THE LEXICOSTATISTICS ANALYSIS OF THE STANDARD YORUBA LANGUAGE AND THE IKALE DIALECT

ABSTRACT

This study is to carry out a comparative analysis between the Ikale Dialect and the Standard Yoruba Language. To examine the mutual intelligibility between Ikale Dialect and the Standard Yoruba Language using a lexicostatistical analysis. The theoretical framework adopted in this study is Lexicostatistics developed by Morris Swadesh in a series of article in the 1950s, it involves a quantitative comparing the percentage of lexical cognates, the comparing of wordlist of core vocabulary to calculate the level of relatedness among the languages and how mutually intelligible they are. The method of data collection includes both the primary and secondary method. The primary method was a face-face oral interview which was collected from native speakers using the Ibadan four hundred wordlist of basic item. The informants for Ikale dialect were from an Ikale speaking men and women in a community in Alimosho Local Government and they were between the ages of 30-75years respectively. The secondary method includes the usage of the Ibadan 400 wordlist. The data collected was analyzed with the Lexicostatistical analysis which involved creation of wordlist, determine cognacy and calculating the lexicostatistics percentage. The lexicostatistical analysis put forward by Swadesh sees languages as varieties of a particular language if they share 86% - 100% cognates, but if they share below this percentage they are seen as dialect of a particular language, that is the higher the percentage of cognates the closer relationship between languages. From the lexicostatistical analysis we will be using Swadesh cut off mark of 86%. The result of our comparison reveals the level of ix relatedness between a Standard Yoruba and an Ikale as 68.3% which is lower than the cut off mark, we therefore say Ikale is a dialect of the Standard Yoruba.