A survey of diversity in leading language acquisition journals revealed that only 2% of the 7,000+ languages of the world are represented. With a long-term aim of empowering researchers everywhere to contribute to this literature, we organized the First Truly Global /L+/ International Summer/Winter School on Language Acquisition (/L+/). /L+/ was a free 5-day virtual school that facilitated the interchange of expertise among early career researchers about all levels of language development in monolingual and multilingual contexts. Our paper provides an overview of organizing /L+/, the measures we took to ensure inclusivity, and qualitative and quantitative analyses of attendees' experiences. We asked for volunteers through the LangVIEW consortium resulting in a diverse organization team from under-represented areas: Sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and Central and South America. To promote inclusivity, we (1) employed asynchronous and synchronous elements across three time zones; (2) provided closed captions for lectures and international sign interpretation for live sessions; (3) issued a code of conduct. For each time zone, an algorithm selected 120 participants (80% from traditionally under-represented regions) and 61 countries were represented. A post-school questionnaire revealed that 99% of attendees enjoyed taking part in /L+/. However, qualitative comments suggested that there were issues in duration, contents and scheduling. Although much remains to be done to promote inclusivity in linguistic research, we hope our school will contribute to empowering researchers to investigate and publish on language acquisition in their home languages.

This paper examines two grammatical elements ní and sí which have been considered as prepositions in the grammar of Yoruba (Benue-Congo). We argue that these two elements belong to different word classes; ní is a preposition, while sí is a verb. We present novel data that show syntactic asymmetries that exist between the two elements: behavior under extraction, the possibility of pseudocleft formation, the order of the phrases in a clause, iteration, formation of complex prepositions, and subcategorization. The ní-phrase acts like an adjunct phrase but this is not so with the sí-phrase. The adjunct phrase is a prepositional phrase headed by ní. It is demonstrated that the preposition constitutes a phase head in Yoruba, thus movement out of the PP is banned which explains the lack of preposition stranding with ní. The element sí, on the other hand, can be stranded. It is argued that sí is the non-initial verb in a serial verb construction.

This paper studied the differences and similarities in the lexicon of Standard Yoruba, Ìkàré ̣ Àkókó and Àkúré ̣ dialects. We examined the lexicostatistics comparison of the lexicons in Standard Yorùbá, Ìkàré ̣ Àkókó and Àkúré ̣ dialects. The paper aims at determining the level of mutual intelligibility in Standard Yorùbá, Ìkàré ̣ Àkókó and Àkúré ̣ speech forms. The objectives of this study were: (i) to find out the areas of similarities and differences of the lexical items of (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.2 A Lexicostatistics Comparison of Standard Yorùbá, Àkúré ̣ and Ìkàré ̣ Àkókó Dialects the dialects, (ii) to examine the phonological relatedness of the three dialects and (iii) to determine the cognate percentage of relatedness among the three dialects. The data for this paper were collected from six native speakers using the SIL Comparative African Wordlist of basic lexical items. The numeral system, animal nouns and edible nouns were selected from the wordlist in which they were compared using the comparative method and a lexicostatistics analysis was done. The comparative method and the lexicostatistics analysis were used as the framework for Standard Yorùbá, Ìkàré ̣ Àkókó and Àkúré ̣ dialects to determine the level of lexical correspondence among them. The findings of this study revealed that there is a higher cognate percentage between Standard Yorùbá and Àkúré ̣ with 86.40% cognates, with Ìkàré ̣ Àkókó and Àkúré ̣ having 74.60% cognates and Standard Yorùbá and Ìkàré ̣ Àkókó with 78.90% cognates. This paper concluded that there is a higher level of mutual intelligibility between Standard Yorùbá and Àkúré ̣ than Standard Yorùbá and Ìkàré ̣ Àkókó while the level of mutual intelligibility between Ìkàré ̣ Àkókó and Àkúré ̣ is low.

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This study presents a comparative analysis of the phonological systems of the Yorůbá, Owé, Igala and Olůkůmi languages of the Defoid language family of Benue Congo. Data were collected from native speakers using the Ibadan Four Hundred Word List of Basic Items. Using discovered common lexemes in the languages, the classification of the languages sound systems and syllable systems are carried out in order to determine the major patterns of differences and similarities. Some major sound changes were discovered in the lexical items of the languages. The systematic substitutions of sounds also constitute another major finding observed in the languages. It was established in this study that there exists a very strong relationship among these languages. The languages are found to be mutually unintelligible except for Owé that has a degree of mutual intelligibility with Yoruba. The paper concludes that the major reason for divergence is language contact.