ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the existing subgroupings and classifications of some lects of the Akoko area, with a view to exploring how they could be correlated with archaeological data. It suggests that the ka dialect is even closer to PYOR, and that a further study of some other Yoruba dialects of the Akoko area might also shed more light on the nature of Proto-Yoruba. Since the late 1960s, scholars have drawn attention to the existence of enclaves of nonYoruba languages amidst dominant Yoruba speakers in the Akoko area presently falling within Ondo State, one of the five western Nigerian states. Excavations in the Ife-Ijumu area, which is about 60 kilometres from the Akoko area, are summarized in Obayemi. Excavations at Iwo Eleru, some 120 kilometres from the Akoko area and 60 kilometres Language diversification in the Akoko area of Western Nigeria 83 south of the northern forest boundary, have produced considerably greater time-depths.
