Authors
EVBAYIRO, V. O., AIGBEDO, I. W.
Abstract
Language is obviously and undeniably a vital tool and not only is it a means of
communicating thoughts, ideas, feelings, opinions and needs, language but also a tool in the
hands of our ancestors via which cultural norms, values, friendships and economic
relationships, have flourish. Festivals, rituals and ceremonies particularly, marriage
ceremonies are conducted via language. This paper examines the different terms used during
marriage ceremonies in Benin. The focus is on the language used during traditional marriage
ceremony in a typical Benin environment and how this is used to project the identity of the
people. The data for the research were collected through interviews and observation
(participant observation during traditional marriage rites in Benin), especially in the area of
the ceremonies. The researchers employed audio recording and writing, the data were drawn
principally from established personalities in the Benin society. This work has helped to bring
to limelight the intangible cultural heritage of the Bini people in ceremonies like marriages
and the style of language employed in the different stages of the ceremony.
Keywords
Marriages, Identity, Benin, Ẹdo (Benin) Variation
Introduction
Language generally tends to be made up of many different varieties. And the terms and
expressions used in this language of traditional marriage are many which in the context of
situation of the occasion are a variety of Ẹdo language spoken in Benin City. Ẹdo has become
predominantly linguistic and ethnic labels referring in scope to the language and people of the
entire Benin Division. In addition, Ẹdo however, has served as the indigenous name for the
city (Agheyisi, 1986). The name Ẹdo (the old name for Benin) is used by some writers to cover all the languages of the Ẹdoid group of languages, but a writer like Greenberg, on the
other hand, did not use the name Ẹdo at all in any of his classifications, but merely listed the
languages of the group by their individual names, using Bini for ‘Ẹdo’ language. Melzian in
his famous dictionary of the language refers to the Ẹdo language as Bini following various
controversies which are not relevant to his work. The Ẹdo language was properly suggested
at the 1974 seminar on Ẹdo language which took place at the University of Lagos that the
designation ‘Ẹdo-Bini’ be used in formal writing to eliminate its confusion with the language
group (Egharevba 1956, 1966). With this agreement, ‘Ẹdo’ was freed to be used or referred to
as a single language only. It is also very important to point out that ‘Ẹdo’ is intended to refer
to an ‘Ẹdo’. That is a speaker of Ẹdo is also a Benin person.
The Ẹdo language is today spoken natively throughout Benin as it was spoken in
most of the territory conterminous with the Benin Division of the former Mid-Western State
of Nigeria which has now been demarcated into OrẸdo, Ego, Ikpoba-Okha, Ovia-North-East
and Ovia-South-West. These constitute the permanent core of the Benin metropolis today and
are the geographical area of the paper’s focus as already mentioned
Content
Language allows its speakers to talk about anything within their realm of knowledge in the
sense that language impose different perceptions of the world on their speakers or predispose
them to look at the world in certain ways which is the case with the Ẹdo language. Adejinu
(2000) argues that different varieties of a language serve specific functions in communication
in which they are used. Variety for him is therefore described as any form of a language
which can be identified in a speech community.
Trudgill (2004) claims that language varies not only according to social
characteristics of the speaker but also according to the social context in which he finds
himself. He posited his claims by saying that the same speaker uses different linguistic
varieties in different situations and for different purposes. He was actually saying that
contextual constraints also affect language use in a community whether in the form of songs
or words in that community...
Conclusion
The conclusion can be found in the main file..
References
References are available in the main file..