Oyo is the homeland of Standard Yoruba — the Oyo dialect was chosen as the literary standard by Bishop Crowther and the 19th-c. CMS mission.
Major languages#
- Yoruba (Oyo / Standard) — written and broadcast standard since the 1840s.
- Yoruba (Ibadan) — distinct urban variety with heavy war-camp coinages.
- Yoruba (Ogbomoso / Oke-Ogun dialects) — northern Oyo border.
Minor and endangered languages#
- Hausa in Sabo (Sabon Gari) Ibadan — the largest pre-1960 Hausa migrant community in Yorubaland.
- Fulfulde among pastoralists in Oke-Ogun.Climate-Conflict Escalator
Lingua francas#
Yoruba universal; English in schools and government.
Notable literary and political moments#
- Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther (b. Osogun, in Oke-Ogun, c. 1809) compiled the first Yoruba grammar (1843) and translated the Bible into Yoruba (NT 1862; full 1884) — using the Oyo dialect, which became Standard Yoruba.
- The University of Ibadan (1948) became the institutional home of Yoruba lexicography and literature.
Sources & further reading#
- Ethnologue: Languages of Nigeria (SIL).
- Roger Blench, *An Atlas of Nigerian Languages* (3rd ed., 2019).
- Ayo Bamgbose, *Language and the Nation* (1991).
- UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.