A sociolinguistic study of a Yoruba speech community in Nigeria: variation and change in the Ijebu dialect speech of Ikorodu

This study springs from a purely sociolinguistic theoretical base which maintains that language is a social phenomenon, and that the appropriate domain for the study of linguistic behaviour is the society or the 'context' in which that behaviour is regularly or generally enacted. Linguistic behaviour, therefore, becomes the focus of attention in this study, not only in terms of the purely formal characteristics of the variety (or varieties) of language in use in the community, but also in terms of the social dimensions of variation and change, language use and code choice, and language attitudes. The Ijebu dialect-speaking community of Ikorodu provides the context for these analyses.Variation in the Ijebu dialect speech of the community involves the alternation between discrete phonetic segments in five features which function in the phonological sub-systems of the Ijebu dialect and of Lagos/the standardized variety of Yoruba, in co-variation with the demographic factors of age, education and occupational groups. Sound change in progress follows from an advanced stage of variation and its differential distribution within age levels in terms of the extent to which three syllabic segments assimilate to corresponding but phonetically different segments in cognate lexical items in Lagos/ standardized variety of Yoruba.Language use, language attitudes and code-switching are examined in relation to the community's subjective evaluation of the components of two non-linguistic factors - 'traditionalism' and 'modernity' - both of which are integrally related in the on-going socio-cultural changes in the community. The alternation between the local variety of the Ijebu dialect and Eko are matched against these non-linguistic considerations. Language attitudes are demonstrated in the form of an emotional attachment to the mother tongue within a strictly narrow 'hometown' definition. The positive evaluation of Lagos Yoruba, its acquisition and use are connected with prestige considerations which are attached to this variety as a mark of the individual's and the community's acquisition of Lagos urban norms and values