A Socio-Stylistic Analysis of Some Selected Bette Dirges

Abstract

Bette constitutes a dominant ethnic group in Obudu Local Government Areas of Cross River State of Nigeria. The name “Bette” refers to both the people and their language. Bette is of the Bantu stock and a sub-group of the Ekoi. The Bette language has remained oral because its orthography has not yet been standardized. However, some skimpy investigation has shown that both the language and its literature are encapsulated in the socio-linguistic activities of the folk. A part of these activities which attracted the attention of the researcher during field work was the funeral dirges. The duty of the researcher in this paper is to do a socio-stylistic analysis of the dirges in order unravel the dynamism of the language and to enkindle the interest of scholars in the study of the language. Although the language has remained in its oral form, the data that are analysed in this paper were collected with the aid of an electronic device and transcribed in order to facilitate a stylistic analysis.