Alphabet and Character Frequency: Yoruba (Yorùbá)
On this page you will find tables containing the frequencies of letters in the Yoruba language as well as information on the Yoruba alphabet (the letters used in the Yoruba language).
The list may only be used together with the internet adress sttmedia.com and the prior consent of Stefan Trost (contact).
Letter Frequencies of the language Yoruba
Below you can see a table showing the frequencies of letters, as they occur in the Yoruba language. This list was created with the character counter, which is integrated in the WordCreator. Basis of this list was a Yoruba text with 2,014,338 characters (426,378 words), 1,535,761 characters were used for the counting. The text consists of a good mix of different literary genres. Of course, if another text was used as a basis, the result would be slightly different.
The first list is sorted alphabetically according to the letters, the second list by the frequencies of the letters. Accordingly, the letters N, Í and I are the most frequent letters in the Yoruba language.
| Letter | Frequency |
| A | 4.63 % |
| Á | 2.85 % |
| À | 4.39 % |
| Ā | < 0.01 % |
| B | 3.63 % |
| D | 1.70 % |
| E | 1.70 % |
| É | 1.30 % |
| È | 1.12 % |
| Ē | < 0.01 % |
| Ẹ | 1.32 % |
| Ẹ́ | 1.12 % |
| Ẹ̀ | 1.77 % |
| Ẹ̄ | < 0.01 % |
| F | 1.39 % |
| G | 2.21 % |
| H | 0.53 % |
| I | 5.74 % |
| Í | 5.84 % |
| Ì | 3.34 % |
| Ī | < 0.01 % |
| J | 1.70 % |
| K | 2.73 % |
| L | 3.67 % |
| M | 2.23 % |
| Ḿ | < 0.01 % |
| M̀ | < 0.01 % |
| M̄ | < 0.01 % |
| N | 9.54 % |
| Ǹ | 0.06 % |
| Ń | 0.30 % |
| N̄ | < 0.01 % |
| O | 2.74 % |
| Ó | 2.10 % |
| Ò | 1.41 % |
| Ō | < 0.01 % |
| Ọ | 3.44 % |
| Ọ́ | 1.56 % |
| Ọ̀ | 1.03 % |
| Ọ̄ | < 0.01 % |
| P | 1.52 % |
| R | 3.95 % |
| S | 2.77 % |
| Ṣ | 1.14 % |
| T | 3.66 % |
| U | 1.41 % |
| Ú | 2.55 % |
| Ù | 0.99 % |
| Ū | < 0.01 % |
| W | 3.16 % |
| Y | 1.64 % |
| Letter | Frequency |
| N | 9.54 % |
| Í | 5.84 % |
| I | 5.74 % |
| A | 4.63 % |
| À | 4.39 % |
| R | 3.95 % |
| L | 3.67 % |
| T | 3.66 % |
| B | 3.63 % |
| Ọ | 3.44 % |
| Ì | 3.34 % |
| W | 3.16 % |
| Á | 2.85 % |
| S | 2.77 % |
| O | 2.74 % |
| K | 2.73 % |
| Ú | 2.55 % |
| M | 2.23 % |
| G | 2.21 % |
| Ó | 2.10 % |
| Ẹ̀ | 1.77 % |
| D | 1.70 % |
| E | 1.70 % |
| J | 1.70 % |
| Y | 1.64 % |
| Ọ́ | 1.56 % |
| P | 1.52 % |
| Ò | 1.41 % |
| U | 1.41 % |
| F | 1.39 % |
| Ẹ | 1.32 % |
| É | 1.30 % |
| Ṣ | 1.14 % |
| È | 1.12 % |
| Ẹ́ | 1.12 % |
| Ọ̀ | 1.03 % |
| Ù | 0.99 % |
| H | 0.53 % |
| Ń | 0.30 % |
| Ǹ | 0.06 % |
| Ā | < 0.01 % |
| Ē | < 0.01 % |
| Ẹ̄ | < 0.01 % |
| Ī | < 0.01 % |
| Ḿ | < 0.01 % |
| M̀ | < 0.01 % |
| M̄ | < 0.01 % |
| N̄ | < 0.01 % |
| Ō | < 0.01 % |
| Ọ̄ | < 0.01 % |
| Ū | < 0.01 % |
Lists of Yoruba syllable frequencies can be found here.
Usage Note
The list may only be used together with the internet adress sttmedia.com and the prior consent of Stefan Trost (contact). If you need additional lists, for example in a different sorting or on the basis of another source, we can provide this list. Simply write to us. The price of this service depends on the effort required to create your desired list.
The Yoruba Alphabet
Here you can see all letters that occur in the Yoruba alphabet. The headings of each column are showing all basic letters of the Latin alphabet in bold. In the first row of the table, there are the letters from the Latin alphabet, which are also used in Yoruba. Underneath, all in Yoruba occurring forms derived from the basic Latin letters are listed.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
| A | B | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | R | S | T | U | W | Y | |||||
| Á | É | Í | M̀ | N̄ | Ó | Ṣ | Ú | ||||||||||||||||||
| À | È | Ì | M̄ | Ǹ | Ò | Ù | |||||||||||||||||||
| Ā | Ē | Ī | Ḿ | Ń | Ō | Ū | |||||||||||||||||||
| Ẹ | Ọ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ẹ́ | Ọ́ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ẹ̀ | Ọ̀ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ẹ̄ | Ọ̄ |
The Yoruba alphabet knows 51 letters. It contains of 24 basic letters of the Latin alphabet (all letters except C, Q, V, X and Z) and is supplemented by the 27 letters Á, À, Ā, É, È, Ē, Ẹ, Ẹ́, Ẹ̀, Ẹ̄, Í, Ì, Ī, Ḿ, Ǹ, Ń, Ó, Ò, Ō, Ọ, Ọ́, Ọ̀, Ọ̄, Ṣ, Ú, Ù and Ū. The combination (the digraph) GB is usually treated inseparably as a single letter (for example, when sorting a list alphabetically such as in dictionaries).
Instead of the letters with the sub-dot (ẸẸ́Ẹ̀Ẹ̄ỌỌ́Ọ̀Ọ̄Ṣ), alternatively, sometimes also the corresponding letters with a vertical underline are used (E̩É̩È̩Ē̩O̩Ó̩Ò̩Ō̩S̩). This is particularly advantageous in combination with underlined words and texts, as the dots can otherwise easily be covered by the underline.
The acute accent on a letter (ÁÉÍÓÚḾŃ) stands for a high tone, a grave accent on a letter (ÀÈÌÒÙM̀Ǹ) stands for a low tone and the macron on a letter (ĀĒĪŌŪM̄N̄) stands for a middle tone. The macron respectively horizontal line above a letter is optional, which is why it is rarely seen in writing and the corresponding letters have a very low probability of occurring. The option of combining several tone signs within a syllable to a single tone sign is also very rarely used. For example, like writing a rising tone ÒÓ as Ǒ.