Education & Science Journal of Policy Review and Curriculum Development | ESJPRCD Vol. 7, No.

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ISSN Print: 2315-8425 | ISSN Online: 2354-1660 September, 2017

Linguistics Diversity and Nigerian Languages Dynamism

1 2
Abubakar Tukur Liman & Bashiru Usman
1&2
Department of English Language Education,
College of Continuing Education,
Adamawa State Polytechnic Yola- Adamawa State

Abstract

N
igeria seats about 450 languages on a land mass of less than 7percent of the
total area of the African continent. This linguistic diversity explores the
dynamism of language to adapt to situational constraints occasioned by
regional/geographical, social, educational, and occupational domains, among
others. This paper sets to examine the concept of linguistic diversity as it relates to the
Nigerian experience. To achieve this, secondary data on the concept were reviewed.
The study found that linguistic diversity is indeed a blessing which should be
harnessed in Nigeria. Consequently, the paper recommends an aggressive use of
mother tongues amongst Nigerian family members, school administrators,
curriculum developers and teachers can also help the children in retaining and
developing their mother tongues by initiating and implementing policies that
encourage communication with the learners in such languages, government agencies
like the National Orientation Agency, can also vigorously pursue projects aimed at
communicating strong affirmative messages about the value of acquiring additional
languages and emphasizing the fact that multilingualism is indeed a blessing and an
important linguistic accomplishment.

Keywords: Linguistic diversity, Language, Mother tongue, Multilingualism,

Communication

Corresponding Author: Abubakar Tukur Liman

http://internationalpolicybrief.org/journals/international-scientific-research-consortium-journals/edu-and-sci-jrnl-of-policy-review-and-curriculum-dev-vol7-no1-september-2017

ESJPRCD | Page 66
Background to the Study
Nigeria is a country with extreme linguistic fragmentation. In fact, the present linguistic
situation in the country may be understood in the context of a worldwide process of
balkanization. This, according to Connor (1991), is a process caused by “the almost total lack
of co-incidence that exists today between political and ethnic borders in the world”.
Geographically, Nigeria is populated by over 150 million people of whom 35 percent are
Hausa/Fulani speaking located in the northern region. 20 percent are Yoruba who live in the
western region, 18 percent is Igbo located in the eastern region of the country of which
particular regions speak different languages as indicated on the Nigerian map.

Babajide (2003) opines that based on the languages spoken in Nigeria, it is appropriate to
assume that Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo are the three main languages, and each is widely
spoken in their various regions while over 400 other spoken languages throughout the country
are seen as 'minority' languages. The labels 'majority/main' and 'minority' languages in Nigeria
also translate directly to the distribution of socio-political and economic power and prestige.

Language is a powerful tool of control used by the colonial powers. Language forms a large part
of the culture of people as it is through language that a people express their folk tales, myths,
preserves culture and history. Pinker (1994) views language as a cover or more potent
characteristic of human behaviour. It consists of a comprehensive and overlapping set of sub-
language with ethically and geographically defined territory knows as dialects. Some dialects
are defined by shared settings known to be registered while others are linked to profession,
class or educational level or a combination of these elements.

Among humans, language arises from a need to communicate. Halliday (2006) defines
language as a medium with which human beings communicate with one another. However,
language, as powerful as it is, functions in certain situations and environments. As a
consequence, language is not experienced in isolation but in relation to actions and events from
which the things said or written derive their meanings (Halliday, 1985). Language use at
different speech events largely depends on the 'context of situation' based on the linguistic
features of field, tenor and mode. These are highly general concepts for describing how the
context of situation determines the kinds of meaning expressed (Halliday, 2006).

Bai and Shi (2002) submit that language includes a wide range of variation in the variety of
human activities in a system of interacting with somebody, society, or culture. It also plays a
crucial role in the social, political and economic life of the people in a given geographic entity.
In spite of all perceived roles of languages to humankind, an all-embracing interpretation of it
continues to elude us due to the complexity of its structure and the functions it performs.

Lewis (2001) opines that any guideline for language, especially in the system of education, has
to take account of the attitude of those likely to be affected. In the long run, no policy will
succeed which does not make one of the three following functions: (a) conform to the express
attitude of those involved, (b) convince those who expressed attitudes about the rightness of the
policy, (c) those that seek to remove the causes of the disagreement in any case knowledge
about attitude is essential to the formation of a policy as well as success in its implementation.
This paper seeks to examine linguistic diversity in the Nigerian context.

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The Concept of Language
Language is an important tool in the society because man needs it to share his ideas,
experiences, emotions, and interact with other people in the society or in his environment. It is
the principal means used by which human beings communicate with one another. Language is
primarily spoken, although it can be transferred to other media, such as writing (Bhatia,1993).
Crystal (2003) states that language is a purely human and non-instructive method of
communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols. In
addition to the above, there are other forms of communications like the non-verbal
communication, which is the use of body language, gestures, signs, and signals to pass on
information. Fakuade (1998) defines language as “ the means by which men communicate with
each other and with themselves”. Therefore, it is apt to conclude that language is an effective
tool for socialization and social intercourse. Thus, it is the manifest use language that
distinguishes man from animals.

Babatunde (2003) observes that language performs transactional, interactional and

educational functions. The roles of language in human society include a substantial amount of
people's historical experience, their thought patterns, and their world view. Language roles
paralleled along the embodiment of culture lead to the depth of a person's reflection beyond the
practical necessities of life to such aspects as the search for knowledge, education and
collaboration among multi-ethnic societies. In such a way, it revealed how possible it is for the
English language to elaborate functions in almost all facets of life in Nigeria.

Langacker (1973), explains that language is the instrument which spreads through our
thoughts, mediates our relation with others and creeps into our dreams. It is fundamentally a
system of conceptualization, which facilitates thinking and determines action for the
individuals. It is a means by which people communicate. Human thinking and activities is
complex and conveyed, not only by actions, but also by the vehicle of language. Language use
at any particular time is a reflection of the activities being carried out, which give rise to the
concept of register in its broadest sense (Fakuade, 1998).

Language enables one to imagine counterfactual objects, events, and states of affairs; it is
intimately related to intentionality: the feature of all human thoughts whereby they are
essentially about, or directed toward, things outside themselves, by the use of language (Drew
and Heritage, 1992).Basically, language can be described as a mediating system interposed like
a layer between a layer of 'reality' and a layer of 'society', which talks in and about that world
thus giving rise to the concept of sociolinguistics which is the reality of society that shapes and
constrains language use (Fakuade, 1998).Using language typically makes most actions more
worthwhile and effective, and makes many other actions possible quite apart from acting upon
reality (Morris and Hirst, 1991).

Language effectiveness is possible because Language is a rule-governed activity. When the

rules are disobeyed, misunderstanding, lack of clarity, confusion, and ambiguity and so on may
occur. In a situation where language structure does not bring about effective communication,
probably due to some stylistic manipulations, difficulties of understanding and interpretation
may be faced by the language users. In Pragmatics however, meanings are implied and the rule
being followed are “unspoken, unwritten” rules (Keith, 2001).

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Classification of Languages in Nigeria
The different domains of the use of the various languages in Nigeria are classified into three
categories as follows:
a) Indigenous or native language: Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo have been constitutionally
recognized as 'major'.
b) Exogenous or non-indigenous: In this category, we have English, French Arabic and
other languages like German and Russia which have a rather restricted functional
scope.
c) Pidgin languages: This is represented by Nigerian Pidgin English, with a dual status of
being at once indigenous and now exogenous.

The indigenous languages vary greatly in functional, structural, and spatial characteristics. It
has been noted that the celebrity of Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba is as a result of their numerical
strength in terms of their number of speakers (Harm, 1991). These languages are followed by
Fulfulde, Ibibio, Efik, Kanuri Tiv, Nupe, Ijo, Edo, Igala, etc. It is discovered that over 500,000
people speak each of these languages (Akinnaso 1991, Jibril 1990).

The three major languages in Nigeria perform official functions side by side with the English
language. They are used in some cases for the conduct of business in the civil service, law,
commerce and education and all other official domains. For instance, English, Hausa, Igbo,
Yoruba are allowed for conduct of legislative functions in the States' Houses of Assembly in
Nigeria. They also play a prominent role in education in recent years. It is officially stated in the
National Policy on Education (NPE) that the mother tongue should be used as the medium of
instruction in the first two years of primary school. English has been more noticeable in use in
Nigeria. It serves various functions as well as official language as the second language. It
remains the language of bureaucracy of government, of education, of commerce, of science
and technology, of inter-ethnic cooperation and contacts, etc. French is in every sense of the
word, a foreign language in Nigeria and its impact on the country is rather limited to a few
schools such as universities where it is learnt as a school subject and used in diplomatic
contacts, especially with Nigerian immediate neighbours in Chad, Niger, Benin, Togo and
Cameroon and with other foreign embassies. It was made second official language during the
Sani Abacha era but has a limited number of speakers. Arabic is mainly a predominant
language of Islamic religion and aids Koranic schools in Nigeria today. It is also learnt as a
school subject in some universities, such as the University of Ibadan, Usman Dan Fodio
University, Sokoto, as well as Bayero University, Kano.

The third category of languages in Nigeria is the Nigerian Pidgin; which is a hybrid Nigerian
language. There have been several ideas and views about its origin whether it is indigenous or
exogenous. Omodiag be (1992), comments that 'Pidgin is an offshoot of the pure 'English of
the early missionaries and colonial administrators'. It is the product of necessity and
pragmatism, as well as amiability and acceptability of the English language.

Oladejo (1991), contrary to Omodiagbe's submission, describes Nigerian Pidgin as 'the only
truly neutral indigenous Nigerian language'. Whatever its status, it is a lingua franca in
informal domains, especially among the non-western educated masses. It is also a principal
language of commerce which has been creolized in Sapele, Warri and other areas of Delta and
River states of Nigeria. It is used in literary or creative writing, in mass media, in inter-ethnic
communication among lower classes in some educational institutions. In urban centres like

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Warri, Benin City, Sapele, Port Harcourt, Onitsha and Calabar, it is spoken by over 70% of the
adult population, and in these places almost all the children of school age speak pidgin
fluently. It functions as a language of wider communication in public institutions, public
service and welfare centres, post offices, police stations, Army barracks and Magistrate
centres. In market places and commercial centres; it is equally widely spoken (Agheyisi,1984;
Adegbija, 1992b).

Multiglossia' and Domains of Language Use in Nigeria

Multiglossia' is a term used as an extension of Ferguson's (1959) 'diglossia' and (Adegbija
2004) to describe language use situation in a multilingual environment like Nigeria. It should
be stated that Fishman's (1967) is more appropriate to explain language use situation in
Nigeria, where there are varieties of a language. Language potency and prestige in Nigeria are
directly related to language functions. For instance, the English language issued in formal
situations, in the media, in education, etc. as a result of its prestige. The functions assigned to a
language or languages enhance the prestige of such languages like Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa and
English. Various languages in Nigeria have distinct functional manifestations at several
hierarchical levels of usage, that is, each of the languages has domains of use different from the
others. They are assigned roles based on their prestige and status.

In the Nigerian situation, multilingualism is directly linked to 'diglossia'. This determines the
roles and functions of a language, that is, the role a language performs within a multilingual
speech community like Nigeria. Some languages may be more functionally silent in a
particular context than others. A language could be used to perform certain functions based on
the perception of its users, its suitability for certain occasions, participants, the intention of the
communicative encounter, interpersonal goals relating to identity, solidarity, exclusion and
commitment of oneself (Adegbija 1987; Searle 1969; Austin 1969).

At the societal level, language functions appear to be more fixed. The functions of languages
especially in multilingual contexts, such as Nigeria include roles relating to official use of
language, being used as national language, media language of wider communication,
international communication purposes, school subjects, judiciary functions, roles relating to
national identity, solidarity and for cohesiveness of the citizens.

The Determining Factors of Language Domains in Nigeria

It has been discovered that in Nigeria, the following factors determine the language domains:
Prestige and Status
Generally speaking, a language is considered prestigious if given prestigious functions and is
considered low if itis not given any function at all or allocated low status functions. In actual
sense, through status planning, the status of a low language can be considerably enhanced, for
example, in Nigeria, education is taken to be a high prestige domain of language functionality.
And those languages that are used as mediums of instruction in Nigeria are given high or
prestigious status; this is the case with English, Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa.

Level of Development
Development is used here synonymously with modernization and standardization. The most
basic measure of language development is graphization. Other measures include availability
of dictionaries and linguistic descriptions, lexical expansion, met language or register. In
Nigerian multilingual society, the functions allocated to a language seem to be directly

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proportional to the extent of their development. For instance, Hausa, Igbo, Edo, Yoruba and
Efik are offered as school subjects at the West African Examination Council and National
Examination Council because they have been already developed.

Historical and Political Profile

According to Adegbija (2004), to a large extent, the historical and political past tradition tends
to attract greater functions to a language or languages. National functions are assigned to
Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba, representing the languages of the three major political power blocs in
Nigeria. Equally, the international functions of English in the world, is enhanced by the
political power-broken dynamism of the combined force of the native speakers of the language;
hence English language is allocated official functions in Nigeria.

Institutional Policies
Institutional policies of government ministries, organs or agencies, cultural and religious
organizations, language development centres, universities and the other educational
institutions and the media within the country contribute remarkably to the determination of
language functions. Generally, languages that receive the institutional blessings tend to prosper
functionally while those that do not tend to functionally wane or wither. In Nigeria, the three
elevated native languages, Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, have the backing of the institutional policies of
the government. And right now, some minority indigenous languages like Efik, Edo, Urhobo
are also being given some institutional policy backing in their various regions.

Numerical Strength
The number of speakers of a language tends to contribute to its prestige and status and it affects
its allotted functions. The national function allocated to Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba is traceable to
the number of their speakers. Languages with a small population of speakers in Nigeria are
functionally underrated, oppressed and belittled (Jibril 1990). Certainly, the most noticeable
aspect of language use situation in Nigeria is the hierarchical distribution of functions among
the different languages in the country. The indigenous languages in Nigeria are the languages of
ethnic solidarity and local day-to-day interactions. A few of them are used in broadcasting
(Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba, Efik, Edo). They are also predominant in religious worship of
various kinds. It is significant to note that as far as functions of languages in the Nigerian
multilingual context is concerned, speakers modify their speech codes appropriately to fit
changes of interlocutors, social setting, discourse topic, and conversational mood. The
domains for the use of each of the languages in Nigeria include the institution of government,
the media, commerce, schools, religion and the home.

Language Use According to the Audience

Despite the prevalence of English as the language of wider communication in Nigeria, it would
be foolhardy for a young person to speak in English in a normal jocular circumstance with an
elderly person. It is considered a form of disrespect, rudeness and misconstrued value.
Speaking the mother tongue serves as a polite technique. Therefore, in circumstances like this, a
larger percentage of the Nigerian populace would prefer using their mother tongue. Schmeid
(1985) and Sure (1991) opined that “the greater the age and the higher the cultural and social
status attained by an addresser, the greater the need a speaker feels to employ politeness
strategies. “In this circumstance, what counts as politeness strategies in interpersonal
interactions in most Nigerian communities is better expressed by the very fact of speaking the
mother tongue”.

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Phatic Solidarity and Boundaries Markers
Language choice is used to suggest either familiarity or solidarity or as a mark of divergence.
This is exemplified in a situation in which a student converses with his/her lecturer in their
shared mother tongue after the class. Also, in an elder-junior relationship, the junior would
rather greet the elderly in the mother tongue in place of English so as not to be considered rude.
The English language has no room for elaborate greeting system which is found in many
indigenous languages. Language choice here may also be used to dissociate oneself from the
ethnic loyalty.

Language choice, with regards to the family, occurs when in a multilingual family, the mother
tongue is reverted to (in a case where the language of the environment is different from the
language spoken at home). Although the language spoken in the larger society is thought to be
more prestigious, the members of the family prefer to use their own language. This is to show
familiarity, intimacy and closeness. However, when they are with other members of the
community, they converse in the more prestigious language.

Language choice varies according to the different domains of use; this implies that language
varies according to situations as well as the relationship that exists between the various
interlocutors. It suggests that interlocutors switch from one language to another, which is what
Blom and Gumperz (1972) and Gumperz (1982) identified as metaphorical code switching.
Metaphorical code switching is most likely to be motivated by the topic or according to the
issues being discussed.

Conclusion and Recommendations

It is true that Nigeria is a multilingual society with diverse cultures and languages. The
language use situation in Nigeria is clear despite the number of languages in the country. Each
domain of language use is known for its unique language use features, although there could be
deviations in some situations. Various languages: the major indigenous languages, foreign
languages and minority languages have distinct use domains. It has been observed that due to
the co-existence of these languages, some linguistic phenomena are unavoidable. Nigeria
seems to be a giant in every sphere of life which includes the complexity of her languages, so,
this uniqueness of the county as it affects her languages in all domains of their use cannot be
over-emphasized. Based on the above, the paper recommends as follows:
a. Parents should consistently use the mother tongue in communicating to their children
at home. This will encourage the children acquire the language thereby reducing or
eliminating the chances of the death or extinction of such languages.
b. Older members of a speech community and teachers can also help children retain and
develop their mother tongues by inculcating into the younger generation the value of
knowing additional languages and the fact that bilingualism is an important linguistic
and intellectual accomplishment.
c. Secondary school teachers of foreign languages should first have some knowledge of
the source language of the learners.
d. Teachers have stake in going the extra mile in availing themselves of the results
contained in studies of indigenous languages. Where no such information exits,
teachers should seize the moment and take the initiative. They should therefore deploy
their efforts in incorporating local languages in the curriculum.
e. Dominant mother tongues deserve to be studied and their characteristics exploited to
assist in the learning of a new language, foreign or indeginous.

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f. At the local, state and national levels, efforts must be redoubled in ensuring that
potentially viable indigenous languages receive, as a matter of deliberate and sustained
policy, the resources necessary to ensure their development which will avert their
unnecessary loss.

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