A Comparative Study Of The Dynamics Of Dialect Intelligibility And Intercomprehension In Two Communities In Plateau State, Nigeria

📄 Project 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 f...