Learning a language is like going on a journey, every journey has different stages, the beginning, the in between and the destination. If the beginning of a journey is rightly planned, the in between will be easier, when the destination is of utmost importance, we will find the best way to endure obstacles.
A rightly planned Yorùbá language learning journey MUST include the knowledge of the pillar of strength that holds the Yorùbá language, the Yorùbá alphabets and the Tone marks.
This is absolutely ESSENTIAL because Yorùbá is a tonal language, the meaning of a word is determined by how it's pronounced. One word with the same alphabetical letters may have different meanings depending on its tone marks placement.
Example - Ọkọ Ọkọ́ Ọkọ̀ Ọ̀kọ̀
The above words are written with exactly the same Yorùbá alphabet letters, but they are pronounced differently and have different meanings because of the different tone mark placements.
Ọkọ - Husband
Ọkọ́ - Hoe (a farming tool)
Ọkọ̀ - Vehicle
Ọ̀kọ̀ - Spear
This is why it's CRUCIAL to understand the Yorùbá language foundation. Are you ready to get started?