TÈMÍTỌ́PẸ́ OLÚMÚYÌWÁ

Adékúnlé Ajáṣin University, Nigeria

BÓLÚWÁJÍ OSHÒDÌ
Adékúnlé Ajáṣin University, Nigeria
Universiti Malaysia, Sarawak, Kota Samaraha

On the linguistic situation in Àkókó

Abstract. It is a general belief among the non-Àkókó people and linguists who are not
conversant with Àkókó land to assume that Àkókó land is linguistically homogeneous.
That is why they erroneously refer to speech forms in the land as ‘Yorùbá Àkókó’ and or
Àkókó dialect’. However, this paper shows that Àkókó land is not linguistically
homogeneous, as speech forms in the area belong to the Yoruboid, Edoid, and Akokoid
branches of the YEAI subgroup of West Benue-Congo language family.

Introduction

The Àkókó people of Òndó State are fully conscious of the fact that there is linguistic

diversity in Àkókó land. This perhaps explains why many people there regard the area as a

“land of different languages.” However, some Yorùbá linguists and non-linguists alike who

are not conversant with the linguistic situation in Àkókó land have made the ill-founded

assumption that the ‘languages’ or speech forms in Akoko are sub-dialects of Yorùbá. The

aim of this paper therefore, is to give a brief linguistic survey of Àkókó land of Òndó State so

that scholars will be familiar with the linguistic situation in the area.

The Àkókó land of Òndó State

Àkókó people occupy Àkókó land in Òndó State, Nigeria. These people claim descent from

immigrants of diverse origin. Okajare (2004:41) posits the migrants were of two groups. First,

those who migrated directly from their original homes to Àkókó, this group carried with them

the cultural traits of their original places. The second group comprises those who did not

migrate directly but who settled for a while among some other group en route to their places

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of settlements in Àkókó. In spite of their diverse backgrounds and places of origin, however,

these migrants recognized themselves as one political family and adopted the name Àkókó,

which literally denotes ‘a unit’. This community came into being as early as the 14th Century,

(Okajare 2004:43).

Àkókó land of Ò̀ndó State is presently divided into four local government areas.

These are Àkókó North-East, Àkókó North-West, Àkókó-South East and Àkókó South-West

Local Government Areas. Àkókó land of Òǹdó State is bounded in the North by Kogi State,

in the East by Ẹ̀dó State, in the West by Èkìtì State and in the South by Ọ̀wọ̀ Local

Government Area of Òndó State.

Àkókó land is largely an open savannah in the northern part while the southern part is

thickly populated. Fertile plains are however, found in Ìbòròpa, Súpárè, Ìkùn, Ìsùà, Ọ̀bà, Ìfira

and Ùgbẹ̀. The land, which is largely rugged with massive rock and hills, is considered an

ideal place for human habitation by the immigrants. This results in language variation in the

area. Yoruba language, however, remains the ‘lingua-franca’ in the area.

Beeley (1934), a non-linguist, classifies Àkókó people of Òndó State on thre bases of

their ‘languages’ into the following divisions: (a) the Ọ̀wọ̀ Àkókos; (b) the Benin Àkókós; (c)

the Àkókó Bángérí/Kùkùrúkù. Today, the following are the major towns/ villages in Àkókó

land, Òndó State: Ìkàrẹ́, Ùgbẹ̀, Akùnnù, Ìkákùmọ̀, Ìbòròpa, Iṣè, Àúga in Àkókó North-East;

Àjọwá, Oyín, Gèdègéde, Ìbáram, Ìkáram, Ìgásí, Esé, Òkè-Àgbè, Arigidi, Ìrùn, Ọ̀gbàgì in

Àkóko North-West; Ìpèsì, Ìfira, Ṣósan, Ìṣùà, Ẹ̀pìnmì in Àkókó South-East and Ìkùn,

Àkùngbá, Ọ̀bà, Súparè and Ọ̀kà in Àkókó South-West. Each of these towns is linguistically

and politically independent. As such, they do not have kingdoms or clans as claimed in

Fábùnmi (2009:259).

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Àkókó Speech Forms: A Brief Linguistic Survey by Families

Due to the complexity in Àkókó speech forms, no one can lay claim to correct language

classification of Àkókó land of Oǹdó State. The speech forms in Àkókó land belong to the

YEAI sub group of West Benue-Congo language family, Williamson & Blench (2001:31).

The name ‘Benue-Congo’ was introduced by Greenberg (1963). Bennet (1977) expanded the

list of members of the Benue-Congo language family by adding the Eastern branches of

Greenberg’s Kwa. These branches were grouped together by Blench (1989.). He renamed

Greenberg’s original Benue-Congo as ‘East Benue Congo’. West Benue-Congo,

corresponding to the former ‘Eastern Kwa’, is spoken over the greater part of southern

Nigeria (Williamson & Blench (2000:32). The largest languages in West Benue-Congo are

Yorùbá and Ìgbò, Crimes (1996). Other language subgroup in the West Benue-Congo are

NOI (Nupoid, Ọkọ Idomoid), Akpes and Ayere-Ahan. YEAI can be expanded into the

following branches: Yoruboid, Edoid, Àkókóid and Igboid; of which Àkókó speech forms

belong to three, namely, Yoruboid, Edoid, and Àkokoid. Table 1, below, shows the

occurrence of YEAI on the language family tree of Proto-Benue-Congo as contained in

Williamson & Blench (2000:31).

Proto Benue-Congo

West Benue-Congo East Benue-Congo

YEAI Akpes Ayere-Ahan NOI

Yoruboid Edoid Àkókóid Igboid

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Yoruboid

The languages in this group are Yorùbá, Isekiri and Igala (Akínkugbé 1976:1). Our interest

here is Yorùbá. Linguists that have worked on Yorùbá language have identified and classified

some of its dialects into subgroups. These scholars include Koelle (1854), Delano (1958),

Adetugbo (1967), Akínkúgbé (1976), Oyèláràn (1976) and Awóbùlúyì (1998). Olúmuyìwá

(2006) and Fábùnmi (2009:260) noted that these scholars did not mention ‘Akókó dialect’ in

their works. The reason for this, we assume, is that there is nothing like ‘Akókó dialect’ of

Yorùbá. However, Awóbùlúyì (1998:2-9), actually included speech forms spoken in Ọbà –

Ìkàré in his South-East Yorùbá (SEY) dialect subgroup. Ọbà-Ìkàrẹ́ comprises all the Yorùbá

dialects spoken in Àkókó towns like Ọbà, Ọ̀sẹ́, Súpárè, Àkùngbá, Ìwárọ̀, Ọ̀kà, Ùgbẹ̀, and

Ìkàrẹ́.

Likewise, Táiwo (2005:6) enlarged the SEY of Awóbùlúyì (1998) by adding Ào to

the list of dialects spoken in the subgroup. The following Àkókó towns speak Ào Yorùbá:

Ìfira, Ikún and Ìpèsì. Other Ào speakers are found in the following towns: Imerì, Ìdógún,

Ìdóàní and Àfò, all in Ọsẹ́ Local Government area of Òndó State. Táíwò (2005:6) justifies his

inclusion of Ào to the SEY group based on the fact that Ào have linguistic features of SEY as

contained in Awóbùlúyì (1998). These features include (a) the preponderance of ẹn; (b)

occurrence of u at word initial; (c) the occurrence of n before oral and nasal vowels; (d) the

occurrence of two noun phrases side by side without any item occurring between them, and (e)

the use of fọ̀ and fi as complementizers. Táíwó’s work shows that the fricatives /z/ and /ɺ/

occur in the dialect. He did not, however, explain why these sounds (which are not found in

other SEY dialects) occur in Ào. We will posit here that the occurrence of voiced alveolar

fricative /z/ and voiceless post alveolar fricative /ɺ/ in Ào may be due to its linguistic

proximity to Edoid languages in the area.

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In a similar vein, Olúmúyìwá (2006:5) classifies Yorùbá dialects spoken in the

following Àkókó towns: Ìrùn, Ọ̀gbàgì, and Àfìn to belong to the Central Yorùbá (CY)

dialects subgroup. He based his classification on the linguistic features the dialects in these

towns share with other CY dialects. These include (a) the occurrence of /u/ word initial; (b)

non-occurrence of /ẹn/ front lower nasal vowel, and (c) uniform display of a nine oral vowel

system (i, u, ị, ụ, o, e, ọ, ẹ, a).

As the foregoing has shown, only speech forms in Àkókó towns, such as, Ọ̀bà, Ọ̀sẹ́,

Súpárè, Etíòro, Àkùngbá, Ìwárọ̀, Ọ̀kà, Ìkàrẹ́, Ùgbẹ̀,Ìfira,Ìpèsì,Ikún, Àfìn, Ìrùn and Ọ̀gbàgì

belong to the Yoruboid group. They are therefore, regarded as Yorùbá dialects spoken in

Àkókó, Òndó State, Nigeria.

Edoid

The Edoid languages fall into four primary subgroups, Elugbe (1986:3). These subgroups are

Delta Edoid, South-Western Edoid, North-Central Edoid and North-Western Edoid. Edoid

languages are spoken in at least five of the present thirty-six States of Nigeria. These states

are Edo, Delta, Òndó, Kogi and Rivers. Out of these, the Edoid speaking people of Òndó

State interest us.

The Edoid languages spoken in some areas of Àkókó, Òndó State belong to the

North-Western Edoid. The speech forms of the following Àkókó communities belong to this

subgroup: Sósan, Ìpè, Ẹpìnmì, Ìsùà, and Àbèsàbèsì. According to Àgóyì (2008:1-7)

Àbèsàbèsì language family is known in the linguistic literature as Akpes. Williamson (1989)

had earlier classified Akpes as a seprate branch of Benue-Congo. However, Àgóyì (1997,

2008) suggests that Akpes should be reclassified and subsumed under the Edoid language

family. Abèsàbèsì is spoken in nine Àkókó Communities of Òndó State. These communities

are Àkùnnù, Àkùnnù Ajọwa (Ìlọ̀dùn), Ìkáràmù, Àsè, Ìbáràmù, Ìyànì, Gèdègédé, Èṣùkú and

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Dája. These towns, except Àkùnnù, are located in Àkókó North West Local Government

Area of Òndo State. Àkùnnù is in Àkókó North East Local Government Area.

Àkókóid

Àkókóid is a coinage used to cover other speech forms in Àkókó, Òǹdó State, that are neither

Yoruboid nor Edoid. The speech forms of Arigidi, Erúsú, Oyín, Ìgáṣí, Ùrò and Ọ̀jọ̀ in Àjọwá

and Òkè-Àgbè (where we have the following speech forms. Àjè, Àfá, Ùdò and Ògè) belong

to this language group. In fact, these speech forms are dialects of the same language whose

name has not yet been determined by linguists. However, in some linguistic literature, the

speech forms are known as Amgbẹ́ (‘ọ̀rọ̀’-speech). Based on Capo’s (1989) classification,

Crozier and Blench (1992:16-17) suggest that the speech forms be known as the Arigidi

Cluster.

Conclusion

What the immediately preceding section has now shown is that there is no known speech

form(s) called ‘Akoko language’; as such, we cannot have ‘Àkókó dialect’. Thus, linguist(s)

who may want to study any speech form(s) in the area should bear it in mind that linguistic

diversity is found in Àkókó land of Òndó State and approach their study with caution to avoid

improper generalization.

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References

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Akinkugbe, F. (1976). An internal classification of Yoruboid Group (Yorùbá Itsekiri, Igala)

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Beeley, J.H. (1934). “Intelligence Report on Àkókó Division” CSO 26/2, File no. 29667.

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Blench, R. (1989). New Benue Congo: A definition and proposed internal classification.
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Inter-group Relations in Northeastern Yorùbáland. Unpublished Masters dissertation,
Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Àkókó.

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Olumuyiwa, O.T. (2006) Àwọn Wúnrẹn Onítumọ̀ Gírámà Nínú Àwọn Ẹ̀ka-èdè Àárín
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Temitope Olumuyiwa (Ph.D) is a Senior Lecturer and the head of Department of Linguistics and
Languages, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Nigeria. He was the Sub-Dean,
Faculty of Arts and Education from 2007-2009. He is the Editor of the Faculty of Arts: Amu:
Akungba Journal of Humanities and also the Managing Editor of Akungba Journal of
Linguistics and Literatures. He has published several articles in reputable academic journals
both within and outside Nigeria. His areas of research include African Linguistics and
Dialectology. A creative writer and a radio presenter, has authored many literary and academic
books.

Boluwaji Oshodi teaches Linguistics and Yorùbá language in the Department of Linguistics and
Languages, Adékúnlé Ajáṣin University, Àkùngbá-Àkókó, Nigeria. He is currently a Ph.D
Student at Centre for Language Studies, Universiti Malaysia, Sarawak.

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