Ewúro "Bitter leaf"

This work studied the linguistic situation between Ife and Modakeke, two Yoruba communities experiencing incessant war spanning more than 100 years despite their close proximity to each other. It is reported that the two communities consciously deploy dialectal variations to maintain their differences. Segmental, tonal, and lexical variations between the speech forms of the two groups were identified and discussed. Specifically, the dialectal variation in the pronunciation of the word ewúro “bitter leaf” by the Ife people was a key identity marker during the year 2000 war. Beyond this, people from either group emphasise a negative attitude to accommodating the other group by speaking their dialect. It is therefore inferred that dialectal variation is a major indicator of negative attitude between the two groups and any attempt to foster lasting peace in the community needs to also put this into consideration.