ASPECTS OF THE PHONOLOGY OF ÌYÀYÚ DIALECT IN ÌDÓ-ÀNÍ, ONDO STATE

Abstract

This study examined the phonological structure of Ìyàyú in Ìdó-Àní, Ọ̀sẹ́ Local Government Area of Oǹdó State.  Ìdó-Àní is made up of six quarters which are Ìyàyú Àmúsìgbò, Àkọ̀, Ìsẹ̀wà, Ìṣùrẹ́ and Ọwáàní. Iyayu belongs to Edoid family, a sub-group of North Western Edoid, while other five quarters are mutually intelligible, with close affinity with Yoruba Language.  The population of the study comprised all adults of 60 years and above who are native speakers of the dialect in the town.  Thirty (30) elderly natives, male and female, were randomly selected for the study. The study investigated Ìyàyú dialect spoken in Ìyàyú quarter. Specifically, the study examined the sound systems of Ìyàyú dialect and three phonological processes in the dialect which are labialization, nasalization and vowel harmony. Data were collected from 30 elderly native speakers of 60 years and above, using the adapted 1700 Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) word list as the instrument.  Qualitative analysis was used to analyse the data collected.  The analysis revealed that there are twenty-three (23) consonants, seven (7) oral vowels and five (5) nasal vowels in Ìyàyú dialect unlike other neighbourhood speech forms; that the dialect does not permit consonant cluster and does not allow consonant word final. Also, it was revealed that nouns in Iyayu dialect are vowel initials and verbs are consonant initials, V and CV are syllabic structures in the dialect.  The study shows that labialization process in the dialect occurs through assimilation of the feature [+ round], and that nasality bearing vowel is deleted alongside with its nasal feature, among others.