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The Yoruba people (''(ヨルバ語:Àwọn ọmọ Yorùbá)'') are an ethnic group of Southwestern and North central Nigeria as well as Southern and Central Benin in West Africa. The Yorùbá constitute over 40 million people in total; the majority of this population is from Nigeria and make up 21% of its population, according to the ''CIA World Factbook'',〔(Nigeria ) at CIA World Factbook: "Yoruba 21%" out of a population of 174.5 million (2013 estimate)〕 making them one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa. The majority of the Yoruba speak the Yoruba language which is tonal, and is the Niger-Congo language with the largest number of native speakers.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Benue-Congo languages )〕 The Yorùbá share borders with the Borgu in Benin; the Nupe and Ebira in central Nigeria; and the Edo, the Ẹsan, and the Afemai in mid-western Nigeria. The Igala and other related groups are found in the northeast, and the Egun, Fon, Ewe and others in the southeast Benin. The Itsekiri who live in the north-west Niger delta are related to the Yoruba but maintain a distinct cultural identity. Significant Yoruba populations in other West African countries can be found in Ghana,〔 Togo,〔 Ivory Coast, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The Yoruba diaspora consists of two main groupings, one of them includes relatively recent migrants, the majority of which moved to the United States and the United Kingdom after major economic changes in the 1970s; the other is a much older population dating back to the Atlantic slave trade. This older community has branches in such countries as Cuba, Brazil, and Trinidad and Tobago. ==Etymology== As an ethnic description, the word "Yoruba" was first recorded in reference to the Oyo Empire in a treatise written by the 16th-century Songhai scholar Ahmed Baba. It was popularized by Hausa usage and ethnography written in Arabic and Ajami during the 19th century, in origin referring to the Oyo exclusively. The extension of the term to all speakers of dialects related to the language of the Oyo (in modern terminology North-West Yoruba) dates to the second half of the 19th century. It is due to the influence of Samuel Ajayi Crowther, the first Anglican bishop in Nigeria. Crowther was himself a Yoruba and compiled the first Yoruba dictionary as well as introducing a standard for Yoruba orthography. According to the German historian Dierk Lange, the Yoruba were amongst the Israelites who were taken captive by the Assyrians in 721 B.C. He related them with the tribe of Ephraim to be specific. The etymology of the ethnic name "Yoruba" is suggested on a page to originate with Jeroboam or "Yeroboam" – the first and most memorable king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The alternative name ''Akú'', apparently an exonym derived from the first words of Yoruba greetings (such as ''Ẹ kú àárọ?'' "good morning", ''Ẹ kú alẹ?'' "good evening") has survived in certain parts of their diaspora as a self-descriptive, especially in Sierra Leone〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Yoruba people」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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