o_196h0fp7b15b9sam1rr8a4j13d8a.pdf

The alphabet and sounds of Yoruba
xv
1111
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1111
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
4222
Tones in Yoruba
Aside from the alphabet and sounds shown opposite, Yoruba is also
a tone language. This means that every vowel in Yoruba has a
meaningful tone. There are three tones in Yoruba:
low tone as in /bì/ to throw up
mid tone as in /bi/ to ask a question
high tone as in /bí/ to deliver a baby
In the above examples, notice that a mid tone is not marked in
Yoruba writing. This means that if there is no tone marked on a
vowel, that vowel has a mid tone. If you change one tone for the
other on a vowel in a word, you can change the meaning without
changing the consonant in the same word (as shown above). It is
important that you learn how tones are recognized and pronounced
in Yoruba to be able to speak and understand the language.
Each unit in this book has a tone exercise to help you learn how
these tones are pronounced in different words. You can use the
musical notes “doh, reh, mi” to help you learn how to pronounce the
tones.
low tone is “doh”
mid tone is “reh”
high tone is “mi”
Nasal vowels (CD 1; 2)
Nasal vowels are vowels that you pronounce through the nose and
the mouth rather than through your mouth alone. In Yoruba, if you
see a vowel and the consonant /n/, especially at the end of the word,
the combination of the vowel and the consonant /n/ represents a
nasal vowel. For example:
rí
rín
to see
to laugh (the vowel “in” is a nasal vowel—it is not a
combination of /i/ and /n/)
Other examples of nasal vowels in Yoruba are:
õn as in ìyõn that one
an as in iyán pounded yam
un as in irun hair