# Yorùbá Language

> Yorùbá is a Volta-Niger language of the Niger-Congo family, native to south-western Nigeria, Kwara and Kogi states, and parts of Benin and Togo. Estimates put native speakers at roughly 40–48 million depending on source and year. It is a three-tone language with a Latin-based orthography dating to 1843, and it survives as a heritage and ritual language across the Americas.

**Category:** Languages · **Updated:** 2026-07-23 00:55:07 · **Canonical:** https://nigeriastuff.org/a/yoruba-language

## Key facts
- **Family:** Niger-Congo > Benue-Congo > Volta-Niger > Yoruboid
- **Native speakers:** c. 40 million (2019 est.) to c. 47–48 million (2023–24 est.)
- **Core region:** South-west Nigeria; also Kwara, Kogi; Benin, Togo
- **Tones:** Three level tones — low, mid, high
- **Writing system:** Latin-based orthography, first devised 1843, standardised 1875, revised 1966/1974
- **Status:** Official/major Nigerian language; ritual language of Candomblé and Santería in the Americas

## Sources
- Yoruba language and alphabet — Omniglot (https://www.omniglot.com/writing/yoruba.htm)
- Calls to use Nigerian languages at school are going unheard — The Conversation (https://theconversation.com/calls-to-use-nigerian-languages-at-school-are-going-unheard-126785)
- Yoruba (World Languages) — MustGo.com (https://www.mustgo.com/worldlanguages/yoruba/)
- Beyond home language: Heritage language maintenance practices of Yorùbá–English bilingual immigrants — International Journal of Bilingualism (SAGE), Oluwateniola Oluwabukola Kupolati, 2024 (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13670069231175266)
- Voices Unheard: NLP Resources and Models for Yorùbá Regional Dialects — arXiv preprint (https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.19564)

_NigeriaStuff.org — free encyclopedic reference on Nigeria. Full article at the canonical URL above._