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Nigerian English Language Essay

1687 Words7 Pages

ABSTRACT
This paper presents a socio-cultural nature of the English language which has become an inevitable instrument of communication in Nigeria. It argues that development of any nation goes peri-perse with the linguistic development of such nation. Since the roles of English in Nigeria have been enormous from its inception till date and its future seems to be inevitably better, nativization, Nigerinization and indigenization of the language to accommodate Nigerian cultures, traditions and situations shall be a better option to create a distinct variety of the English. This will bring about linguistic identity which will in turn foster national identity and development. This paper also argues that one major way of promoting Nigerian dialect of the English language is through the use of the dialect in the national literature popularly called Nigerian literature (NL), just like the effects of literature …show more content…

Many have proposed Pidgin English or its creolized form, there were also agitations for one of the indigenous languages (but the question is which one?), we have also had a proposition to amalgamate (just like Nigeria itself) or fuse the three major indigenous languages together to form ‘WAZOBIA’ language. But all these proposal have no enough bases. Besides, they all come with special problems that might end up complicating the linguistic problem in the country rather than providing a relief to it. This has left Nigerians with no other options than to continue with the use of English language. The English language seems to have come to stay in Nigerian environment. The good thing is that English language and the indigenous languages are no longer struggling with one another, rather, they play a sort of complimentary roles which gives room to Nigerians to be able to switch codes as occasions demand. This has created a diaglossic setting in Nigeria linguistic

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