Proto-Yoruboid language

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Proto-Yoruboid
Reconstruction ofYoruboid languages
RegionConfluence of the Niger and Benue rivers
Erac. 2500 BCE – c. 300 BCE
Reconstructed
ancestor

Proto-Yoruboid is the reconstructed common ancestor of the

Volta-Niger about 3,000 years ago during a time of westward migration.[2]

Overview

Proto-Yoruboid was likely part of a larger

Ede languages including the Yoruba).[2]

The language was closely related to the ancestor of the

Defoid, which attempts to merge Yoruboid with Akokoid and Ayere-Ahan, and is still widely cited in research;[3] however, there is still insufficient data to suggest the existence of the language.[4]
Other close relatives include Proto-Edoid, Proto-Igboid, and Proto-Nupoid.

Like other

iron-working technologies quite early, before the wide use of bronze
. Iron smelting and forging technologies may have existed in West Africa among the Nok culture of Nigeria as early as the sixth century BC.

Like its modern descendants, Proto-Yoruboid was a tonal language consisting of a three-tone system. It had lost its systematic noun-class structure that was present in earlier ancestors, and preserved in distant relatives like

Proto-Bantu
, but remnants of the system can still be seen.

Most linguists accept the existence of a Proto-Yoruboid language as there are strong genetic relationships between the descendant languages. The exact ways descendant languages came to be after the migration of Proto-Yoruboid is still debated, for example, the classification of

Volta-Niger languages along with Igbo, Edo, and the Gbe languages of Benin. Many historians who have studied the Nok culture suggest that as a candidate for the speakers of Proto-Yoruboid, or at least close relatives of the Proto-Yoruboid people.[5]

Urheimat

The Proto-Yoruboid homeland was likely the region of the

Niger river
), makes it clear that the Proto-Yoruboid people were riverine.

Phonology

The phonology of the Proto-Yoruboid language has not been widely researched, but it is clear that it had an expanded number of

allophony
in descendant languages, especially among vowels, makes it difficult in determining which consonants were specifically used.

Consonants

Type Labial Alveolar Velar Postalveolar Labial-velar Palatal Labiovelar
Nasal *m *n *ŋm *ɲ
Plosive *p, *b, bʲ *t, *d *k, *g *kp, *gb *c *kʷ *gʷ
Affricate *dʒ
Fricative *s *ɣ *ʃ
Implosive *ɓ *ɗ
Liquid *l, *r
Semivowel *j *w

Vowels

Controversy exists among linguists on whether Proto-Yoruboid had an expanded nine-vowel system (a, e, ɛ, ɪ, i, ɔ, o, ʊ, u),[clarification needed] with nasal equivalents, retained in some Yoruboid dialects like Ekiti dialect of Yoruba, or rather a seven-vowel system (a, ɛ, e, i, ɔ, o, u), with nasal equivalents, which are seen in most of the descendants of Proto-Yoruboid including Yoruba.[7] Most reconstructions support the existence of the nine-vowel system which is quite widespread in other Niger-Congo languages, for a total of fifteen vowels.

Type Front Center Back
Close i, ĩ u, ũ
Near-close ɪ, ɪ̃ ʊ, ʊ̃
Mid e, ɛ, ɛ̃ o, ɔ, ɔ̃
Open a

The above

allophony
, and the exact realisation of many of them is unclear.

Vocabulary

See also the Proto-Yoruboid word list on Wiktionary.

The Proto-Yoruboid vocabulary has been partly reconstructed, but often differs widely as most reconstructed lists were devised in the 1970s and 1980s, when many of the classifications of the Yoruba were based on work by

Diedrich Westermann
and other early linguists on the African language.

Proto-Yoruboid had a relatively poor

Volta-Congo
.

References

  1. ISBN 9783961100989
    .
  2. ^
    S2CID 243643141
    .
  3. S2CID 53518958
    .
  4. ^ Capo, H.B.C. (1989). "Defoid". In Bendor-Samuel, J. (ed.). The Niger-Congo Languages: A classification and description of Africa's largest language family. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America. pp. 275–290.
  5. ^ Lamp, Frederick John. "Ancient Terracotta Figures from Northern Nigeria" (PDF). Yale University Art Gallery. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-01-29. Retrieved 2023-02-11.
  6. ^ Bankale, Oyetayo. "Proto-West Benue Congo Stem C1" (PDF). University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
  7. doi:10.32473/sal.v16i1.107506
    .
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