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Igala Isn't A Yoruba Language But Classified As Yoruboid by Olu317(m): 10:21am On Apr 13, 2017
Yoruba is classified within the Edekiri languages , which together with the Itsekiri language and the isolate Igala form the
Yoruboid group of languages within the Volta–Niger branch of the Niger–Congo family. The linguistic unity of the Niger–Congo family dates to deep prehistory, estimates ranging around 15 kya (the end of the Upper Paleolithic ). In present-day Nigeria, it is estimated that there are over 40 million Yoruba primary and secondary language speakers and several other millions of speakers outside Nigeria making it the most widely spoken African language outside Africa.


According to the Kay Williamson Scale, the following is the degree of relationship between Itsekiri and other Yoruboid dialects, using a compiled word list of the most common words. A similarity of 100% would mean a total overlap of two dialects, while a similarity of 0 would mean two speech areas that have absolutely no relationship.
The result of the wordlist analysis shows that Itsekiri bears the strongest similarity to the SEY dialects and most especially Ilaje and Ikale, at 80.4% and 82.3% similarity. According to the language assessment criteria of the international Language Assessment Conference (1992), only when a wordlist analysis shows a lexical similarity of below 70% are two speech forms considered to be different languages. An overlap of 70% and above indicates that both speech forms are the same language, although dialect intelligibility tests would need to be carried out to determine how well speakers of one dialect can understand the other speech form. Thus while the analysis shows that IGALA with an overlap of 60% is a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT LANGUAGE, all other Yoruboid speech forms are MERELY DIALECTS of the same LANGUAGE.

VARIETIES OF YORUBA DIALECTS

The Yoruba dialect continuum itself consists of several dialects. The various Yoruba dialects in the Yorubaland of Nigeria can be classified into Five major dialect areas: Northwest, Northeast, Central, Southwest and Southeast.[8] Clear boundaries cannot be drawn, peripheral areas of dialectal regions often having some similarities to adjoining dialects.
North-West Yoruba (NWY)
Egba, Ibadan , Egbado/Yewa , Ọyọ, Western Ogun , Lagos/Eko .

North-East Yoruba (NEY)
Yagba, Owe , Ijumu, Oworo, Gbede, Abunu.

Central Yoruba (CY)
Igbomina , Ijesha , Ifẹ , Ekiti , Akurẹ , Ẹfọn .

South-East Yoruba (SEY)
Ikale , Ilaje , Ondo City , Ọwọ , Idanre, Akoko,
Remo, Ijẹbu.

South-West Yoruba (SWY)
Ketu , Awori , Sakété , Ifè (Togo) , Idasha ,
Ipokia/Anago .

THE DIFFERENCE IS CLEAR

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Re: Igala Isn't A Yoruba Language But Classified As Yoruboid by RedboneSmith(m): 1:26pm On Apr 13, 2017
The classification places Akoko in the South East Yoruba (SEY) category. How?

Akoko language (or Akokoid languages) is not even Yoruboid. undecided

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Re: Igala Isn't A Yoruba Language But Classified As Yoruboid by Olu317(m): 4:40pm On Apr 13, 2017
RedboneSmith:
The classification places Akoko in the South East Yoruba (SEY) category. How?

Akoko language (or Akokoid languages) is not even Yoruboid. undecided
Akokoid is a NORTH AKOKO kind of language who are also referred as ARIGIDI .The term which was coined to exist But historically, it is an assumption to the creation of such by those who tried create such by trying to form or create a group of YORUBA —AKOKO —EDO —.IBO languages as being classified as AKOKOID. This is because ARIGIDI was the only classification of such with roughly population of about 50,000+ speakers. And the history of these people acknowledge their migration out of ILE IFE and the fact that they stayed at different places including BINI but had to moved out toward the present day location as a result of persecution.

The Yoruboid languages and Akoko were once linked as the Defoid branch, but more recently they, Edoid, and Igboid have been suggested to be primary branches of an as-yet unnamed group, often abbreviated YEAI
There were ancient Yoruba words that fizzled out but still retained in ARIGIDI. I am sure you must have heard ÉNO slang language being spoken among Yoruba in the past. Akokoid had no link with other language except its close link with Yoruboid.

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Re: Igala Isn't A Yoruba Language But Classified As Yoruboid by 9jakool: 7:13pm On Apr 13, 2017
RedboneSmith:
The classification places Akoko in the South East Yoruba (SEY) category. How?

Akoko language (or Akokoid languages) is not even Yoruboid. undecided
Yes there is a lot of confusion with the Akoko region. This is even more complicated because of the Akoko umbrella. The truth is that there is a Southeastern Yoruba dialect spoken in Akoko region in addition to the many often unrelated languages. The Akoko dialect is similar to that spoken in Owo. Here is a general break down of the languages in Akoko.

Yoruba (Akoko): These are spoken natively in Ikare-Akoko, Akungba, Supare, Oka, etc

Akokoid- Oke Agbe (Owan varieties), Arigidi(Arigidi language), Erushu, Oyin, etc

Akedoid/Edoid- Ipe, etc

Ebiroid- Igarra

Ahanoid- Ahan, ayere

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Re: Igala Isn't A Yoruba Language But Classified As Yoruboid by YonkijiSappo: 3:06am On Apr 14, 2017
9jakool:

Yes there is a lot of confusion with the Akoko region. This is even more complicated because of the Akoko umbrella. The truth is that there is a Southeastern Yoruba dialect spoken in Akoko region in addition to the many often unrelated languages. The Akoko dialect is similar to that spoken in Owo. Here is a general break down of the languages in Akoko.

Yoruba (Akoko): These are spoken natively in Ikare-Akoko, Akungba, Supare, Oka, etc

Akokoid- Oke Agbe (Owan varieties), Arigidi(Arigidi language), Erushu, Oyin, etc

Akedoid/Edoid- Ipe, etc

Ebiroid- Igarra

Ahanoid- Ahan, ayere

that is in Edo state though

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Re: Igala Isn't A Yoruba Language But Classified As Yoruboid by 9jakool: 3:52am On Apr 14, 2017
YonkijiSappo:


that is in Edo state though

No, it's well in Ondo state, very close to Isua. Its alternative former name is Ukpe located in Akoko SE local government. I also only mentioned Akoko region which is continuous with parts of Edo state as well. There are several Edoid languages spoken that spans both state like Ivbiosakon and Okpamheri.

Anyways you also have stand alone languages that form independent branches like Akpe and Ukaan languages. These languages are very hard to classify. Ukaan is spoken in Ikakumo but the language is considered endangered due to the use of Yoruba especially by the younger generation.

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Re: Igala Isn't A Yoruba Language But Classified As Yoruboid by YonkijiSappo: 5:27am On Apr 14, 2017
Sorry, I meant to highlight Igarra ("Ebiroid")

There's no Ebiroid language in Ondo, except by migrant speakers.
Re: Igala Isn't A Yoruba Language But Classified As Yoruboid by 9jakool: 5:45am On Apr 14, 2017
YonkijiSappo:
Sorry, I meant to highlight Igarra ("Ebiroid"wink

There's no Ebiroid language in Ondo, except by migrant speakers.

I never said there is an Ebiroid language in Ondo. Igarra is spoken in Akoko Edo.
Re: Igala Isn't A Yoruba Language But Classified As Yoruboid by YonkijiSappo: 6:04am On Apr 14, 2017
Okay I thpught the discussion was linited to Ondo though- because that was the premise of the discussion.
Also I only know of Okpameri like languages spanning the border along the Akoko axis- which language in Akoko sounds Ivbiosakon- ish?
Re: Igala Isn't A Yoruba Language But Classified As Yoruboid by Olu317(m): 8:08am On Apr 14, 2017
In the midst of AKOKO-EDO settlements listed below, still exist Yoruba settlements.



Atte,
Igarra,
Enwan,
Aiyegunle,
Ugboshi-Afe,
Ugboshi-Ele,
Ekpesa,
Ibillo,
Ikiran-Ile ,
Ikiran oke,
Ekor,
Somorika,
Lampese
, Imoga,
Ojah ,
Uneme-Akiosu,
Ososo ,
Akuku,
Ojirami-Dam,
Imoga
, Eshawa,
Ojirami-Peteshi,
Ojirami-Afe,
Dagbala,
Makeke,
Ekpe,
Ekpedo,
Bekuma,
Okpe,
Ogbe,
Onumu,
Akpama,
Anyonron,
Ogugu,
Ikakumo,
Ijaja ,
Oloma ,
Uneme-nekwa ,
Ikpeshi ,

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Re: Igala Isn't A Yoruba Language But Classified As Yoruboid by 9jakool: 8:20am On Apr 14, 2017
YonkijiSappo:
Okay I thpught the discussion was linited to Ondo though- because that was the premise of the discussion.
Also I only know of Okpameri like languages spanning the border along the Akoko axis- which language in Akoko sounds Ivbiosakon- ish?
I'm not quite sure. It is more like a general term for the related dialects spoken in different communities with the vast majority in Edo state. Apparently, their language is a bit influenced by Yoruba.
Re: Igala Isn't A Yoruba Language But Classified As Yoruboid by YonkijiSappo: 8:25am On Apr 14, 2017
9jakool:

I'm not quite sure. It is more like a general term for the related dialects spoken in different communities with the vast majority in Edo state. Apparently, their language is a bit influenced by Yoruba.

No, Afenmai is the term generally used to refer to all the languages of Edo-North.
Ivbiosakon is an old name to refer to the Owans. Today, they make up two Edo local governments, Owan East and Owan West. Both of these LGs also border Ondo state.
Re: Igala Isn't A Yoruba Language But Classified As Yoruboid by 9jakool: 10:34am On Apr 14, 2017
YonkijiSappo:


No, Afenmai is the term generally used to refer to all the languages of Edo-North.
Ivbiosakon is an old name to refer to the Owans. Today, they make up two Edo local governments, Owan East and Owan West. Both of these LGs also border Ondo state.
The situation is much more complex than that.
I knew Ivbiosokan was an old term, but I used it because the language that I was referring to believe it or not has no exact name. This is one of the things that many settlements in the area share. Each town just goes by its own flow. These creates ambiguity for linguists who want to classify the language. This is why Linguists often group towns that have a level of mutual intelligibility into a "dialect cluster" even though the people themselves might not recognize such since they live as separate autonomous entities. You said Afenmai is made up of Owan East and Owan West, but some will say by extension that the Afenmai region also includes Akoko Edo, Etsako West, Etsako Central,and Etsako East of Edo-North Senatorial District.

1. Living in Afenmai region is different from speaking Afenmai, which is a complete language on its own. The Afenmai region is extremely diverse linguistically and we can't generalize.

2. The Afenmai language is also known as Yekhee, however many people don't use this term and use Etsako, especially further East.

3. The "language" I was referring to has no exact name. It's known as Emai-Uleha-Ora and it's spoken in parts of Northwest Edo state in a section of Afenmai region. The name is derived from the combination of the towns that share the similar or related lects. Of course these three communities aren't the only ones that are classified under the cluster. Other communities include Ivhimion, etc. There is no name for this "language" as it is just a classification of collection of communities who speak similar dialects.

4. Even though, both the Emai-Uleha-Ora and Afenmai (Yakhee) languages are classified under the North-central Edoid languages, they are also different.

5. There are many other non-Afenmai/Yakhee language speakers in the Afenmai region. Afenmai is a generic term which encompasses all speakers of not only the language itself, but also speakers of often related languages.
Re: Igala Isn't A Yoruba Language But Classified As Yoruboid by YonkijiSappo: 10:36am On Apr 14, 2017
9jakool:

The situation is much more complex than that.
I knew Ivbiosokan was an old term, but I used it because the language that I was referring to believe it or not has no exact name. This is one of the things that many settlements in the area share. Each town just goes by its own flow. These creates ambiguity for linguists who want to classify the language. This is why Linguists often group towns that have a level of mutual intelligibility into a "dialect cluster" even though the people themselves might not recognize such since they live as separate autonomous entities. You said Afenmai is made up of Owan East and Owan West, but some will say by extension that the Afenmai region also includes Akoko Edo, Etsako West, Etsako Central,and Etsako East of Edo-North Senatorial District.

1. Living in Afenmai region is different from speaking Afenmai, which is a complete language on its own. The Afenmai region is extremely diverse linguistically and we can't generalize.

2. The Afenmai language is also known as Yekhee, however many people don't use this term and use Etsako, especially further East.

3. The "language" I was referring to has no exact name. It's known as Emai-Uleha-Ora and it's spoken in parts of Northwest Edo state in a section of Afenmai region. The name is derived from the combination of the towns that share the similar or related lects. Of course these three communities aren't the only ones that are classified under the cluster. Other communities include Ivhimion, etc. There is no name for this "language" as it is just a classification of collection of communities who speak similar dialects.

4. Even though, both the Emai-Uleha-Ora and Afenmai (Yakhee) languages are classified under the North-central Edoid languages, they are also different.

5. There are many other non-Afenmai/Yakhee language speakers in the Afenmai region. Afenmai is a generic term which encompasses all speakers of not only the language itself, but also speakers of often related languages.

Never said that.
Re: Igala Isn't A Yoruba Language But Classified As Yoruboid by 9jakool: 10:54am On Apr 14, 2017
YonkijiSappo:


Never said that.
Ok, my misunderstandings.

I was simply trying to imply that I knew beforehand that Ivbiosakon is an old term, but I used that term for that language I was referring to. In a modern/linguistic sense, the term has a more narrower definition. I believe there is another term that's used, Aoma.

I didn't really want to go into this discussion. I was simply just addressing RedboneSmith's question.

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