RAPID COMMUNICATION/SHORT COMMUNICATION THE MISSING CONSONANTS THAT SUGGEST YORUBA IS A LANGUAGE ISOLATE

Abstract

Musicality/tonality, homographs, heteronyms and heterophones [1-4] aside, another feature that strongly suggests Yoruba is a language isolate is the absence of the consonants “V”, “X” and “Z” from Yoruba. Yoruba has seven vowels- A, E, E [accented], I, O, O [accented], U - and eighteen consonants viz- B, D, F, G, GB, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, R, S, S [accented], T, W, Y. This cannot be said of many other Nigerian languages! “X”, “V” and “Z” and the sounds thereof occur in many of the contiguous languages. “Z” occurs in the two other major languages in Nigeria- hausa and igbo.