ARIGIDI AS A YORÙBÁ DIALECT: AN ETHNOLINGUISTIC ANALYSIS

Arigidi, a speech form spoken in the North-western part of Àkókó region in Ondo state south west Nigeria has remained controversial in terms of its true linguistic status. Various scholars have attempted to classify Arigidi and nine other related speech forms into language family using linguistic features. However, these classifications have failed to resolve the issue as the speech forms have been classified under various language family names. Since language and culture are co-territorial and coterminous, the cultural practices of the inhabitants of a town may provide a good evidence that will help in classifying their language. In line with this belief, this study identifies and compares four notable cultural practices of Arigidi: marriage, naming, burial, and chieftaincy issues and compare them with those of Yorùbá with the aim of identifying their similarities and differences. Findings revealed that Arigidi and Yorùbá share the same cultural practices that are expressed with language with no significant difference. This study concludes that based on the cultural perspective which encompasses language, the Arigidi speech form should be tagged a Yorùbá dialect.