By Nairaland Forum I was talking with a colleague an igala man from Kogi state, I later discovered during our conversation that most of their igala words are almost similar to yoruba words. Interestingly, the man told me that they’re closer to the south eastern part of the country than the south west.I came across below quotation from wikipedia

“The Yoruba culture was originally an oral tradition, and the majority of Yoruba people are native speakers of the Yoruba language. The number of speakers is roughly estimated at about 30 million in 2010. Yoruba is classified within the Edekiri languages, and together with the isolate Igala, form the Yoruboid group of languages within what we now have as West Africa. Igala and Yoruba have important historical and cultural relationships. The languages of the two ethnic groups bear such a close resemblance that researchers such as Forde (1951) and Westermann and Bryan (1952) regarded Igala as a dialect of Yoruba”

“Also Igáláà is a Yoruboid language. It is spoken by the Igala ethnic group of Nigeria. In 1989 an estimated 800,000 spoke Igala, primarily in Kogi State, though current day estimates estimate upwards of 2 million Igala speakers. Dialects include Idah, Imane, Ankpa, Dekina, Ogugu, Ibaji and Ife. The Igala is related to Yoruba with which it shares a previous common ancestor, it remains unclear when both language split, mutual intelligibility in modern times is only marginal, although the sound/tonal systems remain the same, akin to the relationship between the various daughter languages of the Romance or Slavic language families. The Idoma and Bassa people use Igala in primary schools. The Igala language, as well as Igala culture and tradition, has influenced other languages and cultures around the confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers”. Read More

Source:: Nigerian Chatter