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Colloquial Yoruba Antonia Yétúndé Fá»​lárìn
Schleicher Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Antonia Yétúndé Fá»​lárìn Schleicher
ISBN(s): 9780415700603, 0415700604
Edition: Bilingual
File Details: PDF, 2.16 MB
Year: 2008
Language: english
1111
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Colloquial
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The Colloquial Series
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1111
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15 The Complete Course
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17 for Beginners
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First published 2008
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007.

“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
an informa business
© 2008 Antonia Yétúndé Fo© làrín Schleicher

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted

or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording˙ in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Schleicher, Antonia Yétúndé Fo© làrín, 1953–
Colloquial Yoruba: the complete course for beginners/
Antonia Fo© làrín Yétúndé Schleicher
p. cm – (The colloquial series)
English and Yoruba.
1. Yoruba language – Textbooks for foreign speakers –
English. I. Title.
PL8821.S34 2007
496e.33382421 – dc22 2007004357

ISBN 0-203-79975-5 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN13: 978–0–415–70060–3 (pbk)

ISBN13: 978–0–415–70059–7 (CDs)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–70057–3 (pack)
1111
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1111 This book is dedicated to Charles
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1111
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3 Contents
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8
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1111 Acknowledgments ix
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13 About this book x
14 The alphabet and sounds of Yoruba xiv
15
16
17
18 1 N’ílé ò.ré. 1
19 At a friend’s house
20
21 2 Ìkíni àti ìpàdé 16
22 Greetings and meetings
23
24
3 Sísò.rò. nípa ènìyàn 29
25 Talking about people
26 4 Wíwá ilé láti ré.ǹtì 46
27
28 Looking for a place to rent
29 5 Nǹkan o.jà àti as.o. 62
30
Market products and clothing
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32 6 Síse oúnje. 77
33 Cooking
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35 7 Nípa ìlera ara re. 92
36 About your health
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38 8 Síso. nípa ènìyàn 106
39 Talking about people
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41 9 S.ís.àpèjúwe ènìyàn àti ìlú 121
4222 Describing people and towns
viii Contents

10 Wìwá ò.nà 135

Finding one’s way
11 Títún nǹkan s.e 150
Fixing a problem
12 Pípàdé ènìyàn ní ibùdó ò.kò.-òfurufú
ní Èkó 163
Meeting someone at Lagos airport

13 Lílo. sí orís.irís.i ibi 175

Visiting different places

14 Báwo ni ibè. s.e rí? 187

What’s it like there?
15 S.ís.e ìwádìí nípa ènìyàn 198
Getting information about someone

Grammar summary 209

Key to exercises 222
Translations of the comprehension passages 253
Yoruba–English glossary 262
English–Yoruba glossary 276
Index 291
1111
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3 Acknowledgments
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1111 I would like to thank all the people who contributed to the successful
12 completion of this book. My thanks go to my Yoruba teaching
13 assistants, Florence Olamijulo and Akinsola Ogundeji, who helped
14 to check the authenticity of the dialogues and other texts. Florence
15 Olamijulo also read through the whole manuscript to identify any
16 typographical errors or tone problems. She helped to make sure that
17 the answer key corresponds to the activities.
18 Sincere gratitude goes to Andrew “Adeleke” Gurstelle (one of
19 my advanced Yoruba students) who assisted me in putting the
20 glossary together and also checked, from a learner’s point of view,
21 to see if the texts and activities are appropriate for the intended
22 audience. Adedoyin Adenuga helped with the photography, as well
23 as searching for additional pictures and obtaining the necessary
24 copyright permissions. Thanks, Doyin, for all your help with this
25 book.
26 I am also especially grateful to all Routledge staff who have
27 worked patiently with me to see this project to a successful end.
28 My thanks go to Sophie Oliver, who encouraged me to work on this
29 project. It took longer than we anticipated but I hope you are
30 happy and satisfied with the end result. I am also very grateful to
31 Sonja van Leeuwen, Ursula Mallows, Anna Hines and Sue Leaper,
32 who worked very closely with me on this manuscript. Special thanks
33 go to the Colloquial Series Editor, Gary King, for his thoughtful and
34 detailed comments on the first draft of the manuscript.
35 I am greatly indebted to my husband, Charles Schleicher, and my
36 children, Carla and Anthony, for their unfailing support and encour-
37 agement throughout the time I have spent working on the book.
38 Above all, I am grateful to God who gave me the good health and
39 wisdom to complete the project.
40
41
4222
About this book

Learners cite many reasons for studying Yoruba, including personal

interest in West African cultures, research interests and fulfilment of
foreign language requirements. Others study Yoruba out of interest
in their own heritage, since many of the slaves brought to North
America during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries came from
Yoruba-speaking areas.

Why Yoruba?
Yoruba is the first language for approximately 30 million West
Africans, and is spoken by populations in Southwestern Nigeria,
Togo, Benin and Sierra Leone. It is also one of the prominent
languages and cultures of the diaspora, and greatly impacts the
social, cultural and religious lives of millions of people in countries
outside Africa, such as Brazil, Venezuela, Cuba, Trinidad and
Tobago, and Haiti. Yoruba culture, which centers around religion,
is one of the surviving African elements in these countries, as one
can clearly see in the òrìßà tradition “candomble” and the feature
of syncretism in Brazil, as well as in other religious practices in the
United States and elsewhere. While not all the Yoruba practice
traditional Yoruba religion, it continues to play a major role in
the lives of many Yoruba people. Traditional Yoruba religion is
centered on a pantheon of deities called òrìßà. When a child is born,
a diviner, or babaláwo, will be consulted to determine which òrìßà
the child should follow. As adults, the Yoruba often honor several
of these deities. According to oral tradition, the high god O˘loœ$run
(Olódùmarè) asked Òrìßàn;lá to descend from the sky to create the
first Earth at Ilé-IfõΩ. Òrìßàn;lá was delayed and his younger brother,
Odùduwà, accomplished the task. Shortly afterwards, sixteen other
òrìßà came down from heaven to create human beings and live on
Earth with him. The descendants of each of these deities are said to
 About this book xi

1111 have spread Yoruba culture and religious principles throughout the
2 rest of Yorubaland.
3 For students of comparative linguistics and sociolinguistics, a
4 study of Yoruba can help yield extremely interesting results through
5 an examination of the various changes and differences that occur
6 between the language and culture of the home base and those of the
7 diaspora. Students of African literatures would also benefit from
8 studying Yoruba language, literature and culture, as many notable
9 African writers (for example, Wole Soyinka) are Nigerians. Further,
10 Yoruba is one of the most studied and researched African languages.
1111 There are already two volumes of Yoruba Metalanguage, and
12 Yoruba is now being used for serious academic discourses such as
13 Masters and Ph.D. degree theses in some parts of Africa. Its import-
14 ance as an African language cannot be over-emphasized.
15 Yoruba belongs to the group of “Less Commonly Taught” lan-
16 guages and has been recognized as a first priority language by a
17 national panel of African language teachers because of the number
18 of people for whom Yoruba is the first language, the political,
19 cultural and social importance of Yoruba within Africa, and because
20 of the extent to which the United States’ national interests are tied
21 to economic and diplomatic relations with Yoruba-speaking areas.
22
23
24 People and history
25
26 The term Yoruba describes a number of semi-independent peoples
27 loosely linked by geography, language, history and religion. The
28 Yoruba live primarily in Nigeria. They have resided in cities for
29 many hundreds of years and are among the most urbanized peoples
30 in Africa. Ibadan, located in southern Nigeria, is one of the oldest
31 and largest Black cities in Africa, with a population estimated at over
32 5 million. In the past, Yoruba cities formed the political centers of
33 city-states governed by a king and supreme council. In pre-colonial
34 times each city-state was autonomous and had its own distinct
35 dialect, religious cults and army. These ancient states frequently
36 fought with one another, and several centuries ago one of these
37 kingdoms, Oyo, became dominant. “Old Oyo,” as this state is called,
38 gave cohesiveness to Yoruba customs and contributed greatly to the
39 collective identity of modern Yoruba-speaking people.
40 Today, however, a Yoruba will often call himself or herself
41 “Ibadan” rather than Yoruba in order to emphasize their local
4222 identity. There are more than fifty traditional Yoruba city-states
xii About this book

recognized today. Though their domains have been absorbed into

the government of the modern nation of Nigeria, traditional kings
often have considerable local and national political power.

Colloquial Yoruba
The purpose of this book is to give learners the opportunity to learn
Yoruba with or without a teacher. Each of the fifteen units contains
a systematic presentation of different basic functions performed by
native speakers of Yoruba in a simple but realistic manner.
Each unit begins with a list of basic functions that you will be able
to perform by the end of the unit. This is followed by an illustration
that illustrates the theme of the unit. After the illustration there is a
dialogue in Yoruba, with a short introduction in English to prepare
the learner for the context of the dialogue. This dialogue is
immediately followed by a translation. Once you have checked the
translation, it is very important for you to go back to the dialogue in
Yoruba to try to understand the dialogue without the translation.
You can either use the dialogue as a reading activity or you could
listen to the dialogue on the recording for a listening activity. Each
time you read or listen to the dialogue, try to use the context to help
you understand what you are reading or listening to. As well as its
translation, each dialogue is also followed by a vocabulary list, which
relates directly to the dialogue. This helps you to know what a word
means in isolation, as opposed to the meaning you can understand
from its context in the dialogue and translation.
The vocabulary is followed by “Language points” where you will
find a simple explanation of the grammar points used in the dialogue.
Do not expect every grammar point to be explained right away—
some will be explained in later units. However, you will find the
grammar explanation needed for you to understand each dialogue
immediately following the dialogue. Examples are given to clarify
each grammar point covered in the unit.
When appropriate, the language points are followed by “Culture
notes.” This is usually a short section in English explaining different
aspects of Yoruba life, for example: a young girl kneeling down to
greet older people; or a young boy lying flat on the ground to greet
older people. The culture notes usually explain the different aspects
of Yoruba life and culture needed to understand what is going on in
the dialogue.
 About this book xiii

1111 The culture notes are followed by exercises that focus your atten-
2 tion to the information in the dialogue, and the items introduced in
3 the language points. If you are not sure of how to do the exercise,
4 go back to the dialogue or the language points. The second part
5 of the unit follows the same pattern with the inclusion of a short
6 pronunciation section. Since Yoruba is a tone language, each unit
7 includes one exercise on tone practice to give you the opportunity to
8 concentrate on the tonal patterns of many words encountered in the
9 dialogue or the language points.
10 Each unit ends with a “Listening or reading comprehension”
1111 section, followed by some comprehension questions to help you
12 understand the reading. You will encounter some words that you are
13 not familiar with in the text or passage, so try to use the context to
14 find the meaning of the word.
15 If you are very interested in learning Yoruba with this material,
16 you should definitely use the recordings that accompany this book,
17 because it is very important for you to be able to recognize correct
18 tones in Yoruba. The more you listen to the recordings, the easier it
19 will be for you to pronounce and understand the language. It is true
20 that Yoruba is very phonetic in its orthography, but to help you
21 understand Yoruba when you hear it you need to listen to the
22 dialogues as many times as possible, because otherwise the tones in
23 Yoruba can create quite a serious obstacle. The recordings will also
24 help you with your pronunciation, so you should try to repeat out
25 loud what you hear on the recordings.
26 This book also contains full translations of all the reading pas-
27 sages, a short summary of the grammar, an exercise key (to check if
28 your answers to the exercises are correct), and a full glossary of all
29 the vocabulary encountered in the dialogues and language points.
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
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4222
The alphabet and
sounds of Yoruba

Pronunciation guide for the Yoruba

alphabet (CD 1; 1)

Letter Name Pronunciation Yoruba Some English

example equivalents

a a /a/ a
b bi /b/ bàbá
d di /d/ dídì
e e /e/ edé
õ õ /ε/ õΩbõΩ bet
f fi /f/ funfun
g gi /g/ ga
gb gbi /gb/ gbà
h hi /h/ halõΩ
i i /i/ ilé
j ji /
/ jalè judge
k ki /k/ koœ$
l li /l/ lálõœ
m mi /m/ imú
n ni /n/ inú
o o /o/ òjò hole
o≥ o≥ /ɔ/ o≥joœ$ hot
p pi /kp/ ipò
r ri /r/ rárá
s si /s/ sáré
ß ßi /ʃ/ àßà shoe
t ti /t/ ata
u u /u/ ìlú
w wi /w/ walé
y yi /y/ ìyá young
 The alphabet and sounds of Yoruba xv

1111 Tones in Yoruba

2
3 Aside from the alphabet and sounds shown opposite, Yoruba is also
4 a tone language. This means that every vowel in Yoruba has a
5 meaningful tone. There are three tones in Yoruba:
6
7 low tone as in /bì/ to throw up
8 mid tone as in /bi/ to ask a question
9 high tone as in /bí/ to deliver a baby
10
In the above examples, notice that a mid tone is not marked in
1111
Yoruba writing. This means that if there is no tone marked on a
12
vowel, that vowel has a mid tone. If you change one tone for the
13
other on a vowel in a word, you can change the meaning without
14
changing the consonant in the same word (as shown above). It is
15
important that you learn how tones are recognized and pronounced
16
in Yoruba to be able to speak and understand the language.
17
Each unit in this book has a tone exercise to help you learn how
18
these tones are pronounced in different words. You can use the
19
musical notes “doh, reh, mi” to help you learn how to pronounce the
20
tones.
21
22 low tone is “doh”
23 mid tone is “reh”
24 high tone is “mi”
25
26
27 Nasal vowels (CD 1; 2)
28
29 Nasal vowels are vowels that you pronounce through the nose and
30 the mouth rather than through your mouth alone. In Yoruba, if you
31 see a vowel and the consonant /n/, especially at the end of the word,
32 the combination of the vowel and the consonant /n/ represents a
33 nasal vowel. For example:
34
35 rí to see
36 rín to laugh (the vowel “in” is a nasal vowel—it is not a
37 combination of /i/ and /n/)
38 Other examples of nasal vowels in Yoruba are:
39
40 õn as in ìyõn that one
41 an as in iyán pounded yam
4222 un as in irun hair
1111
2
3 1 N’ílé ò. ré.
4
5 At a friend’s house
6
7
8
9
10
1111
12 In this unit, you will learn how to:
13
• greet someone (older or younger)
14
• discover someone’s whereabouts
15
• thank someone
16
• take leave of someone
17
• ask some “yes/no” questions
18
19 You will also learn how to respond in these situations
20
21
22
23 Dialogue 1 (CD 1; 3)
24
25 Kunle stops by Tunji’s house to say hello to him, but Tunji is not
26 home. Tunji’s mother speaks with Kunle.
27
28 KÚNLÉ: Õ kúùroΩ$lõœ Mà.
29 MÀMÁ TÚNJÍ: Òo, kúùroΩ$lõœ. Báwo ni nnækan?
30 KÚNLÉ: Dáadáa ni. Õ joΩ$oœ$ mà, Túnjí n;koœ$? Íé ó wà n;’lé?
31 MÀMÁ TÚNJÍ: Rárá, kò sí n;’lé. Ó lo≥ soœ$doΩ$ oΩ$rõœ õΩ Délé.
32 KÚNLÉ: Kò burú, mo máa padà wá. Õ ßé, ó dàboΩ$ Mà.
33 MÀMÁ TÚNJÍ: Kò toœ$põœ. Ó dàboΩ$.
34
35 KUNLE: Good evening, Ma’am.
36 MAMA TUNJI: Yes, good evening. How are things?
37 KUNLE: Fine. Please Ma’am, where is Tunji? Is he home?
38 MAMA TUNJI: No, he is not home. He went to his friend Dele’s
39 house.
40 KUNLE: No problem, I’ll come back. Thank you [honorific],
41 goodbye Ma’am.
4222 MAMA TUNJI: Don’t mention it. Goodbye.
2 Unit 1: N’ílé ò.ré.

Vocabulary
õ you (pl.) or kò negative marker
honorific pronoun kò sí to not be (in a
“you” (sing.) place)
kúùroΩ$lõœ good evening lo≥ to go
báwo ni how are soœ$doΩ$ at a place
nnækan things oΩ$rõœ friend
dáadáa ni it is fine (or “fine”) oΩ$rõœ õΩ his/her/its friend
õ joΩ$oœ$ you (honorific) kò burú it is not bad/
please it’s OK
Mà Ma’am mo I
. . . n;koœ$? how is/where is . . .? máa will
ßé “yes/no” question padà wá to return
marker ó dàboΩ$ goodbye
ó he/she/it õ ßé thank you
wà to be (in a place) (honorific)
n;’lé at home kò toœ$põœ don’t mention it/
rárá no you’re welcome
 Unit 1: At a friend’s house 3

1111 Language points

2
3
4 “yes/no” questions
5
Below are some basic statements in Yoruba.
6
7 Túnjí wà n;’lé. Tunji is home.
8 O lo≥ soœ$jà. You went to the market.
9 Délé ni oΩ$rõœ Túnjí. Dele is Tunji’s friend.
10
In order to convert the above statements into “yes/no” questions, use
1111
the word ßé as shown below. For example:
12
13 Íé Túnjí wà n;’lé? Is Tunji home?
14 Íé o lo≥ soœ$jà? Did you go to the market?
15 Íé Délé ni oΩ$rõœ Túnjí? Is Dele Tunji’s friend?
16
The response to the above questions could be the following:
17
18 BõœõΩ ni, Túnjí wà n;’lé. Yes, Tunji is home.
19 Rárá, Túnjí kò sí n;’lé. No, Tunji is not home.
20
BõœõΩ ni, mo lo≥ soœ$jà. Yes, I went to the market.
21
Rárá, N kò lo≥ soœ$jà. No, I did not go to the market.
22
23 Notice that in the last example, the first person singular subject
24 pronoun mo changes to N before the negative marker kò.
25
BõœõΩ ni, Délé ni oΩ$rõœ Túnjí. Yes, Dele is Tunji’s friend.
26
Rárá, Délé koœ$ ni oΩ$rõœ Túnjí. No, Dele is not Tunji’s friend.
27
28 In the examples above, negative sentences are formed depending on
29 the type of the following verb. We will learn more about negation in
30 following units. Here is the rule for now:
31
32 Verb type Negative form
33
34 regular verbs, e.g. lo≥ “to go” kò lo≥
35 wà “to be (in a place)” kò sí
36 ni “to be (someone or something)” koœ$ ni
37
38
39 Tenses
40
41 The verbs used in the examples below are called action verbs. For
4222 example, the verbs “to go,” “to see,” or “to walk” are verbs of action.
4 Unit 1: N’ílé ò.ré.

If you use a verb like that by itself in a sentence in Yoruba, the

English translation will imply a past action. See the examples below:
Mo lo≥ sílé Adé. I went to Ade’s house.
Kúnlé rí i. Kunle saw him.
Mo rìn. I walked.
On the other hand, if the verb is not an action verb, the translation
could be neutral, i.e., present or past depending on the context. For
example:
Olú ní bàtà. Olu has/had shoes.
Ó dára. It is/was good.
Mo wà nílé. I am/was home.

Subject pronouns
mo I a we
o you (sing.) õ you (pl. and honorific)
ó he/she/it woœ$n they

Honorific pronouns
The subject pronoun õ is used to address more than one person, or
an older person as a sign of respect. Similarly, the pronoun woœ$n is
used both for more than one person and also when talking about an
older person. For example:
Õ jókòó “You (pl.) sit down” or
“You (sing. honorific) sit down”
Õ kúùroΩ$lõœ “You (pl.) good evening” or
“You (sing. honorific) good evening”
It is extremely rude not to use the honorific pronoun õ when
addressing an older person or someone of a higher authority. Notice
the dialogue below to see how the honorific pronoun woœ$n is used:
A: Bàbá n;koœ$? How is father?
B: Woœ$n wà. He (honorific) is fine.
A: Màmá n;koœ$? How is mother?
B: Wo≥n kò sí n;’lé. She (honorific) is not home.
In the above dialogue, notice that woœ$n is used for an older person to
show respect.
 Unit 1: At a friend’s house 5

1111 Negative sentence marker kò (CD 1; 6)

2
3 The word kò is used in most cases to change affirmative sentences to
4 negative sentences. For example:
5 Túnjí wà n;’lé. Tunji is/was home.
6 Túnjí kò sí n;’lé. Tunji is/was not home.
7
8 Kúnlé máa padà wá. Kunle will come back.
9 Kúnlé kò ní í padà wá. Kunle will not come back.
10 If subject pronouns are used with the negative marker kò, the
1111 pronoun for “she/he/it” is usually deleted before kò. Similarly, the
12 pronoun mo “I,” changes to N before kò. For example:
13
14 Mo lo≥ soœ$jà. I went to the market.
15 N kò lo≥ soœ$jà. I did not go to the market.
16 O lo≥ soœ$jà. You went to the market.
17 O kò lo≥ soœ$jà. You did not go to the market.
18
Ó lo≥ soœ$jà. He/she/it went to the market.
19
– kò lo≥ soœ$jà. He/she/it did not go to the market.
20
21 A lo≥ soœ$jà. We went to the market.
22 A kò lo≥ soœ$jà. We did not go to the market.
23 Õ lo≥ soœ$jà. You went to the market.
24 Õ kò lo≥ soœ$jà. You did not go to the market.
25
26 Woœ$n lo≥ soœ$jà. They went to the market.
27 Wo≥n kò lo≥ soœ$jà. They did not go to the market.
28 Other examples are:
29
Ó burú. It is/was bad.
30
– Kò burú. It is/was not bad
31
32
33 Commands
34
35 To command someone (a younger person or a colleague) to do
36 something in Yoruba, simply drop the pronoun O before the verb.
37 For example:
38
39 Simple statement Command
40 O jókòó You sat down Jókòó! Sit down!
41
O dìde You stood up Dìde! Stand up!
4222
6 Unit 1: N’ílé ò.ré.

On the other hand, the pronoun is not dropped for second person
plural or when addressing someone older than you. For example:

Simple statement Command

Õ jókòó “You (pl.) sat down” Õ jókòó! “You (pl.) sit down!” or
“You (honorific) sit down!”
Õ dìde “You stood up” Õ dìde! “You (pl.) stand up!” or
“You (honorific) stand up!”

Pronunciation
In rapid speech, Yoruba usually drops many sounds. Throughout
this book, your attention will be drawn to cases of vowel or
consonant deletion in rapid speech. From the first dialogue, here are
some examples of vowel and consonant deletion.

Õ joΩ$woœ$ to Õ joΩ$oœ$ You (pl. or honorific) please

nílé to n;’lé at home
sí oΩ$doΩ$ to soœ$doΩ$ to a place
oΩ$rõœ rõΩ to oΩ$rõœ õΩ his friend

Language and culture notes

Greetings
Greetings are a major aspect of Yoruba culture. It is extremely
important that you know how to greet people in order to fit in with
Yoruba society. People who do not know how to greet in Yoruba-
land are regarded as rude, lacking proper manners. Young men
prostrate themselves (i.e. lie flat on the floor with face down) to greet
older people, while young women usually kneel down to greet older
people. Notice that, in the first dialogue, Kunle prostrated himself
when greeting Tunji’s mother because she is older than he is. It is also
very important to use the honorific pronoun õ while greeting older
people. The honorific pronoun is not usually used among peers or
when older people greet younger people.
 Unit 1: At a friend’s house 7

1111 When greeting older people or people in authority, use the

2 following greetings:
3
Õ káàároΩ$ Good morning (5:00 a.m. to 11:59 a.m.)
4
Õ káàsán Good afternoon (noon to 4:00 p.m.)
5
Õ kúùroΩ$lõœ Good evening (4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.)
6
Õ káalõœ Good [late] evening (7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.)
7
8 When greeting your peer or someone younger than yourself, use the
9 following:
10
1111 KáàároΩ$ Good morning
12 Káàsán Good afternoon
13 KúùroΩ$lõœ Good evening
14 Káalõœ Good [late] evening
15
16
17 Use of Báwo ni? “How are you?”
18
19 Younger people usually do not initiate greetings with older people
20 with Báwo ni? Younger people can initiate greetings by using the
21 time of the day to greet an older person. The older person in return
22 could use Báwo ni?
23
24 Exercise 1
25
26 It is between 5:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. Greet the following people.
27 The first one has been done for you.
28
29 Example:
30 1 Your peer
31 KáàároΩ$
32
33 2 Your boss
34 3 Your teacher
35 4 Your younger friend
36 5 Your older brother
37 6 Your older friend
38 7 Your office colleague (who is younger than you)
39 8 Your roommate (who is older than you)
40 9 Your neighbor (same age as you)
4122 10 Your uncle
4222
8 Unit 1: N’ílé ò.ré.

Exercise 2
You go to look for the people in Exercise 1, and none of them is at
home. Find out where each person in Exercise 1 is. Remember to use
the appropriate pronoun. The first two have been done for you.

Examples:
1 Níbo ni ó wà?
Where is he/she?
2 Níbo ni woœ$n wà?
Where is he/she (honorific)?

Exercise 3
Say that each person in Exercise 1 is at home. Remember to use the
appropriate pronoun. The first one has been done for you.

Example:
1 Ó wà nílé.
He/she is at home.

Exercise 4
Now say that each person in Exercise 1 is not at home. Use subject
pronouns where applicable. The first one has been done for you.

Example:
1 Kò sí nílé.
He/she is not at home.

Exercise 5
Match the response on the right with the statement or question on
the left.

A B
1 Báwo ni nnækan? Ó wà
2 Màmá n;koœ$? Kò sí nílé
3 Õ káàároΩ$. Woœ$n wà
4 Túnjí n;koœ$? KáàároΩ$
5 Íé Délé wà nílé? Dáadáa ni
 Unit 1: At a friend’s house 9

1111 Exercise 6
2
3 Change the following basic statements into negative sentences.
4
5 1 Túnjí wà nílé.
6 2 Délé lo≥ soœ$jà.
7 3 Kúnlé padà wá.
8 4 Ó burú.
9 5 Ó dàboΩ$.
10 6 Délé wà loœ$doΩ$ oΩ$rõœ rõΩ.
1111
12 Exercise 7
13 Convert the following basic statements into commands. The first one
14 has been done for you.
15
16 Example:
17
18 Basic statement Command
19 1 O dákõœ You kept quiet. Dákõœ! Keep quiet!
20
2 O sùn You slept.
21
3 Õ jõun You (pl.) ate.
22
4 O jó You danced.
23
5 Õ jó You (pl.) danced.
24
6 O dìde You stood up.
25
7 Õ dìde You (pl.) stood up.
26
27
28 Dialogue 2 (CD 1; 7)
29
30 Two hours later, around 9:00 p.m., Kunle goes back to look for Tunji.
31 He sees Tunji’s younger brother, Sanya.
32
33 KÚNLÉ: Báwo ni Sànyà?
34 SÀNYÀ: Dáadáa ni. Õ káalõœ.
35 KÚNLÉ: Òo, káalõœ. Õ¸gboœ$n õ dà?
36 SÀNYÀ: Wo≥n kò ì tí ì dé.
37 KÚNLÉ: Kò burú, màá padà wá loœ$la.
38 SÀNYÀ: Kò burú. Õ ßé, ó dàároΩ$.
39 KÚNLÉ: O ßé, ó dàároΩ$.
40
41 KUNLE: How are you, Sanya?
4222 SANYA: Fine. Good [late] evening [honorific].
10 Unit 1: N’ílé ò.ré.

KUNLE: Yes, good [late] evening. Where is your older sibling?

SANYA: He [honorific] has not come back.
KUNLE: Okay, I’ll come back tomorrow.
SANYA: Okay, thank you [honorific], good night.
KUNLE: Thank you, good night.

Vocabulary
õΩgboœ$n older sibling dé to come back/return
(r)õ your so≥ fún . . . to tell (someone)
dà? question marker màá I will
“where” loœ$la tomorrow
kò ì tí ì has not ó dàároΩ$ good night

Language points

“wh”-questions—“where?”
In Yoruba, there are two ways to ask where someone is. You can use
either the dà question marker or the word níbo. For example, simply
add dà to the end of the noun or phrase that you are asking about:
Õ¸gboœ$n õ dà? Where is your older sibling?
Túnjí dà? Where is Tunji?
Màmá õ dà? Where is your mother?
In order to ask the same questions using níbo, follow the examples
below:
Níbo ni õΩgboœ$n õ wà? Where is your older sibling (located)?
Níbo ni Túnjí wà? Where is Tunji (located)?
Níbo ni màmá õ wà? Where is your mother (located)?
Notice that you add the verb wà “to be at a place” at the end of the
“where” question if you use the níbo form.

The word ti (“have,” “has” or “had”)

In order to say “someone has/had done something,” use the word ti,
as shown in the following examples:
 Unit 1: At a friend’s house 11

1111 Woœ$n ti dé.

2 He (honorific) has/had come back.
3
Màmá mi ti lo≥ soœ$jà.
4
My mother has/had gone to the market.
5
6 Mo ti jõun.
7 I have/had eaten.
8
In order to convert the above sentences into their negative counter-
9
parts, use the word kò ì tí ì “have/has/had not.”
10
1111 Wo≥n kò ì tí ì dé.
12 He (honorific) has/had not come back.
13
Màmá mi kò ì tí ì lo≥ soœ$jà.
14
My mother has/had not gone to the market.
15
16 N kò ì tí ì jõun.
17 I have/had not eaten.
18
19
20 Possessive pronouns
21
22 Possessive pronouns are pronouns used to mark possession. The
23 following are the possessive pronouns in Yoruba.
24
mi my wa our
25
(r)õ your (sg.) yín your (pl.)
26
(r)õΩ his/her/its wo≥n their
27
28 For example:
29
Õ¸gboœ$n mi my older sibling
30
Õ¸gboœ$n (r)õ your (sing.) older sibling
31
Õ¸gboœ$n (r)õΩ his/her/its older sibling
32
Õ¸gboœ$n wa our older sibling
33
Õ¸gboœ$n yín your (pl.) older sibling
34
Õ¸gboœ$n wo≥n their older sibling
35
36
37
38
Pronunciation
39
màá is a contracted form of mo máa in rapid speech. Both mean
40
“I will.”
41
4222
12 Unit 1: N’ílé ò.ré.

Prepositions sí and ní
For the most part, the preposition sí is used to mean “to.” For
example:
Túnjí wá sí o≥jà Tunji came to the market
Kúnlé lo≥ sí ßoœ$oΩ$ßì Kunle went to church
Mo lo≥ sí ilé I went (to) home
On the other hand, the preposition ní is used to mean “in” or “at.”
For example:
Túnjí wà ní o≥jà Tunji is at the market
Kúnlé wà ní ßoœ$oΩ$ßì Kunle is in church
N kò sí ní ilé I was not at home

Language and culture notes

Honorific pronouns
In the second dialogue, Sanya said Õ káalõœ to Kunle because Kunle
is older than him. Similarly, Sanya used the honorific wo≥n in wo≥n kò
ì tí ì dé to refer to his brother because his brother is also older than
him.
Kunle said O ßé to Sanya while Sanya used the honorific Õ ßé for
Kunle. The use of honorific pronouns is to show respect, especially
to someone older, higher in authority, or anyone that one wishes to
revere. Closeness or familiarity does not preclude the use of
honorific pronouns.

Vocabulary
àbúrò younger sibling kíláàsì class
o≥jà market ilé-ìkàwé library
ilé home ilé-o≥koΩ$ òfurufú airport
ßoœ$oΩ$ßì church ilé-o≥koΩ$ ojú-irin train depot
mùsíoΩ$mù museum ilé àwo≥n õranko zoo
ilé-ìwé school or ogbà àwo≥n
oœ$f íìsì office õranko
 Unit 1: At a friend’s house 13

1111 Exercise 8
2
3 Using the question marker dà, ask where the following people are.
4
5 Example:
6 O¸˘gá (your boss) O¸˘gá mi dà?
7 “Where is my boss?”
8
9 1 Doyin 5 Tunji’s younger sibling
10 2 Funmilayo$ 6 Kunle and Tunji’s father
1111 3 Your older sibling 7 Your friend
12 4 Tunji’s older sibling
13
14 Exercise 9
15
Using the question form níbo, ask where the people in Exercise 8 are.
16
17
Example:
18
19 Your boss Níbo ni oΩ$gá mi wà?
20 Where is my boss?
21
22 Exercise 10
23
24 Say that the people in Exercise 8 are at the following places. The first
25 one has been done for you.
26
27 Example:
28 1 Home Doyin wà nílé.
29 Doyin is at home.
30
31 2 Church 5 Office
32 3 School 6 Airport
33 4 Classroom 7 Library
34
35 Exercise 11
36
Now say that the people in Exercise 8 are not at the following places.
37
The first one has been done for you.
38
39
Example:
40
41 1 Zoo Doyin kò sí ní o≥gbà õranko.
4222 Doyin is not at the zoo.
14 Unit 1: N’ílé ò.ré.

2 Train depot 5 Market

3 Class 6 Home
4 Church 7 Museum

Exercise 12
Say “thank you” to the following people. The first one has been done
for you.

Example:
1 Your mother
Õ ßé
2 Kunle 6 Your younger sibling
3 Your friend 7 Your father
4 Your teacher 8 Your peer
5 Your boss 9 Your older neighbor

Exercise 13
Say “Good evening” and “Good [late] evening” to the people listed
in Exercise 12.

Tone practice (CD 1; 9)

Tones are very important in Yoruba. There are three tones: they
are low [ ` ], mid [unmarked] and high [ ´ ]. They function in the same
way as a consonant or a vowel in the sense that if you replace one
tone for another tone, you can change the meaning of a word
completely. For example:
igbá calabash
ìgbà time
igba 200
igbà a type of rope
ìgbá a type of vegetable
Changing the tones in the above words has changed the meanings of
the words. It is comparable to changing the vowels in English words,
for example:
bit
bet
bat
 Unit 1: At a friend’s house 15

1111 (CD 1; 10)

2
Changing the vowels in these English words, has changed the
3
meanings of the words. You need to remember that tones in Yoruba
4
function in the same way: if you change the tone on a vowel in a
5
word, the meaning of the word may change.
6
Listen to the recording and practice saying the following words
7
using the correct tones.
8
9
1 màmá mother 6 oΩ$rõœ friend
10
2 bàbá father 7 õΩkoœ$ lessons
1111
3 õΩgboœ$n older sibling 8 ìfõœ love
12
4 ìwé books 9 màá I will
13
5 oΩ$sán afternoon 10 kò ní (he/she/it) does
14
not have
15
16
17 Listening or reading comprehension
18
19 (CD 1; 11)
20
Listen to or read the following dialogue and then answer the
21
questions that follow.
22
23
DÉLÉ: Báwo ni nǹkan?
24
OLÚ: Dáadáa ni. Íé àlàáfíà ni?
25
DÉLÉ: Àlàáfíà ni.
26
OLÚ: Níbo l’ò n; lo≥?
27
DÉLÉ: Mo n; lo≥ s’oœ$jà.
28
OLÚ: Íé o lè ra búrõœdì fún mi?
29
DÉLÉ: Rárá.
30
OLÚ: Kí l’ó dé?
31
DÉLÉ: N ò lówó. Má bínú.
32
OLÚ: Kò burú. Ó dàboΩ$.
33
DÉLÉ: Ó dàboΩ$.
34
35
36 Questions
37
1 Why did Dele say she could not buy bread for Olu?
38
2 Where was Dele going?
39
3 From the dialogue, what kind of relationship do you think Dele
40
and Olu have?
41
4222
2 Ìkíni àti ìpàdé
Greetings and meetings

In this unit, you will learn how to:

• greet older people
• find out about a person’s welfare
• take leave of someone
• ask more “yes/no” questions
• talk about what you did in the past
• talk about what you are doing currently
You will also learn how to respond in these situations

Dialogue 1 (CD 1; 12)

Dupõ Makinde wakes up in the morning and greets her father, Mr.
Makinde, before he leaves home for his office.

DÚPÕŒ: (kneeling down) Õ káàároΩ$ Sà.

BÀBÁ DÚPÕŒ: KáàároΩ$, põΩlõœ. Íé dáadáa l’o jí?
DÚPÕŒ: A dúpõœ Sà.
BÀBÁ DÚPÕŒ: Íé o ti jõun?
DÚPÕŒ: Rárá Sà. Mo ßõΩßõΩ jí ni.
BÀBÁ DÚPÕŒ: Tètè lo≥ jõun. Èmi n; lo≥ síbi ißõœ. Mi ò ní í põœ dé.
DÚPÕŒ: Kò burú Sà. Ó dàboΩ$ Sà.
BÀBÁ DÚPÕŒ: Ó dàboΩ$.

DUPÕ: (kneeling down) Good morning Sir.

BABA DUPÕ: Good morning, greetings. Did you wake up well?
DUPÕ: We thank God Sir.
BABA DUPÕ: Have you eaten?
DUPÕ: No Sir. I just woke up.
 Unit 2: Greetings and meetings 17

1111 BABA DUPÕ: Quickly go and eat. I am going to work. I won’t be late
2 coming back (home).
3 DUPÕ: It’s okay Sir. Goodbye Sir.
4 BABA DUPÕ: Goodbye.
5
6
7
8
9
10
1111
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28 Vocabulary
29
30 káàároΩ$ good morning ni “to be”
31 põΩlõœ greetings jõun to eat
32 o you (sing.) mi I (dialectal variant
33 jí to wake up of mo)
34 a we kò/ò negative marker
35 dúpõœ give thanks (to God) ò níí will not
36 Sà Sir dé to return
37 ti have/has põœ to be late
38 mo I n; lo≥ is going
39 ßõΩßõΩ just/recently síbi ißõœ to a place of
40 Èmi emphatic pronoun “I” work
41
4222
18 Unit 2: Ìkíni àti ìpàdé

Language points

Using pè.lé.
põΩlõœ is a word used to greet a younger person, to express condolence
if something goes wrong with someone, or to apologize if one causes
offence. The context determines its exact translation. A younger
person will say “Õ põΩlõœ” to an older person.
Here are some examples of how the word põΩlõœ could be used:
PõΩlõœ o Kúnlé. Greetings Kunle.
This greeting will be from an older person or Kunle’s peer who
initiates the greeting to Kunle.
PõΩlõœ àbúrò Sorry, (my) younger sibling.
This could be said to a younger person that is crying to console him
or her.
PõΩlõœ! I’m sorry (that you hurt yourself).
This could be used for someone who hurts himself or herself.

Vowel deletion
Vowel deletion is a very common process in Yoruba. It usually
occurs when a word ending in a vowel precedes another word
beginning with a vowel. In many cases it is not very easy to predict
which vowel will be deleted. Vowel deletion occurs in rapid or
colloquial speeches. In the above dialogue, here are some examples
of the vowel deletion process:

Slow speech Rapid speech

Íé dáadáa ni o jí? Íé dáadáa l’o jí?
Did you wake up well?
In this example, the vowel of ni is deleted. When the nasal consonant
n precedes an oral vowel, such as o, the n changes to l. This is why
we have l’o instead of n’o.
 Unit 2: Greetings and meetings 19

1111 The word dáadáa “good” or “well” is also a shortened form of

2 dáradára. As in:
3
O˘mo≥ dáradára or O˘mo≥ dáadáa A good child
4
Íé o ti jõun? or Í’o ti jõun? Have you eaten?
5
6 The vowel é of ßé is deleted in rapid speech in the example above.
7
8
9 More on the negative marker kò
10
1111 The negative marker kò usually occurs before the main verb or the
12 helping verb. In rapid speech, the consonant k is usually deleted
13 when the negative marker kò follows the pronoun mi, as in:
14
15 *Mi kò fõœ q Mi ò fõœ I don’t want (it)
16
17
18 Absence of the third person singular
19 pronoun ó
20
21 The third person singular pronoun ó “he/she/it” is usually dropped
22 before the negative marker kò, as in:
23
24 Ó burú It is bad Kò burú (It) is not bad
25 Ó lo≥ She/he went Kò lo≥ (She/he) did not go
26 Ó jõun She/he ate Kò jõun (She/he) did not eat
27
28
29 The use of mi or mo
30
31 mo is the regular pronoun that translates to “I” in English. It is most
32 commonly used in standard Yoruba in affirmative statements. For
33 example:
34 Mo n; lo≥ síbi ißõœ.
35 I am going to work.
36
37 Mo fõœràn bàtà mi.
38 I like my shoes.
39 But in negative statements, mo changes to mi or N. For example:
40
41 N kò lo≥ /N ò lo≥ /Mi ò lo≥
4222 I did not go.
20 Unit 2: Ìkíni àti ìpàdé

Subject pronouns
Affirmative forms Negative forms

mo I N/mi
o you (sing.) o
ó he/she/it –
a we a
õ you (pl.) õ
wo≥n they wo≥n

Verbs and tenses

There are no verb endings to indicate past or present tense inter-
pretation in Yoruba. As discussed in Unit 1, whether a verb is an
action verb or not contributes to whether the verb will have a past
tense interpretation or a neutral tense interpretation. The context
can also help you to know whether the past or present tense inter-
pretation is implied.
There are separate words used to mark events that have been
completed or that will take place in the future. For example:
Mo ti wõΩ.
I have taken a bath. (completed action)
Mo wõΩ lánàá.
I took a bath yesterday. (past action)
Mo máa wõΩ loœ$la.
I will take a bath tomorrow. (future action)
The negative counterparts of the above sentences are:
N kò ì tí ì wõΩ.
I have not taken a bath.
N kò wõΩ lánàá.
I did not take a bath yesterday.
N kò ní í wõΩ loœ$la.
I will not take a bath tomorrow.
 Unit 2: Greetings and meetings 21

1111 The word ń

2
3 The word n; is used to mark actions that are in progress and it could
4 be translated in the present or the past depending on the context. For
5 example:
6
7 Mo n; lo≥ s’íbi-ißõœ.
8 I am going to work.
9
Mo rí Dúpõœ nígbà tí mo n; lo≥ s’íbi-ißõœ lánàá.
10
I saw Dupe when I was going to work yesterday.
1111
12 Mo n; jõun nísisìyí.
13 I am eating right now.
14
15
Exercise 1
16
17 It is morning. Greet the following people. The first one has been
18 done for you.
19
20 Example:
21
22 1 Your younger brother
23 KáàároΩ$
24
2 Your dad 7 Your co-worker
25
3 Your mom 8 Your boss
26
4 Your younger sister 9 Your elderly neighbor
27
5 Your teacher 10 Your aunt
28
6 Your friends
29
30
31 Exercise 2
32
33 Respond to the following greetings from an older person. The first
34 one has been done for you.
35
36 Example:
37 1 KáàároΩ$
38 Õ káàároΩ$
39
40 2 Ó dàboΩ$ 5 KúùroΩ$lõœ
41 3 Káàsán 6 Íé dáadáa l’o jí?
4222 4 Káalõœ
22 Unit 2: Ìkíni àti ìpàdé

Exercise 3
Greet the following people based on the time of day. The first one
has been done for you.
Example:
1 Your female boss – 8:30 a.m.
Õ káàároΩ$ Mà
2 Your close friend – 6:00 p.m.
3 Your classmate – 1:00 p.m.
4 Your uncle – 9:00 p.m.
5 Your younger cousin – 10:00 a.m.
6 Your aunt – 8:00 p.m.
7 Your older cousin – 12:00 p.m.
8 Your male boss – 9:00 a.m.

Exercise 4
How would you ask your younger sibling if he or she has done what
is stated below? The first one has been done for you.
Example:
1 He has eaten?
Íé o ti jõun?
2 She has taken her bath/shower?
3 He slept well?
4 She is going to her office (place of work)?
5 He has just woken up?
6 She was late to her office?
7 He was late to school?

Exercise 5
Change the following sentences to negative sentences. The first one
has been done for you.
Example:
1 Mo fõœ jõun.
N kò fõœ jõun.
2 Ó sùn lánàá. 5 Mo lo≥ sí ibi-ißõœ.
3 Mo põœ lo≥ s’ílé. 6 Ó dúpõœ.
4 Ó ßõΩßõΩ jí.
 Unit 2: Greetings and meetings 23

1111
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1111
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21 Dialogue 2 (CD 1; 15)
22
23 Dupõ Makinde meets her former teacher Mrs. O˘dunsi on her way
24 home from school.
25
26 DÚPÕŒ: Õ káàsán Mà.
27 ARÁBÌNRIN O˘DÚNSÌ: Òo, káàsán. Báwo ni nnækan?
28 DÚPÕŒ: Dáadáa ni.
29 ARÁBÌNRIN O˘DÚNSÌ: Ó péjoœ$ mõœta.
30 DÚPÕŒ: O˘joœ$ kan põΩlú Mà.
31 ARÁBÌNRIN O˘DÚNSÌ: Í’álàáfíà ni?
32 DÚPÕŒ: A dúpõœ Mà.
33 ARÁBÌNRIN O˘DÚNSÌ: Ilé n;koœ$?
34 DÚPÕŒ: Ó wà.
35 ARÁBÌNRIN O˘DÚNSÌ: Ißõœ n;koœ$?
36 DÚPÕŒ: Ó n; lo≥ dáadáa.
37 ARÁBÌNRIN O˘DÚNSÌ: Bàbá n;koœ$?
38 DÚPÕŒ: Woœ$n wà.
39 ARÁBÌNRIN O˘DÚNSÌ: Màmá n;koœ$?
40 DÚPÕŒ: Woœ$n wà.
41 ARÁBÌNRIN O˘DÚNSÌ: PõΩlõœ, ó dàboΩ$.
4222 DÚPÕŒ: Ó dàboΩ$ Mà.
24 Unit 2: Ìkíni àti ìpàdé

DÚPÕŒ: Good afternoon Ma’am.

ARABINRIN O˘DUNSI: Good afternoon. How are things?
DÚPÕŒ: Fine.
ARABINRIN O˘DUNSI: Long time no see. (It has been a long time
since I saw you.)
DUPÕ: It truly has been a long time.
ARABINRIN O˘DUNSI: How are you doing?
DUPÕ: Thanks be to God Ma’am.
ARABINRIN O˘DUNSI: How is your household?
DUPÕ: Fine.
ARABINRIN O˘DUNSI: How is your work?
DUPÕ: It’s going fine.
ARABINRIN O˘DUNSI: How is your dad?
DUPÕ: He [honorific] is fine.
ARABINRIN O˘DUNSI: How is your mom?
DUPÕ: She [honorific] is fine.
ARABINRIN O˘DUNSI: Be well, goodbye.
DUPÕ: Goodbye Ma’am.

Vocabulary
báwo how kan one
Mà Ma’am põΩlú with (in addition)
nnækan things àlàáfíà peace
ni is/are (the verb ilé house/household
“to be”) ilé n;koœ$? how is (your)
dáadáa ni (it) is fine/good household?
ó põœjoœ$ mõœta quite a long time/ wà to exist
long time no ó wà it is fine (lit. it exists
see fine)
o≥joœ$ day ißõœ work

Language and culture points

Subject pronoun e. and wó.n

Just as we use õ to mean “you” (pl.) or “you” (sing. honorific), we
also use woœ$n to mean “they” or “he/she” (honorific). For example:
A: Bàbá n;koœ$? How is your father?
B: Woœ$n wà. He (honorific) is fine.
 Unit 2: Greetings and meetings 25

1111 A: Màmá n;koœ$? How is your mother?

2 B: Woœ$n wà. She (honorific) is fine.
3
A: Àwo≥n àbúrò n;koœ$? How are your younger siblings?
4
B: Woœ$n wà. They are fine.
5
6 A: Dúpõœ àti Déo≥lá n;koœ$? How are Dupe and Deo≥la?
7 B: Woœ$n wà. They are fine.
8
9
10 The use of àwo.n
1111
12 Any time àwo≥n is used with a noun, it usually implies plural. àwo≥n
13 always comes before the noun that it modifies. For example:
14
15 ilé house àwo≥n ilé houses
16 o≥koΩ$ vehicle àwo≥n o≥koΩ$ vehicles
17
18
19 Using Ó péjó. mé.ta/o.jó. kan pè.lú
20
21 Ó péjoœ$ mõœta is used for someone you have not seen for a long time.
22 It literally means “it is up to three days (that we have not met).” In
23 traditional Yoruba life, three days is a long time for Yoruba people
24 not to see one another. The response, o≥joœ$ kan põΩlú, literally means
25 “one day more,” and so the response is saying “it is actually more
26 than three days.” The implication here is that it truly has been a long
27 time since you saw one another.
28
29 Exercise 6
30
31 Greet your friend and find out about the following. The first one has
32 been done for you.
33
34 Example:
35 1 Health
36 Báwo ni? Íé àlàáfíà ni?)
37
38 2 Household
39 3 Work
40 4 Younger siblings
41 5 Father
4222 6 Mother
26 Unit 2: Ìkíni àti ìpàdé

Exercise 7
Match the following greetings and responses.

1 Báwo ni? A Ó wà.

2 Íé àlàáfíà ni? B O˘joœ$ kan põΩlú.
3 Ilé n;koœ$? C Dáadáa ni.
4 Bàbá n;koœ$? D Ó dàboΩ$.
5 Ißõœ n;koœ$? E Woœ$n wà.
6 Ó péjoœ$ mõœta. F A dúpõœ.
7 Ó dàboΩ$. G Ó n; lo≥ dáadáa.

Exercise 8
Tell your friend that Dupõ just did the following. The first one has
been done for you.

Example:
1 Woke up.
Dúpõœ ßõΩßõΩ jí.
2 Ate. 6 Went to the airport.
3 Took a bath. 7 Went to the zoo.
4 Went to the office. 8 Went to the museum.
5 Went to school.

Exercise 9
Tell someone that you are going to the following places. The first one
has been done for you.

Example:
1 Airport
Mo n; lo≥ sí ilé o≥koΩ$ òfurufú.
2 School 7 Market
3 Office 8 Train depot
4 Museum 9 Zoo
5 Class 10 Home
6 Work
 Unit 2: Greetings and meetings 27

1111 Exercise 10
2
3 How would you respond to the following questions? Use the clue in
4 parenthesis. The first one has been done for you.
5
Example:
6
7 1 Níbo ni o n; lo≥? (restaurant)
8 Mo n; lo≥ sí ilé oúnjõ.
9 2 Báwo ni nnækan? —
10 3 Níbo ni Dúpõœ wà? (office)
1111 4 Íé o jí dáadáa? (yes)
12 5 Íé o n; lo≥ sí ilé-ìkàwé? (no)
13 6 Íé Túnjí lo≥ sí mùsíoΩ$mù? (yes)
14 7 Íé o ti jõun? (no)
15 8 Íé màmá rõ põœ ní ibi-ißõœ lánàá? (no)
16 9 Õ¸gboœ$n Túnjí dà? (market)
17 10 Íé àlàáfíà ni? —
18
19 Exercise 11
20
21 What questions would you use in the following situations? The first
22 one has been done for you.
23
24 Example:
25 1 To find out if Kunle has gone to work.
26 Íé Kúnlé ti lo≥ síbi ißõœ?
27 2 To find out if Tunji will come back.
28 3 To find out if Dupõ went to school yesterday.
29 4 To find out if Dupõ’s father was late coming back home.
30 5 To find out if Tunji is at home.
31
32
Exercise 12
33
34 You are just about to leave for work in the morning and your child
35 comes to greet you before you leave. Ask her how she slept and
36 whether she has eaten yet. Play the role of the mother only.
37
38 Example:
39 MOTHER: Did you sleep well?
40 CHILD: ____________________ .
41 MOTHER: Have you eaten?
4222 CHILD: ____________________ .
28 Unit 2: Ìkíni àti ìpàdé

Exercise 13
Make a list of all the verbs and their meanings in Dialogue 1 in this
unit.

Tone practice (CD 1; 18)

Listen to the recording and practice saying the following words using
the correct tones.

1 àlàáfíà peace 6 mùsíòmù museum

2 àároΩ$ morning 7 õranko animal
3 ìroΩ$lõœ evening 8 o≥koΩ$ vehicle
4 oΩ$f íìsì office 9 ofurufú sky
5 kíláàsì class 10 ojú-irin railway

Listening or reading comprehension

(CD 1; 19)

Listen to or read the following dialogue and then answer the

questions that follow.

Mr. Makinde met Kunle, his son’s friend, on the way to work.
KÚNLÉ: Õ káàároΩ$ Sà.
O¸˘GBÕŒNI MÁKINDÉ: KáàároΩ$. Báwo ni?
KÚNLÉ: Dáadáa ni Sà.
O¸G˘ BÕŒNI MÁKINDÉ: Ilé n;koœ$?
KÚNLÉ: Ó wà.
O¸G ˘ BÕŒNI MÁKINDÉ: Màmá n;koœ$?
KÚNLÉ: Woœ$n wà.
O¸˘GBÕŒNI MÁKINDÉ: Bàbá n;koœ$?
KÚNLÉ: Woœ$n wà.
O¸˘GBÕŒNI MÁKINDÉ: Íé ißõœ rõ n; lo≥ dáadáa?
KÚNLÉ: Ó n; lo≥ dáadáa Sà.
O¸G ˘ BÕŒNI MÁKINDÉ: Ó dàboΩ$. Mo tètè n; lo≥ síbi ißõœ. Kí màmá àti bàbá
rõ.
KÚNLÉ: Kò burú Sà. Ó dàboΩ$ Sà.
Questions
1 Who did Mr. Makinde ask Kunle to greet?
2 What question did Kunle ask Mr. Makinde?
3 How is Kunle’s work?
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
 Early in 1614, Condé and the other Princes who, in the preceding year,
had been allied with Concini, indignant at the latter’s reconciliation with the
Ministers and jealous of his increasing favour, retired from Court and
assumed so threatening an attitude that Marie de’ Medici decided to raise an
army without delay, and applied to the Swiss Cantons for a levy of 6,000
men, who were intended to form the nucleus of this force. Now, the
Colonel-General of the Swiss in the French service, who would, of course,
take command of the new levy, was the Duc de Rohan, a nobleman of
whose loyalty the Regent was exceedingly suspicious, and with good
reason, since, when hostilities broke out, he entered into an alliance with the
Princes. She therefore resolved to purchase this post from him and to
appoint in his place someone in whom she had absolute confidence.
At a meeting of the Council called to decide the question of Rohan’s
successor, Villeroy suggested that the post should be given to the Duc de
Longueville, by which means, he assured the Queen, she would certainly
draw him away from the party of the Princes, which he seemed more than
half-inclined to join. Her Majesty, however, very sensibly preferred to
bestow it on someone who would not regard his appointment as in the
nature of a bribe to do his duty, and proposed that Bassompierre should be
the new Colonel-General, “both on account of the German tongue, which he
had in common with the Swiss, and because he was their neighbour.” Upon
this, Villeroy pointed out that, by the ancient conventions of the Kings of
France with the Swiss Cantons, it was expressly provided that the Colonel-
General should be a prince of the Blood Royal of France or, at any rate, a
prince of some other royal house.[102] The Queen then proposed the
Chevalier de Guise, who was a prince of the House of Lorraine; but to this
Villeroy objected, on the ground that the Guises had already been
overwhelmed with benefits and that to add to them would be bound to
create a great deal of jealousy. And the Council rose without any decision
having been arrived at.
“As she returned to her cabinet,” writes Bassompierre, “she said to me:
‘Bassompierre, if you had been a prince, I would have given you to-day a
fine appointment.’ ‘Madame,’ I replied, ‘if I am not a prince, it is not
because I should not have been very glad to be one. Nevertheless, I can
assure you that there are princes who are greater fools than myself.’ ‘I
should have been very pleased if you had been one,’ said she, ‘because that
would have saved me from seeking for a suitable person for the post I speak
of.’ ‘Madame, may I ask what it is?’ ‘To appoint a Colonel-General of the
Swiss,’ said she. ‘And why, Madame, can I not be Colonel-General, if it is
your wish?’ On which she told me that the Swiss had a convention with the
King according to which no one but a prince could be their Colonel-
General.”
Bassompierre saluted her Majesty and withdrew, anathematizing the
wretched convention which stood between him and one of the highest
offices under the Crown, and wondering whether by any possibility the
obstacle could be overcome. Of that there seemed but little chance, as time
pressed, and perhaps by the morrow the post would have been filled.
Fortune favoured him, however, for, as he was on his way to dinner, he
happened to meet Colonel Gaspard Gallaty, a veteran Swiss officer in the
service of France,[103] with whom he was on very friendly terms. To him he
related what the Queen had just told him, when Gallaty said that he
believed he possessed sufficient influence with his countrymen to persuade
them to accept him as their Colonel-General, notwithstanding the
convention. And he offered to set out at once for Switzerland to obtain their
consent, and begged Bassompierre to return to the Queen and tell her that, if
she wished to give him the post, the Swiss would consent.
“She [the Queen] said to me, ‘I give you a fortnight; nay, I will give you
three weeks, for this; and if you can obtain the consent of the Swiss, I will
give you the post. Then I spoke to Gallaty, who asked me to obtain
permission for him to go to his own country, saying that he would set out in
two days’ time. And this he did, and, within the time that he had promised
me he sent me a letter from the Cantons, who were assembled at Soleure, to
authorise the levy which the King was demanding from them, by which
they informed the King that, if it pleased him to honour me with this charge,
they would accept me as willingly as any prince whom he might give
them.”
By the Queen’s orders, Bassompierre then communicated with Rohan,
who was in Poitou, and, as he feared that it might be some little time before
the Treasury saw its way to pay the large sum demanded by that nobleman
for the surrender of his post, he himself offered to advance it; and on March
12, 1614, he took the oath as Colonel-General of the Swiss.
 Two days later, news arrived that the Princes had surprised Mézières,
from which place Condé despatched a lengthy memorial to the Queen,
setting forth the grievances of himself and his party, protesting against the
Spanish marriage and demanding the convocation of the States-General.
The seizure of Mézières was followed by that of Sainte-Menehould, but the
arrival of the Swiss, in two regiments, each 3,000 strong, of whom
Bassompierre at once went to take the command, greatly perturbed the
rebels, and there can be no doubt that at the cost of a little bloodshed the
Regent could easily have crushed the insurrection. Instead of doing so, she
preferred to treat, and the result of the negotiations which ensued was the
Peace of Sainte-Menehould (May 15, 1614), which stipulated that the
States-General should be convoked; that Condé should hold Amboise, as a
place of surety, until the meeting of the States, and receive a sum of
450,000 livres; that Mayenne, who was already Governor of the Île-de-
France, should have the reversion of the government of Paris, together with
300,000 livres; Longueville 100,000 livres, and Bouillon “the doubling of
his gendarmes.” It was a direct incentive to the Princes to take up arms
again on the first convenient opportunity.
As the Duc de Vendôme, who had retired into his government of
Brittany, showed himself discontented with the peace and had, not only
refused to dismantle the fortifications of Lamballe and Quimper, as he was
required to do by the treaty, but had even seized upon Vannes, Marie de’
Medici, on the advice of Villeroy, decided to show the young King to his
people, and to “go in person to pacify the western provinces.” Bassompierre
accompanied her, with one of the two regiments of Swiss, the other having
been disbanded on the signing of peace, and was employed in
superintending the razing of the fortifications which Vendôme had erected.
The appearance of the young King aroused great enthusiasm in the West,
and Vendôme soon decided to make his submission.
Louis XIII returned to Paris, and on October 2 proceeded in great state to
the Parlement to declare his majority. He thanked his mother “for having
taken so many pains on his behalf, and begged her to continue to govern
and command as heretofore.” “I desire and I order,” he added, “that you be
obeyed in everything and everywhere, and that you be after me the chief of
my Council.”
 CHAPTER XV
Bassompierre, during his absence in Lorraine, condemned by the Archbishop of Aix to
espouse Mlle. d’Entragues, on pain of excommunication—The archbishop’s decision
quashed by the Parlement of Paris—Financial and amatory embarrassments of
Bassompierre—Death of his mother—The action which the d’Entragues have brought
against him finally decided in his favour—Condé withdraws from Court and issues a
manifesto against the Government—Civil war begins—Marriage of Louis XIII and Anne
of Austria—Peace of Loudun—Fall of the old Ministers of Henri IV—Concini and the
shoemaker—Condé becomes all-powerful—He obliges Concini to retire to Normandy—
Arrogance of Condé and his partisans, who are suspected of conspiracy to change the
form of government—The Queen-Mother sends for Bassompierre at three o’clock in the
morning and informs him that she has decided upon the arrest of the Princes—
Preparations for this coup d’état—Arrest of Condé—Concini’s house sacked by the mob
—The Comte d’Auvergne and the Council of War—Bassompierre conducts Condé from
the Louvre to the Bastille.

In January, 1615, Bassompierre set out for Lorraine, to visit his mother,
who was lying dangerously ill at Nancy. “The joy of seeing me,” says he,
“restored her to some degree of health,” and, after remaining with her a
fortnight, he went to visit some of his friends in Germany. About Easter he
returned to Nancy, and was about to set out for France when he received a
most astonishing piece of intelligence.
It appears that the d’Entragues, aware that their plea that the court at
Rouen was improperly constituted was certain to be overruled by the King’s
Council and the case sent back to Rouen for trial, in which event their
chance of obtaining a verdict would be a very remote one, had decided to
appeal to Rome, and proceeded to petition the Pope to direct that the affair
should be adjudicated upon by ecclesiastical commissioners appointed by
his Holiness. The petition was granted, though it would appear to have been
very unusual for the Vatican to do so, unless it had first been ascertained
whether the other party were willing for the case to be submitted to a Papal
tribunal; and one of the commissioners appointed was the Bishop of Dax.
But, by some error, due no doubt to the similarity of names, the Papal
authority to try the case was sent, not to this prelate, but to the Archbishop
of Aix. Now, the Archbishop of Aix, if we are to believe Bassompierre, was
“a needy rogue, and generally regarded as mad”; and when the Bishop of
Beauvais, at whose suggestion the appeal to Rome had been made, and
whom the writer accuses of being in love with Marie d’Entragues, offered
him a bribe of 1,200 crowns to defeat the ends of justice, he promptly
accepted it. Thereupon, without condescending to consult his fellow-
commissioners he sent a citation to Bassompierre’s house, summoning him
to appear before him; and, after waiting three days, without troubling to
ascertain whether that gentleman had ever received the citation, and without
hearing any evidence, pronounced, on his own authority, the promise of
marriage—which he had not even seen, as it was, with the other documents
connected with the case, at Rome—good and valid, and condemned
Bassompierre to execute it within fifteen days after Easter, on pain of
excommunication.
On learning of these extraordinary proceedings, Bassompierre returned
to Paris in all haste, and appealed to the Parlement; and that body, always
very jealous of Papal interference with matters which it considered within
its own jurisdiction, promptly quashed the archbishop’s decision. He then
went to the Queen-Mother, who, “indignant, like everyone else, at the
infamy of this man,” issued an order for the prelate’s arrest, which
Bassompierre set out to execute, at the head of 200 stalwart Swiss. The
archbishop, however, had prudently gone into hiding, where he remained
until the Nuncio and the other bishops, fearing a scandal, succeeded in
pacifying the infuriated Bassompierre, “the Nuncio giving him his word
that within three months at latest his Holiness would quash, as the
Parlement had already done, all the proceedings of this fool. And this he
did.”
This new development of the d’Entragues affair was only one of many
difficulties which beset Bassompierre on his return to Paris:—
“I found myself on my return in very great perplexity; not only in
consequence of this affair, but also on account of six hundred thousand
livres which I owed in Paris, without any means of paying them; and my
creditors, who, on seeing me set out to visit my mother, who was
dangerously ill, entertained some hope that, with the property I should
inherit from her, I should be able to satisfy them, now that I was returned
and my mother recovered, lost all hope of settling their affairs with me, and
were consequently very mutinous. There was a quarrel in a certain house
between a husband and wife on my account, which gave me pain; and,
worst of all, there was a girl for whom I daily feared a discovery attended
with a great scandal and evil consequences for me.”
However, his fortunate star prevailed over these complicated effects of
his extravagant and amorous propensities:—
“It happened that, within a few days, I heard of the quashing of the
proceedings of this precious Archbishop of Aix, and of the death of my
mother, which brought me fifty thousand crowns in money and saleable
property to the value of a hundred thousand, so that I paid seven hundred
thousand livres of debts, which placed me greatly at my ease; the quarrel
between the husband and wife was made up (August); the girl was happily
brought to bed without anyone knowing of it (August 5); and I went to
Rouen, where I gained my case against Antragues finally and completely.
So that at the same, or within a little, time I was delivered from all these
divers and distressing inconveniences.”
Towards the end of March, Condé, who for weeks past had been secretly
fomenting opposition to the Court, left Paris, followed, at intervals, by his
chief adherents, and issued a manifesto protesting against the Ultramontane
tendencies of the Government and the Spanish marriage. Marie de’ Medici,
who intended shortly to set out for the Spanish frontier to make the
exchange of the princesses and conclude the marriage of Louis XIII and
Anne of Austria, and naturally feared to leave Condé behind her, sent him a
letter from the King commanding the prince to accompany him. But Condé
excused himself from following his Majesty until he had remedied the evils
of the State, of which he designed the Maréchal d’Ancre as the principal
author.
The Queen-Mother, in consequence, was obliged to raise two armies:
one to escort the King and herself to Bordeaux, the other to watch the
princes. The latter force was placed under the command of the Maréchal de
Bois-Dauphin, with Praslin as his chief of staff; and to this Bassompierre
and the Swiss were attached.
The King and his mother left Paris on August 17, Bassompierre and the
Swiss accompanying them so far as Bernis, not far from Sceaux, where they
received orders to return and join Bois-Dauphin’s army. Before doing so,
however, Bassompierre went to Rouen, where on September 4 the
Parlement pronounced judgment in his favour; and this unedifying affair,
which had dragged on for nearly four years and must have involved both
sides in enormous expense, finally terminated. He then returned in triumph
to Paris, whence he proceeded to Meaux, where Bois-Dauphin had
established his headquarters.
Bassompierre gives a long and detailed account of the operations which
ensued, through which, however, we do not propose to follow him, since
they are of little interest, consisting mainly of unimportant skirmishes and
the reduction of such places as had declared for the Princes or had been
seized by them. In what fighting took place he appears to have displayed
both courage and activity; while he endeavoured, though without success,
to impart some of his own energy to the old Maréchal de Bois-Dauphin,
who, in his youth, had been one of the most dashing officers in the armies
of the League, but with age had grown slow and cautious. Happily for the
marshal, Condé was equally incapable; otherwise, he would no doubt have
taken advantage of his opponent’s inaction to march upon Paris.
Meanwhile, the Court had reached Bordeaux in safety, from which town
the greater part of the Royal army was despatched to the frontier to fetch
the Infanta Anne of Austria, whom Philip III, undisturbed on his side by
war’s alarms, had brought from Madrid. The exchange of the princesses
took place at Andaye, on the Bidassoa, after which Anne of Austria,
escorted by the Royal troops, set out for Bordeaux, where her marriage with
Louis XIII was celebrated on November 28.
Her object accomplished, Marie de’ Medici became anxious for peace at
any price, while Condé and his friends, now deprived of their chief pretext
for rebellion and aware that the Queen would be prepared to pay them
handsomely to return to their allegiance, had no desire to prolong the war. A
suspension of arms having been agreed upon, a congress met at Loudun to
negotiate peace, which was signed on May 3, 1616.
Its terms were another triumph for the party of the Princes, and
particularly for their leader, who, in exchange for his government of
Guienne, received that of Berry and of the citadel and town of Bourges, the
right of signing all the decrees of the Council, and 1,500,000 livres, to
compensate him for the inconvenience and expense to which he had been
put in being obliged to take up arms against his sovereign. He was certainly
finding rebellion a most profitable occupation. The other grandees, his
accomplices, received altogether 6,000,000 livres.
 The Peace of Loudun brought about the downfall of the Ministers of
Henri IV. In both peace and war they had shown only weakness, which is
scarcely surprising, considering that the Chancellor, the youngest of the
three, was seventy-two. He was obliged to surrender the Seals to Du Vair,
First President of the Parlement of Toulouse; while Villeroy and Jeannin
were also dismissed, and replaced by Mangot, First President of the
Parlement of Bordeaux, and the Queen-Mother’s intendant Barbin, an
intelligent and energetic man, who was devoted to Concini and Marie de’
Medici.
As for Concini, he was more in favour at Court than ever; nevertheless,
his position was not altogether an enviable one, since, though he was
temporarily reconciled with Condé, Mayenne and Bouillon were breathing
fire and slaughter against him and were quite capable of putting their threats
into execution should a favourable occasion present itself; while he had
rendered himself odious to the Parisians by an act of intolerable insolence.
It happened that, one night during the war, Concini had wished to leave
Paris by the Porte de Bussy, in order to go to Saint-Germain. But, as he had
neglected to provide himself with the necessary passport—such trifles
being, of course, beneath the notice of so great a man—the officer of the
citizen militia in charge of the gate, who, when not girded with a sword,
followed the peaceful occupation of a shoemaker, had refused to let him
out. The shoemaker was only doing his duty, but Concini was furious, and,
so soon as peace was signed, determined to be revenged, and accordingly
sent two of his lackeys to chastise the impertinent fellow who had dared to
put such an affront upon a marshal of France. The sequel was a tragedy, for
the shoemaker shouted for help with all the strength of his lungs; the people
came running from all directions to his assistance, seized the unfortunate
lackeys, and, after keeping them locked up for some days, hanged them in
front of the shoemaker’s shop, vowing that they would serve their master in
the same way when they could lay their hands on him.
All things considered, it is not surprising that the marshal should have
decided that the air of Paris was just then unsuited to his health and
remained at his country seat at Lesigny, though even there he appears to
have been far from safe from his enemies, since Bassompierre tells us that
“MM. de Mayenne and de Bouillon made an attempt to blow him up with a
petard, but did not succeed.”
 However, on July 20 Condé returned to Paris, to be received with
enthusiasm by the people, though surely no one was ever less deserving of
popular acclamations than this vain, greedy, and meddlesome young man,
who had not scrupled to plunge his country into the miseries of civil war to
serve his own selfish ends! Unwilling to offend the prince by failing to pay
him his respects, Concini thereupon decided to go to Paris, even at the risk
of his life, and wrote to Bassompierre, who had apparently quite forgiven
him for the shabby way he had behaved two years before, asking him to
meet him at the Porte Saint-Antoine at three o’clock on the following
afternoon, with as many friends as he could muster.
At the appointed hour Bassompierre proceeded to the Porte Saint-
Antoine, accompanied by thirty horse, passing on the way the Hôtel de
Mayenne, which stood at the corner of the Rue Saint-Antoine and the Rue
du Petit-Musc. Presently, Concini appeared, riding in his gilded coach,
which was surrounded by forty mounted retainers, all, of course, armed to
the teeth. The marshal alighted, and mounted a horse which Bassompierre
had brought for him, and the two cavalcades joined forces and proceeded
through the streets to the Louvre. Here they waited while Concini entered to
salute the Queen, and then made their way to the Hôtel de Condé, in the
Faubourg Saint-Germain. By this time the marshal’s escort, swollen by the
accession of friends of his own and Bassompierre’s, amounted to over one
hundred horse; but it seemed as though even this force might be insufficient
to protect him, as the first person whom they saw on entering the courtyard
of the Hôtel de Condé was Concini’s enemy the shoemaker. His presence in
that aristocratic mansion was no doubt accounted for by the fact that it was
part of Monsieur le Prince’s policy to court the leaders of the populace, as
the Guises had done so effectively in days gone by.
No sooner did the shoemaker catch sight of Concini, than he hurried
away, shouting out that he was going to raise the people of his quarter
against the Italian. The latter, greatly alarmed, paid his respects to Condé as
briefly as etiquette would permit, and then he and his escort turned their
horses’ heads towards the river. On this occasion, Bassompierre and his
followers rode some two hundred paces ahead of Concini, as it had been
decided that if, as was fully expected, they found the Pont-Neuf occupied
by an armed mob too numerous to allow of them cutting their way through,
the vanguard should hold the enemy in check, while the marshal, under the
protection of the rest, retreated to the shelter of the Hôtel de Condé. To their
relief, however, the bridge was unoccupied—apparently the shoemaker had
not had sufficient time to mobilise his quarter—and they reached the Porte
Saint-Antoine in safety, where Concini reentered his coach and returned to
Lesigny.
After Condé’s return to Paris, the management of affairs fell almost
entirely into his hands, and his hôtel was besieged at all hours by petitioners
and sycophants. “Almost all the grandees,” says Bassompierre, “were of his
party and his cabal, and even MM. de Guise[104] joined him, under pretext
of dissatisfaction with the Maréchal d’Ancre and his wife.”
At the beginning of August, Concini returned to his

CONCINO CONCINI, MARÉCHAL D’ANCRE.

From an engraving by Aubert.

house in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, emboldened apparently by a promise

of his protection which Condé had given him. A few days later, having
some business with the prince, he had the hardihood to go to the Hôtel de
Condé, attended by a suite of thirty gentlemen, at a time when Condé was
giving a sumptuous fête in honour of Lord Hay, the British Ambassador
Extraordinary, to which all the princes and great nobles had been invited.
The company were at table when he arrived, but he went into the banquet-
hall, in which he found Bouillon, Mayenne and other sworn enemies of his,
spoke with Condé for some time, and then took his departure, “all these
gentlemen glaring at him and he at them.”
Next morning, the prince sent for Concini and told him that he had had
great difficulty on the previous day in restraining his friends from falling
upon him and killing him as he was leaving his hôtel, and that they all
threatened to abandon him if he did not withdraw his protection from the
marshal. In consequence, he was unable to protect him any longer, and he
counselled him strongly to retire to Normandy, of which province he had
recently been appointed lieutenant-general, in exchange for the surrender of
a similar office in Picardy. Concini followed the prince’s advice—or rather
his orders—went to the Louvre to take leave of the King and the Queen-
Mother, and left Paris the next day (August 15). “It is impossible to say,”
adds Bassompierre, “how much his departure discredited the Queen-
Mother, when it was seen that a servant of hers could not live in safety in
Paris, save so long as Monsieur le Prince pleased; while it augmented the
reputation and authority of Monsieur le Prince.”
Chief of the grandees and also chief of the King’s counsellors, Condé
might perhaps have been content to live on good terms with the Queen-
Mother and to use with moderation the large share of power which she had
abandoned to him. “But his partisans were unable to suffer their reunion.”
Longueville surprised Péronne; Bouillon, the “demon of rebellion,” the
turbulent Mayenne, the restless Vendôme, urged him to seize the supreme
power, on pain of abandoning him. He is said to have avowed to Barbin that
“it was plain that nothing more remained for him but to remove the King
from his throne and put himself in his place.” If he had really entertained
any such intention, he would hardly have made a confidant of one of the
most devoted of the Queen-Mother’s adherents; but, any way, the Court
believed that he was secretly stirring up the people and the clergy and
tampering with the officers of the Guards and the captains of the citizen
militia, and was plotting to change the form of government. On the advice
probably of the new Ministers Barbin and Mangot, and of Concini’s wife,
Marie de’ Medici resolved to forestall Condé by arresting him, together
with Bouillon, Mayenne, and Vendôme. Fearing that the officers of the
Guards might refuse to lay hands on the first Prince of the Blood, she
decided to dispense with their services and to entrust the task to the Marquis
de Thémines, a brave old Gascon noble who had served with distinction in
the Wars of Religion, assisted by d’Elbène, a captain of light cavalry.
“On Thursday, the first day of September, at three o’clock in the
morning,” says Bassompierre, “I was awakened by a gentleman-servant of
the Queen named La Motte, who came to tell me, on her behalf, to come to
the Louvre, disguised and alone, which I did. On entering the Louvre, I
found one of the Gardes du Corps of the King named La Barre, who
happened to be on guard that night. La Barre was Quartermaster of the
Swiss, and I told him to come with me into the Queen’s ante-chamber and
wait at the door while I entered her chamber, as I did not doubt that it was
some matter relating to the Swiss which was the cause of my being sent for.
“I found the Queen in deshabille, with MM. Mangot and Barbin on
either side of her, while M. de Fossé[105] was standing a little way behind
them. As I entered, she said to me: ‘You do not know why I have sent for
you so early, Bassompierre.’ ‘Madame,’ I answered, ‘I do not know the
reason.’ ‘I will tell you anon,’ said she, and then began to walk about, and
so continued for near half-an-hour; while I spoke to M. de Fossé, whom I
was very astonished to see there, as the Queen had dismissed him for
having accompanied the Commandeur de Sillery when he was exiled from
the Court.[106]
“At length, the Queen entered her cabinet, bidding us follow her, and
said to me: ‘I intend to make prisoners of Monsieur le Prince and MM. de
Vendôme, Mayenne, and Bouillon. I desire that the Swiss be here at eleven
o’clock this morning, that is to say, about the Tuileries, for, if I am forced
by the people to leave Paris, I shall retire with them to Mantes. I have my
jewels packed up and 40,000 crowns in gold—they are here—and I shall
take my children with me, if I am forced to go, though I pray that God may
forbid it, and I do not think it will be necessary. But I am fully resolved to
submit to any peril and inconvenience that I may encounter rather than lose
my authority and suffer that of the King to perish. I desire also that, when
the time arrives, you will go, with your Swiss, to the gate [of the Louvre], to
resist an attack, if one should be made, and to die there for the service of the
King, as I promise myself that you will be ready to do.’ ‘Madame,’ I
replied, ‘I shall not deceive the good opinion that you entertain of me, as
you will know to-day, if such should be the case. Meantime, Madame, be
pleased to permit me to go and summon the Swiss from their quarters.’
‘No,’ said she, ‘you shall not go out.’ ‘It is strange of you, Madame,’ said I,
‘to distrust a man to whom you are confiding the person of the King, your
own, and those of your children. However, I have at this door a man whom
I can trust, and I will send him to the quarters of the Swiss. Rely on me,
Madame, and rest assured that the fête will not be spoiled by me.’ She
permitted me to go out, and I sent La Barre to fetch the Swiss. I asked her
what she intended to do with the French Guards, when she said that she
feared that M. de Créquy[107] had been won over by Monsieur le Prince.
‘Not against the King, Madame,’ said I, ‘for I know that for the King he
would die a thousand deaths, if that were possible.’ Upon that she said: ‘I
must send for him, and neither of you must go out until Monsieur le Prince
has entered.’ She sent also for M. de Saint-Géran[108]; while La Curée[109]
came with the King when he descended to the Queen-Mother’s apartments
at nine o’clock. The Queen spoke to these gentlemen, and when I asked her
by whom Monsieur le Prince was to be arrested, she answered: ‘I have
provided for that.’
“Monsieur le Prince came at eight o’clock to attend the Council, and the
Queen-Mother, looking at him as everyone came to hand him petitions,
said: ‘There is the King of France, but his royalty will be like that of the
Twelfth Night King; it will not last long.’
“Upon that, she despatched Créquy and myself to the gate of the Louvre
to place the Guards under arms, and meantime she sent to summon
Monsieur le Prince to her presence. Afterwards she sent to tell us that if
Monsieur le Prince came to the gate, we should arrest him. We sent back
word that this was so important an order that we ought to have it from her
own lips, and that she should have given it us while we were in her
chamber; but that, if it pleased her to send a lieutenant of the Guards du
Corps to arrest him, we would render him every assistance, and, meantime,
I would give orders that no one was to pass out of the gate. And I placed
thirty Swiss halberdiers there, while Créquy gave a like order to the French
Guards.
“A moment later, there came a valet de chambre of the Queen to tell us
that Monsieur le Prince had been arrested.”[110]
So soon as the arrest of Condé had been effected, Saint-Géran and La
Curée, with detachments of the Gensdarmes and Light Cavalry of the
Guard, were sent to apprehend Bouillon, Mayenne, and Vendôme; but all
three princes had prudently taken to flight.
Much to the relief of Marie de’ Medici, the bulk of the populace
remained unmoved, though the Dowager-Princesse de Condé drove about
the streets, crying out: “To arms, good people! The Maréchal d’Ancre has
caused Monsieur le Prince to be assassinated!” A crowd, however, collected
before Concini’s house in the Faubourg-Saint-Germain, broke in the door
and sacked it from basement to attic, after which they were proceeding to
demolish it, when the French Guards arrived and dispersed them.
“A little while after the arrest of Monsieur le Prince,” says
Bassompierre, “some rioters, or some members of the said prince’s
household, began to throw stones against the windows of the Maréchal
d’Ancre’s house. Then, others joining them with the hope of plunder, took
the pieces of timber from beyond the Luxembourg, which was then being
built, to break open the door of the said house. Eight or ten men and women
who were within escaped, terror-stricken, by a back door; and a number of
masons from the Luxembourg having joined the mob, they entered and
pillaged this rich house, in which they found furniture worth more than
200,000 crowns. So soon as the Queen-Mother heard of it, she ordered M.
de Liancourt, Governor of Paris, to go and put a stop to the tumult. He went
with the archers of the Watch, but, perceiving that it was no place for him,
returned; and the people continued to pillage all day, and were not
interfered with.... The next day the King commanded M. de Créquy to take
the companies of the French Guards just relieved from duty and drive away
the people, who were continuing, not to plunder—for that was already
accomplished—but to demolish the Maréchal d’Ancre’s house. This M. de
Créquy did, and placed soldiers there to guard it.”
The same day that Condé was arrested, the King, at his mother’s request,
created Thémines a marshal of France. His appointment, Bassompierre tells
us, aroused great indignation amongst a number of gentlemen who
considered that their own military services gave them a better claim to that
dignity, and they complained loudly, the loudest of all being M. de
Montigny, formerly Governor of Paris, who, while travelling to the capital
that morning, had met Vendôme flying for his life, and had obligingly lent
him his own post-horses, which were fresh, as the prince’s were exhausted.
To pacify Montigny, the King created him a marshal likewise. Then Saint-
Géran, “perceiving that it was only necessary to complain to get what one
wanted,” extorted from his Majesty a written promise that he too should be
made a marshal, while Créquy obtained a brevet of duke and peer. The
Queen-Mother said to Bassompierre that evening: “Bassompierre, you have
not asked for anything like the others.” “Madame,” was the diplomatic
answer, “an occasion on which we have only performed our simple duty is
not one on which to ask for recompense. But I hope that when, by great
services, I shall have merited them, the King will bestow upon me honours
and emoluments without my asking him.”
On September 5, Marie de’ Medici instituted a Council of War, to which
she summoned the Maréchal de Brissac, Praslin, Saint-Luc, Saint-Géran,
and Bassompierre, and also the recently dismissed Ministers Villeroy and
Jeannin, to discuss the means of raising an army to combat the fugitive
princes, who had established themselves at Soissons, where their adherents
were gathering round them. This Council, however, had only held one or
two meetings, under the presidency of the Maréchal de Brissac, when a
most embarrassing incident caused its sittings to be suspended.
It will be remembered that, in 1605, the Comte d’Auvergne, Charles IX’s
son by Marie Touchet, now Madame d’Entragues, had been condemned to
death for high treason, a sentence subsequently commuted by Henri IV to
perpetual imprisonment in the Bastille. This commutation, however, had not
been a formal one, so that the death-sentence remained nominally
suspended over the captive’s head. At the end of the previous June, the
Queen-Mother had set Auvergne at liberty, with the object of opposing him
to the cabal of the Princes; and when, a few weeks later, the news arrived
that Longueville had seized Péronne, she sent him, at the head of two
companies of the French Guards and a detachment of cavalry, to invest the
place. But, by some extraordinary oversight, she had omitted to furnish
Auvergne with the usual letters of abolition, and, in the absence of his
sovereign’s formal pardon for his offences, he occupied a position
somewhat analogous to that of a convict on ticket-of-leave.
A day or two after the Council of War had been appointed, Auvergne
returned from Péronne, and asked Barbin whether he were expected to
attend its sessions. Barbin gave him to understand that he was; and at the
next meeting of the Council the prince entered the room and coolly took his
seat at the head of the table. Brissac was so overcome with astonishment
and indignation that he was quite unable to utter any protest; but
Bassompierre, boiling with rage at the sight of a man who had twice
conspired against the life of his beloved master, and was still technically a
traitor under sentence of death, presuming to attend, much less to preside,
over their counsels, rose at once and moved to one of the windows,
beckoning Saint-Géran and Créquy to follow him. His friends shared his
indignation, and, having consulted together, they called Brissac and told
him that it would be “a reproach and a shame to him” if he suffered the
Comte d’Auvergne to take his place. The marshal thereupon declared that,
provided that they and La Curée would support him—for these four with
their troops were masters of the Louvre—he would kill the count with his
own hand, if he returned for the afternoon session and again took his place
at the head of the council-board. The others applauded this decision, but,
happily, Praslin joined them, and, on learning of what was intended, pointed
out that the wisest course would be to request the Queen-Mother to order
the Comte d’Auvergne not to attend the Council or to suspend its sessions,
whereby they would escape the “inconvenience” which might arise were a
marshal of France to kill a Prince of the Blood at the council-board.
It was decided to follow his advice, and to delegate to him the duty of
informing the Queen-Mother that they would not permit the count to
preside over the Council or even attend it. Marie de’ Medici, we are told,
took their remonstrances in very good part, and, since she did not care to
offend Auvergne by excluding him from the Council, decided that that body
should not meet again.
On September 25, Guise and his brother Joinville, who had followed the
other princes to Soissons, with the apparent intention of throwing in their
lot with them, returned to Paris and came to the Louvre to pay their respects
to the Queen-Mother and assure her of their unalterable fidelity. Her
Majesty received them very graciously; nevertheless, she appears to have
entertained a strong suspicion that they had other motives in returning to the
capital. For that evening, when the courtiers were retiring from her
apartments, she desired Bassompierre to remain, as she wished to speak to
him, and said: “Bassompierre, I have resolved to transfer Monsieur le
Prince from here, and intend to entrust his removal to you. Here is the
Maréchal de Thémines, who arrested him, and who has guarded him in the
Louvre with difficulty. But it is to be feared that, if I keep him here any
longer, some attempt may be made to rescue him, which could easily be
done.... Besides, if he remains here, the King and I are prevented from
leaving, should we desire to go to Saint-Germain or some other place, since,
in that event, he would no longer be in security. In consequence, I have
resolved to place him in the Bastille, and desire that you should take charge
of his removal.”
“She then told me,” says Bassompierre, “that it was the King’s intention
that I should not wait for li honori, li bieni, li carichi. These were her
words.”
Bassompierre replied that the honour of her Majesty’s confidence was in
itself sufficient recompense for the slight service which she was demanding
of him, and that he would readily undertake to conduct the prince safely to
the Bastille. About this she need have no fear, since, even if Condé’s
adherents were to get wind of what was intended, long before they had had
time to gather in sufficient numbers to attempt a rescue, he would have the
prisoner under lock and key again.
He then inquired if the Queen-Mother had any orders to give as to the
manner of the prince’s removal, and, on being told that she left all the
arrangements entirely to his discretion, proceeded to form the escort, which
was composed of 200 of the French Guards and 100 Swiss, chosen from
those who were posted before and behind the Louvre—for the palace was
guarded night and day, like a beleaguered fortress upon which an assault
might at any moment be delivered—another body of 50 Swiss, whom he
summoned from their quarters in the Faubourg Saint-Honoré, a few of his
own and the Queen’s gentlemen, on horseback, a dozen men of the Gardes
du Corps, and six of the Swiss of the Guard (the Cent-Suisses). The French
Guards were posted opposite the gate of the Louvre; the rest were drawn up
in the courtyard, where a coach was in waiting to convey the prisoner and
Thémines, who was to ride with him, to the Bastille.
His preparations completed, Bassompierre, accompanied by Thémines,
ascended to the room where Condé was confined, and awakened the prince,
“who was in great apprehension,” being evidently under the impression that
they had come to conduct him to execution. Thémines having reassured him
on this score, he went with the marshal down to the courtyard and entered
the coach; Bassompierre mounted his horse, and the cortège moved off.
Bassompierre, with the mounted gentlemen and fifty of the Swiss, led the
way; then came the coach, guarded on either side by the Gardes du Corps
and the Swiss of the Guard, with their partizans and halberds; while the
French Guards and the rest of the Swiss brought up the rear. Thus they
wended their way through the dark, silent streets towards the Faubourg
Saint-Antoine, no one being encountered on their march save a few belated
pedestrians, and, in less than an hour after they left the Louvre, the gates of
the Bastille had closed upon the first Prince of the Blood.
Before setting out for the Bastille, Bassompierre had judged it advisable
to send a messenger to assure the Duc de Guise, whose hôtel lay on their
way[111] and who, he thought, might take alarm if he learned that soldiers
were approaching, that nothing was intended against him. The messenger
was only just in time, for Guise, warned by a friend living near the Louvre
that troops were assembling at the palace, and persuaded that his arrest was
their objective, had promptly decided on flight; and he and some of his
attendants were already dressed and preparing to get to horse.
 CHAPTER XVI
Serious illness of the young King, who, however, recovers—Bassompierre and Mlle.
d’Urfé—Gay winter in Paris—Richelieu enters the Ministry as Secretary of State for War
—His foreign policy—His energetic measures to put down the rebellion of the Princes—
Return of Concini—His arrogance and presumption—Singular conversation between
Bassompierre and Concini, after the death of the latter’s daughter—Policy pursued by
Marie de’ Medici and Concini towards Louis XIII—Humiliating position of the young
King—His favourite, Charles d’Albert, Seigneur de Luynes—Bassompierre warns the
Queen-Mother that the King may be persuaded to revolt against her authority.

At the end of October, Louis XIII fell ill, and on All-Hallows’ Eve “had a
convulsion, which it was apprehended would develop into apoplexy.” His
physicians were of opinion that if he had a second attack it would probably
prove fatal; and Marie de’ Medici, on learning of this, sent for Bassompierre
and kept him at the Louvre all night, so as to be in readiness to summon the
Swiss to her support, in the event of the King’s death. However, the young
monarch passed a good night, and by the morning all danger was over.
On the following day, Bassompierre set out for Burgundy, at the head of
300 cavalry, to meet and take command of a new levy of two regiments of
Swiss, raised to assist the Government in dealing with the rebellious
Princes. He left Paris with no little reluctance, since he had just embarked in
a new love-affair with Mlle. d’Urfé, who is described by Tallemant des
Réaux as the flower of the Queen’s maids-of-honour; and it was naturally
most provoking to have to go campaigning at such a moment. However,
love had to give place to duty.
Bassompierre’s orders were to hold the Swiss and his little force of
cavalry at the disposal of Bellegarde, Governor of Burgundy, who had been
sent into the Bresse to the assistance of Charles Emmanuel’s heir, the Prince
of Piedmont, who was defending Savoy against an army commanded by his
kinsman, the Duc de Nemours. This army had originally been raised by
Nemours to co-operate with the forces of Charles Emmanuel in the war
which had broken out between him and Spain; but the duke had been
persuaded, by the specious promises of the Governor of Milan, to turn it
against his relatives. However, on reaching Provins, Bassompierre learned
that, through the intervention of Bellegarde, a treaty had been signed
between the Prince of Piedmont and Nemours, and that the latter had
disbanded his army.
At Saint-Jean de Losne, near Beaune, he met the Swiss, and, having
administered to them the usual oath of fidelity, led them to Châtillon-sur-
Seine, where he received orders to send one regiment into the Nivernais and
the other into Champagne, to be distributed amongst different garrisons in
those provinces.
At the beginning of December, he returned to Paris, eager to sun himself
once more in the smiles of Mlle. d’Urfé; and his disgust may therefore be
imagined when, scarcely had he arrived, than he received a visit from his
kinsman, the wealthy Duc de Cröy,[112] who informed him that the same
lady’s charms had made so deep an impression upon him that he proposed
to lay, not only his heart, but his ancient title and all his possessions at her
feet. And, all unconscious that his relative had a prior claim to Mlle.
d’Urfé’s affections, he begged him to make, on his behalf, a formal
proposal for her hand to her parents.
Dissimulating his mortification, Bassompierre accepted this commission;
but, as he is not ashamed to confess, with the intention of preventing the
marriage, if by any means that could be effected. However, “his efforts
were in vain, for the duke surmounted all the difficulties that he put in his
way,” and at the beginning of 1617 Mlle. d’Urfé became Duchesse de Cröy.
Bassompierre did not, as we may suppose, waste much time in regrets
for the loss of his inamorata, since, notwithstanding that a civil war was in
progress and that almost every day brought such cheerful intelligence as
that one gentleman’s château had been sacked or another’s unfortunate
tenants rendered homeless, the winter of 1617 in Paris was a very gay one,
and what with dancing, gambling and love-making, his days and nights
must have been pretty well occupied:—
“I won that year at the game of trictrac, from M. de Guise, M. de
Joinville and the Maréchal d’Ancre, 100,000 crowns. I was not out of
favour at the Court, nor with the ladies, and had a number of beautiful
mistresses.”
To turn, however, from trivial to important matters.

At the end of 1616 Bassompierre writes in his journal:

 “During my journey to Burgundy, the Seals had been taken away from
M. du Vair and given to Mangot, and Mangot’s charge of Secretary of State
to M. de Lusson.”
Now, the “M. de Lusson” of whom Bassompierre speaks was none other
than Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu, Bishop of Luçon, afterwards
Cardinal de Richelieu, who on November 30, 1616, had entered the
Ministry as Secretary of State for War.
Scarcely had this great man touched public affairs than it was recognised
that a firmer and surer hand was guiding the helm; a new spirit seemed to
be infused into the Government. The tone of Henri IV suddenly reappeared
in French diplomacy, and the ambassadors at Courts opposed to the
pretensions of the House of Austria, justly alarmed by the Spanish
marriages, were instructed to inform the sovereigns to whom they were
accredited that these marriages were by no means to be regarded as
portending any intention on the part of the Very Christian King to embrace
the interests of Spain or the Holy See, to the detriment of the old alliances
of France or to the principle of religious toleration in his realm.
And, at the same time as he reassured the old allies of France, Richelieu
took energetic measures to put down rebellion at home. He appealed to
public opinion by the issue of pamphlets and proclamations, in which he
effectively combated the arguments advanced by the Princes to justify their
revolt, and pointed out that these same men who complained of the disorder
of the finances had themselves bled the State to the tune of over fourteen
million livres—he gave a schedule showing the sums paid to each of them
—not counting the emoluments of the charges bestowed upon them and the
pensions and gratifications accorded to their friends and servants.
Nor did he confine himself to words. This time, the Government,
inspired by him, showed none of its accustomed pusillanimity. A royal
declaration was launched against Nevers, who, now that Condé was in
prison, had assumed the leadership of his party; a second against Mayenne,
Vendôme, and Bouillon; three armies were raised to take the field against
them, which one by one reduced their strongholds to submission; the estates
of many of their supporters were sequestrated; soldiers who had taken up
arms to join them were, if captured, hanged without mercy; and, finally, a
decree, duly registered by the Parlement, notwithstanding that it struck at at
least one of that body, provided for the confiscation of the property of all
the rebels.
It was the misfortune of Richelieu and his colleagues that they passed for
the creatures of a foreign favourite detested by everyone. At the beginning
of December, 1616, Concini, who had remained in Normandy since the
scene at the Hôtel de Condé which had led to his compulsory withdrawal
from the capital, returned to Paris, more arrogant and more presumptuous
than ever, and burning to avenge the humiliations he had suffered. To strike
terror into the partisans of the Princes, he caused gibbets to be erected in
different parts of the town; he “caused everyone to be watched and spied
upon, even in the houses, to see who entered or left Paris,” and “imprisoned
those who gave him the smallest umbrage, without any form of trial.”
Already in possession of the citadel of Caen, he occupied the Pont-de-
l’Arche, the strongest fortress in Normandy; proposed to rebuild the fort of
Sainte-Catherine, above Rouen, which had been destroyed during the Wars
of Religion; acquired by purchase the governments of Meulan, Pontoise,
and Corbeil; offered Bassompierre 600,000 livres for his post of Colonel-
General of the Swiss, and was credited with the intention of getting himself
named Constable of France. It was evident that he contemplated making
himself a sort of king in Normandy, and that, when the Princes were
crushed, there would be no limits to his ambition. He had, however, at the
beginning of 1617, a moment of alarm and despondency. The death of his
only daughter, Marie Concini, to whom he was tenderly attached and for
whom he had dreamed of some alliance which would unite his fortunes to
those of one of the great families of France, struck him with a superstitious
fear, as the precursor of the ruin of himself and his wife.
“The marshal’s daughter fell ill and died,” writes Bassompierre, “at
which both he and his wife were cruelly afflicted. I shall relate a
conversation which passed between him and myself on the day of her death,
by which one may see that he had a prevision of what afterwards happened
to him.
“I went to visit him on the morning of that day, and again after dinner, at
that little house on the Quai du Louvre to which he and his wife had retired.
But he had given orders that I was to be requested to defer our interview
until some other time, and afterwards he sent to ask me to come to see him
at his house in the evening. Finding him in sore distress, I endeavoured
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