prefixes

ọ̀ + dẹ̀ ‘to be soft’ = ọ̀dẹ̀ ‘idiot’

ì + ṣẹ́ ‘to break’ = ìṣẹ́ ‘poverty’

ẹ̀ + gún ‘to pierce’ = ẹ̀gún ‘thorn’

è + rò ‘to think’ = èrò ‘thought’

ò + kú ‘to die’ = òkú ‘corpse’

à + rè ‘to go’ = àrè ‘wonderer’

ii Mid toned prefixes

ẹ + rù ‘to carry’ = ẹrù ‘load’

ọ+ dẹ ‘to hunt’ = ọdẹ ‘hunter’

a + ṣẹ́ ‘to sieve’ = aṣẹ́ ‘sieve’

i + yọ̀ ‘to rejoice’ = iyọ̀ ‘salt’

e + wè ‘to wrap’ = ewè ‘leaves’

o + dì ‘to fold’ = odì ‘malice’

Infixes are (usually) inserted between two forms of the same word to derive a new word:

(11) ilé ‘house’ ilé + kí + ilé (ilékílé) ‘a bad house / any house’

ọmọ ‘child’ ọmọ+ kí + ọmọ (ọmọkọ́mọ) ‘a bad child’

2.2.2 Compounding

Yoruba also derive new words by combining two independent words:

(12) ẹran ‘meat’ + oko ‘farm’ = ẹranko ‘animal’

ìyá ‘mother’ + ọkọ ‘husband’ = iyakọ ‘mother-in-law’

2.2.2 Reduplication

Yoruba derive nominal items/adjectives from verbs through a partial reduplication of verbs (13). New nouns can also be derived by a total reduplication of an existing noun (14).

(13) jẹ ‘to eat’ = jíjẹ ‘edible’

sè ‘to cook’ = sísè ‘cooked’

(14) ọmọ ‘child’ = ọmọọmọ ‘grand-children’

ìyá ‘mother’ = ìyá àyá ‘grand-mother’

2.3 Basic Word Order

Yoruba is an SVO (Subject Object Verb) language.

(15) Olú ra aga

Olu buy chair

‘Olu bought a chair’

The subject position is always filled.

(16) i. O ra aga

he buy chair

‘he bought a chair’

ii. * ra aga

buy chair

for ‘he bought a chair’

This suggests that it is not a pro-drop language. The only context in which the subject noun phrase could be omitted is when a third person singular pronoun occurs before a negation marker kò or a future tense marker yóò:

(17) Kò lọ

NEG go

‘He did not go’

(18) yóò lo

will go

‘He will go’

2.4 Parts of Speech

The parts of speech that are attested in Yoruba include Verbs, nouns, adjectives, prepositions.

2.4.1 Yoruba Verbs

Yoruba verbs are mainly monosyllabic:

(19) lọ ‘to go’

sùn ‘to sleep’

kú ‘to die’

kán ‘to break’

fẹ́ ‘to like/love’

A small percentage of the Yoruba verbs have more than one syllable:

(20) gbàgbé ‘to forget’

tẹ̀lé ‘to follow’

láálí ‘to insult’

Some of the Yoruba verbs are discontinuous morphemes. They are called splitting verbs in the traditional grammar (Awobuluyi 1978):

(21) a. fihàn ‘to introduce’

Olu fi Ade han Ola

Olu ? Ade appear Ola

‘Olu introduced Ade to Ola’

b. bàjẹ́ ‘to get spoiled/ to damage’

Ojo ba isu naa jẹ́

Ojo ? yam the ?

‘Ojo damaged the yam’

More than one verb can occur in a sentence. This is usually referred to as serial verbal constructions.

(22) Olú sáré lọ sí Ìbàdàn

Olu run go to Ibadan

‘Olu went to Ibadan quickly’

Yoruba verbs do not inflect for tense. Two types of tenses – future and non-future- have been identified for Yoruba (Awoyale 1989, Bamgbose 1990). The future tense is marked with ‘yoÛoÝ’:

(23) Olú yóò lọ sí Ìbàdàn

Olu will go to Ibadan

‘Olu will go to Ibadan.’

The non-future tense is usually associated with the High Tone Syllable

(24) Jímoọ̀ ọ́ lọ si Ìbàdàn

Jimo HTS go to Ibadan

‘Jimo went to Ibadan’

Yoruba also uses infinitival sentences:

(25) Olú ti gbà láti lọ sí Ìbàdàn

Olu ASP accept to go to Ibadan

‘Olu has accepted to go to Ibadan’

Yoruba uses a lot of aspect and mood morphemes in its sentences. Some of them are listed below.

(26) ASPECT

ti ‘has’

ámáa ‘usually will …’

a ti máa ‘usually will …’

máa ń ‘usually is …/ was…’

ti máa ‘will have…’

ti ń ‘has/had been …’

ń PROGRESSIVE

kĭi ‘usually don’t’

(27) MOOD

yóo ‘shall/will’

máa ‘shall/will’

gbọ́dọ̀ ‘must/should’

lè ‘can’

níí will not

máà ‘do not’

ìbá ‘would have’

ìbáà ‘even if’

Yoruba does not mark any agreement between the verb and the number feature of the nouns.

(28) Adé fẹ́ràn owó

Ade like money

‘Ade likes money’

(29) Adé àti Olú fẹ́ràn owó

Ade and Olu like money

‘Ade and Olu like money’

2.4.2 Yoruba nouns

Yoruba nouns are mainly disyllabic. Most of them start with vowels:

(30) ògo ‘glory’

ẹwà ‘beauty’

asán ‘vanity’

àánú ‘mercy’

Yoruba nouns do not inflect for number. There are no morphological differences between a singular and a plural noun. Compare the form for the noun i$weÛ ‘book’ in (31) and (32).

(31) Olú ra ìwé ní Ìbàdàn

Olu buy book at Ibadan

‘Olu bought a book at Ibadan’

(32) Olú ra ì̀wé méjì ní Ìbàdàn

Olu buy book two at Ibadan

‘Olu bought two books at Ibadan’

2.4.3 Yoruba Prepositions

Each of the Yoruba prepositions has a verbal homophone- ní ‘at’, sí ‘to’, fún ‘for’, pẹ̀lú ‘with’, and laÛti ‘from’. The prepositions can be divided into three groups with respect to stranding. The first group consists of the prepositions that can be stranded by moving their complement to a sentence initial position. Examples of the prepositions in this group are si Û‘to’ and fuÛn ‘for’.

(33) Kí ni Olú da omi sí__

what be Olu pour water to

‘what did Olu pour water into?’

(34) Ta ni Adé ra àpò fún __

who be Ade buy bag for

‘who did Ade buy a bag for?’

The second group consists of the prepositions which could not be stranded. Examples of the prepositions in this group are ti/laÛti ‘from’ and ni Û‘at’

(35) * Ibo ni Olú ti wá láti __

where be Olu ASP come from

for: ‘where did Olu come from?’

(36) *Ibo ni Olú wà ní __

where be Olu exist at

for: where is Olu?

(35’) Láti Ibo ni Olú ti wá

from where be Olu ASP come

where did Olu come from?’

(36’) Ibo ni Olú wà

Where be Olu exist

‘where is Olu?’

Only a pied-piping option (35’) and (36’) is available for the intended reading in (35) and (36). The preposition can optionally be dropped after pied-piping in an acceptable version of (36’) (Adesola 1993).

The third group of preposition allow pied-piping and stranding. In addition, it could also allow resumption. A notable member of this group is pẹ̀lú ‘with’, which is followed by a resumptive pronoun in (37).

(37) Kí ni Adé hó iṣu pẹ̀lú u rẹ̀

what be Ade peel yam with it

‘what did Ade peel the yam with? / what did Ade use to peel the yam?’

2.5. Clause Structure

Yoruba uses mono-clausal and multi-clausal sentences. An example of the Yoruba mono-clausal (simple) sentences is the declarative sentence in (38).

(38) Adé ra àpò

Ade buy bag

‘Ade bought a bag’

The multi-clausal sentences could be a compound sentence conjoined with a conjunction/disjunction (39a) or a complex sentence in which one sentence is embedded under another one (39b).

(39) a. Adé ra àpò ṣùgbọ́n Olú kò mọ̀

Ade buy bag but Olu NEG know

‘Ade bought a bag bought Olu did not know’

b. Olú sọ pé Adé rí bàbá òun

Olu say that Ade see father him

‘Olu said that Ade saw his father’

The subordinator - pé ‘that’- is used to introduce the embedded clause in (39b). Another subordinator in the language is kí ‘that’ (40). (This subordinator is analyzed as a subjunctive marker in Dechaine (1999)).

(40) Olú gbà kí Adé rí bàbá òun

Olu accept that Ade see father him

‘Olu agreed that Ade should see his father’

The two subordinators can co-occur in a sentence:

(41) Olú sọ pé kí Adé lọ sí Ìbàdàn

Olu say that that Ade go to Ibadan

‘Olu said that Ade should go to Ibadan’

The third subordinator tí occurs mainly in relative clauses:

(42) Ọmọkùnrin tí Olú rí ní ọjà ní àná wá sí Ìbàdàn ní òní

boy that Olu see at market at yesterday come to Ibadan ? today

‘the boy who Olu saw at the market yesterday come to Ibadan today’

2.6 Samples of Constructions

2.6.1 Focus Constructions

Every nominal phrase/item can be moved to the sentence initial position for focusing in Yoruba.

(43) Olú ra ìwé

Olu buy book

‘Olu bought a book’

(44) Ìwé ni Olú rà ___

book be Olu buy

‘It was a book that Olu bought’

The focus particle in (44) is ni (Awoyale 1995, 1997).

A verbal item can also be moved in Yoruba. However it must be nominalized as in (46).