Recomendaciones a la LOSNCP.

1.0 Introduction

By the language situation of Nigeria is meant the sociolinguistic setting of Nigeria. This includes the indigenous and non-indigenous languages spoken in Nigeria, their use, distribution and so on. There is a

2.0 Unit Objectives

At the end of this Unit, you should be able to:

• explain the term language situation in Nigeria;

• able to discuss the multilingual setting of Nigeria;

• able to discuss the sociolinguistic setting of English in Nigeria;

• able to discuss the multilingual setting of Nigeria‟s three major languages;

• able to discuss the position of minority languages in Nigeria;

• define the role and significance of English, and

• define and explain the term status quo as it relates to English in Nigeria.

3.0 Main Contents

3.1 Nigeria’s Multilingual Setting

Sociolinguistically, Nigeria is as a multilingual nation, a nation with very many languages spoken within its political confines.

Nigeria is about the most multilingual nation in Africa. Nigeria‟s multilingual setting may be viewed from four perspectives:

1. the perspective of English in Nigeria;

2. the perspective of Nigeria‟s three major languages Hausa, Ìgb and Yorùbá;

3. the perspective of large but the non-majority language groups, and

4. the perspective of minority languages in Nigeria.

Nigeria has very many languages. Although there seems to be no certainty about it, it is generally now being assumed that Nigeria has one of the highest numbers of mutually unintelligible languages spoken within one country in Africa. The latest number of languages spoken within the political confines of Nigeria is now being put at 521 (Olútóyè, 2010). By „mutually unintelligible‟ is meant that the speakers of these 521 languages do not understand one another when they speak. Of this large number of languages, only very comparatively few of them are written or codified.

Characteristically, most Nigerian languages are oral languages.

existence either because they are not being spoken by those to whom the language is a native language or the native speakers find it

more convenient to speak other languages which act as the language of wider communication. They may not speak their languages for

other reasons.

Today it is known that many Nigerian languages face the risk of

death due to noncodification (Crystal, 2002, Rafiu, 2010 and Olútóyè, 2010). Another implication is the absence of literacy.

Unwritten languages are generally never languages of literacy and so, most of Nigerian languages are not languages of literacy. By languages of literacy I mean languages which are used to teach people how to read and write. It is known that literacy level of Nigeria is generally low and mother tongue literacy is even more appalling! Mother tongue illiteracy is one of the many problems

facing multilingual Nigeria and generally, the problem of the world‟s emerging multilingual economies of Africa, Asia and South

America.

We noted above that most Nigerian languages are not written languages. This means that the alphabet of these languages have not been developed for literacy purposes. Whereas, the alphabets of the three major languages have not only been developed, the languages are literate languages. They are used to teach their speakers how

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to read and write. A written language has an alphabet, that is, orthography, which the natives can use to read and write in their

language. In Nigeria, the languages that qualify to be called literacy languages are very numerically few in number when compared with the total number of language that we have in Nigeria.

A written language is also a language that can be used to teach non-literate people to read and write in their native language or mother tongue. Such a language can also be used in a formal school

system. The fact that most Nigerian languages are unwritten is an indication that these languages are yet to meet the demands of

mother tongue education, that is, teaching the acquisition of reading and writing skills in the mother tongue.

Self Assessment Exercises

Make a summary of 3.1: Nigeria‟s Multilingual Setting 3.2 The Creating of Multilingual Nigeria

The problem of multilingualism in Nigeria originated from the British colonialists who in the process of the scramble for Africa

brought together people of different languages and cultures as one nation. The way the British embarked on the amalgamation process in 1914 showed that they had very little or no idea about the linguistic diversity of the territories they were amalgamating as

in the case of Nigeria. The result is what we have today, a linguistic and socio-cultural conglomerate of several territories ranging geographically from near desert conditions in the North to the equatorial conditions on the coast; a situation that makes

Nigeria partly Saharan in the North and partly equatorial in the South. The summary effect is that such a sprawl naturally made it impossible for the British administration to have one local language to unite all the peoples from the fringes of the Sahara

Desert in the North to the equatorial forest on the Atlantic Coastlands in the South. Given the structure the British colonialists had on the ground, they had no option to adopting

English as the official language and medium of contact for everything they had to do. The colonial masters resorted to using education, the same way it is still being done now, as the medium for officially actualising the use of English as the official language of administration. Since the Nigerians of that time did not understand English and the British could not speak any of the Nigerian languages, it became rather incumbent on the people too to learn English to facilitate communicating with the colonialists.

The colonialists were quick to see English as a bridge language across peoples and cultures. English has ever since then remained

to play this all important role for Nigeria.