LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 17:5 May 2017
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIALS

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2016
M. S. Thirumalai

Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
11249 Oregon Circle
Bloomington, MN 55438
USA
Custom Search

A Study of Esan Dialects

Ikoyo-Eweto, Evarista Ofure. Ph.D., M.A., P.G.D.E., B.A.

Abstract

This work is the second in a series of dialect studies on Esan. Its motivation is borne out of the need to further define the internal linguistic relations that may exist within the language commonly described as multidialectal. Esan is classified as North Central Edoid. A preliminary phonetic study classified the language into eight dialects.

This study is lexicon based. It adopted principles of lexicostatistical glottochronology, an approach to language study with the aim of determining levels of mutual intelligibility. Data were collected from twelve adult Esan native speakers, each of whom spoke one of the twelve Esan speech varieties identified for this work. The Ibadan word list of 400 Basic items was the main instrument for data collection. The later were transcribed in phonetic format in International Phonetic Alphabet tradition. Available data were subjected to comparative analysis using some principles of lexicostatistical glottochronology. Segmental and tonal features were compared across Esan speech varieties for dialectal indices.

The twelve Esan speech varieties emerged as separate dialects when a combination of segmental and tonal patterning on lexical items were adopted as basis for comparison, whereas Esan emerged as two dialects when tonal patterning on lexical items was considered in isolation. The study showed the existence of tonetic and segmental diversities within Esan. The statement that Esan comprises multiple dialects is further confirmed. It provides a framework for understanding the internal linguistic variation within Edoid and an avenue for the documentation of Esan speech varieties. This study would serve as a basis for further research on other aspects of Esan grammar for the identification of linguistic variation in the language and other related languages.

Keywords: Dialect, Edoid, Esan, Lexicon, comparative

1. Introduction

This work is a study of the dialect status of Esan. The impetus for this study is the dearth of dialect studies of Edoid languages despite the common claim that most of these languages comprise many dialects. Elugbe (1989) and Egbokhare (2003) are seminal works in this regard, as they establish broad frameworks for understanding the relationships which may exist between members of this group of languages. This study is therefore conducted with a view to furthering existing comparative works on Edoid languages, even though the objectives of these studies may not be symmetrically coterminous. The present effort seeks to investigate the claim that Esan is multidialectal, a claim credited to Ejele (1982, 1991, 2003); Okojie and Ejele (1987:3) amongst others. Okojie and Ejele specifically claim that Esan consists of ‘varieties’ as well as ‘dialects’. The main goal of this study therefore is to make an empirical statement about the dialect status of Esan.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.


Ikoyo-Eweto, Evarista Ofure. Ph.D., M.A., P.G.D.E., B.A.
Department of Linguistics Studies
Faculty of Arts
University of Benin
P.M.B, 1154, Benin City
Nigeria
ofure.ikoyo-eweto@uniben.edu
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.