A Lexicostatistics Comparison of Standard Yorùbá, Àkúrẹ́ and Ìkàrẹ́ Àkókó Dialects

Abstract

This paper studied the differences and similarities in the lexicon of Standard Yoruba, Ìkàré ̣ Àkókó and Àkúré ̣ dialects. We examined the lexicostatistics comparison of the lexicons in Standard Yorùbá, Ìkàré ̣ Àkókó and Àkúré ̣ dialects. The paper aims at determining the level of mutual intelligibility in Standard Yorùbá, Ìkàré ̣ Àkókó and Àkúré ̣ speech forms. The objectives of this study were: (i) to find out the areas of similarities and differences of the lexical items of (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 2 A Lexicostatistics Comparison of Standard Yorùbá, Àkúré ̣ and Ìkàré ̣ Àkókó Dialects the dialects, (ii) to examine the phonological relatedness of the three dialects and (iii) to determine the cognate percentage of relatedness among the three dialects. The data for this paper were collected from six native speakers using the SIL Comparative African Wordlist of basic lexical items. The numeral system, animal nouns and edible nouns were selected from the wordlist in which they were compared using the comparative method and a lexicostatistics analysis was done. The comparative method and the lexicostatistics analysis were used as the framework for Standard Yorùbá, Ìkàré ̣ Àkókó and Àkúré ̣ dialects to determine the level of lexical correspondence among them. The findings of this study revealed that there is a higher cognate percentage between Standard Yorùbá and Àkúré ̣ with 86.40% cognates, with Ìkàré ̣ Àkókó and Àkúré ̣ having 74.60% cognates and Standard Yorùbá and Ìkàré ̣ Àkókó with 78.90% cognates. This paper concluded that there is a higher level of mutual intelligibility between Standard Yorùbá and Àkúré ̣ than Standard Yorùbá and Ìkàré ̣ Àkókó while the level of mutual intelligibility between Ìkàré ̣ Àkókó and Àkúré ̣ is low.