Yoruba alphabet: the 25 letters, the vowels and the tones

The Yoruba alphabet is where anyone learning the language starts. It has 25 letters, sounds that don't exist in English, and a three-tone system that changes the meaning of words. In this guide, you'll learn the structure of the alphabet, the oral and nasal vowels, the special sounds, and why pronunciation needs to be trained with audio.

How many letters does the Yoruba alphabet have?

The modern Yoruba alphabet, standardized from the 19th-century work of Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther, has 25 letters. It uses the same Latin alphabet as English, but with important differences: some letters carry a subdot (like ẹ, ọ and ṣ), which marks a different sound, and several letters common in English simply don't exist.

The 25 letters are: a, b, d, e, ẹ, f, g, gb, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, ọ, p, r, s, ṣ, t, u, w, y. Notice that c, q, v, x and z are not part of Yoruba, and that gb is treated as a single letter, with its own sound.

The 7 oral vowels of Yoruba

Yoruba has seven oral vowels, two more than written English typically distinguishes. The difference lies in the mid vowels, which split into open and closed:

• a: as in "father";
• e: closed, similar to the "e" in "café";
• ẹ (e with a subdot): open, closer to the "e" in "bed";
• i: as in "machine";
• o: closed, similar to the "o" in "go";
• ọ (o with a subdot): open, closer to the "o" in "law";
• u: as in "flute".

The dot under ẹ and ọ is essential: it marks a more open sound and can completely change a word's meaning. Confusing e with ẹ is one of the first things a teacher corrects in class.

Nasal vowels

Besides the oral vowels, Yoruba has nasal vowels: sounds where air passes through the nose, somewhat like the nasalized vowels found in French. In writing, they're usually followed by n, as in an, ẹn, in, ọn and un.

For English speakers, nasal vowels can take a bit more practice than for speakers of languages with built-in nasalization. Even so, the exact placement of the nasal sound in Yoruba needs to be heard and repeated to sound natural.

Special sounds: gb, p and ṣ

Three sounds tend to surprise beginners:

• gb: a unique sound, produced with both lips and the back of the tongue at the same time. There's no direct equivalent in English, and it needs to be demonstrated;
• p: in Yoruba, the letter p on its own sounds like "kp", not like the English "p";
• ṣ (s with a subdot): has the sound of "sh", as in "shoe".

These three sounds are a good example of why learning Yoruba from written word lists alone is risky: the letter doesn't correspond to the sound an English speaker would expect.

The three tones of Yoruba

This is the feature that sets Yoruba apart the most from English: it's a tonal language, with three tones that change the meaning of a word. They are:

• high tone: marked with an acute accent (´);
• mid tone: unmarked;
• low tone: marked with a grave accent (`).

In practice, this means the same sequence of letters can carry completely different meanings depending on the tone. A classic example is the syllable ọkọ, which changes meaning depending on the tone pattern: it can refer to things as different as "husband," "hoe," or "vehicle." That's why training tone from the very start, by listening and repeating, is essential.

For an English speaker, who has never used tone to change a word's meaning, this is the newest concept in Yoruba: and also the most rewarding to master. The good news is that your ear adjusts with practice: after a few weeks of listening and repeating, your brain starts to notice differences that seemed invisible at first. When typing in Yoruba, remember to use the accents and subdots whenever you can, since they carry real information about the sound.

How to train your Yoruba pronunciation

The Yoruba alphabet is entirely learnable by beginners: but the part that makes the real difference (tones, open and closed vowels, sounds like gb and p) depends on listening and being corrected. An app can show you the letter; it can't tell when you've produced the wrong tone. That's why the safest way to start is with audio and guided practice.

At Vedium, Yoruba is taught in live classes, from scratch to advanced, starting exactly with sounds and tones, with real-time correction. After the alphabet, the natural next steps are Yoruba greetings and Yoruba numbers.