Yorùdí

A Standardized & Downloadable Comprehensive Yoruba Multilingual Dictionary

The Yorùdí project aims to compile a complete multi-lingual lexical database with Yoruba as the pivot language. The project is modelled after the CC-CEDICT project by Paul Andrew Denisowski which was itself modeled on the highly successful EDICT project by Jim Breen. The former being a Chinese-English Electronic Dictionary and the latter, a Japanese-English Dictionary.

Usage Examples

1. Find all words matching "aba" in the cms dictionary (tone-insensitive)

   sbt 'run yorudi --dict cms aba'

2. Find all words matching "àbà" in the cms dictionary (tone-sensitive)

   sbt 'run yorudi --dict cms -s àbà'

3. Display a glossary of all words related to "àbà" in the cms dictionary

   sbt 'run yorudi --dict cms -g àbà'

4. Find all words derived from "àbà" in the cms dictionary

   sbt 'run yorudi --dict cms -d àbà'

An Introduction to Yoruba & The Problem

Yoruba is the native tongue of the Yoruba people of West Africa. It is tonal (like Chinese), with a romanized writing system for demarcating tone and pronounciation. That is to say, like Chinese Pinyin, and Japanese Romaji, Yoruba can be written entirely within the extended Latin alphabet.

That notwithstanding, the construction of words in Yoruba is still fundamentally different from other languages, and it is my belief that because existing databases do not take this into account, they fail to provide an adequate level of detail in their definitions. In particular, the way most Yoruba words are made up of other Yoruba words is not taken advantage of.

Contractions in Yoruba

At its core, Yoruba has very few self-contained words over 4 letters (if any at all). All other words, are created through the combination and permutation of the vocabulary: and as such, the direct meaning of any word is little more than the sum of its parts.

Similarly, the spellings of words are always the result of merging their components. This merging may be done in any of 3 ways.

1. Linking :- This is a simple joining of words

    bi + bọ = bibọ i.e "ask" + "to worship" = "that which is to be worshipped" 
   

2. Elision :- This is the deletion of a vowel when joining words

    ní + ilé = n'ílé i.e "in" + "house" = "in the house" 
   

3. Assimilation :- This is the inheritance by a vowel of another vowel sound when joining words

    kú + ilé = kúulé i.e "greet" + "house" = "greetings!"
   

To learn more about the Yoruba people and their language, see http://yorupedia.com/

Creating a Yòrúdí File

Check out this sample dictionary and others in the dicts folder for examples.

Such files may be easily created with any text editor able to save to .txt. Once created, you can change the extension to .yor so it will be recognized as a translation file.

Understanding Yòrúdí Entries

Given the unique properties of the Yoruba language (as detailed above), a specialized input format is used to accurately record words. Details of this format are given below:

            yoruba decomposition (2)                   optional attribute list (4)
                    v                                             v
        gbogbo [gbó . gbó]  /all  /many  /every  <first: attribute | second: attribute>
           ^                              ^                       
    simplified yoruba (1)       glossary of definitions (3)

1. Simplified Yoruba

This is simply the word in the standard roman alphabet.

• It should be recorded as it is spoken in the Oyo dialect for consistency
• Neither tone nor decomposition should be indicated e.g ati, jeun, loke, sugbon

2. Yoruba Decomposition

Here the word must be fully specified to include the following properties

• Tone marks
• Component words (making sure to identify the root)
• Linguistic properties i.e Assimilation and Elision

3. Glossary

The glossary is a list of synonymous words and phrases in the target language

• Each synonym must be separated by a forward slash
• Each glossary entry may optionally feature short annotations in parentheses
• For readability, each slash in the glossary should be two (2) spaces away from the last entry

4. Attribute List

The attribute list may be used to indicate special properties such as indexes into other Yòrúdí language dictionaries. In most cases a contributor need not concern themselves with these.

• The attribute list must be denoted by angle brackets of the form < attrib. list >
• Each attribute consist of a key-value pair separated by a colon and must be separated by a vertical bar
• For readability, there should always be a space between vertical-bars and attributes as well as the colon and value in the key value pair (as in the previous example)

ADDITIONAL NOTES

Writing some Yoruba characters requires that your keyboard is configured for writing accented and underdotted letters. The way to do this varies by operating system.

Mac Configuration

1. Go to System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Input Sources
2. Check the US Extended and US International Keyboards

Accenting a letter is best done with the US International Keyboard.

• Acute accents are added by pressing ['] then the letter
• Grave accents are added by pressing [`] then the letter

Underdotting a letter is best done with the US Extended Keyboard.

• Press [Option] + [X] at the same time, then press the letter. OR
• Press the letter, then press [Option] + [Shift] + [X] at the same time