Purchase Plan
CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.0 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY The global spread of the English language as one of the most far-reaching linguistic phenomena of our time is already an established fact. Evidence of this worldwide phenomenon of language contact, variation and change can be seen through such designations as world English, new English, Modern English, West African English, South African English, Australian English, Indian English, to mention just a few. The phrase “Nigerian English” has also appeared in the last four decades or so. Nigerian English is a variety of English which has often been suggested to differ significantly from other varieties of English and compares it to the prosody of Southern British English. Furthermore, Nigerian English syllable structure is different from British English and the tonal structure of Nigerian English shows a smaller pitch range and a distribution of tone similar to tone languages. Nigeria’s overwhelming dominance in terms of population makes her variety of English the prototype of West African English. The future of English in West Africa will more or less be decided by what forms and functions it will take in this state, whose population and economic power surpasses those of all neighbouring coastal states taken together. The West Africans have over a period of time given English a Nigerian identity. Because of this, considerably more works have been published on Nigerian English and the role of English in the linguistic situation in Nigeria than on the other varieties of West African English. With 471 languages (including English and Pidgin English) spoken in Nigeria, the linguistic situation is quite complex. English is the official language, but Hausa (with about 21% of the population as L1 speakers), Igbo (about 16%) and Yoruba (20%), as the three major languages, have semi-official status. Thus the government encourages each child to learn one of the three major languages other than his
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.0 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY The global spread of the English language as one of the most far-reaching linguistic phenomena of our time is already an established fact. Evidence of this worldwide phenomenon of language contact, variation and change can be seen through such designations as world English, new English, Modern English, West African English, South African English, Australian English, Indian English, to mention just a few. The phrase “Nigerian English” has also appeared in the last four decades or so. Nigerian English is a variety of English which has often been suggested to differ significantly from other varieties of English and compares it to the prosody of Southern British English. Furthermore, Nigerian English syllable structure is different from British English and the tonal structure of Nigerian English shows a smaller pitch range and a distribution of tone similar to tone languages. Nigeria’s overwhelming dominance in terms of population makes her variety of English the prototype of West African English. The future of English in West Africa will more or less be decided by what forms and functions it will take in this state, whose population and economic power surpasses those of all neighbouring coastal states taken together. The West Africans have over a period of time given English a Nigerian identity. Because of this, considerably more works have been published on Nigerian English and the role of English in the linguistic situation in Nigeria than on the other varieties of West African English. With 471 languages (including English and Pidgin English) spoken in Nigeria, the linguistic situation is quite complex. English is the official language, but Hausa (with about 21% of the population as L1 speakers), Igbo (about 16%) and Yoruba (20%), as the three major languages, have semi-official status. Thus the government encourages each child to learn one of the three major languages other than his
References: Achebe, Chinua (1962) Things Fall Apart. London: Heinemann. Achebe, Chinua (1964) Arrow of God. London: Heinemann. Achebe, Chinua (1960) No Longer at Ease. London: Heinemann. Achebe, Chinua (1975) Morning Yet on Creation Day: Essays. London: Heinemann Educational Books, Awonusi, V.0. (1994) ‘The Americanization of Nigerian English’. World Englishes 1 3.1 Bamgbose, A. (1982). ‘Standard Nigerian English. Issues of Identification’.In Kachru (ed).The Other Tongue: English across Cultures Bamgbose, Ayo, Ayo Banjo and Andrew Thomas (1995) (eds.) New Englishes: A West African Perspective Banjo, Ayo (1996) 'The Sociolinguistics of English in Nigeria and the ICE project '. In: Greenbaum (ed.) 1996, 239-248. Crystal, D. (2000). ‘Emerging Englishes’ :In English Teaching Professional, 14: 3-6. Crystal, D. (1997) The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Eka, D. (1985). ‘A Phonological Study of Standard Nigerian English : ‘Doctoral Dissertation’, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Jibril, M. (1982b). ‘Nigerian English: An Introduction’. In J. Pride (ed.) New Englishes. Kachru,B.B.(1986). ‘The Alchemy of English’: The Spread Functions and models of Non- native Englishes’ Stevenson, K.J. (1969). ‘Reflections on the teaching of Spoken English in Nigeria’. The Oxford English Dictionary (1982) 2nd ed. Vol. XII. Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress. Ufomata, Titi (1990) ‘Thoughts on Spoken Nigerian English’. :Journal of the Nigeria English Studies Association