Yoruba is a language spoken in West Africa. The number of speakers of Yoruba is estimated between 30 and 40 million, primarily by the ethnic Yoruba people is a pluricentric language spoken principally in Nigeria and Benin, with communities in Sierra Leone, Liberia, other parts of Africa, the Americas, and Europe. The non-vernacular remains of the language in the Caribbean, Lucumi, is the liturgical language of the Santer? a religion of the region. Many Yoruba words are used in the Afro-Brazilian religion known as Candomble?. Yoruba language remnants are also used in many other Afro-American religions in the Americas and the Caribbean. Yoruba is most closely related to the Itsekiri language (spoken in the Niger Delta) and to Igala (spoken in central Nigeria).