A LEXICOSTATICSTICAL COMPARISON OF NGWA DIALECT OF IGBO AND THE STANDARD IGBO

This study conducted a lexicostatistical comparison of the Ngwa dialect of Igbo and Standard Igbo to determine how related they are and their level of mutual intelligibility. Using the Ibadan 400-word list and further applying the language assessment criterion of 1990, this criterion which places the level of mutual intelligibility at 70%, the analysis in this project work showed that 57.5% of the basic vocabulary items are cognates shared between the two languages This shows that while Ngwa and Standard Igbo share a considerable number of common words, their level of mutual intelligibility falls below the 70%, this suggest that speakers of one variety may experience some difficulty fully understanding the other without prior exposure. Also,the study found that 42.5% of the compared lexical items show clear differences in form or meaning, reflecting areas of lexical differences that contribute to the reduced intelligibility between the two varieties. In all, the 57.5% similarity shows moderate linguistic relationship, while the 42.5% difference show distinctive lexical developments in the Ngwa dialect compared to Standard Igbo. Therefore, although both belong to the same linguistic group, the findings suggest that Ngwa is a different dialect rather than fully intelligible with Standard Igbo