The kikọ script

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Based on the collected survey, most learners find the script difficult to learn. We are currently working on a few explainer slides that will make learning the script quick and easy

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For the most part, the keyboard maintains the QWERTY ("GBWERTY" in Yorùbá) layout you are already used to. Like all things, give yourself time to get familiar with it. Toggle on "show keyboard viewer" to see the keys. You will feel the ease of writing Yorùbá with this keyboard.

For MacBook user, you can download the Kikọ keyboard and font via GitHub today. A universal keyboard coming soon. It is important to note the order of typing impacts the text shaping behaviour, second image provides the correct order of typing. -Github link in bio-

Sounds of the Ancestors. Gathering by Owomide is happening on the 17th of May, 2026 at the prestigious J Randle Centre for Yoruba culture and history Museum. Ticket is 5k. Send a message to +2348169508728 to get your ticket now! Limited space. This is a gathering you don't want to miss.

@OnidaRaharaha I remember my Yorùbá teacher in school saying that one of the ways they learned another persons language back then was by drinking the water that individual used to clean their mouth after eating. Couldn't tell if he was serious or making a joke till today.

I lost the original source, but I came across this idea a few years ago. According to a Yorùbá indigenous knowledge tradition, one major factor that may explain changes in dialect, and eventually the emergence of a new language among groups that once spoke the same language, is the water the separated group comes to drink. The belief, as I remember it, is that over many generations, the local water gradually influences speech, pronunciation, dialect, and language. I do not know whether modern science has explored this idea. If modern linguistics would explain dialect formation mainly through migration, isolation, social interaction, contact with other groups, and generational sound change, the idea raises an interesting question, could the physical environment, including water, diet, minerals, climate, and local ecology, have subtle long-term effects on speech patterns?

Òwe kan tí mo gbọ nínú orin "itàn Ìsmaílà" láti bàbá wa Síkírù Àyìndé Barrister - "Eni tó lẹ́rù ló lẹ́rú". Mo kọ òwe yìí ní ọ̀nà onígun-mẹ́rin tó wà Lábẹ́ ọ̀nà ìkọ̀wé gígùn. This proverb is written in the square style that belongs under the 'long' calligraphy style.

All Yoruba people, wherever they may be needs to remain one. Those who sell their families for a trivial sum will not find the means to buy them back at true worth.

Each week I would try to provide translated or original short stories in Yorùbá written in Kiko. I will highlight vocabularies and orthographical delights. The example below features the use of a logogram to form a logosyllable. What is your thought on the story? Share below

@_HeySylvest and for the most part, such ambiguity does not occur because of the surrounding context. Native speakers rarely have that as a struggle in everyday speech (differing dialects? Likely)

@kikoscript I think the main task is interacting with / practicing the tonality well enough to be fluent in it, even for a frequent speaker, the tonality can still be confusing at times, especially since any slight change can change the meaning of words

“Africa was not an anarchist paradise; it underwent broadly similar processes of centralisation and state formation to those found elsewhere, with regional variation.” africanhistoryextra.com/p/africa-was-n…

In English, what adults read easily can challenge children without training. Yorùbá differs—its reuse of core words and concepts keeps speech relatively consistent and simple. Most of the real difficulty in Yorùbá lies in proverbial sayings, especially without cultural context.

@DMarquetteArt Possibly

@kikoscript This is beautiful. Could this script also be adapted for Igbo and Hausa languages?

Not as refined as I want it to look, but calligraphy plays a big role in the Kikọ script. There are currently two major styles you would see more written works in: the "long-thin" style, and the regular style. Can you read this short ewì by me on Life.