THE LINGUISTIC STATUS OF OKPẸ: A LEXICOSTATISTIC APPROACH

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to establish the linguistic status of the Okpẹ language, which is generally assumed to be either a dialect of the Urhobo language or the Isoko language. Data for this study were collected from native speakers of Okpẹ, Urhobo and Isoko languages through direct interview, with the use of the Ibadan four hundred wordlist of basic vocabulary items. The study employed the lexicostatistics framework in its analysis of data collected. The result of the analysis showed that the percentage of mutual intelligibility between Okpẹ and Urhobo is 45.3% and that the percentage of mutual intelligibility between Okpẹ and Isoko is 38.1%. The result suggests that Okpe is neither a dialect of Urhobo nor a dialect of Isoko; as the results of the mutual intelligibility test is not enough for the consideration of Okpẹ as a dialect of either languages. The study concludes that Okpẹ is a language of its own, and should be regarded as such.