Jide speaking Yoruba

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This video was recorded by Daniel Bogre Udell in New York City, USA, where he and Jide met. Yoruba is spoken by as many as 30 million people, predominantly in the West African nations of Nigeria and Benin. The language is characterized by a rich dialectical diversity, which is often academically organized into five varieties: Northwest, Northeast, Central, Southeast, and Southwest. Of these, the Northwestern Yoruba dialects have featured most prominently on the language’s chief written standard, which serves as the basis for most Yoruba media today. However, Yoruba is a pluricentric language, meaning that more than one formal or written standard exists. In addition to modern Literary Yoruba, for instance, the now-dormant Lucumí variety is the liturgical language of Santería, a religion of the Caribbean.

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