Abstract
This paper reports findings of a sociolinguistic study which investigated the manifestations of identities through stereotypes among the Urhobo in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The research aimed to identify and analyse how the Urhobo and the Ijaw perceived and labelled each other. This study adopted the Ethnolinguistic Identity Theory and a qualitative approach in which the data elicited from some of the respondents were subjected to an ethnographic analysis. The data were collected through oral interview and participant observation and the question sought to know what words each group used to refer to each other. The study reveals that the Urhobo and their host community (the Ijaw) had negative perception of each other as they negatively identified one another. The implication of the exchange of perception is the creation of 'us' and 'them'. In this case, the migrants saw themselves as 'us' and perceived their host as 'them'. The creation of boundaries (linguistic or social) has the effect of constraining relationship between the two groups. This tendency is capable of making each group to distance from the other and the relationship between both groups could be strained.
