Stylistic Analysis of Yoruba Radio Drama Scripts on Osun State Broadcasting Service

Radio drama remains one of the most accessible and widely consumed narrative formats in rural and semi-urban Yoruba communities, performing both entertainment and educational functions. This study conducts a stylistic analysis of Yoruba radio drama scripts broadcast on Osun State Broadcasting Service (OSBC), South West Nigeria. Using a purposive sample of ten radio drama scripts aired between 2021 and 2023, the study applies stylistic analysis tools including narrative structure analysis, register analysis, and speech characterisation to investigate how language choices construct character, theme, and social commentary. Data were sourced through official transcripts obtained from OSBC and supplemented by recorded broadcasts. The theoretical framework draws on systemic functional linguistics and narratology. Existing scholarship on Yoruba broadcast media has focused primarily on news language, with drama scripts remaining an underexplored genre. This study fills that gap by systematically analysing scripted oral literature in a broadcast context. The research examines how scriptwriters deploy Yoruba proverbs, idioms, dialect markers, and register shifts to create dramatic effect and communicate social critique. The study further investigates whether OSBC drama scripts reflect contemporary Yoruba social concerns, including unemployment, family values, and religious tensions. Findings are expected to identify distinctive stylistic patterns in Yoruba radio drama that differentiate it from both print literature and everyday speech. Recommendations will address the training of Yoruba broadcast scriptwriters and the archiving of OSBC drama content. Keywords: stylistic analysis, Yoruba radio drama, OSBC, broadcast media, systemic functional linguistics.