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*Page 7: Mon Aug 6 14:21:28 2018
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
* CLASSIFICATION, AREA, DIALECTS, NUMBER OF SPEAKERS
*The Bini or Edo (Ɛdo [ ˩ ˥ ] ) language, together with the Ishan (Esã [ ˥ ˩ ])
*dialect, which is not dealt with in this dictionary, forms the central
*group of the cluster of languages generally known under the same name
*and belonging to the Kwa group of Western Sudan languages. In the
*north of Bini-Ishan, the Kukuruku languages of the same family are
*spoken; in the south, the Sobo and Isoko languages, also belonging to
*the same group.
* The area of the Bini or Edo language (which will in what follows
*always be understood as excluding Ishan) is almost identical with the
*Benin Division of the Benin Province in Southern Nigeria. Actually,
*not the whole of that division is inhabited by Bini people; some parts
*near the southern boundary (e.g. Jesse) having a Sobo, and some near
*the eastern boundary (Igbãkɛ), an Ika-Ibo population. Besides those,
*there are interspersed Sobo, Jekri and Ijaw settlements, and a number
*of members of other tribes, such as Yoruba, Ibo, Hausa in Benin
*City, near the boundaries and at trading settlements. Whether there
*are Bini-speaking settlements worth mentioning outside the Division
*is not certain. There seem to be many Bini people at Akure (Ondo
*Province), and possibly there are Bini-speaking villages in the south
*of Ondo province (Okitipupa Division).
* The language is on the whole homogeneous, a fact which is due to
*the strong political centralisation of the people round the Ɔba at Benin
*City. The inhabitants of the village of Ɔza near the eastern boundary
*of the Division, not far from Igbãkɛ, speak a different dialect which
*is easily understood by other Bini speakers and is considered as Bini.
*These people are said to have come from Ɔzara^1 on the other side of
*the present boundary (i.e. in the Agbor Division) within recent times,
*and to have adopted the Bini language. At Ehɔ on the Bini-Ishan
*boundary, and in the regions behind the Ossiomo (called Iyek-orhiɔʋ̃ɔ),
*the speech is said to have dialectal peculiarities.
* The number of Bini speakers may amount to about 90-100,000, the
*population of the Division being 110,738 according to the Census of
*1931, including the non-Bini population.
*^1 The Ɔzara people have a language of their own which the author has not been
*able to study. It is perhaps not identical with the above-mentioned Ika-Ibo.
*vii
