A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ORA AND EMAI DIALECTS

ABSTRACT

This study is titled a comparative analysis of Ora and Emai dialects, these dialects are members of the dialect cluster of Owan language, having Iuleha as the last member of this cluster. The idea that some languages are considered to be the same is a phenomenon that is common among speakers of Nigeria languages. The languages in Edo state are viewed by most people to be one language. The goal of this study is to correct such assumption by carrying out a comparative study on Ora and Emai dialects. The motivation for this study is the need to determine the relatedness of Ora and Email dialects. The theoretical framework adopted from this study is the comparative method of analysis. The data for the study was collected with the use of the oral interview method, with an Ibadan wordlist of 400 words data were collected from native speakers; the qualitative research design was used for the study. Works of related literature were reviewed, after a successful presentation of the data, analysis was carried out using the comparative method, the sound system and lexical item collected from Ora and Emai languages were compared, the relatedness in the lexical items were calculated using a lexicostatistical calculation, where words which are related in sound and meaning where considered cognates. After an effective analysis the lexical items were discovered to be 67percent related and it was deduced also that the both languages operated similar sound system, this implies that both languages are mutually intelligible and not same language but from the same proto (ancestral) language.