NAN-H-17
Language
By Yinka Olawale & Rukayat Adeyemi
Lagos, Nov. 19, 2016 (NAN) Two educationists on Saturday in Lagos, adduced reasons for inability of Nigerians to speak indigenous languages, which are fast diminishing
They told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in separate interviews in Lagos that indigenous language was an identity that every society must jealously guard and preserve.
Mr Afeez Oyetoro, the Head of Department, Theatre Arts, at the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, Lagos, said the inability of some parents to instil speaking of mother tongue in their children was a serious factor.
Oyetoro, who is also a Nollywood actor popularly known as `Saka, expressed worry that it was quite unfortunate that parents did not allow their children to speak the language of their father fluently.
He said that any Nigerian who could speak his or her indigenous language had lost his identity.
According to him, the teachings, learning and speaking of indigenous languages should be made compulsory to curb social and moral problems in the society.
He said indigenous language would also restore cultural values in the society.
“If we neglect our language, it means we have neglected our cultural values.
“A law should be made that will make speaking of indigenous language compulsory for people, especially the children, in order to stem local language extinction, social and immoral crises.
“By speaking their language, people will understand their values, culture, background and they will appreciate the essence of their life.
“A people that neglect its culture will perish because it will lose its identity.
“Every individual, every creature of God has its own identity; so, once you lose that identity, then the purpose of living is defeated.
“I believe that if all parents make attempt to make their children speak their indigenous language, it will go a long way in promoting our cultural values,’’ Oyetoro said.
Similarly, Prof. Akinloye Ojo of the University of Georgia, U.S., said one of the major challenges confronting the indigenous language in Nigeria was orality and non-documentation.
Ojo, a professor of Yoruba and Linguistics, said that “when a language is not documented, it will be impossible to use it in the modern and Western day educational system’’.
“When languages are not used by their speakers and not documented, they become gradually moribund; meaning the only speakers would be adults.
“The first risk a language suffers is when children do not speak it,’’ he said.
The professor attributed the inability of most children to speak their indigenous language to some economic factors.
“Most children make the choice to speak other languages not because they like it or do not wish to speak their own language but because of some economic factors.
“Most of the time, speakers are rewarded for speaking some certain languages, especially in Europe, to make the language more popular and attractive.
“In Africa, most of the languages spoken are languages of economic advancement.
“For this reason, some parents would invest heavily in their children becoming proficient in the European languages to the detriment of the local languages,’’ he said.
Ojo said most of our indigenous languages were not economically rewarding,
“so most families chose to use the most economically rewarding ones,’’ he said.
Ojo said Nigerian indigenous languages were highly threatened because there were lot of competitions among languages spoken world over.
According to him, a language that is not well used, not really rewarding and not documented, overtime, “becomes a candidate for endangerment’’.
He urged the government to formulate and implement language policies that would propel our indigenous languages to be more rewarding and attractive in the international communities.
Ojo also urged the government to encourage the young generation to appreciate and desire to learn and speak indigenous languages. (NAN)
OOG/RUKY/AIB/AJA
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(Edited by Abdulfatah Babatunde/Adeleye Ajayi)