This report presents a sociolinguistic survey conducted in the Kulere speech communities
of Bokkos LGA, Plateau State and Wamba LGA, Nassarawa State, Nigeria. The purpose of
the survey is to identify a potential reference dialect for the development of Kulere. Through
the use of group, church and school interviews and using participatory methods the
researchers collected data concerning: reported levels of dialect intercomprehension;
language use in various domains both public and private; language attitudes towards the
dialects; reported levels of bilingualism in various languages; as well as data on education
and literacy levels. While the elicitation and comparison of wordlists was used in determining
the extent of shared vocabulary between the dialects, the administration of dialect
intelligibility testing provided insights into the levels of dialect inherent intelligibility. Our
findings show that considering relevant linguistic and sociolinguistic factors, the Toff dialect
could be developed to serve all the Kulere speaking people.