A comparative study of Epie and Izon languages

Abstract

This study presents a comparative study of Epie and Izon languages of Bayelsa State. The multilingual nature of the Yenagoa metropolis, citizens of Epie find it difficult communicating effectively in the language as different Bayelsa languages co-exist within the Yenagoa metropolis which is primarily the domain of the Atissa and Epie people. This study aims at examining the phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic differences between the Epie and Izon languages. Specifically, the study intends to investigate consonant clusters as well as the orthography of the two languages and differences. The work reveals that this study will provide linguistic information that could be used for further description of Epie and Izon language. This paper shows that both the Epie and Izon languages operate with the IPA, there are differences in their orthography and bothEpie and Izon adopt a much more flexible consonant system.Data for this study were collected through a random sampling technique using oral interviews, structured observational list as well as comparative structure tests. The data were collected through the primary and the secondary methods. The sampling method was done randomly in the generation of words and sentences from the two languages. The findings reveal that the Izon language has the subject-object-verb (SOV) word order while the Epie language has the subject-verb-object (SVO) word order arrangement. Epie and Izon are two distinct languages.. This will help the development and growth of the languages.