History of Okun People The Okun Nation is a mini Yoruba Nation comprising of the Owe, Yagba, Ijumu, Bunu and Oworo Yoruba Sub-groups who speak the Okun Yoruba Dialect. The Okun people yoruba descendants presently spread across six Local Government Areas of Kogi State. These are Kabba-Bunu, Yagba-West, Yagba- East, Mopa-Muro, Ìjùmú and Lokoja Local Government Areas. The Okun people have kiths and kins in Kwara, Ondo and Ekiti States, The people, like the Ekitis, are a fountain of knowledge producing the highest graduates, Phd holders and professors in Nigeria. The Okun dialects which comprise Owé, Ìyàgbà, Ìjùmú, Bùnú and Ọ̀wọ́rọ̀ are spoken in the southern axis of Kogi State. The dialects are distinguishable as individual dialects but they are mutually intelligible to an extent. Mutual intelligibility is a test used by linguists to decide whether two linguistic communities speak different languages or different dialects of the same language (Steinberg, 1999). A classification of the dialects according to their structural characteristics is carried out in this study. This study is divided into various sections accordingly. The Okun People Owé, Ìyàgbà, Ìjùmú, Bùnú and Ọ̀wọ́rọ̀ peoples are referred to as the Okun people. Okun, which is a form of greeting, has become the common identity of the people who largely share some history and linguistic affinity. The people are believed to have migrated from Ile-Ife. According to Otitoju (2002:3) ‘Okun confederation has always been referred to as a collection of different units who lived independent of each other with its own social organization though with bonding similarities.’ In effect, each of these peoples has a separate history of origin and each group has its particular experiences. Okun is a dialect of Yorùbá with its own peculiar features. The Okun people understand each other with varying degrees of mutual intelligibility. The Nupe wars of the 19th century left an indelible mark on the Okun people and dialects.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 19:15:13 +0000
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