Introduction

§1. INTRODUCTION

¶2 THE Yoruba country lies to the immediate West of the River Niger (below the confluence) and South of the Quorra (i.e., the Western branch of the same River above the confluence), having Dahomey on the West, and the Bight of Benin to the South. It is roughly speaking between latitude 6° and 9° North, and longitude 2° 30’ and 6° 30’ East.

¶3 The country was probably first known to Europe from the North, through the explorers of Northern and Central Africa, for in old records the Hausa and Fulani names are used for the country and its capital ; thus we see in Webster’s Gazetteer "YARRIBA," West Africa, East of Dahomey, area 70,000 sq. miles, population two millions, capital KATUNGA. These are the Hausa terms for YORUBA and for Ọ̀yọ́.

¶4 The entire south of the country is a network of lagoons connecting the deltas of the great River Niger with that of the Volta, and into this lagoon which is belted with a more or less dense mangrove swamp, most of the rivers which flow through the country North to South pour their waters.

¶5 It will thus be seen that the country is for the most part a tableland: it has been compared to half of a pie dish turned upside down. Rising from the coast in the South gradually to a height of some 5-600 ft. in more or less dense forest, into a plain diversified by a few mountain ranges, continuing its gentle rise in some parts to about 1,000 ft. above sea level, it then slopes down again to the banks of the Niger, which encloses it in the North and East.

¶6 In a valuable letter by the Rev. S. A. Crowther (afterwards Bishop) to Thomas J. Hutchinson, Esq., Her Britannic Majesty’s consul for the Bight of Biafra and the Island of Fernando Po, published as Appendix A to the book entitled "Impressions of Western Africa,"! we find the following graphic description of the country :—

¶7 = 4 "This part of the country of which Lagos in the Bight of Benin is the seaport, is generally known as the Yoruba country, extending from the Bight to within two or three days’ journey to the banks of the Niger.2 This country comprises many tribes governed by their own chiefs and having their own laws. At one time they were all tributaries to one Sovereign, the King of Yoruba, including Benin on the East, and Dahomey on the West, but are now independent.

¶8 The principal tribes into which this kingdom is divided are as follows :—

¶9 The Egbados: This division includes Otta and Lagos near the sea coast, forming a belt of country on the banks of the lagoon in thc forest, to Ketu on the border of Dahomey on the West ; then the Jebu on the East on the border of Benin ; then the Ẹ̀gbás of the forest now known as the Ẹ̀gbás of Abẹ́òkúta.

¶10 Then comes Yoruba proper northwards in the plain; Ifẹ̀, Ijesha, Ijamo, Efon, Ondo, Idoko, Igbomina, and Ado near the "banks of the Niger, ftom which a creek or stream a little below Iddah is called Do or Iddo River."

¶11 "The chief produce of this country is the red palm oil, oil made from the kernel, shea butter from nuts of the shea trees, ground nuts, beniseed, and cotton in abundance, and ivory—all these are readily procured for European markets.

¶12 . The present seat of the King of Yoruba is Ago otherwise called Ọ̀yọ́ after the name of the old capital visited by Clapperton and Lander.

¶13 A King is acknowledged and his person is held sacred, his wives and children are highly respected. Any attempt of violence against a King’s person or of the Royal family, or any act of wantonness with the wives of the King, is punished with death. There are no written laws, but such laws and customs that have been handed down from their ancestors, especially those respecting velative duties, have become established laws.

¶14 The right to the throne is hereditary, but exclusively in the male line or the male issue of the King’s daughters.

¶15 The Government is absolute, but it has been much modified since the kingdom has been divided into many independent states by slave wars, into what may be called a limited monarchy . i.

¶16 Physical features. —The country presents generally two distinct features, the forest and the plain; the former comprising the southern and eastern portions, the latter the northern, central and western. Yoruba Proper lies chiefly in the plain; and has a small portion of forest land. The country is fairly well watered, but the rivers and streams are dependent upon the annual rains ; an impassable river in the rains may become but a dry water-course in the dry season. —

¶17 There are a few high mountains in the north and west, but in the east the prevailing aspect is high ranges of mountains from which that part of the country derives its name, ÈKÌTÌ—a mound —hbeing covered as it were with Nature’s Mound.

¶18 The soil is particularly rich, and most suitable for agriculture, in which every man is more or less engaged. The plain is almost entirely pasture land. Minerals apparently do not exist to any appreciable extent, expect iron ores which the people work themselves, and from which they formerly manufactured all their implements of husbandry and war and articles for domestic use.

¶19 Flora.—The forests teem with economic and medicinal plants of tropical varieties, as well as timber, of which mahogany, cedar, brimstone, counter, and tvoko are the principal.

¶20 There are also to be found the Abwra, useful for carving purposes, ebony, Ata a hard wood used for facing carpenters’ tools, the Lk, a hard wood which when dry is very difficult to work, as it speedily blunts edged tools. The Ovi, another hard wood useful for making piers on the coast, and the Ahayan, a very hard wood, unaffected by ordinary fires, dry rot, or termites.

¶21 All these are indigenous, but recently "Indian teak’ has been introduced, and it flourishes widely, as well as the beef wood tree on the coast.

¶22 Although a large variety of fruits can be grown, yet the people do not take to horticulture ; what there are grow almost wild, very little attention being paid to them. Papaw, bananas of several varieties, plantain, oranges, pineapples, the Ovo, plums (yellow and black), the rough skin plum, the butt lime, are to be found everywhere. .Some fruit trees have been introduced, which have become indigenous, e.g., the sweet and sour sop, the avocado (or alligator) pear, guavas of two kinds, pink apples, rose apple, mangoes, the bread truit and bread nut trees, the golden plum, etc. All these are cultivated, but not widely.

¶23 Vegetables, of which there are several kinds, are largely cultivated. Yam, koko, cassada, sweet potatoes, are the principal "roots’ used as diet, also beans (white and brown), small and large, and the ground nut are largely grown for food. The guinea corn grows in the north, and maize in the south. The calabash gourd and the Egusi from the seeds of which Egusi oil is pressed, grow everywhere.

¶24 Fauna.—Big game abound, especially in the north, where the lion is not far to seek, also the elephant, buffalo, leopard, wolf, foxes, jackals, monkeys of various species, deer, porcupine, etc. The hippopotamus is found in large rivers, and alligators in the swamps and lagoons in the south.

¶25 The usual domestic animals and poultry are carefully reared.

¶26 Of birds, we have the wild and tame parrots, green pigeons, stork, crown birds, and others of the tropical feathered tribe.

¶27 The country was at one time very prosperous, and powerful, but there is probably no other country on this earth more torn and wasted by internal dissensions, tribal jealousies, and fratricidal feuds, a state of things which unhappily continues up to the present time.

¶28 When the central authority which was once all-powerful and far too despotic grew weak by driving the powerful chiefs into rebellion and internecine wars, the entire kingdom became broken up into petty states and independent factions as we now know them.

¶29 As far as it is possible for one race to be characteristically like another, from which it differs in every physical aspect, the Yorubas

¶30 —it has been noted—are not unlike the English in many of their traits and characteristics. It would appear that what the one is among the whites the other is among the blacks. Love of independence, a feeling of superiority over all others, a keen commercial spirit, and of indefatigable enterprise, that quality of being never able to admit or consent to a defeat as finally settling a question upon which their mind is bent, are some of those qualities peculiar to them, and no matter under what circumstances they are placed, Yorubas will display them. We have even learnt that those of them who had the misfortune of being carried away to foreign climes so displayed these characteristics there, and assumed such airs of superiority and leadership over the men of their race they met there, in such a matter of fact way that the attention of their masters was perforce drawn to this type of new arrivals! And from them they selected overseers. These traits will be clearly discerned in the narratives given in this history. But apart from the general, each of the leading tribes has special characteristics of its own ; thus dogged perseverance and determination characterise the Ìjẹ̀bús, love of ease and a quickness to adapt new ideas the Ẹ̀gbás, the Ìjẹ̀ṣàs and Èkìtìs are possessed of a marvellous amount of physical strength, remarkable docility and simplicity of manners, and love of home.

¶31 Among the various families of Yorubas Proper, the Ibarapas are laborious farmers, the Ibolos are rather docile and weak in comparison with others, but the Epos are hardy, brave, and rather turbulent ; whilst the Ọ̀yọ́s of the Metropolitan province are remarkably shrewd, intelligent, very diplomatic, cautious almost to timidity, provokingly conservative, and withal very masterful.

¶32 The whole people are imbued with a deep religious spirit, reverential in manners, showing deference to superiors and respect to age, where they have not been corrupted by foreign intercourse ; ingrained politeness is part and parcel of their nature.

¶33 The early history of the Yoruba country is almost exclusively that of the Ọ̀yọ́ division, the others being then too small and too insignificant to be of any import ; but in later years this state of things has been somewhat reversed, the centre of interest and sphere of importance having moved southwards, especially since the arrival of Europeans on the coast.

¶34 Such is the country, and such are the people whose history, religion, social polity, manners and customs, etc., are briefly given in the following pages.

¶35 THE Yoruba language has been classed among the unwritten African languages. The earliest attempt to reduce this language into writing was in the early forties of the last century, when the Church Missionary Society, with the immortal Rev. Henry Venn as Secretary, organized a mission to the Yoruba country under the leadership of one of their agents, the Rev. Henry Townsend, an English Clergyman then at work at Sierra Leone, and the Rev. Samuel Àjàyí Crowther, the first African Clergyman of the C.M.S., also at work in the same place.

¶36 After several fruitless efforts had been made either to invent new characters, or adapt the Arabic, which was already known to Moslem Yorubas, the Roman character was naturally adopted, not only because it is the one best acquainted with, but also because it would obviate the difficulties that must necessarily arise if missionaries were first to learn strange characters before they could undertake scholastic and evangelistic work. With this as basis, special adaptation had to be made for pronouncing some words not to be found in the English or any other European language.

¶37 The system, or rather want of system, existing among various missionary bodies in Africa and elsewhere emphasized the need of a fixed system of orthography. It was evidently essential for the various bodies to agree upon certain rules for reducing illiterate languages into writing in Roman characters, not only because this would facilitate co-operation, but also because it would render books much cheaper than when separate founts of type must needs be cast for every separate system (scientific or otherwise) that each body may choose to adapt for one and the same purpose.

¶38 In this effort, the Committee of the C.M.S. were ably assisted by certain philological doctors, as Professor Lee of Cambridge, Mr. Norris of London, and notably by Professor Lepsius of Berlin, to whom was entrusted the task of establishing a complete form of alphabetic system to which all hitherto unwritten languages could be adapted.

¶39 The following remarks are largely derived from the second edition of Prof. Lepsius’ work.

¶40 The Professor consulted earlier efforts that had been made in India and elsewhere to transliterate foreign (Eastern) characters into the Roman, and out of the chaos then existing he established

¶41 on a firm scientific basis the STANDARD ALPHABET in which the Yoruba language is now written. This was adopted by the C.M.S. in 1856. By this system therefore former translations had to be transliterated under certain fixed rules,

¶42 The number of letters in the Standard Alphabet is necessarily very large, as it was designed to meet the requirements of all nations ; but with diacritic marks on cognate sounds and accents, and the introduction of three characters from the Greek, the Roman characters furnish all that is necessary from which every unwritten language can draw.

¶43 It is very unfortunate indeed that the system has not been faithfully followed by all, for reasons we regard as inadequate and inconclusive. This has provoked the caustic remark of the distinguished philologist, Dr. R. N. Cust, that . . . "no class of mankind is so narrowminded and opinionated as the missionary except the linguist." For even in the Yoruba which professed to have adopted Lepsius’ Standard, certain particulars (as we shall see) have been departed from, by no means for the better. Keen was the controversy on these points between the English and German missionaries of the Yoruba Mission in its early days. In the following pages the style commonly used in the familiar Yoruba translations is departed from in some important particulars, as they present some peculiar defects which ought to be rectified. We shall endeavour to follow Professor Lepsius’ Standard Alphabet as closely as possible.

¶44 The Professor himself has conceded that shades of sound can be adapted therefrom to meet special requirements withotit departing from the principles laid down. Says he in his second edition: "The exposition of the scientific and practical principles according to which a suitable alphabet for universal adoption in foreign languages might be constructed has (with few exceptions above mentioned) remained unaltered. These rules are founded in the nature of the subject, and therefore though they may admit of certain carefully limited exceptions, they can undergo no change in themselves: they serve as a defence against arbitrary proposals which do not depend upon universal laws ; they will explain and recommend the application which has been made of them already to a series of languages and will serve as a guide in their application to new ones.

¶45 "But we have not concealed from the very beginning that it is not in every person’s power to apprehend with physiological and linguistic accuracy the sounds in a foreign language or even those of his own, so as to apply with some degree of certainty the principles of our alphabet to a new system of sounds containing between the soft and the rushing sound is indicated by diacritical points, e.g.,

¶46 Heb. iD Arab, ~ &

¶47 Again the letter h is a sign of aspiration (as the spiritus asper in the Greek) as in it, hit; at, hat; owl, howl, etc. It would therefore be unscientific to accord it a new meaning altogether by such a use of it in violation of rule 1.

¶48 Apart from this is the fact that the letter s with a diacritical mark over it has been employed about twenty years previously by oriental scholars transcribing Indian letters into the Roman.

¶49 4. Explosive letters are not to be used to express fricative sounds and vice versa, e.g., the use of ph as f where p is clearly an explosive letter.

¶50 5. The last rule is that a long vowel should never be represented by doubling the short. This method seems to have found favour with some transcribers, there being no fixed system of transcription.

THE ALPHABET

¶52 In a purely scientific alphabetic system, it would seem more correct that the alphabets be arranged according to the organ most concerned in the pronunciation of the letters, e¢.g., all sounds proceed from the fauces, and are modified either at the throat, by the teeth, or by the lips; hence they may be classified as guttural, dental, or labial. But nothing is gained by altering the order which came down to us from remote antiquity as the Romans received it from the Greek, and these from the Phoenicians, etc.

THE VOWELS.

¶54 The vowels in Yoruba may be built upon the three fundamental vowels, a, i, u, with the two subsidiary ones, e formed by the coalescence of the first two a and i, and o by the coalescence of a and u from which we have a, e, i, o and u. These are the recognised principal vowels and are pronounced after the Italian method (ah, aye, ee, 0, 00), but whereas in the English language the short sound of e is written eh and that of o as aw, these sounds, according to the standard system in accordance with rule 3, are represented by a dot or dash under the cognate sounds, hence we

¶55 have e and o. A complete representation of the vowels in Yoruba therefore is as follows :—a, e, e, i, o, o, u (pronounced ah, aye, eh, ee, oh, aw, oo), the original taking precedence of the diacritic. Note that « is not to be pronounced as "you "but as oo in food.

¶56 Nasalization.—The clear vowels are capable of a peculiar alteration which is produced by uttering the vowel through the nasal canal. There is no consonantal element brought into play, but it is an alteration entirely within the vowel. Nasalization is very largely used in the Yoruba, and consequently its orthography should be free from any ambiguity. In the Standard Alphabet the circumflex (~) is placed over the nasalized vowel to indicate such a sound. Unfortunately the Yoruba as written by missionaries substitute the letter » for this sign, a cause of some ambiguity in writing certain words as Akano, Akinola, Morinatu, Obuneko, where the letter » stands between two vowels, and is liable to be pronounced with the latter, e.g., A-ka-no, A-ki-no-la, Mo-ri-na-tu, O-bu-ne-ko; but following the Standard Alphabet, the words should be written Akado, Obueko, just as the Portuguese names are written Semao, Adao, Joao, etc. Indeed certain sections of the Yoruba tribes that use nasalization very sparingly do pronounce these words as written without any sign of nasalization. The m therefore is not only unnecessary but it is also misleading.

¶57 In the following pages, the Standard System will be adhered to, where such ambiguities are liable to occur: but for the sake of simplicity and to avoid the unnecessary use of diacritical marks, n as a nasal sign may be used where it cannot cause any ambiguity, e.g.,

¶58 1. When it precedes a consonant as nje, ndo, nko.

¶59 2. When it closes a word, as Awon, Baṣọ̀run, Ìbàdàn, Ìṣẹ́yìn.

¶60 As nasalization is said to be caused by the dropping of a nasal consonant, such a limited use of "as a nasal sound may be justified. No pure, uneducated Yoruba man can pronounce a word ending in a consonant, he will instinctively add i or u to it. There is therefore no closed syllable in Yoruba, n at the end of a word is purely nasal.

THE SYSTEM OF CONSONANTS

¶62 There are sixteen distinct consonantal sounds in the Yoruba language, each having the same force and power as in the English alphabet ; they are: b, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, w, y. No consonants are used to represent a vowel by perverting them from their legitimate consonantal sounds as h, w, and y are sometimes used in English.

¶63 Besides the above, there are two other sounds not represented in the Roman or in any other European system; they are explosive sounds peculiar to the Yoruba and allied tribes formed by the lip’and jaw, viz., gb and kp. They are regarded as guttural modifications of b and p, and as they‘appear to result from a combination of two organs concerned in speech, but the component parts of which are so intimately connected they are rightly represented by two letters, though not contravening rule 3.

¶64 As to kp, since usage makes it evident that the Yorubas never pronounce the letter p but as kp, it is therefore not considered necessary to include kp in the Yoruba alphabet as is done in the Ibo ; the simple p does perform its duty satisfactorily.

¶65 Here we find a fit application of Professor Lepsius’ remarks that "The general alphabet, when applied to particular languages, must be capable of simplification as well as of enlargement. All particular diacritical marks are unnecessary in those languages where none of the bases have a double value; we then write the simple base without a diacritical mark. Where two sounds belong to the same base, one only of the signs will be wanted. . . ." This is well exemplified here. We therefore write p and not kp in Yoruba.

¶66 The same may be said of the letter s and the sound sh, referred to above. The difference is indicated in the Standard Alphabet by a diacritical mark, e.g., s, s (for sh). The Yorubas can safely dispense with the latter, and for the sake of simplicity this ought to have been done, as no difference as to the meaning of a word is suggested by the same word being pronounced soft or harsh. And more also because in some parts of the country, notably the Ekun Òsì district (the most northerly), the harsh sound is unpronounceable, whatever may be written; e¢.g., shall, shop, will be pronounced sall, sop. In the Epo district, on the other hand, it is just the reverse ; the harsh sound will be pronounced instead of the soft, thus same, son will be pronounced shame, shon.

¶67 But all over the country women and children invariably use the softer sound for the same word, which, if thus used by men is considered affectatious, except in the Ekun Òsì district, where the purest and most elegant Yoruba is spoken.

¶68 S (for sh) therefore might have been dropped from the Yoruba alphabet with no harm resulting ; it is, however, retained because over a great part of the country a distinction is made between the two sounds; apart from the fact that it would often be required in representing the sounds of some words of foreign origin.

¶69 From the above modifications therefore we have the Yoruba alphabet as now used :—

¶70 abdeefggbhijklmnooprsstuwy.

ACCENTS OR TONES

¶72 An accent in the accepted sense of the term denotes the stress laid upon a particular syllable, be it the ultimate, penultimate or antepenultimate syllable of a word. In Yoruba it is used differently. What are called accents, and for which the usual symbols are used are really tones, of which there are three: the elevated, the middle and the depressed; for the first and the last the acute and the grave accents are used respectively, the middle tone in its simplest form requires no accent sign.

¶73 In Yoruba, vowels are of greater importance than consonants, and tones than vowels; hence the peculiarity of this language, that musical sounds can be employed to convey a correct idea of words in speech.

¶74 Another error into which those responsible for the present mode of writing Yoruba have fallen, by departing from the Standard System, is the introduction of the circumflex (~) and its indiscriminate use as a sign of a so-called long vowel.

¶75 There are really no long or short vowels in Yoruba as understood in the English language ; what appears to be long is the coalescence of two or more vowels with an elision of the intervening consonants, ¢.g., Bále is a contraction of Baba-ile, i.e. father (or master) of the house. Here the second b is dropped, the two a’s coalesce, and the i is absorbed in them, being represented by a prolongation of the tone. The vowels are therefore simple and compound.

¶76 The meaning of a word varies as the tone, ¢.g., we may say :-— ba ba, ba, the voice being raised, even or depressed respectively. The first ba means to meet, the second ba to lie in ambush, and the third ba to alight upon.

¶77 So we may have bé, be, bé: bé means to split open, be to be officious, and bé to beg.

¶78 Also bi, bu, bi: bu means to abuse, bu to be mouldy, and bu to cut open.

¶79 In this way each vowel with each tone accent may be combined with each of the consonants to form words of different meanings ; or in other words, thus may every consonant be used with each of the vowels in turn, forming different words by varying the tone.

¶80 THE USE OF THE ACCENTS

¶81 To this method of using the accents over the vowels Professor Lepsius made the strongest objections, as by such a use the accents have been diverted from their proper uses to serve another purpose.

¶82 He therefore proposed to place the tone accents to the right-hand side of the vowel instead of over it, so as to distinguish a word accent from a tone accent, as is done in the Chinese and other cognate languages : é.g., word accent would be written ba, ba; tone accent, ba, ba’.

¶83 In this proposal the professor agrees with the Rev. T. J. Bowen an American Baptist Missionary in his Yoruba Grammar and Dictionary published in 1858 by the Smithsonian Institution. But Crowther—a Yoruba man—did not in his grammar make any such distinction. He thinks the existing accents will do well enough, and for the best of reasons, there is no word accent in Yoruba, the tone governs everything, and Europeans cannot speak without a word accent.

¶84 The language moreover abounds in contractions and elisions, a whole syllable may be dropped but the tone remains. This is the crux of difficulty with foreigners trying to speak the language, and to what extent they are able to overcome this, to that extent their Yoruba is said to be perfect.

COMBINATION OF THE ACCENTS

¶86 As remarked above, there are no closed syllables in the Yoruba language, every syllable must end in a vowel and every vowel must be one of the three tones represented by the accents. Words of three or four syllables are often contracted into two, the coalescence of the tones forming the compound vowels.

¶87 The entire scheme of the accents or tones may be thus represented :—

¶88 I. Simple vowels with the varied tones. a, in which the tone is raised: as ka, to pick; ba, to meet ; 1a, to lick, a, in which the tone is even: as pa, to kill; ba, to ambush ;

¶89 ta, to kick.

¶90 a, in which the tone is depressed: as ra, to buy; ka, to count ;

¶91 fa, to draw. II. Compound vowels in which a single vowel bears more than one tone :—

¶92 A. Compounds of the raised tone.

¶93 4’, in which the raised tone is doubled, ¢.g., A’yan, contracted from Ariyan, i.e., cares, worries.

¶94 4-,in which the raised tone is combined with the middle, ¢.g., Ki-nla from Kinila-—a form of exclamation.

¶95 4 in which the raised tone is combined with the depressed, é.g., béni from béhéni, so it is.

¶96 B. Compounds of the middle tone.

¶97 a in which the middle tone is combined with the raised; e.g. A’yan from a-hayan, a cockroach; Q'ri from Oriri, a tomb.

¶98 a in which the middle tone is combined with itself, e.g., Tani from Ta-ha-ni—who is it?

¶99 a‘ in which the middle tone is combined with the depressed, e.g., E'rt from eriri (spice), spice; keré from kehéré, a screen.

¶100 C Compounds of the depressed tone.

¶101 a’ in which the depressed tone is combined with the raised, €.8., 4’nu from Ani-int, mercy; oto from otitd, truth.

¶102 ain which the depressed tone is combined with the middle, e.g., ko** from kériké, a wolf.

¶103 a' in which the depressed tone is combined with itself, e.g.,

¶104 O'ri contracted from Oriri, black plum.

¶105 In this way words of four or five syllables may, by elision and absorption, be contracted into two or three; e.g., afin from awOfin, the palace; hence Aláàfin from Ani-a-wd-fin, Lord of the royal palace.

¶106 Q-oni from Owoni, which is itself a contraction of Omo oliwoni, son of a sacrificial victim.

¶107 The consonants may be dropped, the vowels absorbed, but the tones are always preserved ; the first and last syllables only are essential, the voice can glide over all the intervening tones for the sake of shortness.

¶108 This is at once the chief characteristic and—to foreigners—the main difficulty of the Yoruba language. In order to avoid such complicated tone accents it would be preferable to write out the words in full, although the contracted form may be used in speaking or reading, ¢.g., otito for d'to; koriké for ko-**

¶109 Words similar in form, distinguished only by their tones. Words of two syllables :—

¶110 Apa... the arm Ina... __ fire, louse Apa .. aprodigal — Ina ..._— flogging Apa... ascar Ina .. a tattoo mark Ald .. ariddle Idi .. the eagle Alo—... something ground = Idi .. the seat Alo... going Tdi .. bunch of fruit Awo .. adish Ta .. atown

¶111 Aw6é .. acrash Ta .. adrum Awd... a fishing net Tiu -. agimlet

¶112 Aw6 .. a guinea-fowl Awo -. asecret

¶113 Agba .. arope Tya -- amother Agba .. an elder Iya .. +~—-punishment Agb&é .. acannon Tya .. aseparation Ayan .. anxiety, care Iko -. acough A’yan .. acockroach Tké .. astate messenger A"yén .. a hardwood Iké .- a hook or hanging Baba .. father Ori .. the head Baba (adv.) quite full Ori .. shea butter Baba .. guinea corn Ori .. black plum Epo .._ palm oil Opd .. +a post Epo ..._ bark Opd .. a widow Epo =... +~weeds Opd .. to be busy E‘ri .- corn chaff Oko .. ahusband E’r1 .. dirt Oké6 .. ahoe Eri (for Ori) the head Okd a spear

¶114 Words of three syllables similarly distinguished : — Apata .. arock koriko .. grass Apata .. a Shield koriko .. wolf Apata .. a butcher

¶115 Words of four syllables. Kglékdl6 .. stealthily Kdlokdlo .. circuitously Kolokdl6 .. muddy, miry Kolokglo.. «tthe fox

¶116 THE efforts we have seen made to produce a Yoruba Grammar on the exact lines of an English or Latin Grammar represent in our opinion an honest labour, highly commendable indeed it may be, but totally in the wrong direction, and little calculated to elucidate the genius of the language. On the contrary, they go a long way to obscure it.

¶117 The Yoruba belongs to the agglutinated order of speech, not to the inflectional. When therefore particles are used to form cases, etc., it is mere pedantry to talk of declensions.

¶118 It is a notorious fact that educated Yorubas find it much easier to read an English book than a Yoruba production—which until recently are mostly translations. With an effort they may plod through it, but they do not enjoy reading it, and sometimes do not even understand it. The main reasons for this are :—

¶119 1. The orthography of the language is still very defective.

¶120 2. The style in which the books are written. This may simply be described as English ideas in Yoruba words: the result is often obscurity and confusion of thought.

¶121 In the "Church Missionary Intelligencer’ for March, 1880, a missionary to Japan, who had experienced a similar difficulty, wrote thus :—

¶122 "There is great danger, in all use of this language, of thinking that when we have rendered various English words into Japanese we have of necessity expressed the thoughts which the English words convey. Language may correspond to language, but the thoughts to which the language is the vehicle may be as distant as the poles. Our language must be idiomatic or the natives will fail to see the points on which we are endeavouring to lay so much stress."

¶123 The writer has on several occasions read portions of Yoruba translations to intelligent but purely uneducated Yoruba men. They would show that they comprehended (not without an effort) what was read to them by putting pertinent questions, but then they would add, "We can understand what you mean to say, but what you read there is not Yoruba; it may be book language (Èdè Iwe)." The rock of stumbling is the desire of translators to reproduce every word and particle of the English in its exact equivalent in Yoruba, regardless of idiom, and thereby obscuring the sense of the latter.

¶124 In taking up a Yoruba book one is forcibly struck by the difference in style between quotations of pure Yoruba stories, phrases, or proverbs, and the notes and observations of the writer. The former runs smooth and clear, the latter appears stiff and obscure, because the writer, with his knowledge of the English grammar and language, wrote English ideas and idioms in Yoruba words, illustrating what is said above.

¶125 When such systems are employed in writing a Yoruba Grammar, such a grammar may be useful in teaching English to Yoruba boys, but that is not a Yoruba grammar.

¶126 We deem these observations necessary because in the following pages we shall have occasion to render Yoruba words into English and vice versa; a very literal translation will not be adhered to when, by so doing, the sense and force of the language will be obscured and weakened.

¶127 THE FORMATION OF WORDS

¶128 The formation of words in Yoruba appears to be a very simple process ; any consonant with a vowel attached will form a word (or three words, according to the variation of the tone or accent). That word will probably be a verb; it will certainly possess the form of one, either current or obsolete. This word will, moreover, be the root of a whole class of words. By prefixing a vowel to it a noun may be formed; with other prefixes also some other words may be formed from the same root, e¢.g., dA to make, eda, a creature; from which we have eleda, creator. La, to split ; ila, a cut; éla, halves of a whole; ala, a boundary. Ru, to carry ; eru, a load; alaru, a carrier; oleru, owner of a load. Fe, to love ; Ifẹ̀, love; Ifeni, brotherly love, charity.

¶129 Thus verbs are mostly monosyllables, formed by one consonant and a vowel, and nouns disyllables in which the first syllable is a vowel, and the second a verbal root. The penultimate vowel is sometimes strengthened by a consonant.

¶130 Adjectives are mostly formed from nouns (or as nouns) by prefixing the consonant of the verbal root ; ¢.g., dida, made or created ; lila, fissured ; so also from mo, to know ; imo, knowledge, mimo, known.

¶131 Adverbs are generally duplication of the adjective, e.g., didun, sweet ; didun-didun,-very sweet ; dara, good; dara-dara, very ood. ‘ What is here called a verbal root may be an obsolete word or one not generally in use, but other words can be formed from it all the same.

¶132 There are some primitive words the origin of whose roots has

¶133 been lost, ¢.g., omi, water; ina, fire; igi, wood; aso, clothes; etc.

¶134 With rare exceptions, nouns not beginning with a vowel are either of foreign origin, or onomatopoetic: this latter being very common.

¶135 There are, of course, exceptions to the above rules, but these will be found to be the fundamental methods of forming Yoruba words.

¶136 We cannot within the compass of an introduction, give a complete sketch of a Yoruba Grammar, but we may state that the lines laid down in Crowther’s Vocabulary of the Yoruba language and in Notes on the Formation of Words by the Rt. Rev. O. E. Vidal, the first Bishop of Sierra Leone, if properly developed and fully worked out, will prove both very useful and instructive.

¶137 THE PARTS OF SPEECH

¶138 There are eight parts of speech. They are as in the English Grammar, the "Article" being excepted.

¶139 The Yoruba language has no article, but when definiteness is required the numeral kan (contracted from Okan, one) is used for a or an, and the demonstrative na or ni (that, the said one) is used for the definite article the.

¶140 The use of the numeral one in place of the article is not unknown even in English. "The numeral one is an indefinite demonstrative when used as the article an "—Mason.

¶141 The word kan therefore cannot be correctly called an article simply because it is made to do duty for it.

¶142 In Yoruba books translated from the English, where the translator endeavours to render every word and particle into its Yoruba equivalent, we often find these particles used where a pure Yoruba, speaking, would not use an article. Hence the Yoruba of translations often sounds rather quaint.

¶143 Literal translations regardless of differences of idiom, often result in ambiguity or nonsense.

¶144 In the British colonies of Sierra Leone and Lagos, where the Yoruba element predominates, and where the English language is often heard spoken with local accents and local idioms, the articles are frequently left out where an Englishman would use them, e.g., I see snake, for I saw a snake. Water full, for the river is full. Here the local English sounds rather quaint, because the speaker simply expresses his Yoruba ideas in English words without the article. Again, we may say in Yoruba, O joko lori aga" (He is sitting on a chair) "O fi mu koko taba" (he is smoking a pipe) No one would ever think of adding the particle kan after aga or

¶145 koko taba by way of expressing the article a. So also we may say "Mo pade Yesufu ni Odo Osun" (I met Joseph at the River Osun), or "Mo filo si oja" (I am going to the market). No one would use the particle na after Osun or oja to indicate the article the as its English equivalent. But we can say "Okonrin na ti de "(the man is come). "Mo pade Okonrin na" (I met the man). "Omode kan nduro dé o" (a child is waiting for you). "Mo pa ejo kan" (I have killed a snake). In which cases definiteness is required and consequently the particles representing the articles a, an and the are used.

¶146 These examples are sufficient to show that the articles do not exist in the Yoruba language, but where definiteness is required, equivalents can be found.

¶147 We deem these illustrations necessary as in books on Yoruba Grammar the "article "forms one of the Parts of Speech.

¶148 Noun

¶149 Nouns generally in their simplest form are formed by prefixing a vowel to a verbal root ; as be, to shear ; abe, razor; dé, to cover (the head); adé, crown; da, to cease; Oda, drought; sé, to offend ; ese, sin. So also the verbals alo, going ; abd, coming from, lo, to go; and bd, to come.

¶150 But the prefixes have certain peculiarities of their own. Thus: a prefixed indicates an agent, one who does a thing, e.g., ke, to cut ; aké, an axe—an agent for cutting wood. Da to break; Ada, a cutlass ; yun, to file, ayun, a file or a saw.

¶151 O or o, the same as a but restricted in their use, e¢.g., lu, to bore ; olu, a gimlet ; lo, to grind; olo, a grinder; wé, to swim; owé, a swimmer; de, to hunt; ode, a hunter.

¶152 é prefixed indicates a noun in the concrete, ¢.g., ru, to carry ; eru, a load; mi; to breathe; emi, the breath, spirit.

¶153 i prefixed denotes a noun in the abstract, e.g., mo, to know ; imo, knowledge ; ri, to see; iriri, experience.

¶154 The vowels e and u are rarely used.

¶155 Gender.—The Yoruba language being non-inflective, genders cannot be distinguished by their terminal syllables, but by prefixing the words ako, male, and abo, female, to the common term ; and sometimes okonrin, a man and obirin, a woman; ¢.g., ako-esin, a horse, stallion abo-esin, a mare; ako-malu, a bull; abo-malu, a cow. Omo okonrin, a boy, i.e., a man child; omo-birin, a girl.

¶156 In one case the masculine seems to be formed from the feminine, e.g., Iyawo, a bride, oko-iyawo, a bridegroom.

¶157 There are a few words in the Yoruba language in which different terms are used for the male and female of the objects, e.g. :—

¶158 Baba _—...._ father Igbekun .. a male captive Iya .. mother Igbesin .. a female captive Okonrin .. man Oso .. a wizard

¶159 Obirin .. woman Aje ». a witch

¶160 Oko .. husband Agbo .. aram

¶161 Aya .. wife Agutan .. asheep, a ewe Apon ... a bachelor Obukgo .. a he-goat Wundia .. a spinster Ewure .. a goat

¶162 Apon '.. a widower Akuko .. a cock

¶163 Opo .. a widow Agbebo .. a hen

¶164 No other distinction of genders is known.

¶165 The words arakonrin and arabirin, used in translations for brother and sister, are purely coined words, not known to the illiterate Yoruba man not in touch with missionaries. To him they are "book-language "and must be explained.

¶166 The English words brother and sister show the relations as to sex only without indicating the relative age; but the Yorubas, with whom distinction in age and seniority of birth are of primary importance, generally use the words egbon and aburo, i.e., the elder and the younger relative, words which show the relative age only, without indicating the sex and are equally applicable to uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces and cousins however far removed, as_ well as to brothers and sisters.

¶167 Our translators, in their desire to find a word expressing the English idea of sex rather than of age, coined the above words "arakonrin," 1.e., the male relative; "arabirin," the female relative ; these words have always to be explained to the pure but illiterate Yoruba man.

¶168 But the words egbon okonrin or obirin and aburo gkonrin or obirin would be more intelligible to them and should be preferred, especially as it is always easy enough to find out the relative ages of the said brother or sister.

¶169 We would recommend this to our translators.

¶170 Proper names rarely show any distinction of sex, the great majority of them apply equally well to males as to females. See under "Yoruba Names," page 79.

¶171 Number.—The plural of nouns cannot be formed from the singular, either by addition or by a change of form ; only from the context can it be known whether we are speaking of one or more than one: but when specification is desired the demonstrative pronoun awgn (they) or won (them) is used with the words, ¢.g.,

¶172 B XXXViii

¶173 Awon okonrin na ti lo (the men have gone away). The bells are ringing—Awon agogo na nlu. Awon, however, is rarely used with things without life. When the plural nouns are indefinite, that is to say, without the definite article, the demonstrative awon is omitted, e.g., Walaha okuta meji—two tables of stone.

¶174 Case.—There are three cases, the nominative, objective and possessive, as in the English language; but in none of them is there a change of form. The nominative precedes and the objective follows after the transitive verb and preposition as usual, but in the case of the possessive, the thing possessed stands before the possessor with the particle # expressed or understood between them, ¢.g., Moses’ book, Iwe ti Musa, in which the particle # is expressed. Iru esin, the horse’s tail, in which the particle # is understood. But although the particle ¢ is not expressed, yet its middle tone is preserved by lengthening the tone of the final vowel of the thing possessed. Thus we may say: Iwe (e) Musa, the book of Moses. Iru(u) esin, the tail of the horse. Oro(o) Olorun, the word of God. Agbala(a) Ọba, the court of the King. Oko Ore(e) mi, My friend’s farm.

¶175 The sound of the added tone is sometimes so slight as to be almost imperceptible, but it is always there, and is one of those fine points which are so difficult for the ear of foreigners to catch, and the absence of which marks out their defective accents.

¶176 But when the noun in the possessive case stands alone, the particle % must be expressed, ¢.g., David’s, Ti Dauda. Moses’s, Ti Musa. It is Joseph’s, Ti Yesufu ni.

ADJECTIVES

¶178 Adjectives are generally placed after the nouns they qualify, as Esin dudu, a black horse; omg rere, a good child. They are placed before the nouns when some special attribute of that noun is to be emphasized, e.g., agidi omo, a stubborn child; apa oma, a slovenly child ; alagbara okonrin, a brave fellow; akg okuta, a very hard stone.

¶179 These are really substantives used attributively. They may more correctly be regarded as nouns in the construct state, and not pure adjectives, ¢.g., "a brute of a man" is a more emphatic expression than "a brutish man." This view of showing the identity of a substantive with an adjective is clearly shown by Mason :—

¶180 "The adjective was originally identical with the noun which, in the infancy of language, named objects by naming some attributes by which they were known.

¶181 "In course of time the adjective was developed into a separate part of speech; the function of which was to attach itself to the noun; even now it is sometimes difficult to draw the line between them, 4s nouns are sometimes used attributively and adjectives pass by various stages into nouns."

COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES

¶183 Degrees of comparison cannot be formed from Yoruba adjectives. The words jz and julo which are generally used in Yoruba books and translations, and even stated in some grammars as forming the comparative and superlative degrees, are really adverbs signifying a greater or less degree than and as such may give a comparative sense only to the adjectives to which they are attached. The superlative is really non-existing; it can only be "gathered from the context. The word jw is only used in an elliptical sense for julo when a comparison is being made, and it often appears in the form of tmesis ; ¢.g., Ile re.tobi 7z ti emi Je—Your house is larger than mine; where Jo is separated from ju by the words ¢ emi, and may be omitted without affecting the sense. When used otherwise, 7.¢., without any idea of comparison, ju is purely an adverb signifying too, too much or too little, e.g., O ga ju, it is too high; O kere ju, it is too small. But a comparative idea can be gathered only from the context, and also whether the comparison is between two or many, and it is in that way alone a comparative and a superlative degree can be made out. "If we say, ‘ John is ¢alley than all the other boys in the class," we express the same relation as to height between John and the rest as if we should say, ‘ John is ¢he tallest boy in the class." But in the former case John is considered apart from the other boys of the class, so that the ¢wo objects which we have in mind are John and the other boys in the class. When the superlative degree is used John is considered as one of the group of boys compared with each other."—Mason.

¶184 This latter sense is what cannot be expressed in Yoruba and therefore the language cannot be said to possess a superlative degree. Thesuperlativeideacan only be gathered from the context.

¶185 It would be absurd to thus compare the adjective tall :— Positive, ga (tall) comparative, ga ju (too tall); superlative, ga julo (more tall than) which are not adjectives in the comparative and superlative sense at all.

¶186 To use words like these: Oga ogo julo, for the Most High ; or, Owt mi behe pupd julo for I am most pleased at it, is to speak vile Yoruba. No pure Yoruba man uncontaminated with English ideas would speak in that way at all.

¶187 As the genius of the Yoruba language, the working of the

¶188 Yoruba mind, its ideas and idiosyncracies do not run in an Anglo-Saxon channel, it is not to be expected that the mode of expression will agree in every particular. Some teachers of the Yoruba language often fall into this error in their endeavours to find the exact equivalent in both languages.

¶189 THE FORMS AND USES OF ADJECTIVES

¶190 Every adjective has two forms, the attributive and the predicative, each depending upon the use thereof, ¢.g.:—

¶191 A high mountain (attributive), Oke giga.

¶192 The mountain is high (predicative), Oke na ga.

¶193 In Yoruba, the attributive is formed from the predicative by reduplicating the initial consonant with the vowel 2, ¢.g., strong pred., le, attrib., lile; sweet, pred., din, attrib., did in ; hot pred, gbona, attvib., gbigbona ; good, pred., dara; attrib., didara, etc. Disyllables with the vowel ~ as a rule undergo no change, ¢.g., tutu, cold; dudu, black; funfun, white, etc. (the » being purely nasal). Although not in use, the same rule even here may also be applied.

PRONOUNS.

¶195 Pronouns are used in the same sense as in English. They are: I Personal, II Relative, and III Adjective ; there is no distinction in genders in any of the forms.

¶196 The Personal includes the Reflexive.

¶197 I. Personal Pronouns.

¶198 (a) Nominative Case.

¶199 Singular Plural 1st Pers.: I Emi, mo (mo, mi) fi We Awa,a 2nd ,, thou Ìwó, 0, (0) you eyin, e 3rd_,, he,sheit Of, 4, (6) they Awon, won

¶200 The full forms (sing.) emi, iwo, of, (plural) awa, eyin, awon, are used when emphasis is to be laid on the person, but ordinarily the second forms (sing.) mo, 0, 6, (plural) a, e, won, are used. Those in brackets (mo, mi, 9, 6) are mere provincialisms for the former.

¶201 N in the 1st person is used only with the incomplete and future tenses, ¢.g., filo for emi yio lo, or Mo filo, I am going, No lo for Emi yio lo, I shall go.

¶202 He, when used in an indefinite sense, is e772, as: Eni ti o ba see, He that doeth it. Eni ti o ba wa si ihin, He who comes here. (b) Possessive Case.

¶203 Singular Plural Ist Pers.: Mine Ti emi Ours ti awa 2nd ,, Thine Tiiwo ov tiire yours ti éyin 3rd_s,, his, hers, its Ti on or ti iré theirs ti awon

¶204 It will be observed that the possessive forms are simply the nominatives with the particle ti (meaning of) prefixed; so that literally they are of me, of you, of him, etc. In ordinary speech, however, the vowel of the particle always suffers elision in the singular number, but in the plural it is the initial vowel of the pronoun that is elided. Thus we have :—

¶205 Sing.: t’emi, t’iwo or tire, t’ofi ov tire

¶206 Plural: ti’wa, ti’yin, ti’won.

¶207 The apostrophe mark of elision is generally dispensed with in writing, e.g., we write temi, tiwa, tiwon, etc.

¶208 Special notice should be taken of the forms tire and tiré; in the 2nd and 3rd pers. singular the difference lies only in the tone (or accent) ; in the 2nd pers. the tone of the first syllable is depressed, the second is middle, it is vice versa in the 3rd person.

¶209 (c) Objective Case.

¶210 Singular Plural ist Pers.: me mi us wa 2nd _,,_ thee ra) you yin 3rd_,, him,her,it a, e, e¢,i, 0, 9, u them won

¶211 The objective case as may be seen, consists of fragments of the nominative. It is really the terminal syllables of the first second and third persons, singular and plural. The third person singular calls for special remarks :—

¶212 It consists of the whole of the vowels, but the particular vowel made use of in each case is that of the transitive verb which precedes the pronoun and governs the case, e.g., O pa a (he killed it), Mo pé é (I called him), Won té e (they bent it), A bo o (we covered it), etc. Where the verb ends in a nasal sound the vowel is also nasal, e.g., O kan 4 (he nailed it), A fun un (we gave him), etc.

¶213 The tone of the pronoun in the objective case is influenced by that of the verb which governs it ; when that of the verb is raised the objective maintains the middle tone, e.g., O le o (he twisted it), Mo ka a (I picked it) ; and vice versa when that of the verb is middle, that of the objective is raised, ¢.g., O se é (he did it), O pa 4 (he killed it), O kan mi (it aches me). Again, when the tone of the verb is depressed, that of the pronoun is raised,

¶214 e.g., O kan mi (it touched me), Mo ka a (I counted it), A pé won (we called them).

THE REFLEXIVE

¶216 The word tikara, incorporated with the personal forms, is used to indicate the Reflexive. It is placed between the nominative and possessive cases, e.g.,

¶217 Singular Plural ist Pers.: Emi tikara mi Awa tikara wa 2nd _,, Ìwó tikara re Eyin tikara yin 3rd_s,, On tikara re Awon tikara won

¶218 The harsh 7 is generally softened into / so that instead of tikara we say tikala ; but in a flowing speech the /is dropped off altogether and the two a’s blended and lengthened; so we often hear Emi tika mi, On tika re, Awa tika wa.

¶219 II Relative Pronouns

¶220 The Relative pronoun who, whose, whom, which, what, or that in Yoruba, is the simplest in any language. It consists solely of the particle ¢ and is used for every number, gender, person or case, ¢.g., I who called thee, Emi t 0 pé 9. The man whom I saw, Okonrin ti mo ri. The birds which flew, Awon eiye ti won fo.

¶221 III. Adjective Pronouns

¶222 These are :—-(a) Possessive ; (b) Demonstrative ; (c) Distributive; (d) Indefinite ; and (e) Interrogative.

¶223 (a) Possessive:— Singular Plural My mi Our wa thy re your yin his, her, its ré their won

¶224 Note.—Like adjectives, they come after the nouns they qualify, e.g., My king, oba mi; your children, awon omg yin; their cattle, awon eran-osin won.

¶225 (b) Demonstratives :—Singular Plural this yi, eyi, eyiyi these wonyi, iwonyi that ni, eyini, na those wonni, iwonni

¶226 Note.—The simple forms yi, ni, wonyi, wonni, are used with the nouns they qualify, e.g., This man, okonrin yi; that book, iwe ni; these children, awon omode wonyi; those houses, ile wonni. But when the nouns are not expressed, the forms with a vowel prefixed are used, e.g., This is not good, eyi ko dara ; this very one, eyiyi ; these are not ripe, iwonyi kd pon; those are very good, iwonni dara jojo. Na refers to something spoken of or understood. (c) Distributive :— each olukuluku, enikankan every enikan, or gbogbo either enikan neither ko si enikan

¶227 Note.—The Yoruba use of the distributives is rather idiomatic. "Each "is olukuluku, but when used in the sense of "one by one "it is entkankan. For "every one" the Yoruba is gbogbo, 1.e., all, e.g., it touches every one of us. (In Yoruba) It touches all of us, Gbogbo wa l'o kan. "Either of them," is "one of them." Either of us may go, Okan ninu wa le lo. (d) Indefinite :— °

¶228 All .. Gbogbo One .. kan, enikan Any .. eyikeyi Other .. ekeji Both .. mejeji Another .. elomiran Certain .. (eni) kan One another

¶229 Each other } ara Won Few .. die Several -. pupo Many .. opolopo, pupo Some .. die (a few) Much .. pupd, opd Such .. bayi None .. kosi enikan Whole .. ototo, gbogbo

¶230 The Yoruba language is very defective in distinctive terms expressive of the indefinite pronouns. One word must do service for different terms in which there is a shade of difference of meaning, ¢.g.,

¶231 Ghogbo is used for all, whole.

¶232 Pupo or 0p0 for many, much, several.

¶233 Enikan for certain, one.

¶234 None is expressed by "there is no one."

¶235 (e) Interrogative :— Who? Tahani? contracted to tani? Whose? Titahani? contracted to titani? Which? Ewo? wo? Whom? Tani? eniti? What? Kini? Note.—The » in kini is often converted or rather softened into

¶236 Jin speech. What shall we do? Kini awa yio se? is softened into Kil’ ao se?

VERBS

¶238 Verbs are transitives and intransitives. There are no auxiliary verbs as known in the English and other languages; certain particles are used to mark out the moods, tenses and other forms,

¶239 for which auxiliary verbs are used, consequently the verb "to be "as an auxiliary is wanting.

¶240 In the English language there are six auxiliary verbs, viz., be, have, shall, will, may, do; each of them may be used as the principal verb, and also as an auxiliary to other verbs when they help to form the moods and tenses; but the particles that are used in Yoruba for such purposes are not verbs, and cannot be used as such, and therefore cannot be correctly termed auxiliary verbs as some compilers of Yoruba grammars have tried to make out. For example, the particle 4: placed before a verb denotes a completed action, e.g., Àjàyí ti lo, Àjàyí has or had gone. The particle yzo in the same way points out a future tense, ¢.g., Àjàyí yio lo, Àjàyí will go. The nasal % prefixed to any verb shows an incomplete action as Àjàyí filo, Àjàyí is going. There being no auxiliary verbs as such, the Passive Voice cannot be formed in the usual way, the first or third person plural of the verb transitive is used for the passive voice, e.g., "A snake is killed "will be A pa ejo kan, or Won pa ejo kan. Or if we say "The snake was killed by Joseph "the Yoruba will be "A ti owo Yesufu pa ejo na, which is literally, "We by the hand of Joseph killed the snake," but usually the active transitive is preferred, viz., Yesufu li o pa ejo na, "It is Joseph that killed the snake." As was observed above, the majority of Yoruba verbs in their simplest form consist of monosyllables—a consonant and a vowel, e.g., ka, to pick, ka to count, rd to buy, lo to go, wa to come, sun to sleep, etc. They are non-inflective and do not show any distinction in number or person.

¶241 Disyllabic verbs are almost invariably compound words resolvable into their component parts; they may be a verbal root compounded with a preposition, a noun or an adverb (some roots, however, have become obsolete), e.g., Bawi, to scold, from ba, with, and wi, talk. Dahun, to answer, from da, to utter, ohun, a voice. Dapo, to mingle, from da, to pour or mix, and po, together. Sunkun, to weep, from sun, to spring, and ekun, tears.

¶242 Some are transitives, others intransitives.

¶243 The noun or pronoun governed by the transitive verb is invariably placed between the component parts, e.g., Bawi, to scold. O ba mi wi, He scolded me.

¶244 Pade, to close. O pa ilekun de, He closed the door.

¶245 Here the mi is placed between the ba and the wi. It is not O ba wi mi for He scolded me, but O ba mi wi.

¶246 So also ilekun is placed between pa and de, not O pade ilekun, but O pa ilekun de for He closed the door.

¶247 Verbs compounded with a Preposition :—

¶248 Bawi, to scold. O ba mi wi, He scolded me. Pade, to shut. Pa ilekun de, Close the door.

¶249 Dimu, to take hold of. Di mi mu, Take hold of me. Dasi, to spare. Da won si, Spare them.

¶250 Verbs compounded with an Adverb :—

¶251 Baje, to spoil. Ba inu je, Grieve, "Spoil the mind." Dapo, to mingle. Da won po, Mix them together. Tuka, to scatter. Tu won ka, Scatter them.

¶252 Daru, to confound. Da won ru, Confound them. Pamo, to keep. Pa mi mo, Keep or preserve me.

¶253 In verbs compounded with a noun, the noun always has the preposition ni (softened into li) before it, e.g.,

¶254 Daju, evident, from da, clear, oju, the eyes—clear to the eyes. Oda mi l’oju, It is evident to me

¶255 Tiju, to be ashamed, from ti to cover, oju, the eyes—covering the eyes. O ¢ mi l’oju. It shames me.

¶256 Dahun, to answer, from da, to utter, ohun, a voice. Da mi l'ohun, Answer me.

¶257 Jiya, to suffer, from je, to eat, iya, punishment. O je mi ni iya, He punished me.

¶258 Gbowo, shake hands, from gba, take, owo, hand. O gba mi V’owo, He shook hands with me.

¶259 Ranse, to send a message, from ran, send, ise, a message. Mo ran an ni ise, I have sent him.

¶260 The Intransitive verbs of this class are usually neuter verbs compounded with nouns of similar import and therefore do not admit of any nouns or pronouns being inserted into their component parts, e.g.,

¶261 Sunkun, to cry, from sun, to spring, shed, ekun, tears.

¶262 Soro, to talk, from so, to utter, oro, a word.

¶263 Kunle, to kneel, from kun, to fill, ile, the ground.

¶264 Pade, to meet, from pa, to keep, ade, a coming.

¶265 Duro, to stand, trom dd, to keep, ivo, upright.

¶266 MOODS AND TENSES

¶267 In the formation of Monds and Tenses certain particles are made use of. They may have been the roots of obsolete verbs, but they cannot now be used as verbs but as particles ; we therefore refrain from applying the terms "defective’ or "auxiliary verbs’ to them. Such are the following :—

¶268 Bi, ba or iba, implying if, should, or would, e.g. Bi o ba lo, if he should go. Of iba lo, should he go

¶269 Je or ki, or jeki, implying permission, e.g., Je ki o lo or ki o lo, let him go.

¶270 Le, implying permission. O le lo, he may go.

¶271 Ma or Mase, implying prohibition (authoritative).

¶272 Maha, implying permission (authoritative), e.g., Maha lo, be going

¶273 Yio, often contracted to o, sign of the future, e.g., Yio lo, he will go. Emi o lo, I will go.

¶274 Ati or ni ati, softened into lati, implying an intention, e.g., Ati lo, to go. Lati jeun, to eat (intending to).

¶275 N or ng, sign of incomplete action, e.g., Emi nlo, I am going. Ojo nro, it is raining.

¶276 Ti, a sign of the past tense, ¢.g., O ti lo, he has gone.

¶277 From these particles the Moods and Tenses are formed.

¶278 Moops

¶279 The Indicative, Subjunctive, Potential, Imperative, Infinitive and the Participial Moods can be well expressed in Yoruba, and all but the first can be formed by the use of one or other of the above particles.

¶280 The Indicative is the verb in its simplest form, e.g. lo, to go. Emi lo, I went. Ojo sare, Ojo ran.

¶281 The Subjunctive is formed by prefixing the conjunction bi (if) before the subject of the verb, with or without the particle ba, é.g., Bi emi lo or Bi emi ba lo, If I were to go. Bi emi ba fe lo, If I wish to go.

¶282 The Potential is formed by adding the particle 1é before the verb, é.g., Emi lé lo, I may go (lit. I am able to go).

¶283 The Imperative is formed by the permissive sign Je ki, e.g., Je ki emi lo, Let me go. [Besides the direct forms lo (go thou) ; e lo (go ye).]

¶284 The Infinitive is formed by adding the particles ati or lati before the verb, ¢.g., Ati lo, to go. Lati mo, to know.

¶285 The Participle is formed by prefixing the particle n (or ng) to the verb, ¢.g. nlo, going; nbo, coming.

TENSES

¶287 There are only three tenses in Yoruba, properly speaking, the preterite, the incomplete, and the future.

¶288 An action just done is a completed action and is therefore past ; one doing is incomplete, consequently what may be considered present may be merged in the completed action, and is therefore taken as preterite, or in the incomplete, as the sense may require.

¶289 The simple verb is always expressed in the past indefinite or vii preterite tense, e.g., Mo lo, I went; Mo we, I washed. O rerin, he laughed or laughs ; O joko, he sat or sits.

¶290 The complete tenses, past or present, are expressed by prefixing the particle ti before the preterite, e.g., Mo ti wé, I have, or had washed. O ti lo, he has or had gone.

¶291 The incomplete tense is formed by prefixing the particle ni (or ng) to the verb, e.g., Emi nwe, I am washing. Emi nrerin, I am laughing.

¶292 The future tense is formed by placing the particle yio (contracted to 0) before the verb, e.g., Emi yio wé, I shall wash. Emi o lo, I shall go. Awa maha yo, We shall be rejoicing.

¶293 The future complete (or second future) tense is formed by adding the particles indicating the future and the complete tenses to the verb e.g., Emi yio ti we, I shall have washed. Emi o ti lo, I shall have gone.

ADVERBS

¶295 Adverbs are used in the same way as in the English, to modify or limit the meaning of a verb, an adjective, or another adverb, and are generally placed after the words they qualify, ¢.g., O soro daradara, He spoke well. O soro jojo, It is very difficult. After an intransitive verb, they come directly after the verb, as O sun fonfon, He slept soundly. O sure tete, He ran swiftly. But after a transitive verb they come after the noun or pronoun in the objective case, e.g., Mo mo Yesufu daju-daju, I know Joseph well. O le won sehin-sehin, He drove them far back.

¶296 Adverbs of manner, quality and degree are mostly formed by a reduplication of the word (especially an adverb or a verb), ¢.g., O soro daradara, He spoke very well, O duro sinsin, He stood firmly. Dajudaju, evidently. Mo feran ré gidigidi, I love him well.

¶297 Adverbs of time, place and quantity are used in the same way as in the English, and call for no special remarks. We may note, however, that in these, words of more than one syllable not onomatopoetic in origin are capable of being resolved into their elementary parts—usually into a particle (a preposition) and a noun, ¢.g.,

¶298 Nigbagbogbo, always, can be resolved into ni (at), igba (time), gbogbo (all), 7.e., at all times.

¶299 Nigbase, when, can be resolved into ni (at or in), igba (time), ti (which), o se (it happened), i.e., at the time when it happened, i.e., when.

¶300 Nihiyi, herve, ni (at), shin (here), yz (this), at this place.

¶301 Loke, upwards, ni (at), oke (the top).

¶302 Nibomiran, elsewhere, ni (at), 1bt (place), omivan (another), at another place. xl

¶303 But there is also a use of adverbs peculiar to the Yoruba language, an onomatopoetic idea is often connected with it, and consequently it is always formed to suit the word it qualifies, and thus intensify the idea conveyed by the word. A form that is applicable to one verb or adjective may not be applicable to another, and therefore adverbs of degree or quality cannot be enumerated. For instance:

¶304 The adverb gogoro can only apply to height, as o ga gdgord, It is very high. A reduplication of the word can further intensify the idea, O ga gogoro gogoro, It is very, very high. In the same way the word gbagada can only apply to something of a huge size, and a reduplication of it, gbagada gbagada, intensifies the idea. Also the word repete or rapata-rapata implies not only a large size, but also a massive one, one in which the space covered is much more than the height.

¶305 Apart from intensifying the ideas, other qualities can also be expressed by the character of the adverb made use of; in other words, the adverbs often suggest some other ideas inherent in the qualities they describe although they cannot be so expressed in English, ¢.g., we may say, O pon foo, It is bright red. Here the adverb foo, besides being aptly applying to what is red, also suggests the warmth of the colouring. So also O pon roro, It is deep red; O pon rokiroki, 1.e., It is bright red, almost yellow. In the last two examples roro and rokiroki refer simply to the depth of the colouring.

¶306 One or two more illustrations will develop the above ideas fully. In the matter of length, we may say O gun tunu tunu, It is very long. This can only apply to a long road, the idea of distance being implied. O gun gboro-gboro, It is very long. This conveys an idea of a long pole, or a rope, or a serpent or the like. So also with respect to height, we may say, O ga fio fio, It is very high. This can only apply to something on the top of a great height, or the top of a high object—as a tree, standing on the ground. O ga tian-tian, It is very high. This can only apply to an object at a great height, not connected with the ground, as a bird flying at a great height.

¶307 In all these examples, the adverb very is used to qualify the adjectives in English, no other ideas being conveyed; in this respect the Yoruba is more expressive.

PREPOSITIONS

¶309 Prepositions are particles placed before nouns or pronouns to show their relation to other words in the sentence.

¶310

¶311 In Yoruba they are mostly monosyllables, ¢.g., si, ni, fun, de, etc., as: Olo si ile, He goes into the house. O wa ni oko, He is in the farm. O ko ile fun Baba, He has built a house for the father. Duro dé mi, Wait for me.

¶312 Words of more than one syllable when used as prepositions are capable of being resolved into their component parts, e.g., O nbd lehin mi, He is coming behind me. Here, the preposition lehin is resolvable into Ji (at) and ehin (the back). O wa Jeti ile, He is near the house ; Jeti is resolvable into /: (at) and et:, the ear, or the edge that is within the hearing or at the edge of the house.

¶313 Under Verbs we have already considered those peculiar forms compounded with prepositions.

CONJUNCTIONS

¶315 Conjunctions are particles which serve to connect words or sentences ; they are copulative and disjunctive.

¶316 Copulative.

¶317 Ati, and or both. Ati Baba ati omo, Both father and son. The initial a may be omitted, e.g., Tiwo tiré for ati iwo ati iré (you and he).

¶318 Ox, and or both. O lo t’ofi ti gmo, He left both himself and child. It may be noted that of is never used to copulate pronouns of the 1st and 2nd persons.

¶319 Bi, if. Bi o je se omo, If he would be a child. (This is used for an obedient child).

¶320 Nitori, because. Nitori t’emi, Because of me.

¶321 Nje, then. Nje o yio lo? Then will you go?

¶322 Disjunctive.

¶323 Sugbon, but. O de ile sugbon ko ba mi, He called but did not meet me at home.

¶324 Tabi, or. Emi tabi iwo, I or you.

¶325 Bikose, unless. Bikose pe o juba re, Unless he pays regard to him.

¶326 Adi, although. Adio ngbo gbogbo ré, Although he hears it all.

¶327 Amope, idiomatic for be 1¢ known.

INTERJECTIONS

¶329 Interjections are any form of exclamation or ejaculation expressing some emotions of the mind. Any words may be used for the purpose, but very few convey any meaning apart from the tone in which they are expressed.

¶330 Exclamations of surprise: Yé! O! pa! emo! hepa!

¶331 Exclamations of disgust: So! Siyo!

¶332 It is rather curious that tribal peculiarities are marked in some forms of exclamations.

¶333 Favourite expressions of Ọ̀yọ́s: Ha! Kinla! Emode! Gbagadari!

¶334 Favourite expressions of Ẹ̀gbás and Ìjẹ̀bús: Here or hereké! heparipa! payentiwa!

¶335 The usual exclamation in law courts for "silence" is: Atoto! lit, enough of your noise!

¶336 Kagbohun! dit, let us hear the sound of a (single) voice.

¶337 The tone of voice thrown into the exclamation in particular marks the expressions of grief, surprise, admiration or contempt.

¶338 We close this portion with the exclamation usually addressed to kings—Kabiyesi! May long life be added!

NUMERALS

¶340 Numerals in Yoruba, although formed on a definite plan, yet are more or less complicated ; the tone (or accent) plays an important part in them.

¶341 All numerals refer to some noun (person or thing) expressed or understood. They are Cardinal and Ordinal or Serial.

¶342 The Cardinal has three forms, viz.: (1) simple enumeration ; (2) numeral adjectives ; and (3) numismatics. To these may be added adverbs of number and of time.

¶343 I .. Eni 22... «. Ejilelogun

¶344 2 wo Eji © 23 4. ... Etalelogun

¶345 3 . Eta 24... .. Erinlelogun 4 Erin 25 .. ... Edogbon

¶346 5 ... Arun 26 ... ... Brindilogbon 6 .. Efa 27... ... Etadilogbon 7 ... Eje 28 ... ... Ejidilogbon 8... ... Ejo 29... ... Okandilogbon Q .. Esan 30 ... ... Ogbon

¶347 10 ... ... Ewa A oe ... Arundilogoji II... ... Okanla 40 ... Oji

¶348 I2 ... 000 Biila 45. ... Arundiladota RB ooo ... Etala 50 ... ... Adota

¶349 Iq ... ... Erinla 55 vee ... Arundilogota 15... ... Edogun 60 ... ... Ogota

¶350 16 ... ... Erindilogun 65... ... Arundiladorin I7 we ... Etadilogun 70 ... Adorin

¶351 18 ... ... Ejidilogun I5 see ... Arundilogorin Ig ... ... Okandilogun 80 ... ... Ogorin

¶352 20 ... .. Ogun 85... ... Arundiladorun 2I ... Okanlelogun 90 .. ... Adorun

¶353 SIMPLE ENUMERATION—Continued.

¶354 95 ... Arundilogorun | 4,000 . ... Egbaji

¶355 100 ... ... Ogorun 5,000 ... Edegbata

¶356 200 .. Igba 6,000 ... ... Egbata

¶357 300 ... .. Odunrun 7,000 ... ... Edegbarin

¶358 400 ... ... lrinwo 8,000 ... Egbarin

¶359 500 ... ... Edegbeta 9,000 .. Edegbarun

¶360 600 ... ... Egbeta 10,000 ... Egbarun

¶361 700 ... Edegberin 20,000 ... Egbawa or

¶362 800 ... Egberin Oke kan i.e. one bag (of

¶363 900 ... ... Edegberun cowries). I,000 ... .. Egberun Higher numbers as 40,000, 2,000 ... ... Egbawa 60,000, etc. being so many bags. 3,000 ... ... Egbedogun

¶364 One Okan | Twenty-nine ... Mokandilogbon Two Méji | Thirty ... ... Ogbon Three Méta | Thirty-five Marundilogoji Four Mérin | Forty... wes Oji Five Marun | Forty-five . Marundiladota Six Méfa | Fifty... . Adota Seven Méje | Fifty-five . Marundilogota Fight Méjo | Sixty... . wes Ota Nine Mésan | Sixty-five . Marundiladorin Ten ... Méwa | Seventy... . Adorin Eleven .. .. Mékanla | Seventy-five ... Marundilogorin Twelve ... Méjila | Eighty ... . Ogorin Thirteen Métala | Eighty-five ...Marundiladorun Fourteen . Merinla | Ninety ... . Adorun Fifteen ... Medogun | Ninety-five _...Marundilogorun Sixteen ... Merindilogun | One hundred Orin Seventeen Metadilogun | One hundred andten... Adota Eighteen Mejidilogun" » twenty Ogofa Nineteen Mokandilogun" » » thirty Adoje Twenty .. Ogun » - » forty Ogoje Twenty-one Mekanlelogun" - » fifty Adojo Twenty-two... Mejilelogun » » » sixty Ogojo Twenty-three ... Metalelogun » » » seventy Adosan Twenty-four Meiinlelogun" » » eighty Ogosan Twenty-five Medogbon » " » Ninety Twenty-six ... Merindilogbon Mewadinigba Twenty-seven ... Metadilogbon | Two hundred ... . Igba Twenty-eight ... Mejidilogbon etc., etc.

¶365 One cowry Oékan! | Three cowries ... E éta Two cowries E éji! | Four i E érin

¶366 1 [it., one money, two monies ; cowry shells being used for money.

¶367 NUMISMATICS—Continued

¶368 Five cowries A 4run 500 cowries ... E-edegbéta Six i E éfa 600 _—S—=», B., ... Egbéta Seven - E ée 700 OC, a E-edegberin Fight » E ejo 800 __s,, vee ... Egbérin Nine » E ésan goo, ... E-edegberun Ten iy Eéwa I,000. i, bee Egbérun Eleven __e,, ...O-dkanla 1,200 ,, bee .. Egbéfa Twelve ,, E-éjila 1,300 __,, wee FE-edegbéje Thirteen _,, Eetala 1,400 __,, oe ... Egbéje Fourteen ,, Eerinla 1,500 __,, wee E-edegbéjo Fifteen __,, .. Eedogun 1,600 _ —s, _ 14. Egbéjo Sixteen __,, Ferindilogun 1,700, ... E-edegbésan Seventeen cowries Eétadilogun 1,800 ,, -. . Egbesan Eighteen i Fejidilogun | 1,900 __s,, "Egbadinogorun Nineteen ,», Odkandilogun | 2,000 ,, .. Egbawa Twenty » ... Okdwo | 2,200 _,, ees "Egbokanla Twenty-five __,, Eedogbon | 2,400 _,, . Egbejila Thirty - Ogbonwo 2,500 ,, Egbétaladinogorun Forty » .. _ Ogoji| 2,600 ,, ... Egbetala Fifty , ... A-adota | 2,800 ,, ... Egbérinla Sixty - ... OOgota 3,000__—s=», oe Egbéédogun Seventy > A-adorin | 3,500 ,, ... Egbejidilogun Eighty .... Ogorin |, din-ggorun Ninety A-adorun | 3,600 ,, _ ... Egbejidinlogun One hundred _,, .. OOgorun| 4,000 ,,° .. .. Egbaji IIO cowries ... A-adofa | 4,500 ,, ... Egbetalelogun120. ,, Ogofa din-ogorun 130, . A-adoje | 5,000 ,, .... Egbedogbon 140, Ogoje | 5,500 ,, ...Egbetalelogbon150, -adojo din-ogorun 160 _—s—=;, Ogdjo 6,000 __s=7z vee ... Egbata 170, A-adosan 7,000, wes Edegbarin 180 __se—e,,, . Ogosan 8,000 wee ... Egbarin 1g0_ li, Ewadinigba 9,000 __—s=e~» oe Edegbarun 200 _—s=7», Igbiwo | 10,000 __,, bee ... Egbarun 210. ,, Ewalerugba | 15,000 __,, oe Edegbajo 220. —=4,, .. Ogunlugba | 16,000 se, he ... Egbajo 230. —#,, Ogbonwolerugba | 18,000 __,, . Egbasan 240, - Ojulugba |} 20,000 __,, Febawa (Oke kan) 250 —,, A-adotalerugba | 30,000 __,, ’ E-edogun 260 i, im Otalugba | 32,000 ,,... Erindilogun 270 —,, A-adorinlerugba | 34,000 ,,... Etadilogun 280 __,, Orinlugba | 36,000 ,,... Ej}: dilogun 290, A-adorunlerugba | 38,000 __,, .. OkA&ndilogun 300_——=,, 6 OOdunrun | 40,000 7, Egbagun (Oke meji) 400 ,, Irinwo liti

THE ORDINAL

¶370 The first Ekini », second Ekeji , third Eketa , fourth Ekerin » fifth Ekarun », sixth Ekefa » seventh Ekeje » eighth Ekejo » ninth Ekesan ,, tenth Ekewa , eleventh Ikokanla , twelfth . Ikejila ,, thirteenth Iketala » fourteenth ... [kerinla

¶371 _,, fifteenth ... Ikedogun ,, sixteenth .... Ikerindilogun » seventeenth Iketadilogun », eighteenth Ikejidilogun ,» Nineteenth Ikokandilogun ,, twentieth ... 0 Ogun , twenty-first Ikokanlelogun » twenty-fifth Ikedogbon

ADVERBS OF

¶373 One by one ... Okankan Two by two ... Meji-meji Three by three Meta-meta Four by four Merin-merin Five by five ... Marun-marun Six by six ... Mefa-mefa Seven by seven ... Meje-meje Eight by eight -... Mejo-mejo Nine by nine Mesan-mesan Ten by ten Mewa-mewa

¶374 Continue to reduplicate the numerals up to nineteen by nineteen then—

¶375 Twenty by twenty .... Ogo-gun Thirty by thirty . Ogbogbon Forty by forty Ogogoji Fifty by fifty Aradota ADVERBS Once Erinkan Twice ... Erin-meji Thrice ... Erin-meta

¶376 The thirtieth ... Ogbon ,, thirty-fifth Ikarundilogoji , fortieth ... vee Oji , forty-fifth ... Ikarundiladota ,, fiftieth Adota

¶377 ,, fifty-fifth ... Ikarundilogota

¶378 , sixtieth . Ogota , sixty-fifth Ikarundiladorin » seventieth Adorin , seventy-fifth Ikarundilogorin » @ightieth .. Ogorin

¶379 "eighty-fifth Ikarundiladorun: » Ninetieth ... ... Adorun » Nninety-fifth Ikarundilogorun

¶380 , hundredth . OOgorun ,, hundred and first... Ikokanlelogorun

¶381 From the first to the ninth— Ikekanle to Jkokandin—the tenths merge into those of simple enumeration.

NUMBER

¶383 Sixty by sixty Ogogota Seventy by seventy... Aradorin Eighty by eighty Ogogorin Ninety by ninety Aradorun

¶384 Hundred by hundred Ogogorun

¶385 Thus from one to nineteen the numbers are reduplicated, also from 21-29; 31-39; 41-49; and so on, but for 20, 30, 40, 60, 80, 100 reduplication of the first two letters takes place, ¢.g., Ogogun, Ogbogbon ; for 50, 70, 90, the same occurs euphonic "r" takes the place of "d" e.g., Aradota for Adodota ; Aradorun for Adodorun. OF TIME

¶386 Four times .. Erin-merin Five _,, Erin-marun Six * . Erin-mefa

¶387 ADVERBS OF TIME—Continued

¶388 Seven times ... Erin-meje | Seventy times Igba-adorin Eight ,,... Erin-mejo | Eighty _,, Igba-ogorin Nine ,, ... Erin-mesan | Ninety _,, Igba-adorun Ten a, Erin-mewa | Hundred ,, Igba-ogorun

¶389 The same to nineteen times. Thus "Erin "is prefixed to all Twenty times Igba-ogun | the numerals, but the multiples Thirty __,, Igba-ogbon | of ten take "Igba "before them. Forty Igba-ogoji Note.—‘ Erin’? is usually Fifty < Igba-adota | softened to ee, ¢.g., éékan, eemeji Sixty » Igba-ogota | and so forth.

ANALYSIS OF THE NUMERALS

¶391 From one to ten, different terms are used, then for 20, 30, 200 and 400; the rest are multiples and compounds. Thus 11, 12, 13 and 14 are reckoned as ten plus one, plus two, plus three and plus four; 15 to 20 are reckoned as 20 less five, less four, less three, less two, less one, and then 20.

¶392 In the same way we continue 20 and one, to 20 and four, and then 30 less five (25), less four, and so on to 30, and so for all figures reckoned by tens. .

¶393 There is no doubt that the digits form the basis of enumeration to a large extent, if not entirely so. Five, ten, twenty, 7.e., the digits of one hand, of two, and the toes included, and their multiples form the different stages of enumeration.

¶394 Beginning from the first multiple of 20 we have ogoji, a contraction of ogun meji, 7.e.. two twenties (40), Ogota, three twenties (60), Ogorin, four twenties (80), Ogorun, five twenties (100), and so on to ten twenties (200), when the new word Igba is used.

¶395 The intermediate numbers (30 having a distinct’ terminology), 50, 70, 90, II0, 130 to 190 are reckoned as: 60 less ten (50), 80 less ten (70), a hundred less ten (90), and so on to 200.

¶396 The figures from 200 to 2,000 are reckoned as multiples of 200 (400, however, which is 20 × 20, the square of all the digits, has a distinct terminology, Irinwo or Erinwo, i.e., the elephant of figures—meaning the highest coined word in calculation, the rest being multiples).

¶397 Thus we have Egbeta, a contraction of Igba-meta, i.e., three two-hundreds (600), Egberin, from Igba-merin, four two-hundreds (800), Egberin, five two-hundreds (1,000), and so on to Egbawa, ten two-hundreds (2,000), which in its turn forms the basis of still higher calculations.

¶398 The intermediate figures of 300, 500, 700, 900, 1,100 to 1,900 are reckoned as 100 less the multiple above them, viz., Odunrun, contracted from Ortin-din-ni-irinwo, i.e., 100 less than 400 (300), Ortin-din-ni-egbeta, 100 less than 600 (500), Ortin-din-ni-egberin, 100 less than 800 (700); and so on to 2,000.

¶399 By a system of contraction, elision, and euphonic assimilation, for which the Yoruba language is characteristic, the long term Orun-din-ni (Egbeta or Egberin and so on) is contracted to Edé or Odé, ¢.g., Edegbeta (500), Edegberin (700), Edegberun (900) and so on.

¶400 But the multiples of 200 do not end with ten times, although that figure is the basis of the higher calculations, it goes on to the perfection (or multiple) of the digits, viz.: twenty times (two hundred); thus we have Egbokanla, that is, Igba mokanla, 11 two-hundreds (2,200) ; Egbejila, twelve two-hundreds (2,400), and so on to twenty two-hundreds or Egbaji, that is, twice two thousand (4,000).

¶401 With this ends the multiples of 200. The intermediate figures of 2,300, 2,500, 2,700, 2,900 are reckoned the same way as before, viz.: 100 less than the next higher multiple.

¶402 As already mentioned, Egbawa (or Ẹ̀gbá), 2,000, forms the basis of still higher calculations; the multiples of Ẹ̀gbá are Egbaji, two two-thousands (4,000) ; Egbata, three two-thousands (6,000) ; Egbarin, four two-thousands (8,000) on to Egbawa, ten two-thousands (20,000), which in its turn forms the basis of the highest calculations.

¶403 The intermediate figures of 3,000, 5,000, 7,000, 9,000, 11,000 onwards are reckoned as 1,000 less than the multiple above them. The more familiar terms for 3,000 and 5,000, however, are Egbe dogun, or fifteen two-hundreds, and Egbedogbon, 25 two-hundreds.

¶404 For those figures beyond 20,000 the contracted forms which are generally used are: Okanla (for Egbamokanla) 11 two-thousands ; Ejila, Etala on to Egbagun, 1.e., 20 two-thousands, 7.e., forty thousand.

¶405 Summary.—Thus we see that with numbers that go by tens five is used as the intermediate figure—five less than the next higher stage. In those by 20, ten is used as the intermediate. In those by 200, 100 is used, and in those of 2,000, I,000 is used.

¶406 The figure that is made use of for calculating indefinite numbers is 20,000 Egbawa, and in money calculation especially it is termed Oke kan, i.e., one bag (of cowries). Large numbers to an indefinite amount are so many "bags "or rather "bags "in so many places.