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Dialectal Variation
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CHAPTER ONE
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
1.0 INTRODUCTION
This work
sets out to do a comparative study to determine the status of the Ikere
and Ijebu varieties of Yoruba in order to find areas of convergences and
divergences which will help determine the level of mutual
intelligibility between them. The motivation for this study is that
there have been some controversies as to the relatedness between these
two language varieties. Thiswork sets out to examine the Ekiti and Ijebu
varieties of Yoruba in the light of these controversies and establishes
their linguistic status as well.
The study is divided into four
chapters. Chapter one is the general introduction to the study. It
entails the preliminaries, the Ikere and Ijebu varieties of Yoruba: the
languages and peoples, the aim, scope of study, significance and
methodology of study. In chapter two a review of relevant literature is
carried out. It entails a linguistic viewpoint, a theoretical review,
definition of terms and definition of terms. For chapter three, the data
collected is analyzed and the results are also presented to show the
convergence and divergence between the Ikere and Ijebu varieties of
Yoruba. Chapter four entails the concluding remarks where the summary of
work done, findings and conclusion are presented. This is followed by
the references and appendix sections.
Languages are used in different
forms, in different situations and for different purposes. This use of
language has given birth to various forms. For example if a dialect is
defined as a geographical sub-division of language, we do not come very
far without the definition of language and sub-division is not a very
clear concept either. Therefore discussions of the terms will be
necessary. These discussions will be treated in the second chapter of
this study.
According to Catford (1965:84), a language variety is:
“a subset of formal and or substantial features which correlateregularly with a particular type of socio-situational featureâ€.
A
language can thus be defined as abody of words and system used for
communication among people of a particular nation or area. This
definition only scratches the surface of language as a whole, but it is
essential in the understanding of the afore-mentioned terms.
A
dialect then,is a variety of language that is distinguished from other
varieties of the same language by features of phonology,grammar and
vocabulary, and by its use by a group of speakerswho are set off from
others geographically or socially.
This work sets out to do a
comparative study to determine the status of the Ikere and Ijebu
varieties of the Yoruba language in order to find the areas of
convergences and divergences which will help determine the level of
mutual intelligibility.
However, there has been some controversies as
to the relatedness or otherwise between these two varieties. This work
also sets out to examine these varieties and establish the linguistics
status of these varieties as well.
CHAPTER ONE -- [Total Page(s) 3]
Page 1 of 3
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]This is a work on dialectal variation focusing on a comparative study between Ikere and Ijebu of the Yoruba language, as spoken by the people of Ekiti and Ogun state respectively, with a view to determining the linguistic status of both varieties. It is limited to only these varieties as they are the main focus of the study. The Ibadan word list of 400 basic items was the primary instrument for data collection, and informants were used. ... Continue reading---
