| Abstract: | Geographically, the Edoid languages are spoken in three states of Nigeria: Rivers, Bendel and Ondo. The author discusses the linguistic situation in the different areas and the topography. He goes on to reconstruct the Edoid family tree and looks briefly at the kinds of historical claims by Edoid peoples of its four main branches. He relates these to the family tree and shows that the most likely area to qualify as homeland for the Edoid peoples is the North West Edoid area; that autochthony in the case of the Delta Edoid and South West Edoid peoples can only mean that they no longer remember the date of their first migration into the area; that the tree-branching precludes the possibility that all south west Edoid peoples came from Benin which became important after the main edoid splitting into four; and that claims to Ife origin cannot be substantiated unless applied do dynasties and other small bands. Fig., map, notes, ref. |
AfricaBib 
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