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As noted in the description of the Yoruba sound system, the syllable in Yoruba is the smallest tone bearing unit. The three basic syllable types in Yoruba are Vowel (V) only, Consonant and a Vowel (CV) and a Syllabic Nasal (N). All multi-syllabic words in the language are combinations of these three syllable types: V: o ‘you’ (2nd/sing/subj) ó ‘She/He/It’ (3rd/sing/subj) a ‘we’ (3rd/plural/subj) v ‘you (2nd/sing/obj) CV: jó ‘to dance’ wá ‘to come/to search for’ gún ‘to pound’ jc ‘to eat’ N: A n jó ‘we are dancing’ Ó n wá v He is looking for you’ Yoruba Nouns have two or more syllables and can occur independently or with qualifiers. They can serve as the subjects and objects of a sentence (as do pronouns and pronominals). In Yoruba, nouns are not marked for gender or number. A noun phrase in Yoruba consists of the noun and if any, one or more qualifiers. The language is head-initial and as such qualifiers occur after the noun, which is the main element of the clause. There are very limited exceptions to this head-initial configuration of the clause in the language: 1a. Nouns: owó ‘money’ ilé ‘house’ Garawa ‘pail’ ’Adé ‘crown’ Bàtà ‘shoe’ ferese ‘window’ b. Noun + qualifier(s): ilé pupa ‘red house’ bàtà yín ‘your shoes’ Yoruba Verbs can be divided into two groups based on form. There are the simple (monosyllabic) verbs, of the CV form, and the complex verbs with more than one syllable (polysyllabic). A verb phrase in Yoruba consists of a verb or a combination of verbs and their one or more objects. Yoruba verbs can be divided into three types in terms of their positioning within the verb phrase. These are preverbs, main verbs and post verbs. A main (sometimes referred as free) verb can occur by itself in the phrase but a preverb must be followed by a main verb while post verbs occur only after main verbs. Examples of preverbs in Yoruba include gbodo ‘must,’ koko ‘first,’ máa ‘will,’ lè ‘can,’ sese (recently), jumo and kò ‘a negator.’ There are five post verbs in the language. These are sí ‘into,’ lé ‘on,’ dè ‘for one’s arrival,’ and ní ‘in.’ Yoruba verbs are not conjugated and tenses are marked with overt tense markers such as n (progressive); máa (future), kò ní í (future-negative) and máa n (habitual). 2a. Simple Verbs: sùn ‘to sleep’ jí ‘to wake up’ ‘rìn to walk’ Complex Verbs: feran ‘to like’ gbàgbé ‘to forget’ rántí ‘to remember’ The word order for a simple sentence in Yoruba is the Subject Verb Object (SVO). Both the S and O position are dominated by the noun phrase but the O is dependent on whether the V has an object or not. Transitive verbs in Yoruba require an object while intransitive verbs do not. There are also neutral verbs that may or may not require an object. 3. Simple sentences: a. Mo rí Adé “I saw the crown” I see crown b. Màma Wálé n jc oúnjc Yorùbá “Mama Wale is eating Yoruba foods’ Mother Wale is eating Yoruba food c. Wvn jé akékòó “They are students” they is student 4. Olùk< mz wá dáradára “The teacher knows us well’ Teacher to know us good 5. Ó ra bàtà “He bought shoes” He buy shoes For more information on the grammar of the language, please refer to the grammar notes in the different units as well as any of these references: 1. Delano, I.O. 1965. A Modern Yoruba Grammar. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons
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