Yoruboid languages
Yoruboid is a 'megagroup' of 14 related language clades, composed of the Igala group, of related dialects spoken in central Nigeria, and the Edekiri group, the members of which are spoken in a band across Togo, Ghana, Benin and southwestern Nigeria.
Name
The name Yoruboid derives from its most widely spoken member, Yoruba, which has more than 35 million speakers. Another well-known Yoruboid language is Itsekiri. The Yoruboid group is a branch of Defoid, which is combined using "Ede" and -"foid". The Defoid group itself is a branch of the Benue–Congo subfamily of the Niger–Congo language family.All Yoruboid languages are tonal, with most of them having three level tones. Grammatically, they are isolating with a subject–object–verb basic word order.
Languages
Igala is a key Yoruboid language, spoken by 1.8 million people in the Niger-Benue confluence of central Nigeria; it is excised from the main body of Yoruboid languages to the west by Ebirra and the Edo languages. Igala is closely related to both Yoruba and Itsekiri languages.The Itsekiris are a riverine Yoruboid people who live in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. They maintain a distinct identity separate from other Yoruboid people but speak a very closely related language. Their neighbouring languages are the Urhobo the Edo, the Ijo, and the Mahin / Ilaje, a Yoruba dialect spoken in neighbouring Ondo State.
Subdivisions
- All dialects in the Ede cluster share between 85-95% lexical similarity and are thus all mutually intelligible without needing different specialized literature to achieve universal understanding.
- Itsekiri is actually most closely related to SEY, and is a divergent branch thereof, but has a different standard writing orthography.
- Some standards classify Olukumi as separate variant of Nuclear Yoruba, Others as a dialect of SEY.
Names and locations
| Language | Dialects | Alternate spellings | Own name for language | Endonym | Other names | Other names for language | Exonym | Speakers | Location |
| Ulukwumi | Unukwumi | Fewer than 10,000 | Delta State, Aniocha and Oshimili LGAs | ||||||
| Igala | Ánkpa and Ògùgù in Ankpa LGA; Ìfè in Ankpa and Dekina LGAs; Ànyìgbá in Dekina LGA; ‘Idáh and Ìbàjì in Idah and Anambra LGAs; and Èbú in Oshimili LGA | Igara | 295,000, 800,000 | Benue State, Ankpa, Dekina, Idah and Bassa LGAs; Edo State, Oshimili LGA; Anambra State, Anambra LGA | |||||
| Iṣẹkiri | Itsekiri, Ishekiri, Shekiri, Chekiri, Jekri, Izekíri, Tshekeri, Dsekiri | Iwere, Irhobo, Warri | Iselema–Otu, Selemo | 33,000 ; over 100,000 ; 500,000 | Delta State, Warri, Bomadi and Ethiope LGAs | ||||
| Yoruba | Many dialects | Yorùbá | Yorùbá | Aku, Akusa, Eyagi, Nago | 5,100,000, 15,000,000 | Most of Kwara, Lagos, Osun, Oyo, Ogun and Ondo States; western LGAs in Kogi State; and into Benin Republic and Togo. Yoruba is spoken as a ritual language in Cuba and Brazil |