6 • ORTHOEPY AND OETIIOGRAPIIT. 



to the general character of their sounds, may be called the close vowels, viz. e, i, 

 o, u ; the open or hroad vowels, e, o ; and the neuter vowels, a and a. In 

 imperfect assimilation the rule is that the vowel 'o' when occurring before a close 

 vowel, that is, a vowel of its own class, remains unchanged ; but before an open 

 vowel, it is changed into its corresponding open fonn ' o.' Before the neuter vowels, 

 it may take either form, ' o ' or ' o.' 



This rule applies to the nominative pronouns, mo, // o, thm ; . 6q or 6, Tie ; the 

 auxiliary particle 6, slwU or will ; and k6 or 6, not ; in all of which the 'o ' before 

 an open vowel becomes ' o ' ; as, 



mo fe, Ilove. yi 6 fe, he will love. 



o fe, thou lovest. nwoq ko fe, they do not love. 



6 or 6i) fe, lie loves. d 6 fe, we do not love. 



The same change takes place before the other open vowel, 'o.' The reader, 

 however, most be informed that the rule is one which is often disregarded in 

 speaking. 



Elision of Vowels. 



§ 15. All Yoruba verbs end in a vowel either pure or nasal ; as, ko, to build • 

 raq, to spin. And most of the nouns begin with a vowel ; as, ile, a house; owu, 

 cotton. To avoid an inconvenient hiatus, it is customary in speaking to drop either 

 the final vowel of the verb, or the initial one of the noun which follows it ; as, 

 k' ere for ko ere, to gather a crop ; raq 'wu, for rag owu, to spin cotton. 



In this work, the vowels which are usually elided in speaking are designated by 

 the inverted crescent ('^) ; as, k8 ere, raq 8wu (pronounced ke-re, raq-wu). 



§ 16. The principal rules of elision are as follows : 



1. When two vowels of the same name concur, one of them is dropped ; as, n\ 

 fiso, to buy cloth ; f§ e^e, to love sin. 



2. The stronger of any two concurring vowels is retained in preference to the 

 weaker. 



The circumstances which make a vowel strong in the sense here contemplated 

 may be shown as follows : 



Strong Vowels. Weak Vmcels. 



Long. Short. 



Grave. Acute. 



Accented. Unaccented. 



Open. Close. 



But these elements of strength and weakness may be variously distributed. One 

 of the vowels may be grave, and the other accented, long, or open. To give aU 

 the combinations which may arise from the various quantities, tones, and accents of 

 two concurring vowels, would be more tedious than profitable. It may sufiice then 

 to specify a few cases, with examples, to verify the general rule that the weaker of 

 the two concurring vowels is elided. 



a. When the fii-st vowel is grave, and the second vowel is weak, the latter is 

 elided ; as, 6 r^ ewe, she bought leaves ;* dk §se, to breah the foot ; bo fira, to cover 

 the body ; k^ Groq, to behoarse. But if the second vowel should be long, the grave 



* Leaves are soM to market-women to be used for wrappiiiE: ai'ticlos in. 



