Download Yoruba Language

Yoruba Language
What is Morphology?
the identification, analysis, and description of the structure of a
given language's morphemes and other linguistic units
Morphemes
the smallest meaningful unit of a language
Low morphemeper-word ratio
Isolating language
High morphemeper-word ratio
Synthetic language
Yoruba People
An ethnic group of southwestern Nigeria and
southern Benin in West Africa
Yoruba Language
a Nigerian language spoken in West
Africa, mainly in Nigeria
Why is Yoruba an Isolating Language?
Low morpheme-per-word ratio / Subject-verb-object
A single or compound word gives a complete sentence
Ó rá (He disappears)
antidisestablishmentarianism
"against-ending-institutionalize-condition-advocate-ideology"
"the movement to prevent revoking the Church of England's status as the
official church"
Methods of Formation of Words
NominalPronominal
System
Affixation
Derivation
Compounding
Verbal
System
Reduplication
Affixation
Nominal forms can derive from verbs and verb phrases by
means of affixes
Prefixes a- and ò- are used to form agent nouns
Example: denoting a person or an object that performs an action
apẹja: fisherman (pa = kill, ẹja = fish)
òjíṣẹ́: messenger (jẹ́ = answer, iṣẹ́ = message)
Prefixes ì- and à- are used to form abstract nouns from
verbs and verb phrases
ìṣẹ́: poverty (ṣẹ́ = to break)
àlọ: going (lọ = go)
Reduplication
• Used to express intensification
• To form agentive nouns and adjectives from verbs,
verbal phrases and ideophones
Intensive = púpọ̀ (much) → púpọ̀púpọ̀ (very much)
Adjective = jẹ (to eat) → jíjẹ (edible)
Agentive noun = jà (fight) + ogun (war) → jagunjagun (warrior)
Ideophone = ramúramù (a loud noise)
Compounding
Two nouns are joined together by deleting the
initial vowel of the second word to create a new
word with a different meaning
ewé (leaf) + ọbẹ̀ (soup) = ewébẹ̀ (vegetable)
ìyá (mother) + ọkọ (husband) = ìyakọ (mother in law)
ẹran (meat) + oko (farm) = ẹranko (animal)