In a previous post, I included a link to a YouTube video on ebola in the Yoruba language. For reference, other videos on the subject in Yoruba and other Nigerian languages are accessible via @LensOnEbola on Twitter. In this post, however, I'd like to highlight some information in written Standard Yoruba, since that can be read, revised, remixed, and reused in various ways.
First, a quick intro to written Yoruba. The Latin-based script currently used for Yoruba in Nigeria - most of the Yorubaphone population lives in the southwestern part of that country - was developed beginning in the early 19th century (Samuel Ajayi Crowther, a remarkable figure in Nigerian history, was associated with that process). This orthography normally uses some characters with either small vertical lines or dots under (the latter sometimes referred to in English as "subdots") to represent the "open e" and "open o" vowel sounds and the "sh" sound (ẹ, ọ, ṣ). Since it is a tonal language, tone marks help disambiguate meaning, though are sometimes omitted. The Yoruba alphabet is considered a "complex Latin" script (Vietnamese is also in this category).
Yoruba varieties in Benin are written with characters from the African reference alphabet. (Latin-based orthographies for African languages are generally fixed on the national level, and in many other cases have common characters and rules across borders).
The following is a sampling of information mentioning ebola, in written Yoruba, sourced via quick online searches (NB- I do not speak the language so am trusting that the material so accessed is relevant and appropriate):
First, a quick intro to written Yoruba. The Latin-based script currently used for Yoruba in Nigeria - most of the Yorubaphone population lives in the southwestern part of that country - was developed beginning in the early 19th century (Samuel Ajayi Crowther, a remarkable figure in Nigerian history, was associated with that process). This orthography normally uses some characters with either small vertical lines or dots under (the latter sometimes referred to in English as "subdots") to represent the "open e" and "open o" vowel sounds and the "sh" sound (ẹ, ọ, ṣ). Since it is a tonal language, tone marks help disambiguate meaning, though are sometimes omitted. The Yoruba alphabet is considered a "complex Latin" script (Vietnamese is also in this category).
Yoruba varieties in Benin are written with characters from the African reference alphabet. (Latin-based orthographies for African languages are generally fixed on the national level, and in many other cases have common characters and rules across borders).The following is a sampling of information mentioning ebola, in written Yoruba, sourced via quick online searches (NB- I do not speak the language so am trusting that the material so accessed is relevant and appropriate):
- The poster at right, from the Nigerian government Ebola Virus Information Unit website
- The Alákọ̀wé blog has a post entitled simply "Ebola" (18 Aug. 2014; this blog is a nice presentation of Yoruba text, although the chosen font fails on some "subdot" letters; also audio).
- Various posts on Olayemi Oniroyin's blog (with some English)
- The Yoruba Clinic Blog has a post entitled "Arun ebola farahan ni Kaduna ni igba akoko!" (2 Sep. 2014)
- Articles (PDF format) on the Alaroye Youruba-language news site, for example:
- "Arun Ebola: E gbe igbese kia, e yee seleri asan faw on araalu — PDP"
- "Ara eni ti arun Ebola ba da dubule nikan leeyan ti le ko o — Dokita Jide Idris"
- The Yoruba edition of Wikipedia (one of the largest editions in African languages) has a translated article about ebola entitled "Àrùn kòkòrò àìlèfojúrí afàìsàn Ebola." This is likely a result of the WikiProjectMed efforts.
- A graphic, apparently from the Lagos State Ministry of Health with text that may be Yoruba.
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