Yorubaspeaking

Yorubaspeaking refers to people who speak Yoruba, a major West African language of the Niger-Congo family, and to communities where Yoruba is spoken. It also denotes cultural groups associated with the Yoruba language.

Geographically, Yoruba is concentrated in southwestern Nigeria—Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo, Ekiti—and parts of Kwara. It is also spoken in Benin and Togo, and among the Yoruba diaspora in Europe, the Americas, and the Caribbean. Estimates place speakers around 40 million.

Linguistically, Yoruba is a tonal, analytic language with SVO word order. It uses three level tones and serial verb constructions. It has no grammatical gender; tense and aspect are expressed with particles and tone. The writing system uses the Latin alphabet with diacritics such as ẹ, ọ, and ṣ, and includes the consonant cluster gb.

Dialects include Egba, Ijebu, Itsekiri, Ekiti, Ondo, and Ọyọ, among others. There is no single canonical standard Yoruba, but a standardized written form is used in education and media, with Lagos Yoruba commonly treated as a prestige variety.

Culturally, Yoruba has a rich oral and written tradition, influencing literature, music, and film. Yoruba names carry meanings and social signals, and the language coexists with Islam, Christianity, and traditional religion.

In the diaspora, Yoruba communities maintain the language through media, clubs, and schools. While not an official national language of Nigeria, Yoruba is among the most widely spoken African languages and remains vital in daily life and culture.