Yoruba
The third most spoken language in Africa, Yoruba is also one of Nigeria’s official languages, serving as the mother tongue of the Yoruba people in the country. It has over 30 million speakers in Nigeria, Benin and Togo and it is widely spoken by West African expatriates in the US and UK. Yoruba, which has over 15 dialects, also forms part of the also forms part of Volta-Niger branch of the Niger-Congo family of languages. If you want to say hello in Yoruba, you should say “Bawo”. But take note, Yoruba is a tonal language with three tones: high, mid and low. Take some lessons in Yoruba. There are millions of sites and portals for doing so. On the lighter side, if you are a fan of Nigerian films, then you should learn Yoruba, as the language is often used in its traditional films.
