A Grammar of the Yoruba Language

bá, "to overtake;" ba, "to lie in ambush;" bà, "to bespeak."
lé, "to appear;" le, "to be strong;" lè, "to be able."
yé, "to make much of;" ye, "to be fit;" yè, "to be out of place."
kí, "to salute;" ki, "to be thick;" kì, "to press."
kó, "to gather;" ko, an adverb, "very," kò, "to meet."
(qualifying le, "hard;")
mó, "to be clean;" mo, "to build;" mò, "to know."
kú, "to die;" ku, "to come short;" kù, "to blow into dust."

There is another peculiarity connected with the accents, but with the grave especially. All the personal pronouns take the middle sound, as, emi, iwọ, on, &c. The contraction of the nominative—or subject of the verb—forms the objective—governed by a verb. When a personal pronoun, as an object, is governed by a verb taking the acute accent, it retains its usual middle tone. For example, William bá 'mi, "William overtook me;" Peter mú 'ọ, "Peter seized you;" Ajá gbó 'o, "The dog barked at him." Pronouns governed by the verbs bá, mú, and gbó, retain their usual middle tone. On the other hand, when any of these pronouns are governed by a verb taking either a grave—or depressed—tone, or a middle tone, the pronouns they govern must be pronounced with elevated tone, as if marked with an acute accent. For example, William lù mí, "William beat me;" Peter kò 'ó, "Peter met you;" Babba pò 'ó, "Father smelled it." It will be here observed that the pronouns mí, 'ó, and 'ó, have taken the elevated tone, being so influenced by the grave accent. And so, too, when the verb takes the middle tone, as, Ọdẹ ta wọn, "A wasp stung them;" Ewe nṣe 'ó, "You are childish;" Ewu wu wá, "We had a narrow escape." All the personal pronouns being of the middle tone are subject to these changes of intonation; hence arises one peculiar difficulty in the way of foreigners' learning to speak the language with perspicuity.

Words of more than one syllable taking an elevated tone throughout have an acute accent on the first syllable; as, gúdugudu, "a drum;" pánsa, "a dry calabash;" kélekete,