The inland west clusters of Ikekeonwu’s Igbo dialects classification: A modification

Abstract

Among the five clusters Ikekeonwu classified the Igbo dialects, is the Inland West Dialect Cluster, which covers the Igbo dialects spoken in Onitsha, Awka and Aguata areas. The classification seems not to properly position the Igbo speech varieties of mambala area, which have some linguistic traits that qualify them to be recognised as a main dialect of the Inland West Igbo Cluster. This paper seeks to position mambala speech varieties within the landscape of Igbo dialectology by modifying the Inland West Cluster. It uses linguistic criteria with focus on the similarities and differences in the phonemes, phonological patterning of words, phonological processes and secondary articulation features. It adopts minimal pair/set analysis and comparative analysis. From the result, mambala speech varieties are grouped as mambala Main Dialect of the Onitsha Inland West Igbo.