Yoruba: A Grammar Sketch: Version 1.

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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- Alveolar Palato- Palatal Velar Labio- Glottal

dental alveolar velar
Stop b t d ǰ k g kp͡ gb͡
Fricative f s ʃ h
Nasal m n
Trill r
Lateral l
Glide y w

1 If [l] and [n] indeed alternate as argued in Awobuluyi 1991, then the total number of the Yoruba
consonants will be 17.
2 Yoruba nasal vowels are four if we take the allophonic variation between [ā] and [ɔ̄] into consideration.
(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’

3 The mid tone is usually left unmarked on vowels.

4 Syllabic nasals can also bear tones in Yoruba. They are sonorous (e.g. òrom̀bó ‘orange’)
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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.

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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:

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(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’

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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 yóo:̀

(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’

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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 ‘yo•o•’:

(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

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(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’
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 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•we• ‘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’

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2.4.3 Yoruba Prepositions

Each of the Yoruba prepositions has a verbal homophone- ní ‘at’, sí ‘to’, fún ‘for’, pẹ̀lú ‘with’,
and la•ti ‘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 •‘to’ and fu•n ‘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/la•ti ‘from’ and ni •‘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?’
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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’
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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’
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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).

(45) Ọlọ́run jẹ́ ọba

God be king
‘God is a king’

(46) Jijẹ́ ni Ọlọrun jẹ́ ọba

? be God be king
‘It is actually the case that God is a king’

A copy of the ‘moved’ verb is left in-situ as in (46). A resumptive pronoun can also occur in
place of the moved element in Yoruba:

(47) Adé ni a sọ̀rọ̀ nípa rẹ̀

Ade be we talk about him
‘Ade was the person who we talked about’

The sentence is actually ungrammatical if the resumptive pronoun rẹ̀ is omitted in (47). (48) is
excluded.

(48) *Adé ni a sọ̀rọ̀ nípa __

Ade be we talk about

On the other hand, resumptive pronouns are not allowed at all in some contexts. For example,
when the noun phrase complement of a verb is moved, a resumptive pronoun cannot occur in
its place. (49) is acceptable while (50) is not acceptable.

(49) Àga ni Àdìó rà ____

Chair be Adio buy
‘It was a chiar that Adio bought’

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(50) * Àga ni Àdìó rà á
Chair be Adio buy it

2.6.2 Serial Verb Constructions

Yoruba allows a sequence of more than one verb in a single mono-clausal sentence:

(51) Olú ń se ẹran tà

Olu PROG cook meat sell
‘Olu is cooking meats and selling them’

(52) Adé ń ra ẹran jẹ

Ade PROG. buy meat eat
‘Ade is buying meats and eating them’

One of the most noticeable features of the serial verb constructions is that there is only one
possible tense marker for all the verbs in a single clause. There is only one tense node in each
clause. One of the other noticeable features is that the transitive serial verbs tend to share
objects among themselves (Baker 1989). For example, the verb se• ‘to cook’ and ta• ‘to sell’
are sharing the object noun phrase ẹran ‘meat in (51).

2.6.3 Interrogative Sentences

Yoruba uses Yes/no questions and content questions. The yes/no question particles are
attached to the sentence initial position (53) or the sentence final position (54).

(53) Ṣé Olú wá

QM Olu come
‘Did Olu come?’

(54) Olú wá bí

Olu come QM
‘Did Olu come?’
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The other yes/no question markers that can be attached to the sentence initial position are: ǹjẹ́,
tàbí/àbí, and n̄gbọ́. The other yes/no question markers that can occur in the sentence final
position are: ni, and kọ́. The sentence initial yes/no question marker and the sentence final
yes/no question markers can co-occur in a sentence:

(55) Ṣé Olú wá bí

QM Olu come QM
‘Did Olu come?’

However it is not possible to use a sentence initial yes/no question marker at the sentence final
position or vice-versa.

Content questions mostly involve moving one phrase to the sentence initial position for
questioning:

(56) Adé ra ìwé

Olu buy book
‘Olu bought a book’

(57) Kí ni Adé rà ____

what be Ade buy
‘What did Ade buy?’

A question noun phrase can appear in-situ in cases involving multiple question nouns.

(58) Kí ni ta ni rà ____

what be who buy
‘What did who buy?’ (‘or what was the thing that who bought’)

2.6.4 Logophoric Constructions

Yoruba requires that a particular pronoun be used when someone’s perspective is being
reported. In (59), the third person singular pronoun o•un has to be used if the perspective of
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Olú is being reported. In that case, òun must be the same person as Olú. On the other hand,
another third person singular pronoun o• is not required to be the same person as Olú (60).

(59) Olú sọ pé òun wá

Olu say that he come
‘Olu said that he came’

(60) Olú sọ pé ó wá

Olu say that he come
‘Olu said that he came’

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