sentences. If, for instance, you should ask him, "What means good?" he would give you Ọ dara, "It is good," instead of the simple word, dara, "good." Or, if you should ask, "What means walk?" he would say, Ng nrìn, "I am walking," instead of rìn, "walk." It will, therefore, be well to ascertain the meaning of each word from a native by using the same in several sentences.

LETTERS.

The system of orthography employed is that recommended by the Church Missionary Society. The 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.

The vowels have the sounds usually termed Italian, as heard in the words—

	ENGLISH.	YORUBA.
a	.. father	.... fadakà, "silver."
e	.. prey	.... ewé, "leaf."
ẹ	.. aye?*	.... fé, "to like," "to love."
i	.. ravine	.... kí, "to salute."
o	.. dome	.... wó, "to fall as a tree."
ọ	.. law, lost	.. lọ, "to go."
u	.. bull	.... kùtukutu, "early in the morning."

The diphthongs are—


ai	.. mile	.... aiyé, "world."
ẹi	..	.... ẹiye, "bird."
oi	.. voice	.... Oibo, "an European in birth or habits."
ọi	..	.... gọ̀igọ̀i, "sluggishly."

The consonants b, d, f, h, j, k, l, m, n, r, s, t, w, y, represent the same sound as in English.

G has a hard sound, as in "get, got, gild."

The modified ẹ represents a sound between the sounds of bat and bait, hardly distinguishable by an English ear from the latter sound: closely approximating to the English interrogative aye, or the German ä, Väter.