Yorùbá Tone Marking and Its Usage

This write up is aimed at helping you overcome the problem of typing the Yoruba language with diacritics/tonal marks.

Yorùbá Tone Marking and Its Usage

Bali Adenike Helen
The Bells Comprehensive Secondary School
adenikeadetoyebali2014@gmail.com

Do    Re   Mi 

Background

In Yoruba language, we call "tone marks" diacritics (ami ohùn). When we speak in the Yoruba language, we raise our voices high and low "soke- sodo". This is why we call the Yoruba language a tonal language. There are three different types of tone marks:

      1. The low tone mark "do" (ami ohùn ìsàlẹ̀)

      2. The middle tone mark "re" (ami ohùn àárín)

      3. The high tone mark "mi" (ami ohùn òkè)

We use these diacritics to differentiate between words in the Yoruba language.

THREE WAYS TO TYPE YORUBA WORDS WITH TONAL MARKS USING YOUR NORMAL KEYBOARD

1. Windows Application

There is a Yoruba keyboard layout for windows on the internet to help Yoruba users. It can be downloaded for free on the internet. Click on install after downloading then you would receive a confirmation message and Yor-Yoruba (Nigeria) will automatically appear as an option in your language bar.

2. MAC Application   

You could also download the MAC version of the application and install on your laptop that is if you are making use of MAC OS.

3. Google Translate

Type all your words in English, then copy and paste it to google translate but this could be very inaccurate, so you would have to change the language to Yoruba and edit appropriately.

*The Yoruba keyboard enables you to type Yoruba online. To type tonal characters, press the tone mark first (') followed by the sound (a)*

*You could also press (ESC) on the Yoruba keyboard layout and it would toggle the mouse Input between the virtual QWERTY keyboard and virtual Yoruba keyboard.

*Press (Shift) for additional Yoruba letters that are not visible on the keyboard.

* For mobile phones and tablets, touch and hold inside the text area to copy the text. You could then paste the text in a search app.