Lexical Variation in Igbo Language: A Comparative Study of Standard Igbo Language and Opi Dialect in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State

Abstract

Whenever we talk of language, we talk of varieties. Varieties bring about dialects. Many have attempted to group Igbo dialects andin this attempt mopped up non related dialects into a particular group focusing mainly on geographical location. Opi is in Nsukka Local government Area of Enugu state of Nigeria. Opi dialect has some distinctive features. Vowel elision is common in Opi dialect that we even have many words without a vowel. This is strange to the standard Igbo language although some other dialects in Nsukka Local Government like Ohodo, Ekwegbe have such examples but this is more prominent in Opi dialect.We also discovered variation in conjunction, negation and aspects.