Y R U B A G R A M M A R. 



TART FIRST. 



ORTHOEPY AND ORTIIO G E AP 11 Y. 



§ 1. Tlie system of ortliograpliy adopted in this work is essentially the same 

 that has been widely employed for African languages. In it an endeavor has been 

 made to give a true expression of all the well distinguished sounds of the language. 

 To each simple fundamental sound there is assigned a single character; and each 

 compounded sound is represented by the characters which stand for the elements 

 of such compound sound. 



§ 2. The reader should be reminded that the sound of each letter, in this as in 

 other languages, is subject to slight modifications from accent and connexion. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE ALPHABET. 



§ 3. The characters that I'epresent the simple sounds of the Yoruba language are, 

 a, a, b, d, e, e, f, g, h, i, k, 1, m, n, r), o, o, p, r, s, s, t, u, -w, y, z. 



VOWELS. 



Simple Vowels. 



§ 4. The simple vowels are as follows : 



a is sounded long, as in the English word fatlier ; and short, as in fat. 



Examples : ba, to meet ; lati, from. 

 a has the obscure sound of u in i«^, o m mother., &e. Ex. : baui, in the Itand. 

 e is sounded like a in/ote, or ey in grey. Ex. : de, to come. 

 e is sounded like e in met. Ex. ; fe, to love. 

 i is sounded long, like ee va.fee, or i in ravine ; and short, like / mfg. Ex.: 



di, to hind; igo, a bottle. 

 o is sounded as in f/o, tone. Ex. : fo, to fly. 

 g is sounded long, like a in water, all; and short, like o in vot. Ex.: fi), to 



iDa-sli ; oni, a crocodile. 

 u is soimded long, like oo xwfool, or u in rnle ; and short, like v mfull. Ex. : 



111, to strilr-' ; bule, to lie dmon. 



