Yoruba Studies and Language: Pronouns of Respect in Ondo Dialect Revisited

Abstract

This is paper is on Ondo dialect, one of the varieties of the Standard Yoruba. It attempts to answer the clarion call of Awobuluyi (1988:123b, 1992:71) to Linguists to work on the dialects of Yoruba. This paper takes a look at the morpho-syntactic and socio-cultural characteristics of the pronouns in Ondo dialect speaking areas with the ultimate aim of enriching our knowledge on their forms and functions. It also sets out to focus on the claim made by Adetugbo (1971:205-206) that the 2nd and 3rd persons plural have fallen together in Ondo (OD), Ile-Oluji (IO) and Idanre (ID) resulting in semantic ambiguity which is best resolved by context and that the Ondo dialect lacks pronoun of respect due to the absence of a distinct form for the 2nd and 3rd persons plural. This writer believes that it is not true that the 2nd and 3rd persons have fallen together in ID as it is in OD and IO. The implication of this belief is that the 2nd and 3rd person plural pronouns have different forms. They are enwen/wen (3rd person) and anwan./wan (3rd person). Furthermore, the claim that Ondo dialect lacks pronoun of respect due to the absence of distinct forms for the 2nd and 3rd persons plural is not true because of what operates in ID. Research has also revealed that pronouns of respect have started manifesting in the dialect most especially amongst educated women of OD absence of distinct forms for 2nd and 3rd persons plural in OD and IO notwithstanding.