ABSTRACT

This study is a lexico-statistic analysis of the Owo and Ilè-Olují dialects of Ondo, and the Standard Yoruba language. The aim of the study is to compare these two dialects of Ondo and Standard Yoruba, and to identify any similarities or differences in the lexical usage of these dialects while its specific objectives are to determine the level of relatedness between Yoruba and Owo, the level of relatedness between Yoruba and Ilè-Olují and the level of relatedness between Owo and Ilè-Olují. The method of data collection for this research includes both the primary and secondary method. The theoretical framework adopted in this study is lexicostatistics which was developed by Morris Swadesh in the 1950s. The findings revealed that the result for the lexical comparison of relatedness between Owo and Ile- oluji has 61.9% relatedness which means that they are not mutually intelligible and native speakers of both forms of dialects may not understand each other prior to unfamiliarity in some words. The research concludes that Owo and Ile-oluji are not mutually intelligible and both forms of languages are Yoruboid languages. Nevertheless, it was noted that the lexical comparison between the standard Yoruba and ile- oluji is higher compared to Owo and the distinction in vocabulary is increasing daily, since Ilè-Olují shares 87.8% cognate with the Standard Yoruba, we can therefore call it a language and not a dialect anymore since it met with the language pass mark of 81% - 100% cognate according to Morris Swadesh lexico-statistics standard. The research recommends further research on these dialect and language  using other branches such as the morphology of Owo and Ile- oluji dialects with the intention of bringing out the various parameters that are at work in individual dialects of Yoruba.

Keywords: Lexico-statistics, Owo, Ilè-Olují, dialect, Yoruba language