A Grammar Of Yoruba

A descriptive grammar of Yoruba, a major West African language spoken by over twelve million people, first published in 1966.

In important respects, this book represents an independent approach to Yoruba grammar. It attempts to present the Yoruba language as it really is, rather than as seen largely from the perspective of other languages. The grammatical structure of the language is thus presented in a new way. The major parts of speech of the language are, for the first time, established uniformly on the criteria of function alone. A chapter is devoted to a systematic and novel treatment of each such part of speech, related both to the wide array of sentence types, and to its sounds and the way they are combined in words.

First published in 1921, and cited on the Africa's Best 100 Books List, this is a standard work on the history of theYorubas from the earliest times to the beginning of the British Protectorate. The first part of the book discusses the people, theircountry and language, religion, government, land law, manners and customs. The second part is divided into four periods, dealing first with mytheological kings and deified heroes; with the growth, prosperity and oppression of the Yoruba people; the time of revolutionary wars and disruption; and, finally, the arrest of disintegration, inter-tribal wars, and the coming of the British. There are two appendices, on dealing with treaties and agreements, the other giving tables of Yoruba kings, rulers, and chiefs. The book also includes an index and map of the Yoruba country.

The Landmarks Series is a research and publications outfit funded by the Landmarks Research Foundation to publish recent outstanding doctoral dissertations on any aspect of Nigerian linguistics, languages, literatures and cultures. This study is a departer from most previous work on Yorùbá Grammar in the sense that rather than being purely a descriptive grammar; it attempts to provide a theoretical analysis of the internal and external syntax of Yorùbá nominal expressions using the Chomskyan Principles and Parameters approach to syntax. This Generative theory attempts to characterize the grammar of all natural languages in terms of a set of universal principles that all languages share, and a set of parameters along which languages may vary. The book emphasizes the empirical motivation behind major theoretical proposals in that framework, and shows how views on the nature of universal grammar and cross-linguistic variation have developed over the years as a consequence of a massive increase in cross-linguistic syntactic research.

Specially written by an experienced teacher for self-study or class use, this easy to use and up to date course provides a step-by-step approach to written and spoken Yoruba with no prior knowledge of the language required. Colloquial Yoruba is:interactive - with lots of exercises for regular practiceclear - providing concise grammar notespractical - with useful vocabulary and pronunciation guidescomplete - including answer key and reference section. By the end of this course you will be able to communicate confidently and effectively in Yoruba in a broad range of everyday situations. Accompany.