ChinenyeN:
As we have already noted, "whe" is covered already by much of the south as either "whe" or "he". The "te" used by Ezaa and environs correlates exactly with the "ta" used by Ngwa and Mbaise. Furthermore "ta" has additional variants of "sa" and "cha" without the southern axis. Phonologically, it seems reasonable to conclude that "ta", "sa" and "cha" are cognates.

Sorry, I meant "within the southern axis". Not "without".

I am refraining from editing to prevent the hiding and banning.

That said, I would like to add that I am not exactly considering the Enugu/Ebonyi axis to be part of the southern isogloss. I'm more so addressing the issue of geographic discrepancy and how it relates to this theory of two different etymological /h/ sounds used in the word for "thing" as well as the implication of at least two proto-Igboid branches. I am suggesting that it may not be a discrepancy after all, if we consider an east to west, south to north diffusion of Igbo language features.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGOjrIBGV5M

The above link is labelled as "Asaa", but this is not to be confused with Asa in Abia/Rivers. This is rather another lect from the Enugu/Ebonyi axis, and depending on the response I get for this next bit, it could mean another example.

Aside from things already mentioned earlier, such as:

1. Supposedly being part of the labial "be" (they/them pronoun) group as the southern isogloss
2. Potentially using the same glottal /h/ in thing
3. Use of specific lexical features (i.e. whe, liile, te)

There is this...

Between 0:54 and 0:56 (yet again, just one minute in) of the Asaa Words of Life audio, there is an expression used that sounds to me a lot like "e zhii gala cho madu liile ucho." The specific statement of interest to me here is "e zhii gala."

Again, I do not find these Enugu/Ebonyi lects that intelligible, but my understanding of various lects makes me inclined to believe I am at least hearing/interpreting the high level gist of it correctly. If that is also the case in this instance, then I would like to confirm if my interpretation of "e zhii gala" as "have not yet" is correct or inline with the general gist of the statement.

I do not personally know anyone from this axis that I can call up and ask. So if someone else knows someone who is conversant enough with these lects and willing to listen to 0:54 - 0:56 of the audio clip to either confirm or deny what I believe I've heard, then that would be greatly appreciated.