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Yoruba (US: / ˈ j ɔːr ə b ə /, [2] UK: / ˈ j ɒr ʊ b ə /; [3] Yor. Èdè Yorùbá) is a Niger-Congo language that is spoken in West Africa, primarily in Southwestern and Central Nigeria, Benin, and parts of Togo.
Yorubaland (Yoruba: Ilẹ̀ Káàárọ̀-Oòjíire) is the homeland and cultural region of the Yoruba people in West Africa.It spans the modern-day countries of Nigeria, Togo and Benin, and covers a total land area of 142,114 km 2 (54,871 sq mi).
There are over 520 native languages spoken in Nigeria. [1] [2] [3] The official language is English, [4] [5] which was the language of Colonial Nigeria.The English-based creole Nigerian Pidgin – first used by the British and African slavers to facilitate the Atlantic slave trade in the late 17th century [6] – is the most common lingua franca, spoken by over 60 million people.
The name Yoruboid derived from its most widely spoken member, Yoruba, which has around 55 million primary and secondary speakers. [citation needed] Another well-known Yoruboid language is Itsekiri (about 1,000,000 speakers). The Yoruboid group is a branch of Defoid, which also includes the Akoko and Ayere-Ahan languages. [2]
Yoruba drums typically belong to four major families, which are used depending on the context or genre where they are played. The Dùndún / Gángan family, is the class of hourglass shaped talking drums, which imitate the sound of Yoruba speech. This is possible because the Yoruba language is tonal in nature.
The Edekiri languages are spoken in a band across Togo, Benin and Nigeria. The group includes: the Ede dialect cluster, including Ife; Itsekiri (Nigeria, up to 1 million speakers); the Yoruboid languages Ulukwumi and Mokole; Yoruba, by far the largest of the cluster with about 55 million speakers.
Awori is a Yoruba sub-group, speaking a distinct dialect of the Yoruba language, easily identifiable by native Yoruba language speakers. Awori people, like most Yoruba dialects love business, parties, music, arts, and are a highly religious people.
The Yoruba tribes that made up the Itsekiri people were primarily from the Ijebu, Mahin/Ilaje, Ugbo, Owo/Ọ̀ghọ̀, igala and Ile-Ife regions. These groups were collectively known as the "Olukumi" people, with "Olukumi" translating to "my friend" in the itsekiri language. This name was used to refer to the Yoruba people for centuries. [15]