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About Us

 

      
       Bis Bus International is a private

Learn Yoruba

    organization. The Executive Director
     is Dr. Adebusola Onabajo Onayemi,

Alphabet

             Yoruba translation of the English

 an Independent Yoruba Scholar and
                text on the right to follow.  author of the

Phonology

        "YORÙBÁ: MÕ ÖN KÖ, MÕ ÖN KÀ"
     (Know how to WRITE IT, Know how to READ IT)

Morphology

    series of Publications. He is an 
     Anesthesiologist in Barrie, Ontario, Canada. 

Orthography

    
     

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      When we first published our web site in 1997, we        initially converted all our Yoruba text which was typed with the AfroRoman Font to .gif (graphics) files to sidetrack this problem in order to ensure that the  text text is seen "correctly" as a "picture" of the written word. This guaranteed universal access to the contents of the site since the current multilingual internet tools are proprietary in nature and would be of no benefit to ALL our visitors. The latest versions of the browsers have incorporated font-embedding technology to make more fonts browsable but the inherent limitations as far as Yoruba text is concerned still persists.

 

  
       

OUR GOAL

  
         
       Yoruba translation of the English  text to follow   1. To promote the reading, speaking and writing of the Yoruba language PROPERLY - complete with all the required intonation and diacritic marks - on the World Wide Web.  
         
      2. To provide a resource for learning the Yoruba language on the "web" for children of Yorubas in the diaspora and indeed all lovers of the language.  
     

            

 
      3. To add to the work of others in bringing awareness of Yoruba language and culture to the world at large through the folklore, fables songs and the like of Yorubaland.  
         
         
      The structure of the "web" is such that HTML - the language of the web was designed for the regular characters of the English language alphabet, with special provision made for some 'extended' characters which are only a bit cumbersome to insert in a document.  
         
      The browsers that bring HTML documents to life on the web are limited in their recognition of  the characters or typefaces - " fonts"  outside this range. The UNICODE CONSORTIUM is continually addressing this problem, and there are multilingual internet software tools available as well, but this situation has been a deterrent to the widespread use of many " typeface-challenged" languages on the web of which Yoruba is one.  
         
         
                
                          Dr. Adebusola Onabajo Onayemi  
                                 MB. BS.  DA  FRCPC  MTS  
         
      When we first published this web site in 1997, we initially converted all our Yoruba text which was typed with the AfroRoman Font to .gif (graphics) files to sidetrack this problem in order to ensure that the  text text is seen "correctly" as a "picture" of the written word. This guaranteed universal access to the contents of the site since the current multilingual internet tools are proprietary in nature and would be of no benefit to ALL our visitors. The latest versions of the browsers have incorporated font-embedding technology to make more fonts browsable but the inherent limitations as far as Yoruba text is concerned still persists.  
         
      We are therefore very much indebted to Mr. James Kass who, with a little help from us, developed a "Yoruba Font" ( typeface) that has enabled us to type all Yoruba text on this site PROPERLY. All that is required for any visitor to view the contents of this site properly is to download the FREE YorubaOK.ttf and install it on their computer and "bingo" ...  
         
      It is of note that there are several Typefaces available today that are capable of rendering Yoruba text properly. However, all these software are proprietary in nature and therefore not cross-compatible since the different authors have used different ASCII codes to represent the letters of the Yoruba language that are not shared with the English language.  
         
      I believe the only way to write Yoruba " on-line", without any limitations and with universal compatibility  is for all these proprietary fonts to conform with the UNICODE STANDARD for YORUBA TEXT  - when this becomes available. Anyone can then   acquire and install a capable font  on their computer and it will then behave like the standard fonts -e.g Arial , Courier or Times New Roman,  e.t.c.  and enable universal browsing for all who have the font installed.  
         
      The universal access that the web provides plus its multimedia capability has made this medium ideal for distance learning. We must begin to tap its possibilities NOW.  
         
         
         
         

 

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