29.3658, Diss: Sociolinguistics: Author: Philemon Victor Gomwalk: A Comparative study of Dialect Intelligibility and Intercomprehension in two communities in Plateau state, Nigeria

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LINGUIST List: Vol-29-3658. Mon Sep 24 2018. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 29.3658, Diss: Sociolinguistics: Author: Philemon Victor Gomwalk: A Comparative study of Dialect Intelligibility and Intercomprehension in two communities in Plateau state, Nigeria

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Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2018 11:30:16
From: Philemon Gomwalk [philgomwalk at outlook.com]
Subject: A Comparative study of Dialect Intelligibility and Intercomprehension in two communities in Plateau state, Nigeria

 
Institution: Ahmadu Bello University 
Program: English 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2014 

Author: Philemon Victor Gomwalk

Dissertation Title: A Comparative study of Dialect Intelligibility and
Intercomprehension in two communities in Plateau state,
Nigeria 

Linguistic Field(s): Sociolinguistics


Dissertation Director(s):
Adebayo Joshua
Taiwo Gani-Ikilama
Sunday Abaya

Dissertation Abstract:

This work documents the results and findings obtained from a series of
sociolinguistic investigations conducted in the speech communities of Bache
and Pan, located respectively in Bassa and Quan-Pan Local Government Areas of
Plateau State, Nigeria. 

In broad outline, it was aimed at highlighting some salient features of the
dialectological ecology in these two language communities. In specific terms,
it sought to determine and to assess the degree of mutual intelligibility and
intercomprehension existing between a numbers of dialectal variants previously
reported within these two communities. Utilizing such key research instruments
as  Lexicostatistical Wordlists (LW), Recorded Text Testing (RTT) materials
and equipment, written sociolinguistic questionnaires and verbal interview
checklists, the study collected data concerning reported and tested levels of
dialect intercomprehension, language use in both public and private domains,
language attitudes toward both written and oral speech forms of Bache and Pan,
reported levels of bilingualism in various languages, as well as education and
literacy levels. 

Considerable amounts of sociolinguistic data were generated and results
subsequently collated for each of the above-mentioned categories, with
emphasis on approximate levels of dialect intelligibility and
intercomprehension as well as associated level of community attitudes and
interest in overall literacy and language development. 

Through careful scrutiny and statistical computations of percentages of
lexical similarity and empirical testing and assessment of dialect
intercomprehension amongst sampled field respondents, the study data and
results showed that the four variants of Bache investigated sufficiently met
conventional lexicostatistical and dialect intelligibility criteria to be
considered as viable members of a single consolidated language entity. The
findings from the four dialectal variants of Pan investigated also revealed
that they were, to varying degrees, mutually intelligible to one another. 

The study results also do not reveal any far-reaching evidence of language
shift towards other languages within the immediate sociocultural environments.
Finally, attitudes toward the future developmental prospects of both Bache and
Pan were also generally observed to be relatively strong and positive, in
spite of the natural advent of modern cultural values and practices within
many ethno-linguistic communities in Plateau State in particular and Nigeria
in general.




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