4 research outputs found
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