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APPENDIX TO CHAPTER X
Yoruba
The Yoruba are a higher grade and commercially-minded negro people speaking a Sudanese language. They number about 3,000,000 and inhabit the south-west corner of Nigeria from the sea to Jebba and from Dahomey to the borders of the Bini State. The Nago of the Dahomey coast region and, partly, the Bini are related to them. The Yoruba language ranks as one of the three chief languages of Nigeria. The first Yoruba dictionary, compiled by (an ex-slave and afterwards bishop) Samuel Crowther, was published in 1843
563
Dr. Diringer,
Alagba,
Mo gbo pe e fe ki nko iwe kekere kan ti e 6 tè sinu iwe yin leri "Alphabet," lati fi se apere bi àd ti ikowe l'ede Yoruba.
Tayotayo ni mo fi kowe yi ni soki, mo si rò pe yio bá, l'ona ti e fe lò o si.
Ké epé ot
Emi ni
E. L. Lasebikan..
Efik
This interesting Sudanese language, spoken by some 50,000 people in Calabar, Nigeria, was reduced to writing about the middle of the last century. See also p. 29 f., 148 ff.. and 564 f.
Edima Ete,
Mmenem esit ndinwam ye ekpri wed emi ndisin ke ned fo emi abanade ABC, ndiwut nie ewetde usem Efik, mmodori enyin nte emi eyekem ye udwak fo. Okuo ke akpanika,
Nyon Ekanem.
These specimens are a rough version of the letter reproduced on page 306.