A Sociolinguistic Survey of the Ede Language Communities of Benin and Togo
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
DigitalResources Electronic Survey Report 2011-002 ® A sociolinguistic survey of the Ede language communities of Benin and Togo Angela Kluge, editor A sociolinguistic survey of the Ede language communities of Benin and Togo Angela Kluge, editor SIL International® 2011 SIL Electronic Survey Report 2011-002, February 2011 Copyright © 2011 Angela Kluge and SIL International® All rights reserved ii A SOCIOLINGUISTIC SURVEY OF THE EDE LANGUAGE COMMUNITIES OF BENIN AND TOGO Series editor: Angela Kluge Ede language family overview (by Angela Kluge, editor) Volume 1: Ede language family – Background and assessment methodology (by Angela Kluge) Volume 2: Cabe language area (by Angela Kluge) Volume 3: Ica language area (by Angela Kluge) Volume 4: Idaca language area (by Angela Kluge) Volume 5: Ije language area (by Jeff H. Schmidt) Volume 6: Kura language area (by Jude A. Durieux, Eveline I. K. Durieux-Boon, and Angela Kluge) Volume 7: Northern Nago language area (by Jude A. Durieux, Eveline I. K. Durieux- Boon, and Angela Kluge Volume 8: Southern Nago language area (by Michael M. McHenry) iii Abstract The purpose of this paper is to present a tentative classification of the Ede language varieties (Defoid language group), spoken in the southeastern part of West Africa. Further, given the chaining pattern of the Ede cluster, this paper discusses whether the individual Ede speech varieties should be regarded and classified as dialects of one larger language or as closely related but distinct languages. To date no satisfying solution is available. Further, this paper serves as an introduction to the 8-volume series “A sociolinguistic survey of the Ede language communities of Benin and Togo, represented in a series of reports published in SIL Electronic Survey Reports. Volume 1 of this series, Ede language family: Background and assessment methodology (Kluge 2009), presents pertinent material on the larger Ede language area and discusses the research questions and methodology applied for the sociolinguistic study of the Ede language continuum, material that would otherwise be repetitive in each of the other volumes. Volumes 2–8 report on the individual sociolinguistic surveys conducted among the Cabe speech communities (Kluge 2009), Ica, (Kluge 2009), Idaca (Kluge 2009), Ije (Jeff Schmidt 2009), Kura (Durieux, Durieux-Boon and Kluge 2009), Northern Nago (Durieux, Durieux-Boon and Kluge 2009), and Southern Nago (Michael McHenry 2009). iv Contents Ede language family overview Volume 1: Ede language family—Background and assessment methodology 1. Background information 1.1. Language classification 1.2. Language area 1.3. History of migration 1.4. Population 1.5. Education 1.6. Religious affiliation 1.7. Language development 1.7.1. Yoruba in Benin 1.7.2. Ifè in Togo 2. Previous research 3. Research questions 4. Methodology 4.1. Techniques 4.1.1. Community interviews 4.1.2. Individual interviews 4.1.3. Word and phrase lists 4.2. Implementation 4.3. Selection of survey locations, and survey subjects, and interpreters 4.3.1. Survey locations 4.3.2. Subject selection 4.3.3. Selection and training of interpreters 4.4. Terminology 4.4.1. “Yoruba” 4.4.2. “Ifè” Appendices Appendix A. Language maps for Benin and Togo Appendix B. Alternative spellings of Ede variety names Appendix C. Terminology C.1. Yoruba C.2. Nago C.3. Anago C.4. Ana Appendix D. Written materials in Yoruba Appendix E. Questionnaires E.1. Community questionnaire E.2. RTT questionnaire E.3. Individual sociolinguistic questionnaire E.4. Non-formal education questionnaire E.5. Church questionnaire Appendix F. RTT text preparation F.1. Rationale v F.2. Test preparation F.3. Scoring procedure Appendix G. Ede RTT texts: Transcription, interlinear translation, comprehension questions, and baseline answers G.1. Yoruba G.2. Ifè narrative Appendix H. RTT baseline scoring system H.1. Yoruba H.2. Ifè narrative Appendix I. Ede word and phrase lists: Background information I.1. Elicitation points I.2. Details on elicited lists Appendix J. Ede wordlist: French glosses Appendix K. Ede wordlists: Categories for similarity groupings Appendix L. Ede wordlists: Elicited data sorted by gloss Appendix M. Ede wordlists: Percentage and variance matrices for lexical similarity M.1. Computation I M.2. Computation II Appendix N. Ede phrase list: French phrases Appendix O Ede phrase lists: Elicited data sorted by gloss References vi Ede language family overview The Ede language varieties belong to the group of Edekiri languages (Defoid language family) from the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo phylum. These varieties are spoken in the southeastern part of West Africa. Expanding westward from southwestern Nigeria, the Ede speech communities occupy large areas of central Benin, as well as two pockets in the eastern part of central Togo. In his discussion and classification of the Defoid languages, Capo (1989) presents an inventory of all the languages of this language family, as well as a general summary of phonological characteristics of Defoid. Building on Akinkugbe’s (1978) and Williamson’s (1989) work, and based on personal fieldnotes, Capo (1989:281) suggests the classification of the Defoid languages into two major branches, one of which is Yoruboid which comprises two language groupings, Edekiri and Igala. Edekiri in turn is comprised of the Ede and the Isekiri groups. Niger-Congo, Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo, (New) Benue-Congo, Defoid, Yoruboid 1. Edekiri (Yoruba/Isekiri) a) Ede (Yoruba) b) Isekiri / South East Ede 2. Igala Capo (1989) further divides the internal classification of the Ede varieties into four clusters, that is, Central Ede, Northeast Ede, Northwest Ede, and Southwest Ede. A more recent classification of the Ede varieties is suggested by Kluge (2007). This classification is based on a synchronic analysis of word lists elicited in the early 1990s for 28 Ede varieties. The findings of Kluge’s (2007) analysis suggest a grouping of the Ede varieties into three larger clusters, that is, Western, Eastern, and Northern Ede, with two subclusters each for the Northern and Eastern Ede clusters. The classification of Ede language varieties drawn from Kluge’s (2007) synchronic analysis is only to a certain degree comparable to Capo’s (1989) classification, which is due to two facts. First, Capo’s (279–281) classification includes only a selection of the varieties mentioned in his preliminary listing of Ede varieties, while the classification of the remaining varieties is somewhat uncertain. Second, Capo’s study considers a number of Nigerian Ede varieties that were not included in Kluge’s analysis. Thus, while Capo’s classification provides a more detailed picture for the Nigerian Ede varieties, Kluge’s synchronic analysis provides a more detailed classification for the Ede varieties of Togo and Benin. That is, Capo distinguishes for the Nigerian Ede varieties between three major clusters, that is, Northwest, Central, and Northeast Ede, while Kluge’s (2007) findings identify all of these varieties as components of a Southeastern Ede cluster. In contrast, Capo classifies all of the Ede varieties of Togo and Benin as Southwest Ede, while Kluge makes further distinctions between Northwestern, Southwestern, Northeastern, and Southeastern Ede. In addition, Kluge suggests a third major subgrouping, Northern Ede, consisting of the Mokole variety only. Neither Capo’s (1989) nor Kluge’s (2007) classification, however, is based on a thorough diachronic analysis. Therefore, both need to be regarded with some reservation. With that caveat, Capo’s and Kluge’s classifications with their differing foci constitute a complementary picture of vii the entire Ede language family. The accompanying map displays the geographical locations of the Ede varieties taken from both Capo and Kluge. The clustering is from Kluge’s synchronic lexical analysis. Figure 1: Map of the Ede language area (adapted from Capo 1989; based on Microsoft Corporation 2002) Mokole Kura_A Kura-P Ana Nago(N)_M Cabe_S Nago(N)_K Yagba Ica Cabe_T Egbe Bunu Moretan Oshun Ibolo Gbede Igbomina Ijumu Oworo Ifè-T Oyo Boko Ifaki Owe Idaca Ijesha Ifè-At Ifè-Ak Ukare Oka Yoruba-I Ile-Ife Nago(S)_K Ekiti Egba Owo Oba Nago(S)_P Ondo Ije Ije Ijebu Ikale Yoruba-P Awori Ilaje Legend Western Ede Eastern Ede Northern Ede Southwestern Ede Southeastern Ede Northwestern Ede Northeastern Ede Ede varieties mentioned by Capo (1989), but not investigated in the 1990s studies viii The Ede speech groups are situated geographically in a contiguous arrangement from the southwestern corner of Nigeria across southeastern and central Benin into the eastern part of central Togo. This arrangement suggests a chaining pattern for the Ede cluster in which the individual Ede speech groups have contact relationships with the other Ede groups surrounding them which results in the linguistic similarity of adjoining groups. This suggestion is confirmed by a first descriptive analysis of the computed Ede similarity matrices (see Appendix M): overall, the investigated Ede speech forms are marked by relatively small lexical differences between adjoining dialects whereas differences are greater between Ede varieties at opposing ends of the chain. The chaining pattern of the Ede cluster raises the question of whether the individual Ede speech varieties should be regarded and classified as dialects of one larger language or as closely related but distinct languages. In general, both linguistic and nonlinguistic factors need to be taken into account when considering whether different speech