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	YORÙBÁ ORTHOGRAPHY

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About Us		The Yoruba language was first
Downloads		reduced to writing in the early
Learn Yoruba		decades of the 19th. century.
Alphabet		A prominent name in this exercise
Phonology		was Bishop Ajayi Crowther.
Morphology		He followed the foot steps of earlier
Orthography		Christian Missionaries and
Readers' Club		collaborated with contemporaries
	to lay the foundation of the orthography.
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	The standard orthography has undergone several revisions since and continues to evolve. This is understandable and to be expected since language is dynamic. In order to understand and appreciate the current state Yoruba Orthography, it is useful to have a basic knowledge of how it has evolved. We will try to discuss this in this forum.

	Let us begin with the ALPHABET

	The Yoruba Alphabet has Latin Characters just like the English language. There are 25 letters in the Alphabet.

	The letters ç , ô , ÿ and gb ( g & b combined) occur in Yoruba but are not present in English. Yoruba does not have the letters c, q, v, x , z as in English.


	Yoruba is a TONAL LANGUAGE

	Three basic tones ( high, mid and low) occur in the Yoruba language and are indicated in its orthography. The high is marked with an 'acute' accent, the low with a 'grave' accent, and the mid tone left unmarked. These marks are usually placed on the vowels. (In some circumstances the mid tone is indicated with a 'macron', - more about this later)

	It therefore means that Yoruba will have an EXTENDED CHARACTER ALPHABET thus: