Ethno-Linguistic Realities of South West Geopolitical Zone of Nigeria: A Situation Report
Abstract
Generally, there is no unanimity on the number of languages spoken in Nigeria today by linguists, and the numbers given by each of them vary from 250 to 520. The reason for this is understandable because most linguists who have worked (or are currently working) on Nigerian languages are not in agreement on which of these speech forms to categorize as dialects as against languages. This paper looks at the ethno-linguistic situation of South West Geopolitical Zone of Nigeria within the context of the languages of Nigeria. We present the details of the various dialects of the Yorùba ́ language spoken in Nigeria and relate them to those spoken in the diaspora. We also attempt a re-categorization and re-classification of these dialects taking into consideration the works of earlier writers on Yorùbá dialects. Although this zone is one of the most linguistically homogenous zones in Nigeria, with Yorùbá as the dominant language, there are some minority languages on the fringe in the north-eastern part of the zone. We also take a closer look at the ethnolinguistic and some socio-cultural peculiarities of the Àkókóid language group in Àkókó region in this eastern part of the zone, which has an uncustomary and peculiar linguistic diversity, a large number of distinctive and distinguishable speech forms with multifold subgroup. This work is based on the framework of Language Documentation and endangerment which we assume adequately captures the current linguistic travails of both the dialects and the Àkókó language group. Though, the Yorùba ́ language may not be said to be endangered considering its status, its various dialects and the Àkókóid languages are all on the verge of total extinction.
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