VOL. 3, NO. 1, 2016 Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria

Home , Consonant cluster, Literary language

JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS, LANGUAGE AND CULTURE. VOL. 3, NO. 1, 2016

JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS, LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

http://www.academix.ng/journals/profile.html?idd=3300010151

VOL. 3, NO. 1, 2016

Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria

JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS, LANGUAGE AND CULTURE. VOL. 3, NO. 1, 2016

Volume 3 No. 1, 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

ISSN (Print): 2408-5421 ISSN (Online):2465-6801

Open Access articles distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons License [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0

Printed by: Brystevand Publishers #90 Enugu-Onitsha Old Road Nkpor, Anambra State, Nigeria 08068455809

JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS, LANGUAGE AND CULTURE. VOL. 3, NO. 1, 2016

Editor-in-Chief Prof. Alex C. Asigbo Editor Davidson U. Mbagwu, Ph.D. Associate Editor Linda C. Nkamigbo, Ph.D.

Editorial Consultants Prof. Cecilia Eme Department of Linguistics Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nigeria

Prof. Josephat Rugemalira Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Prof. Abdelrahim Mugaddam Institute of African & Asian Studies University of Khartoum, Sudan

Dr. Gideon Omachonu Department of Languages and Linguistics Nasarawa State University, Nigeria

Dr. Pius Akumbu Centre for African Languages & Cultures University of Buea, Cameroon

Dr. Eyo Mensah Department of Linguistics and Communication Studies University of Calabar, Nigeria

Dr. Endashaw Woldemichael Department of Linguistics

iii

JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS, LANGUAGE AND CULTURE. VOL. 3, NO. 1, 2016

Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia

EDITORIAL COMMENTS

Aims and scope Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture (JoLLC) publishes research papers in linguistics, language and culture. It especially is interested in essays and studies that contribute to a better understanding of linguistics, language and culture in education. The journal also publishes critical reviews of books that contribute to knowledge in the areas of linguistics, language and culture. The number and the professional structure of the consulting editors correspond with the objectives and scope of the journal.

Manuscript format Manuscripts should include a coversheet with the name and contact information of the contributor(s). Well researched articles for publication must be original, neither published nor considered for publication elsewhere. Manuscripts, books for review and all editorial correspondence should be sent to the editors at [email protected] , [email protected], and follow this order: Times New Roman, Point 12, double line spacing, not more than 15 pages, Linguistic Society of America (LSA) or Current APA or MLA style of documentation. Articles can be written in any languages with English translation of abstract. The articles are subjected to peer-reviews and editing before they are finally accepted for publication. Editors and

JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS, LANGUAGE AND CULTURE. VOL. 3, NO. 1, 2016 authors have done extensive correction and proof reading. Editors and publisher disclaim all responsibility for any errors or omissions or liability for the results obtained from use of the information, or parts thereof, contained in this work.

JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS, LANGUAGE AND CULTURE. VOL. 3, NO. 1, 2016

Contents

A corpus-based approach to the linguistic features in Nigerian and American presidential speeches, Asomwan S. Adagbonyin, Isaiah Aluya & Samuel Edem…...... …1-27

Clipping of Igbo personal names: An optimality theory approach, Justina E. Onuora...... 28-45

A classificatory analysis of students slang: A case study of the university of Maiduguri students, Abdulwahab Muhammad………………………………………………...... 46-57

English as a linguicide: Language endangerment and conservation in Nigeria, Dean Odeh ...... 58-72

The linguistic consequences of French colonial policy of assimilation in West Africa: Implications for national growth and development, Musa F. Oyabebefa & Harold B. Buku ...... 73-87

Re-enacting African cultural values cum postcolonial distortions in new Nigerian novels ecocritically: The study of Nnaji's 'the eagles tribe', Onyeji Nnaji...... 88-101

The Màrgí traditional numeral system, Amos Dlibugunaya...... 102-111

JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS, LANGUAGE AND CULTURE. VOL. 3, NO. 1, 2016

The musical drama approach to the study of Nigerian languages: Clement Ezegbe's 'nwa na-eku nwa' as an example, Mabel Ugochi Okpara...... 112-121

vii

A corpus-based approach to the linguistic features in Nigerian and American presidential speeches

Asomwan S. Adagbonyin, Isaiah Aluya & Samuel Edem

Abstract Previous studies on political discourse in Nigeria have dwelt on the application of manual approaches to the analysis of political speeches with little or no attention on a corpus-based approach. This study aims to demonstrate the viability of a corpus-based approach to the analysis of political speeches. Using two sets of different speeches of Nigerian and American Presidents as its database, the study explores the sorts of linguistic features revealed by a corpus-based approach, the differences in both speakers’ usage of these linguistic features and how effectively they were used for communicative purpose. The results through the Wmatrix software show the following linguistic features: pronominal reference, nominalization, negation/contracted negation, Saxon genitives and repetition. The study concludes that both set of speeches rhetorically employ these features to distinctively enhance their language and give extra weight to their messages. Obama’s overuse of pronouns, negation/contracted negation and Saxon genitive shows that he presented himself as more informal, interactive and conversational than Jonathan, while Jonathan’s overuse of nominalization (elaborate noun phrase) and repetition presented him as formally inclined.

Introduction Political discourse is a subject, which has received a considerable attention from researchers over the years (Van Dijk, 1996; Chilton & Schaffner, 2002; Wilson, 2001; Beard, 2000). Various disciplines address the concept from varying viewpoints. The delineation of the concept of political discourse centres on what one views as politics, a word which has “both wide and narrow senses” (Taiwo, 2007:

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016 p.20). A straightforward delineation is the one narrowed to the undertakings of “institutions, such as political parties, government and congress” in the attainment of political onuses (Taiwo, 2007: p.23). Beard considered politics “as a struggle to obtain and maintain control among associates of these institutions” (2000: 36). The definition, which we adopt in this study, is that of Wilson, for whom it is:

language used in formal and informal political environments with political artists, such as politicians, political institutions, government, political media and followers functioning in political environs with political objectives (2001: p.398).

This definition is most appropriate for this study because it relates language to politics and also encapsulates our task which is to analyse the language used in political speeches. Language as used here is “considered the vehicular expression of politics” (Ayeomoni, 2004: p.200). Lyons used the notion to mean the major mode of communication used by a group of human beings residing within a linguistic community (1970). The foregoing definitions point to the fact that language and politics are interconnected. Harris (1979) corroborates this when he asserts that language is the medium by which political ideas are disseminated to the public and that such language has powerful effect. The past few years have seen an explosion in the development of approaches and methodologies for analysing political texts (Baker, 2004; 2006). These approaches include the development of software tools for corpus analysis and comparison which provide the room for researchers to be precise, comprehensive and detailed as possible in their analysis of texts (Norgaard, Montoro and Busse, 2010: p.10).

A corpus-based approach to the linguistic features - Adagbonyin, Aluya & Edem

Literature review Previous studies on the analysis of political speeches in Nigeria have dwelt on the application of manual approaches with little or no attention on a corpus- based approach. For instance, Yusuf (2002) explored the dysphemism in the language of President Olusegun Obasanjo. Ayoola (2005) conducted a discursive study of President Olusegun Obansanjo’s July 26, 2005 inaugural address to the National Assembly. Ayeomoni (2005) analysed the speeches of former presidents, head of states, governors, ambassadors and political advisers from the six geo-political zones from a linguistic-stylistic perspective. The study showed that the language of the Political elite in Nigeria exhibits some features, which are used in various forms to achieve political intentions. Opebi (2006) engaged in a study of negative campaigning in Nigerian political discourse. His study showed how Nigerian politicians use different sorts of abusive language to degrade their counterparts and woo the attention of the electorates. Omozuwa and Ezejideaku (2007) conducted a stylistic analysis of political campaigns using the 2007 general election as a case in point. The study revealed how Nigerian politicians use language during political campaigns to discredit their opponents and win more votes. Also, Taiwo (2007) satirized politicians and public officers in Nigerian newspapers. Adetunji (2006) analysed the inaugural speeches of Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo and America’s President George Bush from a comparative standpoint. Babatunde and Odegbedan (2009) examined the Pragma- rhetorical strategies in selected speeches of President Olusegun Obasanjo. Abuya (2012) conducted a Pragmatic-stylistic Analysis of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s Inaugural Speech. The study identified the noticeable speech acts in the inaugural speech of President Goodluck Jonathan and how these speech acts project meanings.None of the studies mentioned above have analysed political speeches using a corpus-based approach. A manual approach to the analysis of political speeches requires the use of a hard copy of the selected speeches as its database, while the corpus-based approach on the other hand uses the soft of copy of such

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016 speeches as its database. Since there has been little or no corpus-based approach in the analysis of political speeches in Nigeria and the use of this approach to compare the speeches of Nigerian presidents and those of other countries, the present study fills that gap as it applies a corpus– based approach to the analysis of political speeches. The speeches for review in the present study are those of Goodluck Jonathan, the former president of the federal republic of Nigeria and Barack Obama the incumbent president of the United States of America.

Contextualization of speeches The political speeches analysed in this study were produced during the general elections in Nigeria and the USA. The American political speeches analysed here were produced in 2007-2008 during the last general elections in the United States. The ruling Democratic Party was in contention with the Republican Party, its main opposition party (Harlow, 2008). Studies show that Barack Obama, the then US senator for Illinois referred in his campaign speeches to the following pointers: war, the dwindling economy, lost homes, unemployment, expensive health care, the nuclear threat, social equality among all, failed government policies, greed among politicians, etc. (Harlow, 2008). These factors arguably consider the social and political concerns of the period. During the time of his campaign, America was at war with Iraq and Afghanistan. The nation’s economy was beginning to shrink due to poor government policies and greed among politicians. The rate of unemployment was gradually beginning to increase with 232,000 Americans losing their jobs in 2008 compared with 178,000 during George W Bush’s government. Health care was extremely expensive; its services were inaccessible to the average American. Moreover, pensioners were not being paid their allowances (Harlow, 2008). In the case of Nigeria, the ruling party the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)was competing with other political parties among which the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the Action Congress (AC) were the major opposition parties. Nigeria is a huge

A corpus-based approach to the linguistic features - Adagbonyin, Aluya & Edem country, embracing various cultures. However, research suggests that, the country’s human development is ranked low -158th out of 177 countries (Tejumaiye, 2008 and Udende, 2011). After independence, the country was characterised by underdevelopment. This underdevelopment is evident in such social and economic pointers: as the domination of the primary sector (-agriculture, oil and minerals) and the apparent incapability of its leaders to foster a suitable environment for great value added activities. There is low domestic capital formation and declining direct foreign investment, foreign aid dependence, heavy indebtedness and a high rate of unemployment and in the formation of the economy and most of its people live in penury. For these reasons, the country is deficient in basic physical infrastructure. Consequently, most people have no access to basic services such as portable water, electricity, roads and health care. The state of underdevelopment has been entrenched by political factors such as despotism, political instability and ethnic and religious conflicts (Edigheji, 2005). The above social and political pointers suggest the contexts of speeches to be analysed.

Objectives of the study This study was primarily meant to establish the potential contribution which a corpus-based approach can make to the analysis of political discourse. The study tries to: (a) to establish the sorts of linguistic devices which the corpus-based approach can reveal; (b) to compare and contrast both presidents’ usage of linguistic devices in terms of frequency at the levels of keyword, part of speech and semantic domain as well as the communicative purpose which the linguistic devices serve; (c) to ascertain if there are differences or similarities in the issues which both presidents are set to tackle;

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

Research questions To achieve the objectives of this study, the following specific questions are addressed: (a) What sorts of linguistic features are revealed by the corpus-based approach? (b) What are the differences in the usage of these linguistic features by both presidents and what communicative purpose do they serve? (c) What are the differences or similarities in the two set of speeches in terms of issues addressed?

Method of analysis This study employs Wmatrix software (http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/wmatrix/) for corpus analysis and comparison to investigate some of the linguistic features used in the speeches of the Nigerian and American presidents. It further examines the differences in the language of these speeches at three levels: keywords; parts- of- speech and semantic domains.

The wmatrix software Wmatrix is an integrated software tool for the quantitative analysis of text with the aid of frequency lists, concordances and keyness indicators for words such as multi-word entities e.g. proper names, compound nouns and phrasal verbs, parts of speech and semantic domains Data can be uploaded in to the web server, which systematises the linguistic annotation and offers a set of frequency profiles such as the frequency of occurrence of words and multi-word-expressions, the frequency of occurrence of parts of speech and semantic field tags (Baker 2006). In addition, the software allows frequency profiles of one dataset to be contrasted with one another. The keyword analysis can be carried out by the software and extend to the level of part of speech and to key domain analysis at the semantic level. Comparison of frequency profiles for the two corpora at

A corpus-based approach to the linguistic features - Adagbonyin, Aluya & Edem each level is reached with the log-likelihood (henceforth LL) statistics when used in corpus-based frequency analysis. For each word or tag in the profiles, the LL test is used to show how significant the difference in frequency is between two corpora. A larger LL value shows a more significant difference between the frequencies and a plus or minus shows overuse or underuse respectively (Archer &Rayson2003). The three domains (keyword, key parts of speech and key semantics) are explained in turn in the next sub section.

Keyword This is the level at which a statistical comparison is carried out between the words of a corpus (or wordlist) and that of another corpus in order to identify words, which are unusually frequentor unusually infrequent (Baker 2006). A word is Key if it occurs in a text at least as many times as a user has specified as a minimum frequency. The frequency in the text when compared with that of a reference corpus is such that the “statistical probability as computed by an appropriate procedure is smaller or equal to a P value specified by a user (Baker 2006:67). Keywords tend to be of three types. Proper nouns; keywords which people would recognize as key are indicators of the “aboutness” of a particular text and finally high-frequency words such as because, shall, or already, may be indicators of style, rather than “aboutness”. When two texts of equal size are compared, two corresponding keyword lists are produced, usually of similar length (Rayson2004).

Key parts of speech The part of speech (POS) or grammatical tagging is the level at which a statistical comparison is carried out between two corpora in order to identify grammatical words, which are unusually, frequent or unusually infrequent. For the part of speech annotation in this study, CLAWS (the Constituent Likelihood Automatic Word-tagging System) is used (Rayson 2008, Culpeper 2009).

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

Key semantic domains The semantic domain is the level at which a statistical comparison is conducted between two corpora in order to identify items such as single or multiword expressions. The semantic tag specifies “semantic fields which group together word senses that are related by virtue of their being” linked at some level of generality with the same mental concept. The group includes not only synonyms and antonyms but hyponyms (Rayson 2008).

Method of data collection The data used for this study are twenty election speeches chosen from speeches made in Nigeria and America. The first set of speeches consists of ten by the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria during the 2010-2011 election. The second set consists of ten election speeches by the president of the United States during the 2007/2008 election. Both candidates were running for positions of power. We downloaded both speeches from their respective websites. The Jonathan speeches run to 25, 083 words, while the Obama speeches contain 25, 043 words. Both were converted to plain text using Microsoft Word and loaded into Wmatrix’s web server. The web serve systematises the texts and in turn produces a set of frequency profiles for the frequency of occurrence of words, parts of speech and semantic field tags. On all levels of analysis, I examine the 20 most statistically significant differences between the data from Jonathan and Obama. This helps to discover the linguistic features overused and underused in both corpora.

Analysis This section presents the results and discusses the analyses.

A corpus-based approach to the linguistic features - Adagbonyin, Aluya & Edem

General descriptive statistics Goodluck Jonathan Barack Obama Texts 10 10 Types 2770 3215 Tokens 24668 25493 Type/Token Ratio 11.23% 12.61% Table 1

The number of types shown in the Jonathan data is 2770 and the total frequency of tokens shown is 24668. In the Obama data, the number of types shown is 3215 and the total frequency of tokens shown is 25493. To calculate the type/token ratio for each set of data, the total number of types and tokens is divided and the result multiplied by 100. First, the Obama speeches are roughly the same length and are similarly diverse in terms of vocabulary_ although the type/token ratio of the Jonathan speeches is slightly lower than that of the Obama speeches.

Comparison at the keyword level The analysis begins with a statistical comparison on the word level. Table 2 displays the twenty most statistically significant types in both texts. Here, we provide the relative frequency in both corpora. (Note that in Table 2 and in subsequent tables in this study, GJ represents Goodluck Jonathan and BO represents Barack Obama; RF represents relative frequency). The table is sorted on Log-likelihood (LL) values to show the key items at the top. The contents of this table illustrate some interesting points, which are discussed below in turn.

Table 2 presents the 20 most statistically significant differences between Jonathan and Obama texts Keywords in Jonathan’s Speeches Keywords in Obama’s Speeches KEYWOR GJ BO(R LL KEYWO OB GJ(R LL D (R F) RD (R F)

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

F) F)

Nigerians 0.00 180. ‘S 0.9 0.02 306. 0.5 27 9 92 1 Nigeria 0.4 0.00 151. N’t 0.6 0.02 180. 3 88 2 74 Of 2.37 90.0 America 0.4 0.00 159. 3.8 3 6 73 5 National 0.3 0.02 81.5 What 0.5 0.04 116. 1 3 1 92 Nigerian 0.2 0.00 76.6 It 0.9 0.28 103. 2 5 7 12 The 6.4 4.69 69.3 American 0.2 0.00 96.1 4 6 8 1 Developme 0.1 0.00 68.1 Who 0.7 0.20 91.5 nt 9 3 8 1 Continue 0.2 0.02 59.3 Change 0.3 0.03 91.1 4 7 8 6 All 0.8 0.35 58.0 She 0.2 0.00 89.3 7 6 6 4 2011 0.1 0.00 53.9 They 0.4 0.06 88.8 5 4 8 4 Transforma 0.1 0.00 48.2 ‘Ve 0.2 0.00 87.9 tion 4 8 5 9 My 0.7 0.29 48.0 Because 0.3 0.04 80.2 3 7 8 2 Will 1.2 0.67 41.2 Can 0.7 0.21 78.3 2 0 5 8 To 3.9 2.91 40.1 Do 0.4 0.06 73.6 6 0 0 0 Fight 0.2 0.06 39.4 When 0.4 0.08 68.0

A corpus-based approach to the linguistic features - Adagbonyin, Aluya & Edem

9 0 3 4 Governmen 0.4 0.13 38.7 He 0.3 0.05 67.1 t 2 0 6 8 Assembly 0.1 0.00 38.3 Tonight 0.1 0.00 63.6 1 3 8 2 Would 0.3 0.09 36.3 American 0.1 0.00 63.6 4 9 s 8 2 Sector 0.1 0.00 35.4 Washingt 0.1 0.00 63.6 0 9 on 8 2 Elections 0.1 0.00 35.4 John 0.1 0.00 63.6 0 9 McCain 8 2

The first difference is the LL value of 306.92 in the right column, which indicates that, the Saxon genitive ‘Sis used more frequent by Obama (0.99% compared to 0.02% in the Jonathan text). The relative difference in the two men usage is 0.96%. This shows that the word is underused in the Jonathan text. Saxon genitives are generally used in talk about people. The abundant use of the Saxon genitive suggests that Obama often talks about people or specific people. For instance, he makes mention of George W Bush, John McCain and many others in his speeches. The hypothesis might be made that Obama is more interactive with his listeners and opponents than Jonathan is. The second difference is the LL value of 180.74 in the right column, which shows that the negation n’tis used more frequently in the Obama text (0.62% compared to 0.02% in the Jonathan text). The relative difference in usage is 0.64%. For instance, Obama’s use of negation is seen in the following expressions from the concordances “…I don’t think that 232, 000 Americans who…” (line 9), “...I don’t think the millions of Americans losing homes have seen that progress” (line 10), “…I don’t think families without health care….” (line 11). I don’t believe that Senator McCain doesn’t care about what ‘s going on in the lives of American…” (line 37).From these concordance citations, the hypothesis might be made that negation is more frequent in these texts

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016 and repeated to emphasize a point. The use of contracted negation suggests that Obama’s manner is more conversational than Jonathan’s is. The third difference in the left roll is the LL value of 69.36, which alerts us to the fact that the type the is used relatively more often in Jonathan text (6.44% compared to 4.69% in the Obama text). The relative difference in usage is1.75%.The word the is similarly grammatical in nature. It is a determiner, an open class word. Jonathan uses longer, more elaborate noun phrases. For example in the following lines from the concordance, “…I could end the long queues and price fluctuations in…” (line14), “…a potent instrument for the transformation of our great country…” (line 13), “…you can see from the lower quantities of diesel…” (line 17), “…agencies to speed up the war against corruption…” (line25), “…constrained by the lack of basic infrastructure…” (line 56). The overuse of the type the, is obvious. Jonathan uses more elaborate nouns to comment on issues. Given the overuse of the type ‘the’ in the Jonathan text, the hypothesis might be made that the Jonathan text includes more use of nominalisations than does the Obama text. A fourth difference is the use of pronominal reference. Some examples of the use of pronouns in Obama’s texts, are, we consider, he, she and they. The use of 3rd person pronouns, e.g. she, he and they, are more frequent in the Obama text (0.26%, 0.36% and 0.48% compared to 0.00%,0.05% and 0.06% in Jonathan text). The LL values are 89.34, 67.18% and 88.84.The relative differences in usage are 0.26%, 0.31% and 0.42%. A very rich system of different participants is found in Obama’s speeches. For example, when he refers to President George Bush, he uses “he”, e.g. “…the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition…” (line 1), and when he refers to his opponent, John McCain, he also uses “he”, e.g. “…he fought long and hard in this campaign…” ( line 2). Obama’s use of the pronouns “they” and “she” is seen in the lines “…the challenges we face. They are serious and they are many…” (line1), and “…of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change…” (line8) Obama’s use of the personal pronouns “she”, “he” and “they” suggests references beyond

A corpus-based approach to the linguistic features - Adagbonyin, Aluya & Edem himself and indicate the level of difference in the distance from the electorates observes in both set of speeches. The fifth difference to be considered is the word national, which is used significantly more in the Jonathan text (0.31% compared to 0.02% in the Obama text). The LL value (81.53) confirms this fact. The relative difference in usage is 0.29%.National issues in a country’s political system are the priority in the agenda of any political leader (Opeibi2006). As a result, political aspirants aspiring for top political positions such as that of the president must be able to convince their party members during the primaries and the citizens during electoral campaigns of the fact that they have the country’s national interests at heart (Edigheji 2005).The concordance lines in Figure 1 suggests the use of national in set phrases (e.g. ‘national security’, ‘national assembly’) which are more frequent in the Jonathan text than in that of Obama. I provide the concordance instances of the keyword national.

76 occurrences. e moments and their challenges to national security with patriotism appreciate the role played by the National Assembly , Governors , Ci our oil fields . Working with the National Assembly , we rolled out this has helped to stabilize our national revenue . In the last few e moments and their challenges to national security with patriotism appreciate the role played by the National Assembly and the Governors

Figure1. Concordance for keyword national from Jonathan corpus

In addition, the type continue, which is used more in the Jonathan text (0.24% compared to 0.02% in the Obama text 0.02%) is worth examining. The log likelihood value of 59.3% shows a higher usage of the word in the Jonathan text. I show some concordance instances of this type.

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

59 occurrences of transforming Nigeria . I will continue to fight , for your future because I am one of you . I will continue to fight , for improved me are for all our citizens . I will continue to fight for all citizens to first class education . I will continue to fight for electricity t able to all our citizens . I will continue to fight for an efficient system for all our people . I will continue to fight for jobs to be cre

Figure 2. Concordance of keyword continue in Jonathan corpus

The concordance instances in Figure 2 introduce the reader to Jonathan’s use of repetition. Repetition, as noted above, is the deliberate echoing of the same word repeatedly for emphasis. Repetition of a particular word, phrase or idea helps the speaker to emphasize a point and helps the listener to memorize the word, phrase and idea being emphasized. By means of repetitions, Jonathan laid emphasis on the problems of Nigeria and his plans to tackle such problems. The hypothesis might be made that Jonathan uses the word “continue” rhetorically to emphasize a point i.e. what his government has planned to implement for Nigerians, so that these plans will be comprehended by his audience.

Comparison at the level of parts of speech Table 3 displays the grammatical categories which are key in the Jonathan text and compares them to those of Obama. The statistical criteria for all keyness tables in this section and the next are the same as for the Jonathan and Obama texts in the previous section, that is a log likelihood value of 6.63 or higher, which is equivalent to p<0.01.

A corpus-based approach to the linguistic features - Adagbonyin, Aluya & Edem

Table 3.The 20 most significant differences between Jonathan and Obama at POS level Key POS tags in Jonathan Key POS tags in Obama speeches speeches POS (G (BO) POS (BO) (GJ) LL TAG J)R RF LL TAG RF RF F Singular 16. 11.63 235. negation 1.40 0.38 156. noun 78 06 71

General 8.4 4.97 232. 3rd person 0.62 0.05 144. Adjective 8 29 pronoun 16 (1) Prepositi 3.8 2.39 88.9 Subordina 1.23 0.36 125. on 7 9 ting 84 conjuncti on Article 6.6 4.80 75.4 General 0.47 0.02 122. 5 5 adverb 71

Determin 0.8 0.35 61.3 3rd person 0.97 0.28 103. er 8 8 pronoun 12 neuter Formula 0.1 0.00 52.5 -S form of 1.02 0.32 94.5 5 2 lexical 1 verb Infinitive 2.7 1.96 36.7 3rd person 0.49 0.06 93.2 marker 9 6 pronoun 8 (2)

1st Person 2.2 1.55 31.8 Subjectiv 0.78 0.20 93.2 pronoun 5 6 e pronoun 8 singular (who)

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

Plural 6.2 5.19 24.9 Do, base 0.24 0.01 62.6 noun 6 1 form 1 (finite)

Possessiv 3.4 2.71 23.7 Germanic 0.26 0.02 61.4 e pronoun 7 4 genitive 8 marker Clause 0.0 0.00 22.7 Proper 2.25 1.32 61.3 marker 6 1 noun (1) 2 Singular 0.0 0.00 14.1 Is 1.74 0.94 61.0 letter 4 9 4

Numeral 0.1 0.04 10.8 Coordinat 0.67 0.27 45.4 noun 1 7 ing 9 conjuncti on (but General 5.8 5.19 10.7 Determin 2.00 1.24 45.1 prepositio 8 4 er 8 n singular II31 0.1 0.03 10.4 Indefinite 0.31 0.06 44.5 0 2 pronoun 0 (1) Unit of 0.1 0.05 8.54 PPNIS2 2.32 1.50 43.7 Measure 3 8 ment Objective 0.0 0.00 8.52 Comparat 0.25 0.04 43.2 Pronoun 2 ive 8 determine r Prepositi 1.4 1.17 8.28 Ordinal 0.42 0.13 42.6 on (for) 6 number 6

A corpus-based approach to the linguistic features - Adagbonyin, Aluya & Edem

Lexical 2.0 1.66 8.08 Does 0.12 0.00 40.6 verbs 1 1 (pp) BCL22 0.0 0.00 7.10 Coordinat 4.66 3.62 32.3 2 ing 2 Conjuncti on

The first and most significant difference at the POS level is the use of negation. Note that the use of negation and contracted negation in the Obama text featured in the analysis at the word level. The key POS tag XX (not, n’t) are significantly more numerous in Obama text (1.40% compared to 0.38% in Jonathan text). The relative difference in usage is 1.02%. The Log-likelihood value is 156.71.Obama’s use of the negative suggests that he is more interactive than Jonathan is. The second difference at the POS level is the use of more elaborate noun phrases in Jonathan’s text than in Obama’s. This refers to the use of nominalization, which also featured in the analysis at word level in Jonathan’s text. Consider the grammatical tagNN1 which marks singular common nouns and NN2 which marks plural common nouns. They are more abundant in Jonathan’s text (16.78% and 6.26% respectively) than in Obama text (11.63% and 5.19%). The relative differences in this usage are 5.15% and 1.07%. Their log-likelihood values are 235.06 and 24.91. An example of the tag NN1 is “transformation” and NN2 is “elections”. Jonathan’s use of elaborate noun phrases suggests that he focuses more on abstract issues than Obama does. A third difference at the POS level is the use of pronouns. Obama uses the following types of pronoun: third person singular personal pronoun (PPHS1), third person plural pronoun (PPH2), third person pronoun neuter (PPH1), subjective pronoun (PNQS) and indefinite pronoun (PN1). These are frequently used in the Obama texts (0.62%, 0.49%, 0.97%, 0.78% and 0.31% compared to 0.05%, 0.06%, 0.28%, 0.20% and 0.06%) in the Jonathan texts. The log-likelihood value 17

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016 for these POS tags (144.16, 93.28, 103.12 and 44.50) confirms this fact. See the discussion of the third person singular pronoun and third person plural pronoun in the analysis made at word level. In terms of the other types of pronoun mentioned here, see the lines “… whether it helps families find jobs…” (line 7), “…it is precisely this spirit that must…” (line12), “…for those who prefer leisure over work…” (line 1), “…there are some who question the scale of our ambitions…” (line 3), “…But everyone else acts as though these were…” (line 3). The use of these pronouns suggests that Obama is conversational than Jonathan. The fourth difference at the POS level is for the tag JJ (general adjective) which includes such words as national, great, economic etc. Note that, among the list of general adjectives, the word national featured in Table 2 at the word level. Table 3 shows that this grammatical tag is significantly more frequent in Jonathan’s text (8.48% than in Obama’s text 4.97%). The relative difference in usage is 3.51%. The LL value 232.29 confirms this. The hypothesis might be made that this is part of Jonathan’s use of nominalization. The fifth difference at the POS level is the tag GE which marks Germanic (i.e. Saxon) genitive markers, also known as the Saxon genitive. The Saxon genitive ‘Sis more frequent in the Obama text (0.99%)than in the Jonathan text (0.02%). The relative difference in usage is 0.96%. Note that this POS tag featured in the analysis at the word level. The use of Saxon genitive suggests that Obama talks more about people or specific people. For instance, he makes mention of George W Bush, John McCain, our children, our society and many other people in his speeches. The hypothesis might be made that Obama is more interactive with his listeners and opponents than Jonathan is.

Comparison at the semantic domain We apply the USAS tagger defined in Rayson et al. (2004b) to allot semantic tags to the Jonathan and Obama data. The top 20 tags (with the largest LL values) in this set are shown in Table 4. This table displays the semantic tags which are key in the Jonathan text when it is compared to that of Obama. The statistical criteria for all keyness tables

A corpus-based approach to the linguistic features - Adagbonyin, Aluya & Edem in this section is a log likelihood value of 6.63 or higher, which is equivalent to p<0.01.

Table 4.The 20 most significant differences between Jonathan and Obama at the semantic level Semantic tag in Jonathan Speech Semantic tag in Obama Speech SEMAN GJ BO(R LL SEMANTI BO GJ(R LL TIC (R F) C FIELD (RF F) FIELD F) ) Belonging 0.42 149. Pronouns 14. 11.09 112. 1.4 57 47 31 4 Governm 0.98 121. Negative 1.5 0.59 110. ent 2.2 68 4 02 0 In power 0.56 63.4 Existing 3.0 1.79 81.3 1.2 4 3 7 2 Places 0.7 0.28 50.3 Linear 0.4 0.13 45.4 2 5 order 5 4 Entire; 0.62 48.9 Warfare, 0.3 0.10 42.1 maximum 1.2 8 defence the 8 6 1 army; weapons Non- 0.01 46.0 Speech: 0.7 0.34 40.5 governme 0.1 5 Communic 6 6 ntal 7 ative Time: 0.22 44.5 Failure 0.1 0.02 32.4 Beginning 0.5 6 8 9 9 General 1.18 44.3 Work, 0.7 0.40 31.2 actions 1.9 1 employmen 8 5 2 t: Generally

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

Unmatche 0.36 38.7 If 0.2 0.08 28.6 d 0.7 1 8 5 7 Important 0.16 34.7 Time: Old; 0.1 0.00 26.7 0.4 2 grown-up 0 8 4 No 0.00 33.7 Location 2.1 1.53 26.0 change 0.1 5 and 5 5 2 direction Allowed 0.21 32.7 Shape 0.1 0.02 24.3 0.5 5 4 3 1 Inclusion 0.02 27.0 The 0.2 0.06 23.8 0.1 1 universe 2 8 5 Size: Big 0.12 25.5 Geographic 1.9 1.43 22.0 0.3 8 al names 8 1 3 Unethical 0.03 25.4 Comparing: 0.1 0.04 21.0 0.1 1 Similar 8 4 7 Liquid 0.09 25.3 Sensory: 0.3 0.12 21.0 0.2 4 Sight 0 0 7 Helping 0.56 25.2 Kin 0.4 0.21 20.8 0.9 8 5 4 5 Speed: 0.02 25.1 Degree: 0.0 0.00 20.3 Fast 0.1 6 Diminisher 6 1 4 s Food 0.05 22.6 Comparing: 0.5 0.26 20.2 0.2 8 Different 1 4 0

A corpus-based approach to the linguistic features - Adagbonyin, Aluya & Edem

Attentive 0.03 22.3 Sensory: 0.1 0.04 18.3 0.1 7 Sound 6 0 5

The first difference in the semantic comparisons is the LL value (112.31) which shows that the domain pronouns (Z8) are used widely (14.47%) in the Obama text (compared to 11.09% in the Jonathan text). The relative difference in usage is 3.38%. The semantic tag (Z8) includes the pronouns we, I, our, it, you, us, they, he, she, my etc. This is largely due to pronouns at the word level (see table 2) and with POS tags PPHS1 and PPHS2 (as highlighted by the POS level comparison in table 3) being overused in the Obama text. Obama uses pronouns for different purposes. See analysis at the keyword and key part of speech level for usage of some of these pronouns. A second difference in semantic comparisons is the (LL value 121.68),which shows that the domain Government (G1.1) is used largely (2.20%) in Jonathan text compare to (0.98%) in Obama text. The relative difference in usage is 1.22%. The semantic tag (G1.1) includes words such as country, government, nation, governance, state etc. This is largely due to words at the level of word analysis (see Table 2) and with POS tag NN1 (as highlighted by the POS level comparison in Table 3) being over used in the Jonathan text. The domain government tells us more about Jonathan’s administration, the system by which Nigeria as a political unit is governed, the act of governing and the authorities involved in governance. Jonathan uses more elaborate noun phrases in his texts. The hypothesis might be made that Jonathan uses more nominalization than does Obama. The third difference (LL value 110.02) indicates the overuse of the semantic domain of negation in the Obama text. The semantic tag Z6 indicates the use of the negative. The use of Z9 (negative) in Obama text corroborates the use of negatives at the keyword level (see Table 2) and the POS tag XX (as highlighted by the POS level comparison in Table 3). The use of the negative is relatively more frequent in the Obama text (1.54%) than in the Jonathan text (0.59%). The relative difference in 21

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016 usage is 0.95%. This suggests that Obama is more interactive and conversational. At the eighth position in the Jonathan text, the LL value of 44.31 in the semantic comparisons shows that the domain of general actions (A1.1.1) is used more often (1.92%) there in Obama text (1.18%). The relative difference in usage is 0.74%. The semantic tag A1.1.1 which denotes general actions include words such as create, make, projects, implementation, production, committed, tasks, undertaking, pursue etc. The hypothesis might be made that these words are to focus on projects which Jonathan’s government has planned to accomplish for the people of Nigeria. These include the creation of opportunities and jobs for all Nigerians, greater access to quality education, road construction and health care etc. At the fifth position in the Obama text, the LL value of 42.16 in the semantic comparisons indicates that the domain of warfare, defence, army and weapons (G3) is used more often (0.38%) in the Obama text than in that of Jonathan (0.10%). The relative difference in usage is 0.28%. The semantic tag (G3) includes words such as war, troops, army, battlefield, bombs, missiles etc. War is one of the factors arguably considered to be among the social and political concerns in America during Obama’s campaign. The hypothesis might be made that this semantic domain refers to America’s war with Iraq and Afghanistan. At the eighth position in the Obama text, the LL value of 31.25 in the semantic comparisons indicates that the domain work and employment (I3.1) is more often used (0.78%) in his text than in Jonathan’s (0.40%). The relative difference in usage is 0.38%. The semantic tag (I3.1) includes words such as jobs, workers, recruit, career etc. Work and employment are factors arguably considered to be among the social and political concerns at the time of Obama’s campaign. The rate of unemployment was gradually beginning to increase, with 232,000 Americans losing their jobs in 2008 compared to 178,000 during George W Bush’s period. The hypothesis might be made that this semantic domain is used to show Obama’s plan to create more job opportunities for Americans.

A corpus-based approach to the linguistic features - Adagbonyin, Aluya & Edem

At the fifteenth position in the Jonathan text, the LL value of 25.41 in the semantic comparisons shows that the domain unethical (G2.2-) is more frequently used (0.17%) there than in the Obama text (0.03%). The relative difference in usage is 0.14%. The semantic tag (G2.2-) denoting unethical includes words such as corruption, exploit, miscreant, harassment, anarchy etc. These are arguably social and political concerns of the period mentioned in Section 2 including political instability, ethnic and religious conflicts because of nepotism and a flawed electoral process; poor and failed government policies; negative campaigning; etc. The electoral process through which the previous political candidates came into office was flawed, as were the election arrangements throughout the period of these speeches, due to nepotism. The hypothesis might be made that unethical refers to some of the social and political concerns in Nigeria during Jonathan’s political campaign making focus more on such issues than Obama does.

Result and conclusion It is obvious from the analysis of the political speeches conducted in the study that the sorts of linguistics features revealed by the corpus-based approach are pronominal reference, nominalization, negation/contracted negation, repetition, Saxon genitive. Obama makes frequent use of pronominal forms, negation and contracted negation as well as Saxon genitive whereas Jonathan uses more of nominalization and repetition. These linguistic features were used to arouse the feelings, collective excitement and sentiments of followers, sustain their support and followership as well as address a variety of issues confronting both nations. While in the case of Nigeria, issues such as unemployment, underdevelopment, high rate of poverty and substandard education among others were highlighted, war, exorbitant health care system and unemployment were the major concerns in the Obama speeches. We observed that unemployment is the only factor that connects the issues addressed in both speeches in terms of similarity. The present study has

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016 demonstrated the importance of corpus-based approach to discourse analysis. To explore the role of corpora in political discourse this study adopted a corpus-based method to identify the linguistic devices used in Nigerian and American presidential speeches. Through the analysis of the data, it can be seen that politicians use all sort of linguistic features e.g. Pronominal reference, nominalization, negation/contracted negation, repetition and Saxon genitive etc. in their speeches to gain the approval of their audience. Obama’s use of pronominal forms, negation/contracted negation and Saxon genitive showed that he is more informal, conversational and interactive than Jonathan while Jonathan’s use of normalisation (elaborate noun phrases) and repetition present him as formally inclined. Finally, the study therefore recommends the use of computer software as a viable approach to the study of political speeches.

References Adetunji, A. (2006). “Inclusion and exclusion in political discourse: deixis in Olusegun Obasanjo’s speech”. Journal of Language and Linguistics 5: 23-43. Ayeomoni, M.O. (2004). “A linguistic-stylistic investigation of the language of the Nigerian political elite”. In Lekan Oyeleye (ed). Language and Discourse in Society. Ibadan: Hope Publication. Ayoola, K. (2005). “Investigating Nigerian political discourse: A study of president Olusegun Obasanjo’s July 26, 2005 address to the national assembly”. Papers in English and Linguistics, 6: 1-13. Ayuba, E.J. (2012). “A pragmatic-stylistic analysis of president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan inaugural speech”. English Language Teaching, 5: 8-15. Babatunde, N. & Odegbedan, O. (2009).“Pragma-rhetorical strategies in selected speeches of Nigerian president Olusegun Obansanjo”. Language, Gender and Politics.297-312. Baker, P. (2004b). “Querying keywords: Questions of difference, frequency and sense in keywords analysis”.Journal of English Linguistics, 32: 346-359.

A corpus-based approach to the linguistic features - Adagbonyin, Aluya & Edem

Baker, P.(2006). Using corporal in discourse analysis. London: New York. Beard, A. (2000). The language of politics. London: Routledge. Charteris, B. J. (2005).“Politicians and rhetoric: The persuasive power of metaphor. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Chilton, P.A.(2004).Analysing political discourse: Theory and practice. London: Routledge. Chilton, P. &Shaffner, (1997).“Discourse and politics’, In discourse as social interaction”. Discourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction, 2: 204-230. Chilton, P.A & Shaffner, C.(2003).“Introduction, themes and principles in the analysis of political discourse”. In politics as text and talk. approaches to political discourse. John Benjamins. Culpepper, J. (2009). “Keyness: words, part-of-speech and semantic categories in the character talk of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet”. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 14(2009): 29-59. Edigheji, O. (2005).“A democratic development state in Africa”. Centre for Policy Studies. Johannesburg 2: 1-44. Harlow, R.(2008).“Barack Obama and the significance of his presidential campaign”. Springer Science 4: 164-175. Harris, P.B. (1979). Foundational of political science. Methourine Sidney: Auckland . Idiagbon, A. M. (2010).“Language use in selected Nigerian presidential speeches/election/campaign speeches: A critical discourse analysis perspective”. Journal of the Nigerian Studies Association 13: 30-44. Lyons, J. (1970), New horizons in linguistics. London and New York: Cambridge University Press. Nørgaard, N., Montoro, R. and Beatrix Busse, B. (2010), Key terms in stylistics. London: Continuum International Publishing Group. Obeng, G. S. (1997). “Language and politics; indirectness in political discourse”. Discourse Society 8: 49-83.

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

Omozuwa, V. and Ezejideaku, E. ‘A Stylistic Analysis of the Language of Political Campaigns In Nigeria: Evidence from the 2007 general elections’. African Journal online6 (2007): 40-52. Opebi, T. (2006).“Political, marketing or political “macheting”? A study of negative campaigning in Nigerian political discourse’. 3: 22- 40. Rayson, P. (2003). “Matrix: A statistical method and software tool for linguistic analysis through corpus comparison’. PhD. Thesis, Lancaster University. Rayson, P. (2005). Wmatrix: A web-based corpus processing environment. Computing department Lancaster: Lancaster University. http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/ucrel/wmatrix/. Rayson, P. (2008). “From keywords to key semantic domains’. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 13: 519-549. Taiwo, R. (2007).“Satirizing politicians and public officers in Nigerian newspapers”. The International Journal of Language, Society and Culture 22: 19-28. Tejumaiye, J.A. (2008). “Political advertising in Nigeria’s emerging democracy”. Social Sciences and Humanities Review16: 278- 285. Udende, P. (2011). “Mass media, political awareness and voting behaviour in the Nigeria’s 2011presidential election”. Journal of African Studies 34: 493-501. Van Dijk, T.A. (1993b). “Principles of critical discourse analysis”. Discourse and Society 4: 249-83. Van Dijk, T.A. (1996). Discourse, power and access: In Texts and Practices. Readings in Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Routledge. Wilson, J. (2001). Political discourse. The handbook of discourse analysis. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. Yusuf, Y. (2002). “Dysphemisms in the language of Nigerian’s president Olusegun Obasanjo”. AILA Review, 16: 104-119.

A corpus-based approach to the linguistic features - Adagbonyin, Aluya & Edem

Asomwan S. Adagbonyin Department of English, Ambrose Alli University Ekpoma, Nigeria & Isaiah Aluya Department of English Bingham University Karu, Nigeria & Samuel Edem Department of English Nigeria Police Academy Wudil, Nigeria

Clipping of Igbo personal names: An optimality theory approach

Justina E. Onuora

Abstract The study investigates clipping of Igbo personal names with insights from Optimality Theory. The objectives of the study are to: (i) find out if clipping of personal names is an arbitrary exercise or if there are operational constraints for the optimal (licensed) clips formation in the language, (ii) support Kager’s (1999) claim that Optimality Theory is a general theory of grammar, rather than one of phonology and (iii) fill in the gap of carrying out a constraint base analysis of Igbo personal names. The study adopts descriptive-analytical design. It collects data from primary and secondary sources. The study identifies six operational constraints for the formation of optimal clips in English and Igbo. It proposes the following operational constraints for the formation of optimal clips in Igbo personal names: clips are not usually monosyllabic; clips must be formed with the first syllables and the verbal segments (repository of meaning) of the syllable are usually not compromised. From the analysis of the clips of Noun Phrase, the Simple Sentence and the Negative Sentence Categories of Igbo personal names, and how these categories get licensed, the study finds that three main proper clipped forms are Head of NP only; exclusive NP + V and elision of Neg suffix. The study recommends further research on the new trend in clipping of Igbo personal names, where the first syllable is cut off.

Introduction The term clipping has been variously defined by different scholars. According to Aronoff and Fudeman (2005:115) it is “the creation of a new word by truncation of an existing one”. In Crystal’s (2008:1) view, it is “the reduction of longer forms, usually by removing the end of the word (e.g. Rob from Robert), and sometime the beginning of the word (e.g. Tricia from Patricia). Yule (1985:66) says that clipping

Clipping of Igbo personal names: An optimality theory approach - Onuora

“occurs when a word of more than one syllable is reduced to a shorter form in causal speech” (Yule 1985:66). These scholars are saying the same thing in different ways. In a nutshell that clipping is the shortening, truncation or reduction of long words to short forms of the word. In English, verbs and nouns are the lexical categories that are usually clipped. However, in Igbo, only names are clipped. The study investigates the underlying constraints that determine the grammatical correctness of clips in Igbo personal names. The motivation for the study are in three folds: the first one emanates from the fact that Igbo personal names are derived from phrases and sentences, however, these long expressions which are merged to form personal names are usually used in their clipped (short) forms. Optimality Theory (henceforth OT) therefore, is used to analyses how the phrases and sentences that are merged to form personal names are clipped to derive the short forms of such personal names. In other words, the study seeks to find out if clipping of names is an arbitrary exercise or if there are operational constraints for the optimal clips formation in Igbo. The second motivation is to support Kager’s (1999) view that OT is a general theory of grammar, rather than one of phonology by using OT to analyse clipping, which is a morphological process. The third motivation is to fill in the gap of carrying out a constraint base analysis of Igbo personal names, because to the best of my knowledge, no one has used OT to analyse Igbo personal names. As a cultural and linguistic phenomenon, linguists and non- linguists have participated in the study of Igbo personal names. Among them are Wieschoff (1941), Ezeanya (1967), Obi (1972), Njoku (1978), Iwundu (1980, 1992, and 1994), Ubahakwe (1981), Onuoha (1986) and Ogbulogo (1999). These scholars carried out their investigation from three different perspectives: lexicographical, socio-cultural and structural perspectives. From lexicographical perspective, Ezeanya (1967), Obi (1972) and Njoku (1969) present a list of Igbo Christian names, their interpretations and their English equivalents. Wieschoff (1941), Iwundu (1980, 1992, and 1994) and Ogbulogo (1999) examined Igbo personal names from socio-cultural perspective. Ubahakwe (1981) and Onuoha

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

(1996) focused on the structure of the names but while Ubahakwe examined the syntactic structure, Onuoha studied the phonological structure of the names. None of these studies, account for the operational constraints for the optimal clips formation in Igbo Personal names. This study, therefore, fills in the gap. The study adopts descriptive-analytical design. It collects data from primary and secondary sources. The primary sources comprised researcher’s introspection as a native speaker of Igbo while the secondary source is library materials.

Theoretical framework: Optimality theory and its principles The objective of the theory of Optimality is to merge all theoretical frames of whatever aspect of linguistics at an interface by means of a constraint based analysis. In other words, OT encourages a deflection from rule-based to constraint-based analysis. It is another way of accounting for how the natural intelligence processes utterance as it relies on well- formedness constraints, the domain of Universal Grammar (Lewis 2000:24). OT concerns itself with the notion of well-formedness constraints and the way these constraints operate in the grammar of languages. OT conceptualizes Universal Grammar (UG) as a set of violable constraints while the grammars of specific languages are language-particular rankings of universal constraints. In other words, constraints are universal but languages differ in the ranking of the constraints by giving priorities to some constraints over others. Following Kager (1999: xi), “the central idea of OT is that surface forms of language reflects resolutions of conflicts between competing demands or constraints”. By implication, the grammar of a language consists of a hierarchy of ranked well-formedness constraints. The grammar selects the output form of all potential candidates as that form which best satisfies the constraint hierarchy. In other words, a surface form is ‘optimal’ if it incurs the least serious violations of a set of violable constraints, which are ranked in a language specific hierarchy. In selecting the optimal candidate in OT, there is no serial derivation, that is, the grammar does away with language specific rules and assesses every potential surface form. Essential to the theory, therefore, is the idea that constraints may be violated by the

Clipping of Igbo personal names: An optimality theory approach - Onuora optimal candidate, particularly if the violation allows for the satisfaction of higher ranked constraints. However, the theory requires that such violations must be minimal. There are five basic principles of OT as spelt out in McCarthy and Prince (1994: 336). These are as follows: Universality, Violability, Ranking, Inclusiveness and Parallelism. These principles are explained as follows:

Universality: Universal Grammar (UG) provides a set of constraints (CON) that are universally present in all grammars. A morphological instance of such universal constraint states that words are made up of syllables, though the constituents that each syllable permits are language-specific. In other words, Individual languages differ a great deal in the kind of syllable structure they have. Some of these differences stem from language specific restrictions placed on the structure of onsets and codas. This implies that there is no syllable in a language without a Peak. The constituent(s) of Igbo syllable is/are the syllabic (a vowel/a syllabic nasal) or a consonant and a vowel (CV). Igbo syllable structure is important in our OT analysis because the choice of candidates in the OT tableau is determine by the syllable structure of the names to be analyzed.

Violability: Constraints are violable, but violation must be minimal. This means that violation occurs in different degrees. According to Kager (1999: 13) “…each output form of the grammar is by definition the ‘best possible’ in terms of the hierarchy of constraints, rather than the form which matches all constraints at the same time”. This means that even the optimal candidate itself is not impeccable because every output form violates at least some constraints, but the flaw of the optimal or best candidate is insignificant to the outcome, that is, it is the least serious violation of a set of violable constraints.

Ranking: The constraints are ranked on a language-particular basis, and the notion of minimal violation is defined in terms of this ranking. Simply put, languages rank constraints in such a way that a highly ranked constraint in one language, say English, can occupy a very low position in another

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016 language, say Igbo. The notion of one constraint being ranked higher than the other is indicated by >>. “The higher-ranked of a pair of conflicting constraints takes precedence over the lower ranked one” (Kager 1999:13). This implies that constraints are ordered in such a way that a single violation of a higher-ranked constraint is worse than several numbers of violations of a lower ranked-constraint.

Inclusiveness: The constraint hierarchy which is determined by ranking is employed to evaluate a set of candidates. This principle of inclusiveness ensures that the grammar considers unlimited number of candidates.

Parallelism: This principle refers to “all constraints pertaining to some type of structure interaction in a single hierarchy” (Kager 1999: 25). According to McCarthy and Prince (1994), with the principle of parallelism, the best- satisfaction of the constraint hierarchy is computed over the whole hierarchy and the whole candidate set. There is no serial derivation, the grammar assesses every potential surface form from which the optimal candidates are selected.

Clipping patterns in English and Igbo To support the universality of constraints and to establish how constraints are ranked on language-specific bases, and how a highly ranked constraint in one language can occupy a very low position in another language, consider the following illustrations with clip patterns of English and Igbo:

Clipping patterns in English Examples of English clip are as follows 2. a. prof from professor b lab from laboratory c. gas from gasoline d. ad from advertisement Based on the above clips, we summarize the English clipping patterns as follows:

Clipping of Igbo personal names: An optimality theory approach - Onuora

(i) Only monosyllabic clips are accepted in English clipping. (ii) The final clipped form in English usually include the first syllable of polysyllabic words plus as much more segment as can fit in within the rules of English syllable structure (Archangeli 1997). (iii) Meaning in English is not overtly preserved. To understand the meaning of the clip, one needs to know the unabridged form of the name.

Clipping patterns in Igbo Examples of Igbo clips are as follows: 3. a. Chimà from Chimàogè ‘God knows the time’ b. Uchè from Uchènnà ‘Father’s mind’ c. Chikà from Chikàdíbịà ‘God is greater than d. Nnàjì from Nnajìọ̀fọ ‘Father holds ọ̀fọ staff’

From the above clips, the Igbo clip patterns is summarized as follows: (i) Clips in Igbo are not monosyllabic (like English); Igbo clips may tolerate about five syllables. For example:

Clipped Form No of Syllable Unabridged Form 3.a. Chimà (2syllables) Chimàogè God know ‘God knows’ ‘God knows the time’ b. Nnàjì (3syllables) Nnajìọ̀fọ 4 father hold ‘father holds’ ‘Father hold the ọ̀fọ staff or symbol of justice’ c. Ejiụ̀wà (4 syllables) Ejiụ̀wànaka Imp pro hold world ‘who hold the world’ ‘No one can predict the world’ d. Eberèegbu (5 syllables) Eberèegbunam kindness NegPre kill ‘kindness does not kill’ ‘Kindness will not kill me’.

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

(ii) Clips must be formed with the first syllable in Igbo, e.g., Chi ‘God ’in (4a). However, I observed from during the course of this study that there is a new trend in the clipping of Igbo personal names in which the first syllables are cut off. Examples are Nàèdu for Chinedu, Nàasà for Chinasa, Nàènye for Chinenye, etc. This observation calls for further studies on the clipping of Igbo personal names.

(iii) The verbal segments of the syllables are usually not compromised (often the subject and the verb remain within the clip). This is due to the fact that that the semantic core of the personal name is usually the verb or the subject. For example, in the clip ‘Chimà’ in (3a) above, Chi ‘God’ the subject and mà ‘know’ the verbs are not compromised.

Operational constraints for optimal clips formation in English and Igbo Based on the above clip patterns in English and Igbo (3.1 and 3.2), the study proposes the following operational constraints for the formation of optimal clips in English and Igbo: (i) ONS: Each syllable must have an onset. In other words, every syllable must contain the Onset and the Peak of the syllable, since the Peak is an obligatory segment in every syllable. (ii) MONOSYL: Only single syllables (mono –syllables) are allowed (iii) *CODA: No CODA is allowed (in the final syllable) (iv) Max Sem seg: All semantic segments must be preserved. Two sub-constraints apply here either collectively or individually, depending on whether the semantic repository is the verb or the subject. (a) Max Sub Vrb: All verbal segments (and their subjects) must be retained. (b) Max Sub seg: All subject segments must be retained. (v) CODADJ: CODA from Adjacent right syllable (vi) *Complex Syl: No complex syllables are allowed (i.e. syllables with consonant cluster or vowel hiatus)

Clipping of Igbo personal names: An optimality theory approach - Onuora

How the operational constraints work in English Let us examine how the operational constraints in section (3.3) work in English using the name Professor:

5. Tableau (A) Professor /prə 'fesə/ Candid O MONOS CODA *CO Max Sem *Comple ates NS YL DJ DA Seg x Syl i) prə *! * * ii)  prəf * * * iii) prəfe *! * * * iv) prəfes *! * * (cf. Lewis 2004:298) Deductions from Tableau (A): (i) The study observes that the constraint Max Sem seg ranks very low in the English hierarchy for clips. This is because clips develop by convention in English, and the users already have semantic knowledge of the words in their unabridged forms. Hence, the semantic segments are not overt in the language. (ii) Similarly, *Complex Syl and *CODA also occupy very low positions in the constraint hierarchy. It follows, therefore, that in English Max Sem seg, *Complex Syl and *CODA can be violated even in the accepted or optimal form of a clip. On the other hand, constraints such as ONS, MONOSYL and CODADJ rank so high in English that the violation of one of them automatically disqualifies the output, rendering it unacceptable.

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

The following is the English hierarchy of constraints for permissible clips: Fig. 2

1 2 3 4 5 6 ONS >>MONOSYL>>CODADJ >>*CODA>>Max Sem seg>*Complex Syl

Obligatory Optional (Fatal) (Benign)

How the operational constraints work in Igbo Tableau (B) below reveals the nature of these constraints hierarchy in Igbo. 6. Tableau (B) Chimàogè /ʧi.ma.o.ge/ Candidat *Comple *CO Max Sem O CODA MONOS es x Syl DA Seg N DJ YL S i) ʧi *! * * ii)  ʧi.mà * * iii) ʧi.mà.o *! * iv) o.gè *! *!

Deductions from Tableau (B): (i) The optimal candidate is candidate (ii) because it violates insignificant constraints in the language.

Clipping of Igbo personal names: An optimality theory approach - Onuora

(ii) Constraints such as ONS, CODADJ and MONOSYL are less important in Igbo. This is because both of them can be violated in the optimal form of the clip. Hence, they are ranked very low in the language. (iv) However, *Complex Syl, *CODA and Max Sem seg are obligatory constraints in Igbo. The following is the Igbo hierarchy of constraints for permissible clips: Fig. 3 Complex Syl>>*CODA>>Max Sem seg>>ONS >> CODADJ >> MONOSYL

Obligatory Optional (Fatal) (Benign) The differences in the hierarchy of constraints for permissible clips in English and Igbo as illustrated above has shown how specific constraints are ranked in languages, in such a way that a highly ranked constraint in a language can occupy a very low position in another language.

Testing hierarchy of constraints with three categories of Igbo personal names This section tests the hierarchy of constraints with three categories of Igbo personal names such as Noun Phrase Category, Simple Sentence Category and Negative Sentence Category.

Noun phrase category In this category, N2 qualifies N1, so, we have: N1 as Head and N2 as Spec. 7. Unabridged Form N1 + N2 Clipped Form a. Uchènnà Uchè nnà Uchè mind father ‘mind’ b. Ijènwa Ijè nwa Ijè journey child ‘journey’ c. Ikpendụ̀ Ikpe ndụ̀ Ikpe judgement life ‘judgement’

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

Tableau (A) is a sample of the noun phrase category: 7(a). Tableau (A) Uchènnà / u. ʧe. n. na/ Candidat *Complex *CO Max Sem O CODA MONOS es Syl DA Seg NS DJ YL i) u *! * * * ii)  uʧè * * * iii) nnà *! * * iv) ʧènnà *! * * v) nà *! *

Deductions from Tableau (A) (i) The optimal candidate is candidate /uʧè/ ‘Uchè’. In Igbo clips, the subject and verbal segments of the syllables are not compromised. However, since there is no verbal segment in the name /uʧènnà/ ‘Uchennà’, the head of the phrase, /uʧè/ ‘Uchè’ becomes the best candidate. Despite the fact that /uʧè/ ‘Uchè violates the constraints: ONS, CODAJ and MONOSYL, it remains the optimal candidate among all the contesting candidates because the constraints it violated are insignificant in Igbo. A prove that a surface form is ‘optima’, if it incurs the least serious violations of a set of violable constraints, which are ranked in a language specific hierarchy.

(ii) I observed that the accepted or optimal candidate, uʧè ‘Uchè’ does not violate any of the obligatory constraints proposed in

Clipping of Igbo personal names: An optimality theory approach - Onuora

Igbo, which are Complex syl, CODA and Max Segm seg. As discussed in section (4.5) above. (iii) Candidates (i) and (iv) (which are semantically empty), are blocked in that they have no semantic content that can be associated with the desired clip meaning. (iv) Once an obligatory constraint is violated, the candidate is immediately blocked (disqualified), as seen in candidates (i), (iii), (iv) and (v).

Simple sentence category This is a simple declarative sentential name of the structure: NP VP NP. 8. Unabridged form NP VP NP Clipped form a. Chikàdibịà Chi kà dibịà Chikà God greater medicine-man ‘God is greater’ ‘God is greater than medicine-man’ b. Nwakàegō Nwa kà egō Nwakà child greater money ‘Child is greater’ ‘Child is greater than money’ c. Nnàjìọ̀fọ Nnà jì ọ̀fọ Nnàjì father hold symbol of justice ‘Father holds’ ‘Father holds the symbol of justice’

Tableau (B) is a sample of the simple declarative sentential personal name: 8(a). Tableau (B) Chikàdibịà / ʧi. kà. di. bɪa/ Candidat *Comple *CO Max Sem O CODA MONOS es x DA Seg N DJ YL Syl S i) ʧi *! * * ii)  ʧikà * *

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016 iii) kàdibɪà *! * * iv) dibɪà *! * * v) di *! * *

Deductions from Tableau (B) (i) The optimal candidate is candidate (ii), because it is the only candidate that does not, like other candidates, violate of the highly ranked constraint, Max Sub Vrb seg. It is the only candidate that retained the semantic repository of in this category of names in example 8, which is, the verbal segment and its subject (Max Sub Vrb seg). (ii) Any candidate that does not include both subject and verb is automatically blocked. This is because in this category of personal name clip the ‘seat of meaning’ is the subject and the verb.

Negative sentence category The negative sentence category has the structure: NP NegPre V NegSfx NP

Unabridged form NP NegPre V NegSfx NP Clipped form 9.a. Ahịaazụghịnwā: Ahịa a zụ ghị nwa Ahịazụ market NegPre buy NegSfx child ‘Child is not bought from market’ ‘Market does not buy’ b. Ibèegbūgbim: Ibè e gbu ghị m Ibèegbū fellow NegPre kill NegSfx me ‘Fellow human being will not kill me’ ‘Fellow will not kill’ c. Èberèegbūghịm: Èberè e gbu ghi m Èberèegbū kindness NegPre kill NegSfx me ‘Kindness will not kill me’ ‘Kindness does not kill’

Clipping of Igbo personal names: An optimality theory approach - Onuora

A sample of the negative sentential name is represented in Tableau (C): 9(a). Tableau (C) Ahịaazụghịnwā/a.hɪa.a.zʊ.ɪ.ŋwa/ Candidat *Comple *CO Max Sem O CODA MONOS es x DA Seg NS DJ YL Syl i) ahɪa *! * * ii) ahɪaa *! iii) ahɪaaz * * ʊ iv) zʊɪŋwa *! * * v) ŋwa *! * *

Deductions from Tableau C (i) The optimal candidate is candidate is/ahɪaazʊ / ‘Ahiazụ’. It is the only candidate that does not violate the constraint, Max Sub Vrb seg, which is the ultimate constraint in this category. In other words, it is the only candidate that retains the verbal segment and its subject, which is the repository of meaning in Igbo sentential clip. (ii) Other candidates are blocked/disqualified because they do not include the Subject (Sub), Negative Prefix (NegPre) and the Verb (V), which is the repository of meaning in this category of personal name clip.

Summary and conclusion This study has presented a principled account of a constraint- based analysis of personal name clips in Igbo. The OT analysis of 41

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016 clipping (a morphological process) supports the claim by Kager (1999) that OT is a general theory of grammar, rather than one of phonology. Clipping process is extensively used in Igbo personal names. As a matter of fact, almost all Igbo personal names are used in their clip forms. The study shows that there is more to names than just the string of sounds. The analysis reveals that clipping in Igbo is not an arbitrary process; there are underlying constraints that determine the grammatical correctness of clips in Igbo. That is why some candidates are accepted while some are disqualified. In other to choose the appropriate clip, one must assign a specific hierarchy to a fixed set of constraints as seen in the examples above. The candidate that minimally violates the fixed set of constraints is the optimal candidate. I assert that for reasons of convenience and briefness, almost all Igbo personal names are used in their clipped forms because in most cases the repository of meaning is not tampered with or compromised in the process of clipping. Nonetheless, the full forms come in whenever the need for full semantic interpretation of the names arises. Based on my observation of the structure of the three categories of Igbo personal name clips, and how these categories get licensed as proper clipped forms, I conclude that there are three main clips that are licensed in Igbo. They are as follows: Class Examples (i) Head of NP only: Uchè, Ijè, Ikpe (ii) Exclusive NP + V: Chikà, Nwakà, Nnàjì (iii) Elision of Neg suffix Ahịazụ, Ibèegbu, Eberèegbu

However, it is pertinent to note that during the course of this study, I observed that there is a new trend in the clipping of Igbo personal names in which the first syllables are cut off. Examples are Nàèdu for Chinedu, Nàasà for Chinasa, Nàènye for Chinenye, etc. This observation calls for further studies on the clipping of Igbo personal names.

Clipping of Igbo personal names: An optimality theory approach - Onuora

Abbreviations/notational conventions Complex syl Complex syllable CON Constraints CODAJ Coda from adjacent segment CV Consonant and Vowel Indef.pro Indefinite pronoun Max Sem seg All semantic segments Max Sub seg All subject segments Max Sub Vrb All verbal segments and their subjects MONOSLY Mono-syllabic/single syllable NegPre Negative prefix N1 First noun N2 Second noun NegSfx Negative suffix NP Noun Phrase ONS Onset OT Optimality Theory Spec Specifier UG Universal Grammar V Verb VP Verb phrase Vpre Verbal prefix Vrb Verb  Thumbs-up: indicates Optimal Candidate in OT * Asterisk: indicates violation of constraint in Optimality Theory *! Asterisk & exclamation marks: indicate crucial/fatal violation of constraint in Optimality Theory >> Ranked higher than

References

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

Archangeli, D. (1997). Optimality Theory: An introduction to linguistics in 1990s. In D. Archangeli and D. T. Langendoen (Eds.), Optimality Theory: An overview (pp. 1-32). Oxford: Blackwell. Arnoff, M. & Fudeman, K. (2005). What is morphology? U.S.A: Blackwell Publishing. Crystal, D. (2008). A dictionary of linguistics and phonetic (6th ed.), U.S.A: Blackwell Publishing. Echeruo, M. J. C. (2001). Igbo-English dictionary. Ikeja: Longman Nigeria Plc. Ezeanya, S. 1967. A handbook of Igbo christian names. Port Harcourt: C.M.S. Press Iwundu, M. (1980). Igbo anthroponyms: Linguistic evidence for reviewing Igbo culture. Names. Vol. 21. No. 1: 46-49. Iwundu, M. (1992). Onomasticity in things fall apart and arrow of God: A sociolinguistic view. Ihafa: A Journal of African Studies. Vol 2. No 1: 73-83. Iwundu, M. (1994). Igbo anthroponomy: A socio-semantic analysis. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Nigeria Nsukka. Kager, R. (1999). Optimality theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lewis, D. (2000). Emai in optimality. Unpublished B.A. Project: University of Ibadan. Lewis, D. (2004). A constraint base analysis of nominal clips in Yoruba. In K. Owolabi & A. Dasylva (Eds.) Forms and functions of English and indigenous languages in Nigeria (pp. 296-312). Ibadan: Group Publishers. Matthews, P. H. (1997). Oxford concise dictionary of linguistics. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press. McCarthy, J. and Prince, A. (1994). The emergence of the unmarked optimality in prosodic morphology. In NELS 24 Proceedings of the North East Linguistic Society.

Njoku, J. (1978). A dictionary of Igbo names, culture and proverbs. Washington: University Press of America.

Clipping of Igbo personal names: An optimality theory approach - Onuora

Obi, C. 1972. The Igbo child: Naming ceremony and baptism. Unpublished Ph.D dissertation, University of Nigeria Nsukka. Ogbulogo, C.U. (1999). Names as discourse: A study of Igbo female names. Journal of Cultural Studies. Vol. 1: 61 – 68. Onuoha, O. (1986). The morphotonology of Igbo proper names. Unpublished M.A Thesis, University of Nigeria Nsukka. Sloat, C., Taylor, S. H., & Hoard J. E. (1978). Introduction to phonology. London: Prentice Hall. Inc. Ubahakwe, 1981. Igbo Names: Their structure and their meanings. Ibadan: Daystar Press. Wieschoff, H. 1941. Social significance of names among the Ibo of Nigeria. American Anthropologist. Vol. 43: 212 – 222. Yule, G. (1985). The study of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Justina E. Onuora Department of Linguistics, African and Asian Studies University of Lagos Akoka, Nigeria

A classificatory analysis of students slang: A case study of the university of Maiduguri students

Abdulwahab Muhammad

Abstract Slang is often described as informal, colloquial and nonstandard language of a particular sub-culture. Its usage domain is not limited to a small geo-political entity but pervades across the world. This underscores the existence of universal slang, country slang, regional slang, student slang among others. This study provides a classificatory analysis of slangy expressions as used by students of the University of Maiduguri. The theoretical framework adopted for the analysis is the referential theory of meaning advocated by Ogden and Richards (1923). The theory posits that, words refer to something in the external world. From the analysis, it has been discovered that sexuality slang expressions have the highest frequency of occurrence, while salutation slang expressions have the lowest. The disparity may not be unconnected with slang function, which among others, is to ensure secrecy and confidentiality for its users.

Introduction This study examines slang expressions as used by the students of the University of Maiduguri. The University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) is located in Maiduguri, a city in Borno State, in Northeast Nigeria. Slang as a concept has been variously defined by scholars. Galperin (1977:107) states, “Slang is nothing but a deviation from the established norm at the level of the vocabulary of the language.”

A classificatory analysis of students slang - Muhammad

According to Hartmann and stock cited in Olumuyiwa (1989:25-26), slang is: A variety of speech characterized by newly coined and rapidly changing vocabulary used by the young or by social and professional groups for ‘in-group’ communication and thus tending to prevent understanding by the rest of the speech community.

Lorimer et al (1994:933) state with respect of slang, as being: Currently widely used and understood language, consisting of new meanings attributed to existing words or wholly new words generally accepted as lying outside standard polite usage.

After examining other scholars’ assertions on what slang is, Adeyanju (2007:267) observes that:

Slangy expressions could be defined as substandard but widely understood expressions with or without the attributes of existing expressions employed to facilitate communication in a new sense. A slang expression may last for a while in a sociolinguistic environment and later disappear if not widely accepted and used.

As can be seen from the above quotations, slang expressions are colloquial and informal in character, thus differ from formal speech. Youths and members of various professional groups use slang for in- group communication. Thus slang terms are often particular to a certain subculture. They may be transitory in certain cases or may be widely accepted and used. Slang may fall into disuse or may grow more and more common until it becomes the dominant way of saying something, hence, acceptable in the mainstream speech. In terms of production, it would be understood that, slang vocabularies are generated through coining of new terms or by attributing fresh meanings to already existing words (Yahaya, 2010).

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

Members of different social groups and professionals have developed certain slang terms which they use to communicate among themselves. Members of professional bodies, apart from their professional terms, have additionally developed their respective slang expressions. Social group slang include: underworld slang, ghetto slang, legal slang, medical slang, computer slang and student slang.

Purpose of the study

The aim of the study is to examine student slang as obtained in the University of Maiduguri. The objectives, however, are:

i. To identify and gather slangy expressions used by students of the University of Maiduguri. ii. To identify those slang expressions whose surface meanings correlate with their underlying representation and those that do not. Thus bringing to light the actual objects or things the correlated slang expressions depict. iii. To interpret and analyze the identified and gathered slang vocabularies. iv. To classify the identified and gathered slang expressions under their appropriate themes.

Theoretical framework The theoretical framework adopted for this study is the referential theory of meaning advocated by Ogden and Richards (1923). The theory posits that words refer to something in the external world. It is the interpretation of a lexical item by referring it to something. It is about the relationship that exists between lexical units and the objects they are used to refer. The triangle of the Ogden and Richards (1923) below, illustrates the basic ideas of referential theory of meaning:

A classificatory analysis of students slang - Muhammad

Thought or reference

Symbol Referent

The relevance of the theory to the present study lies in the fact that slang expressions are lexical items that fundamentally denote something concrete or things in abstraction.

Methodology In collecting data for the study, two instruments have been utilized, viz. questionnaire and observation. The questionnaire was divided into two sections. The first section is on bio-data, while the second section contained questions on slangy expressions. A total of 50 respondents, some males and females, from the ages of 18 and above were administered questionnaire. The 50 respondents were mostly at 300 and 400 levels, and come from various departments across the university. Some of the questions put before the respondents include:

i. Do you use slang expressions? ii. How often do you use them? iii. Where do you normally use them? iv. What class of people do you use them with? v. Can you provide any slang expressions you know?

Students were observed at different places in the university. Their conversations at hostels, lecture theatres, social gatherings, cafeteria, etc,

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016 were observed, heard and documented for eventual analysis. A total of 51 slangy expressions were gathered (see appendix). Out of this population, 35 were sampled out for analysis. The sampling method was based on lottery, in which each member of the population was assigned a code number on a piece of paper. The coded papers were folded. With closed eyes, we were able to pick at random the required number, which was 35.

Data presentation and analysis The data for the study are hereby presented with close reference to our objectives stated earlier on. The data gathered from questionnaire and through observation are presented in the form of table and simultaneously analyzed, under the following themes: monetary, educational, consumable, sexuality and salutation.

Table 1: Monetary slang Slang Meaning Dough money Cheese money Wad money Broke To have no money Flat To have no money

The above table contains the following slang expressions: dough, cheese, wad, broke and flat. The word dough refers to a mixture of flour and water, etc., that is made into a kind of bread. In slang, the word means money. The two meanings of dough are related as each denotes something which is liked by the people. Cheese is a type of food made from milk and can be either soft or hard; and it is usually white or yellow in colour. In slang, cheese means money. Just like cheese is liked by its patronizers, so is money. Both are adorned by the people.

A classificatory analysis of students slang - Muhammad

In slang, the term wad refers to money, while in formal language it means to fill something with soft material for warmth and protection. The two meanings of wad are related in terms of providing warmth, hence, protection for, and rest of mind to users. To be broke in slang usage means to have no money. As past tense of break, broke in a sense means to stop working (function). The two meanings of broke denote functionless, emptiness, nothingness, and so on. Literally, the word flat means to have a level surface, without curve or slope. But in slang flat means to have no money. Both meanings of flat as can be observed denote lacking in something.

Table 2: Educational slang Slang Meaning

Chips Leakage Expo Leakage Daft Dull person T.D.B Till day break J.J.C Jonney just come N.F.A No future ambition Computer Intelligent person

The above table contains slang expressions that pertain to education. Among the slangy expressions are chips. Chips refer to small pieces of wood, glass, etc., that have broken off from an object. In slang, chips mean examination leakage. The converging point between the two meanings of chips is that, in both, a small piece or amount of something is extracted or lost. While what is lost in the case of leakage is liquid or gas, in the case of chips it is examination question(s). Another slang for leakage is expo, a term clipped from expose, meaning to reveal something which is hidden. Daft literally means dull. It still bears the same meaning in slang, though with little moderation. In the concept of slang, a daft is one who cannot comprehend letters, let alone analyzing

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016 academic endeavors. The abbreviation T.D.B means, till day break. This refers strictly to examination period when students read from dusk to dawn. J.J.C is an abbreviation meaning Jonney just come. It refers to new students who have arrived on campus. Students who are not serious in their studies and always dodge classes without genuine reasons are referred to N.F.A., meaning no future ambition. The slang term for a student who is bright and intelligent is computer.

Table 3: Consumption slang Slang Meaning

Munch To eat Demolish To eat Wack To eat Students power Garri Twenty four hours Garri

From the above, munch literally means to eat something steadily and often noisily. This illustrates how students in cafeteria and restaurants eat and converse. Demolish, which denotes knocking down something, e.g. a building, means to eat something to the last in slang. The two meanings of demolish give a picture of bringing something or a process to an end. Wack is another popular slang for to eat. The expressions, students power and twenty four hours refer to garri for two obvious reasons: its cheapness and its ability to provide sufficient energy for survival.

Table 4: Sexuality slang Slang Meaning Boob A woman’s breast Manchester A woman’s breast v-boot Buttocks Arsenal Buttocks

A classificatory analysis of students slang - Muhammad

Ikebe Buttocks Papa Okey Man who picks girls Cock Penis Pussy Virgina Bang Sexual intercourse Chop Sexual intercourse Nak Sexual intercourse To come Orgasm Mugu A lover Raincoat Condom

Boob and Manchester from the table above, mean a woman’s breast. Ikebe, v-boot and arsenal refer to the buttocks. A man who goes to the campus to pick girls is called Papa Okey in slang. The term Papa is used by children to address their father. In slang, cock means a penis. As a term with several senses, to cock (used as verb), means to raise a part of the body so that it is upright, or to raise the hammer on a gun so that it is ready to fire. The correlation between the surface meanings of the word cock with its underlying representation is that of maintaining an upright position. Pussy is a child’s word for a cat. In slang it refers to the female sex organ. Pussy as a cat and as female genital has related meaning in the sense that both are considered as pets. The slang meaning of the term bang is to have sex. Its dictionary meaning is to hit or move something with a lot of force, making a noise. Bang, depicts the physical act of love making. Another slang used by the University of Maiduguri students to mean sex is Nak. The term come means to move to, or towards a person or place. It also means to reach a state or a point. In slang sense, to come means to have or reach an orgasm. What connects the surface meaning of to come, with its underlying representation is that, in both cases, the idea of getting to, or arriving at a state or point is glaring.

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

Mugu is a Hausa word meaning, something or someone that is bad and wicked. In slang it is used ironically to connote someone who is good and friendly, thus, a lover. Condom is a thin rubber covering that a man or a woman wears over genitals during sex. In slang usage, raincoat is used to refer to condom. Just like the way literal raincoat protects a person from getting wet during rainfall so is the slang. Raincoat prevents sperm crossing from a man to a woman.

Table 5: Salutatory slang Slang Meaning

How far? How are you? How things? How are you? What’s up? How are you? How you dey? How are you?

It would be observed from the above table that, the expressions - How far? How thing? What’s up? and How you dey? Mean the same thing: How are you? (Folarin, 2012).

Findings and conclusion Arising from data presentation and analysis, the findings of the study would be based on the following: frequency of occurrence, slang generation, features of slang and how the surface meanings of some slang expressions correlate with their underlying representation. From the analysis of slang expressions used by the students of the University of Maiduguri, sexuality slang has the highest frequency with thirteen entries. The category with the lowest frequency is the one on salutation which has four entries. The wide disparity obtained between the highest and the lowest frequency may not be unconnected with the student’s natural disposition. Naturally, youths are curious individuals, hence, inclined towards discussing sexuality matters among themselves

A classificatory analysis of students slang - Muhammad

(Okpanachi, 2000). Since slang provides secrecy, the Unimaid students find it convenient and covered to talk on sexuality issues using slang. Concerning slang formation, the study discovered the use of abbreviation, borrowing and clipping as processes involved in it. The abbreviations discovered include, T.D.B., for till day break, J.J.C., for Jonney just come, N.F.A., for no future ambition. As for borrowing, the word Ikebe, which is of Yoruba origin, means buttocks. Mugu is a Hausa term meaning a lover. In terms of clipping, the expression expo, meaning leakage, is clipped from expose. Pidgin English is also utilized in slang. The word chop is of pidgin origin which means to eat. In slang, the word means to have sex. It has also been observed from the study that while certain slang expressions have their surface meanings correlating with their underlying representation, others do not. Those that correlate include: cheese, chips, munch and cock. Those that lack such correlation include N.F.A., T.D.B. and boob.

References Adeyanju, D. (2007) ‘Slang usage in Educated Nigerian English: A sociolinguistic Overview’ in Adeyanju, D. (ed.), Sociolinguistics in The Nigerian Cortex, Ile-Ife; Obafemi Awolowo University Press. Folarin, T.F. (2012) “The Students Slang in the University of Maiduguri,” B.A. Project, University of Maiduguri. Galperin, I.R. (1977) Stylistics, 2nd edition, Moscow: progress publishers. Lorimer, L.T. (ed) (1994) The New Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language, New York: Lexicon International publishers Guild group. Ogden, C.K. and Richards, I.A. (1923), The Meaning of Meaning, London: Kegan Paul. Okpanachi, M. (2000) “Sociolinguistic Significance of Campus Expression in English, in Language in Education and society, Lagos: University of Lagos press.

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

Olumuyiwa, T.O. (1989) ‘Language, Culture and society,’ in Bamisaye, T.O. (ed) Studies in Language and Linguistics, Ibadan: Montem paperbacks. Yahaya, A. (2010) ‘Hausa Slang used on campus: A case study of University of Maiduguri,’ B.A. Project, University of Maiduguri.

Appendix Slangy expressions identified at University of Maiduguri Dough Money Chips Leakage Munch To eat Boob A woman’s breast How far? How are you? Sexy Simple H To feel hungry Bush meat A girl regularly use for sex How you dey? How are you? Raincoat Condom Twenty four hours Garri Computer Intelligent person N.F.A. No future ambition Flat To have no money Broke To have no money Rubber Condom Igboo Indian hemp Noni To feel high Expo Leakage Demolish To eat Manchester A woman’s breast How things? How are you? Ikebe Buttocks Mugu A lover Students power Garri

A classificatory analysis of students slang - Muhammad

Wack To eat Cheese Money Wad Money Yawa Problem Bust To forget Park well Behave yourself Shack To get drunk J.J.C. Jonney just come v-boot Buttocks Papa Okey Man who pick girls What’s up? How are you? T.D.B. Till day break Daft Dull person To come To reach orgasm Bang Sexual intercourse Yah Yes Yap Yes Chop Sexual intercourse Yarn To gist Nak Sexual intercourse Shebi Hope so Abeg Please Pussy Virgina Flop Failure/disappointment Rock To enjoy something

Abdulwahab Muhammad Department of Languages and Linguistics University of Maiduguri Borno, Nigeria

English as a linguicide: Language endangerment and conservation in Nigeria

Dean Odeh

Abstract Language endangerment and death is an endemic sociolinguistic phenomenon and it is a by-product of bilingualism and multilingualism. Human language is dynamic. It grows, changes in form and function, and even dies off. According to sociolinguists, only about 10% of the world’s languages shall survive to see the next century. This threat of language endangerment and extinction is due to globalization, the advent of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), poor language attitude etc. While language endangerment and extinction is beneficial to donor languages like English, French etc., it is a great threat to smaller languages, most especially languages of Africa. Language is the quintessence of human existence. It makes us human, unique and distinguishes us from other animals. Language is the pedigree of a nation and the perfect instrument of an empire. It is the index or symbol of identity and a sense of peoplehood and nationhood. To lose our language is to lose our human beingness, peoplehood and gives a phantom existence. Language is the lifeblood of a nation and it is associated with a person’s sense of self and a nation’s sense of nationhood. It is an integral part of ourselves, permeating our thinking and way of viewing the world. So, the death of a language precipitates the death of a people, of a culture and of a heritage. English is an exoglossic language and a vestige or legacy of the British colonial administration in Nigeria. But unnecessary Englishisation and Englishism has made it the L1 of some Nigerians and used in every domain of language use. English has become a linguicide – a language killing chemical, killing all our indigenous languages, making Nigerians linguistic slaves and cultural satellites to Europe. This is the raison d’etre of this paper. This paper, therefore, proposes the revitalization of Nigerian indigenous languages in an effort to prevent their extinction.

English as a linguicide: Language endangerment and conservation - Odeh

Introduction English is the language, people, and culture of England. It is the first language of the United Kingdom of Great Britain which comprises Britain, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland (British Isles). English is also the native language of USA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and some parts of South Africa. It is also the second language of all the former British colonies: Jamaica, India, Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia, Sierra Leone etc. English is an Indo-European language because it is one of the languages spoken in India and Europe. It is precisely a Germanic language as it originated from Western Germany. The Germans are the linguistic ancestors of the English people as the Angles, Saxons and the Jutes were savage Western German tribes that migrated, conquered and colonized the English people in the 5th and 6th centuries, imposing their German language on them (Baugh and Cable, 1978). English is an intra-national and international language. This means that it is used for communication internally or within its native home by its native speakers on the British Isles, America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand etc. as well as outside its territory by speakers from different countries and continents who use the English language as a second or foreign language. It is a hotch-potch of other languages as it is a random collection from other languages. English borrows words from approximately 100 languages of the world such as French, German, Arabic, Latin, Greek, Spanish, Japanese, from African languages. But it is now a donor language to almost all the languages of the world (Millar, 2007:24). English is a global language. It is the most prestigious; most widely used and most widely spread language of the world. It is the language of civilization and makes one civilized, a global citizen and global participant of events (Teilanyo, 2012, 54, 57, 60, 61, 63-65). English is the language of public life, the language of the internet, science and technology, diplomacy, sport, education, CNN, BBC, VOA, etc. It is the primus inter-pares and lingua franca or first language of the world – a language par excellence, having one-third of the world’s

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016 population as its speakers when the L1, L2 and foreign language speakers are combined. The English language has left the British Isles for other regions through trade, colonialism and conquest. It was brought to Africa by the European explorers, traders, missionaries and colonialists. English is a language of colonial imposition in Nigeria. In other words, it is a vestige or legacy of the British colonial administration. It is the second and official language in Nigeria as well as the lingua franca and language of education, unity, national stability, international communication, religion, law, commerce etc in this country. Although English is a language of colonial imposition and enslavement, Nigerians have over- embraced it, using it in every domain of language use to the detriment of their indigenous languages. This is the main thrust of this article.

The concept of language The word “language” is got from the Latin word “lingua” through French “langue” meaning “the tongue” (The Chambers Dictionary, 905). It is the instrument of thought and expression and primarily spoken and heard. Language is the chief means of communication among humans. It is a unified system of symbols and sounds that permits a sharing of meaning. Wardhaugh (1972) defines language as “a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication” (qtd in Syal and Jindal, 2008:4). While Hall (1969) sees it as “the institution, whereby humans communicate and interact with each other by means of habitually used oral-auditory symbols” (qtd in Syal and Jindal, 4). Language is a species-specific to man and it is the quintessence of human existence, distinguishing us from other animals. It is the very vehicle of culture and a by-product of the society. Language is “the principal means whereby we conduct our social lives” (Kramasch, 1998:3). It is an integral part of culture. According to Kramasch, language is an integral part of ourselves – it permeates our very thinking and way of viewing the world” (77). Language expresses cultural reality

English as a linguicide: Language endangerment and conservation - Odeh and it is an index or a symbol of social identity. Algeo (2010:1) lends credence to this assertion when he states: “Whatever language we speak… helps to define us personally and identify the community we belong”. Language is the pedigree of a nation and the perfect instrument of an empire (Williamson, 1998: 21-22). Besides a boundary, a name, a flag, or a currency, a national language makes a country become respectable and unique (Odeh, 2015:7). It is the mirror of the mind and the lifeblood of a nation as it is associated with a person’s sense of self and a nation’s sense of nationhood (Odeh, 7). It is the index of identity and a sense of peoplehood and nationhood. According to Fulgence (2003:14), language is “more than just a tool of communication… It is a channel of values, traditions and cultures. A language is a whole way of looking at reality, at life” (qtd in Ndimele, 2003:147). So, there is no individual, community or national identity without language identity. Onoyovwi (2010:68) affirms this: The affinity between language and society is such that one cannot exist without the other. There can be no language without a people and no people without a language. There exists an intricate web of interrelatedness between a community’s way of life (culture) and their language.

Language is man’s birthright - a special gift of God to mankind alone, making us unique. Hence, human beings are termed “homoloquens” which means the speaking or talking animal (Syal and Jindal, 6). Language is socially or culturally acquired and it dissects society. According to Algeo, “to be human is to use language and to talk is to be a person” (1). Lewis Thomas (1974:89) also buttresses this fact when he states: The gift of language is the single human trait that marks us all genetically, setting us apart from the rest of life. Language is … specific activity of human beings. We engage in it communally, compulsively, and automatically. We cannot be human without

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

it; if we were to be separated from it, our minds would die… (qtd in Algeo, 1)

According to Ndimele (2003: 148), “to lose our language is to lose an essential part of what makes us human”. In fact, the death of a language precipitates the death of a people, of a culture and of a heritage. Language reflects culture and permeates man’s existence, controlling “the cognitive, emotional and mental domains of man” (Onoyovwi, 2010:69). It is a habit of thought and not to have a language means not to exist and not a human. Language is the backbone of any society.

The concept of linguicide “Linguicide” is a coinage. It is a portmanteau word – “a word that is invented by combining the beginning of one word and the end of another and keeping the meaning of each” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, 1128). It is also known as blending. “Linguicide” is a combination of Linguistics which is the scientific study of human natural language (Akmajian et al, 2001:5) and “cide” which is a combining suffix denoting killing, murder, killer, murderer – from words such as insecticide, herbicide, genocide, suicide, homicide etc. So, “linguicide” refers to a language killing “substance” or “chemical”. Language is not an insect or living organism to be killed by any chemical. But it is metaphorically implied as English has become a killer language, consuming other tongues, most especially the African tongues (Ndimele, 2003:145). English has become a predator language in Nigeria because Nigerians have over-embraced it. Although an alien language in Nigeria, the English language has assumed a hegemonic status in Nigeria because of globalization, ICT, lingua franca, officialty, education, and the attitudes of Nigerians towards it, taking it as a superior and civilized language and over-embracing it and forgetting our native languages, exposing them to linguicide or language death (Segun Awonusi, 2009:181). Most Nigerians consider speaking their native languages in

English as a linguicide: Language endangerment and conservation - Odeh social gatherings as barbaric, uncivilized etc and continuously make use of the English language in every domain of language use. This is unnecessary Englishisation and Englishism. Aziza (2009:208) affirms the Englishisation and Englishism in Nigeria when she states: In the linguistic environment of Nigeria, English is perceived to be more relevant to the needs of modern life and living than the indigenous languages and it has attenuated the domains of use of the indigenous languages, thereby acceleration the eventual extinction of the latter.

Languages are for communication, so they are all linguistically equal because they all perform the same function of communication. No single language is superior or inferior. According to Apostle Paul (1Cor 14:10), “so many kinds of voices in the world and none of them is without signification”. In as much as people use the language for communication, it is a language and no other one is better or more important and what can be said in one language can be said in any other. Akmajian et al (2001:8) opine: There is no such thing as a primitive human language. All languages provide a means for asking questions, making requests, making assertions, and so on. And there is nothing that can be expressed in one language that cannot be expressed in any other. Obviously, one language may have terms not found in another language, but it is always possible to invent new terms to express what we mean: anything we can imagine or think, we can express in any human language.

In spite of the plethora of indigenous languages in Nigeria, Nigerians have whole-heartedly embraced the English language, domesticating and making it theirs. Ogu (1992) affirms this assertion when he states: English is no longer a foreign language in Nigeria. It has been adopted and appropriated by Nigerians and is used as the language of education and made to fulfill all the roles normally

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

reserved for the mother-tongue (qtd in Atonuje and Arhagba, 2011:91).

English is a foreign language in Nigeria. It is a European language that came all the way from England and can never be ours. Enoch Powell, a one time Professor of Classics and former Member of the British Parliament, while delivering an address to the Royal Society of St. George expressed sentimentally thus: “Others may speak and read English – more or less – but it is our language, not theirs. It was made in England by the English and it remains our distinctive property, however widely it is learnt or used (qtd in Obafemi Kujore, 1995:368). Nigerians develop a lackadaisical or negative attitudes for their indigenous languages, taking the exoglossic English language as superior, civilized, more social and influential, and regarding their native languages as inferior, barbaric and demeaning one’s status. So, our languages are endangered by the English language and they will die off one day. According to Ndagijimana Fulgence (2003:14), language is like any other living organism. As such, it follows the rules of any other living organism namely starting, living, growing older and finally dying or changing into something different (qtd in Ndimele, 2003:146).

Language endangerment Language endangerment is the exposure of a language to extinction, death or loss due to the abandonment of the language and shifting to another. Language shift is “a term used in sociolinguistics to refer to the gradual or sudden move from the use of one language to another, either by an individual or by a group” (Crystal, 2008:269). An endangered language is “a language which is at risk of becoming extinct within the forseeable future” (Crystal, 168). This implies that an endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use as its speakers die out or shift to speaking another language. It is presumed that over half of the world’s languages are moribund or in the process of

English as a linguicide: Language endangerment and conservation - Odeh dying as they are not effectively passed on to the next generation as their speakers switch to other languages completely. A language can also die or disappear because of a historical break in identity as it is in the case of Latin, or by physical extermination of all its speakers by a super-power (Matthew, 1997:199). Language endangerment is followed by language death if the endangered language is not revitalized. There is a linguistic Armageddon – a battle of supremacy and a battle of survival among the world’s languages. The global linguistic Armageddon will culminate to a global linguistic genocide – a mass killing of languages, and according to sociolinguists, only about 10% of the languages of the world will survive to see the next century. The linguistic Armageddon favours languages like English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic etc. Smaller languages, most especially languages that are not on the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) shall be consumed by bigger and more prestige-laden languages. According to Dlibugunaya, “a language which is not on the Internet is a language that “no longer exists” in the modern world” (2010:305). So, all the Nigerian languages are endangered and “a group that loses her language to another reduces herself to the status of a “slave” (Alamu and Ugwuoke, 2010:57). Linguicide is coterminous with ethnocide or the deculturation of peoples (Dlibugunaya, 2010:306). As Aziza (2009:208) opines, “a language that can be used for ICT is assured of growth and development and has no problem of extinction”. Languages exist in people and they die when nobody speaks it any longer. So, the fate of any language is in the hands of its owners. As a language dies, a chapter of human culture, heritage and history closes (Dlibugunaya, 2010:305). Mowarin (2010:241) also lends credence to this assertion when he states: Language is the key to the heart of a people. If we lose the key, we lose the people. A lost language is a lost tribe, a lost tribe is a lost culture, a lost culture is a lost civilization. A lost civilization is invaluable knowledge lost… the whole vast archives of knowledge and experience in it will be consigned to oblivion.

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

Language attitude, which is “the feelings people have about their own language or the language(s) of others” (Crystal, 2008:266), determines the existence or extinction of a language. People may either have a positive or negative feeling about their languages or an external language. If they have a negative feeling about their native language, they switch over to a foreign one. And if they have a positive feeling about their native language, then they will be loyal to it. Lack of generational transmission is the main cause of language endangerment and death. That is, speakers mostly parents do not bequeath their language to their children by speaking it to them. Languages that have less than 500 speakers are endangered. (Ejele, 2003: 121). Language endangerment is mainly measured by the number and age of current speakers and whether the youngest generations are acquiring fluency in the language. In fact, the higher the number of native speakers who consider their language as an essential part of their identity, the “safer” the language is. Language loss or occurs when the language has no more native speakers, and becomes a “dead language”.

Bilingualism and the language situation in Nigeria Bilingualism is the bane or root cause of language endangerment and death. It is the ability to speak two languages equally well. While multilingualism is the ability to speak three languages well. So, people that have native-like control of two or more languages are bilinguals and multilinguals or polyglots. Nigeria is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multilingual nation with over 250 ethnic groups and over 400 endoglossic languages. These 400 indigenous languages are grouped into major and minor languages respectively. Languages like Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo are the major endoglossic languages, also known as the “Big Three”. These three are termed detamillionaire languages because they have a minimum of ten million speakers. Besides the “Big Three”, Nigeria also has many minor languages, nine out of those minor languages are termed “major minor” also known as “millionaire languages” because they have a minimum of

English as a linguicide: Language endangerment and conservation - Odeh one million speakers. They are: Ijaw, Edo, Efik, Fulfulde, Idoma, Igala, Kanuri, Nupe and Tiv respectively. All other native Nigerian languages such as Urhobo, Isoko, Itsekiri, Jukun, Koma etc. are purely minor languages because they have less than a million speakers (Awonusi, 2009: 183-185). Nigeria also has three exoglossic languages which are English (the major exoglossic), French and Arabic (minor exoglossics) respectively. The Nigerian Pidgin which is a hybridization of the English language and Nigerian native languages – 70% of English and 30% of native languages - also flourishes in the urban cities and places of economic activities – places that have conglomeration of people from different ethno-linguistic backgrounds. Nigeria is a linguistic melting point and a place of linguistic Armageddon. Nigerians are bilinguals and multilinguals. English is the lingua franca, second and official language in Nigeria. According to Emenanjo (2010:7), “when all speakers become bilingual, the penalty is death for the weaker language”. The Nigerian Pidgin spoken everywhere by every Nigerian in this country is a severe threat to indigenous Nigerian languages. As Agbegha (2010:281) opines, “the enthronement of Pidgin means the sacrifice of our indigenous languages”. The English language has taken over every domain of languages use in Nigeria. It is used everywhere, including the home to a level that children born and bred in Warri, Port Harcourt, Benin, Sapele, Lagos and Calabar have the Pidgin as their L1. This is a clear indication that the indigenous Nigerian languages will die off in the future.

Language conservation Language conservation is the act of preserving, guarding, or protecting a language from death or loss by using it in every domain of language use by its owners and bequeathing it to their children and documenting it. In other words, it is the act of keeping a language safe from generation to generation. English is the language of the new information age and the prestige-laden attitudinal differential in favour of it poses a severe threat of linguicide on the indigenous languages of

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

Nigeria. English is a predator language and a source of threat to all the Nigerian languages. There will be a linguistic genocide – mass killing of languages – our indigenous languages in Nigeria if something is not done about it. Our indigenous languages should be preserved or protected before they will be consumed by the predator English. The surest way to animate or enliven a language is to bequeath it to the next generation – using the language regularly at home, school, government, church, social functions, market, mass media, work place etc. A language thrives when it is used in every domain of language use. As the saying goes: “Use your language or lose it”. Language preservation must be a collective or communal effort and not individual. Ndimele (2003:353) states: The community and only the community can preserve a living language. If the community surrenders its responsibility to outsiders or even a few persons within the community (such as teachers), the language will die. Language preservation efforts must involve the total community and not just a part of it.

Conclusion The English language, although a European language, has gained an endoglossic status in Nigeria as it has become the L1 of many Nigerians and used in every domain of language use in Nigeria, making Nigeria a cultural satellite of Europe, and thus in a linguistic bondage and mental slavery. The over-embracement of English in Nigeria makes it a linguicide – a metaphorical language killing chemical or substance, exposing the indigenous languages of Nigeria to endangerment and eventual death if they are not revitalized. All the native Nigerian languages are endangered as none of them is on the Internet and no Nigerian is free from the enthronement of Pidgin due to urbanization. The death of a language precipitates the death of a people, culture, heritage and the loss of nationality and nationhood. Your language is “you” and losing it implies losing the “you” in “you”, making you an invisible or a hollow man – a slough. A group that loses her language to another reduces herself to the status of a slave. Lambert

English as a linguicide: Language endangerment and conservation - Odeh

(1979:186) advises: “We have our unique culture and language and these give us distinctive styles of personality and distinctive modes of thought… Trespassers or potential eroders beware”. A lack of generational transmission and lack of documentation and audio-visual recording of the language and oral traditions such as songs, stories, proverbs, riddles, festivals etc are the root causes of language death. Speakers of Nigerian languages should bequeath their languages to their children by speaking it with them always. Nigerian languages should be used in every language domain and they should be studied at school and documented. Nigerians should have the sense of language loyalty and maintenance and have positive attitudes for their indigenous languages. Nigerians who engage in inter-tribal marriages should learn each other’s language and use them at home – never to make their children have the Pidgin or Creole as their L1. Nigerians should work hard to revamp themselves economically, socially, politically, scientifically, technologically and militarily as “the fortunes of a language are tied to the fortunes of the speakers. When a people become important their language also becomes important, and the people for whom the language is not their mother-tongue will struggle to learn it for obvious reasons” (Ndimele, 2003:146). As Bamgbose (1993:29) opinies, “… the fate of an endangered language may well lie in the hands of the owners of the language themselves and their will to make it survive” (qtd in Agbegha, 282). The onus of developing any language lies on its owners - native speakers. Apart from bequeathing their languages to their children, native speakers should also write books on their languages, teach them, organize courses, seminars, workshops, design curricula, examine and promote their languages to any national and international level. Nigerians should emancipate themselves from mental slavery by using their native languages and keeping them alive. Do not be a language trespasser. Use your language, or lose it! Use it or nobody else will use it for you.

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

Works cited Akimajian, A. et al. Linguistics: An Introduction to Language and Communication (4th edition). New Delhi: Prentice-Hall of India Private Ltd, 2001. Alamu, G. and Ugwuoke, I. “On Endangered Languages in Nigeria”. In Emenanjo, E. N. (ed). Endangered Language in Nigeria. Port Harcourt: M & J Grand Oribit Communications Ltd, 2010. Apostle Paul. “The Book of Corinthians”. The Holy Bible (King James Version). Lagos:The Bible Society of Nigeria, 2014. Atonuje, A. and Arhagba, D. Basics of Applied Linguistics. Ughelli: Eregha Publishers, 2011. Awonusi, S. “Linguistic Hegemony and the Plight of Minority Languages in Nigeria”. In Eruvbetine, A.E. and Yakubu, U. (eds). Revisioning Humanistic Studies. Lagos: African Cultural Institute, 2009. Aziza, O.R. “Nigerian Languages and the Threat of Extinction”. In Eruvbetine, A.E. and Yakubu, U. (eds). Revisioning Humanatic Studies. Lagos: African Cultural Institute, 2009. Baugh, C.A. and Cable, T. A History of the English Language (3rd Edition). London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1978. Crystal, D. A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics (6th edition). UK: Blackwell Publishing, 2008. Dlibugunaya, A. “The Future of Nigerian Languages.“In Endangered Languages in Nigeria. Port Harcourt: M & J Grand Orbit Communications Ltd, 2010. Ejele, E.P. “Language Use in a Multilingual Society: An Update on the Nigerian Situation”. In Essien, O. and Okon, M. (eds). Topical Issues in Sociolinguistics. The Nigerian Perspective. Aba: NINLAN, 2003. Emenanjo, E.N. “How Many Nigeria Languages Are Safe”. In Emenanjo, E.N. (ed). Endangered Languages in Nigeria. Port Harcourt: M & J Grand Orbit Communications Ltd, 2010.

English as a linguicide: Language endangerment and conservation - Odeh

Hornby A.S. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English (7th edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. Kramsch, C. Language and Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. Kujore, O. “Whose English?” In Bamgbose, A, Banjo, A. and Thomas, A. (eds). New Englishes: A West African Perspective. Ibadan: Mosuro, 1995. Matthews, P.H. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. Millar, M.R. Trask’s Historical Linguistics (2nd Edition). London: Hodder Education, 2007. Mowarin, M. “Language Endangerment and Language Revitalization Among the Uvwie of Delta State”. In Emenanjo, E.N. (ed). Endangered Languages in Nigeria. Port Harcourt: M & J Grand Orbit Communications Ltd, 2010. Ndimele, O.M. “Globalization and the Varnishing Voices of Africa: Any Glimmer of Hope at this Turbulent Sea? In Essien, O. and Okon, M. (eds). Topical Issues in Sociolinguistics: The Nigerian Perspective. Aba: NINLAN, 2003. Ndimele, I.R. “The Linguistic Status of Minority Languages in Nigeria: The Situation in Rivers and Bayelsa States”. In Essien, O. and Okon, M. (eds). Topical Issues in Sociolinguistics: The Nigerian Perspective. Aba: NINLAN, 2003. Odeh, D. “Multilingualism and the National Language Question in Nigeria”. A paper presented at the 4th National Conference, School of Languages, College of Education, Warri, Delta State from 7th-8th April, 2015. Onoyovwi, D. “Indigenous Languages as Endangered Species: Focus on Delta State”. In Emenanjo, E.N. (ed). Endangered Languages in Nigeria. Port Harcourt: M & J Grand Orbit Communications Ltd, 2010. Syal, P. and Jindal, D.V. An Introduction to Linguistics: Language, Grammar and Semantics (2nd edition). New Delhi: Prentice- Hall of India Private Ltd, 2008.

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

Teilanyo, D.I. “Language and Global Citizenship: The Place of English”. In Osakwe, M. (ed). Language, Communication and Human Capital Development in a Globalized World. Ibadan: Kraft Books Ltd, 2012. The Chambers Dictionary. Great Britain: Softback Preview, 1999. Williamson, K. The Pedigree of a Nation: Historical Linguistics in Nigeria. Port Harcourt: University of Port Harcourt Press, 1988.

Dean Odeh Department of English Language College of Education Warri, Nigeria

The linguistic consequences of French colonial policy of assimilation in West Africa: Implications for national growth and development

Musa F. Oyabebefa & Harold B. Buku

Abstract This study is predicated on the need to find out the linguistic consequences of French Assimilation policy in West Africa and implications for growth and national development. Findings from the study show that National integration which involves the emergence of a nation state with emphasis on linguistic uniformity retards development under the policy of Assimilation. French as an instrument of colonization was also for subjugation and plunder which retards progress of states in Francophone West Africa. The study ends with the recommendation that nation states will be more representative and achieve stronger and sustainable unity for minority languages and their distinct cultural practices are guaranteed rights.

Introduction The phenomenon language is the primary most elaborated form of human symbolic activity which distinguishes man from other creatures. It is at the core of man’s existence and dominates every aspect of man’s life. For example, man expresses his needs, emotions, thoughts, ideas, explores his environment, co-exists with neighbours, all with language. Etymologically, language is derived from the Latin word “Langue” which means ‘tongue’. The origin of language dates back to the Biblical account of Genesis which recorded God’s attack on man’s pride and unifying weapon, language in the Tower of Babel. Language has various definitions by scholars, linguists, folklorists, ethnologists, anthropologists among others. According to Finnocehiaro (1964) as cited by Adejumobi (2007:20), it is a system of

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016 arbitrary vocal symbols which enable all in a given culture to communicate or interact. As the dress of thoughts, a people’s language is both an index of culture and the vehicle through which culture is transmitted. This is aptly exemplified in the words of Prah as cited by Maja (2008): Language is the central feature of culture. It relates to all areas of the social, economic and political lives of the people. it is in a language that the genius of a people is ultimately registered at both the individual and collective expression of a people and societies. It is in the language of the masses that social transformation in its far reaching sense makes an impact. A society cannot develop if language is the monopoly of a small and restricted minority whose orientation is directed outside.... (26).

According to the African Commission on Human and Peoples rights as cited by Maja (2008: 8): Language is an integral part of the structure of culture; it in fact constitutes its pillar and means f expression par excellence, Its usage enriches the individual and enables him to take active part in the community and its activities, to deprive a man of such participation amount to depriving him of his identity.

By the same token, the United Nations Education, scientific and cultural organisation (UNESCO) averred that: The World’s languages represent extra ordinary wealth creativity. They contain and express the total pool of ideas nurtured over time through heritage, local traditions and customs communicated through local languages.

From the above excerpts, it is imperative to state that the fortunes of a language are intricately tied to the fortunes of its speakers. This is the notion of Eva Engholm as stated by Abegbija (1994:139), ‘language is the key to the heart of a people’. Language mirrors one’s identity and the

The linguistic consequences of French colonial policy of assimilation– Oyabebefa & Buku soul of culture as typified in the speakers’ proverbs and riddles which have literal and metaphoric or cultural significance but loss their meanings and flavour when literarily translated. Despite the significance of language as inherent index of culture, colonialism introduced numerous linguistic problems in Africa through the perpetration of various degrees of ethnocide as the cultural world of the colonized was condemned in the names of inferiority and irredeemable primitivism. The languages of the colonial overlords dethroned the supremacy of African languages in the affairs of Africans. These languages of conquest and empire slowly formed the linguistic basis for the creation of an indigenous elite which in the language of the time was “acculturated” and was in culture contact with an overwhelming western colonial culture (languages); Portuguese, French and English which were culturally and politically installed only after armed or forcible subjugation of native peoples for linguistic diversity was viewed as a barrier to the hegemony of colonial masters and administrative ease in the colonies. Of these, France, and Portugal were more radical in their pursuits of Assimilation than Britain that was accommodative of African Languages. France and Portugal accorded official language status to their languages. The relics of such colonial policies are prevalent in Africa today where states are divided into English-speaking, French-speaking and Portugal-speaking. Colonial language policies forced Africans to speak foreign languages as media of communication, sources of acquiring information and languages of opportunity, affirming the belief that any variety of the colonial language was preferable in lieu of to communicate in a plethora of African languages in use by the colonized populations. This is attested to by Zeleza as in Innocent Maza (2008:70): Colonialism not only brought European language, it also sought to invent establish hierarchies between them, in which the European languages were hegemonic as part of the process of constructing colonial states, spaces and societies.

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

French, a tool for colonialism in West Africa French became one of the pillars of the state and official language, of law, administration, and literary language in Francophone West Africa as a matter of state policy during the rule Louis XIV in 1638-1549 as exemplified in Du Bellay’s famous publication “Defense Illustration de langue franchise”. It is around that time that French played an important role in International diplomacy. To substantiate this, in 1558 Du Bellay wrote a poem that French is the mother of all arts, arms and the law (CF. Regrets XI). The following century, in 1636, saw the birth of Richelieu’s the ‘Academie franchise’, whose mission was to propagate French as a universal language as typified in Rwarol’s statement in his 1784 essay ce qui n’est pas clair pas Françoise which to date remains famous. With these, French use spread beyond the borders of France through the zeal of her philosophers which led to the concept of ‘le rayoncet ment de Ia langua et de Ia culture Francoise i.e French language and culture as the light of the world. By the 1970’s French became a symbol of the universal ideals of the revolution with the foundation of Alliance International Israelite which adopted French as its language, to drive home the Jacobin concept of one state, one language, one nation. To accelerate the spread of the language in the colonies, the following were utilized: Military conquest, a unifying administration, schools and conscription. The spread of French aimed at achieving not only unity but equality in principle but difference in practice which negates that principle which prevailed in the colonies as French was reserved for the elite as the French in France were “citizens” and the natives in the colonies were “subjects”. This scenario changed official discourse on Human Rights through time as it is only in the first republic that everybody had access to the universal rights proclaimed in the Revolution. It is worthy to note that the principles were only to be applied as non Europeans could only aspire to them when they had become Evolus i.e. ‘civilized’, through French education which underpins the colonial project. This means civilizing too much and too quickly was not in France’s interest hence restricted access was given to the French

The linguistic consequences of French colonial policy of assimilation– Oyabebefa & Buku language to the indigenous population which led to general disenchantment of the colonized. The French system of Administration in West Africa France colonized the following countries during the colonial imperialism in West African, namely; Algeria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo Brazzaville, Congo Kinshasa, Cote d’Ivoire, Dijibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea (Konakry), Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Rwanda Togo, Tunisia among others. In each of the above Countries the concept of Assimilation was anchored on the concepts of liberty, equality and fraternity regarded applicable to all men were adopted, but later modified to Association as a result of widespread disenchantment in the colonial empire. Furthermore, French Parliament in 1883 passed a resolution granting to all who were born free in French colonies full political and civil rights of French citizens. According to the resolution, all men, without distinction of colour are French citizens and enjoy all rights assured by the constitution (M.D. Lewis, 1962:134). France administration rarely pursued one policy to the exclusion of the other rather vacillates between the two- Assimilation and Association. Assimilation required the drastic adoption of French culture, politics, social mores and beliefs on Africans as model, an ideology of cultural annihilation. This means that Africans substituted their indigenous cultures with French-language, law, civilization and religion. The above is aptly exemplified in Paul Leroy- Beaulieu’s (1879) statement cited by Joseph R. (1978): France will become a great African power in a century or two. She will be secondary power in Europe, and that the duty of the Metropole is to transform, according to her image, the people over which she has extended her sovereign, to imbue them with ‘her spirit, her heart and faith’.

To further aggravate the conquest and total subjugation of the colonized Africans, it had been noted that:

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

Unlike British involvement in West Africa, where the Metropole was usually content to the trading companies undertake the tasks of subjugation and administration, France, during the last two decades of the 19th century was committed to a policy of military conquest in the Western Sudan. With the military officers given free rein, great expanses of usually thirty- populated territories were brought under the French flag. The pattern of military authoritarian rule established by the conquering marine officers was largely adopted by their civilian successors, to the point of being addressed as commandant (Joseph R, 1978:7).

France in her administration of her West African territories adopted three basic principles as could be inferred from the above: centralization, bureaucratism, and absolute and arbitrary power which swept aside existing traditional authorities or brought to rigid collaboration. Apart from the favoured Senegalese communes, no attempt was made to establish consultative organs that were anything but powerless councils of handpicked chiefs and their notables which the administrators utilized as they saw fit (Ibid:8).

The policy of Assimilation was designed primarily to the advantage of France as discerned from the writings of Girardet R. and Suret-Canale (cited in Joseph op. cit pp.9- 0): Africans conscripted into the French Army serve twice as long as French recruits. During the war itself, of the 211,000 conscripts from Africa, 163,952 saw battle in Europe and 24,762 died for France.

The above is a testimony to the fact that the well-being of colonized Africans was not in the interest of France. While it ruled Africa, there existed dual citizenship viz: the citizens and the subjects with different features:

The linguistic consequences of French colonial policy of assimilation– Oyabebefa & Buku

Features of a citizen a. subjected to French laws, b. exercise franchise, c. sit in parliament of metropolitan France, d. enjoy the same socio-economic and political rights of a Frenchman through paid employment in the government and French oversea rights to education.

Features of a subject a. No political rights b. Cannot exercise his franchise c. subjected to customary laws d. subjected to forced labour e. Indignant policies that forbade freedom of speech and association among others f. being of inferior status and devoid of paid employment and right to education and subjected to conscription into the army.

In order to slow down the tempo of nationalism in her colonies, France adopted the following measures: a. The provision of the indignant forbade freedom of speech and association b. Outside Senegal, formation of political parties was forbidden C. Education was restricted to the children of chiefs and French citizens d. In 1927 and 1935, the French Parliament passed a law against all forms of criticisms e. African deputies were allowed to sit in parliament in metropolitan France and in Africa. This made it difficult for African leaders to complain of non participation in their political affairs.

The French system of assimilation received widespread criticism both in France and abroad. The collapse of the assimilation system is attributed

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016 to a number of factors like the stringent and discriminatory nature of the policy in the educational, economic and political factors resulting from the conflict of languages as French and the indigenous languages go into contact.

Language contact and language conflict in French West Africa Languages in contact are often languages in competition for supremacy and survival (Williams 1991:4) and there is no language contact without language conflict (Nelde 1990) as cited by the Igboanusi and Ohia (2001:25), societies, groups, persons, ideas, cultures, languages, religions are always in constant contact and conflict. Contact results when there is a coming together and conflict when there is a competition resulting from the contact. The resultant effect is that, while the minority languages suffer decline and regression, French enjoy increase in degree of spread and social mobility as its acquisition implies acquisition of status, a person raised to that of the colonizer but treated as a subject possessing duties but with different set of rights. According to Dada as cited by Richard Maledo (20 12:56), competitions and conflicts both in the individual and the society as a whole can be regarded as natural concomitant of situation of languages in contact due to differing standards, values, attitudes, education influential self image and group consciousness. Language conflict in Francophone countries has to be understood from the back-drop of different points. One problem faced in multilingual societies is linguistic heterogeneity and development. Bamgbose (36). To pool linguistic diversity is responsible for the economic, socio-political retardation of development as it promotes political sectionalism hinders intergroup cooperation, national unity and political stability (214). These are as a result of the conflict of diverse languages which lead to other conflict. Conflicts between different ethnic groups often results from language contact and problems viewed as political, economic and social are actually rooted in linguistic conflicts (Nelde 1987:33).

The linguistic consequences of French colonial policy of assimilation– Oyabebefa & Buku

What the assimilation policy negates The French colonial policy of Assimilation grossly negate the linguistic tights of the colonized African countries in consonance with the International Human Rights law, as in the minority schools in Albama Advisory opinion 6 of the Permanent Court of International Justice brilliantly sums up as follows: The idea underlying the treaties for the protection of minorities was to secure for them the possibility of living peaceably alongside of the population, while preserving their characteristics. In order to attain this objective, two things were regarded as particularly necessary. The first was to ensure that members of racial, religious and linguistic minorities should be placed in every respect on a footing of perfect equality with other nationals of the state. The second was to ensure for the majority elements suitable for the preservation of their own characteristics and traditions

Added to this, the United Nations Human Rights Committee General comment No. 24 summarizes the rights in the universal declaration that have become part of customary International Law as: A state may be reserve the right to engage in slavery, to torture, to subject persons to cruel, in human or degrading treatment ... or to deny minorities the right to enjoy their own culture, profess their own religious, or use their own language (41).

What emerges from this discourse is that under customary International law, France cannot deny linguistic minorities the right to use their languages. Treaties are legally binding and oblige states to respect, protect and fulfill human rights (the apatite typology). Seputveda et al (42) as cited by Maja (2008) cogently summarizes the meaning, thus: The obligation to respect requires the state to refrain from any measure that may deprive individuals of the enjoyment of their rights or of the ability to satisfy those rights of their own efforts. The obligation to protect requires the state to prevent violations

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

of human rights by third parties ... any individual or non state actor to provide access to legal remedies when violations have accrued in other to prevent further deprivations. The obligation to fulfill requires the state to take measures to ensure, for persons within its jurisdiction, opportunities to obtain satisfaction of the basic needs as recognized in human rights instruments which cannot be secured by personal efforts.

Article 27 of the International Covenant on civil and political rights (ICCPR) obliged states not to deny minorities the right to use their language: In those states in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not denied the rights, in community with other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, to use their own language (p.44).

Article 27 of the ICCPR affords individuals belonging to linguistic minorities whether citizens or non citizens in a state the individual and collective rights to use their language among themselves, in private or in public. Therefore France imposition of French on colonial Africans is an infringement on their rights which negate the aforementioned articles. It is against this background that the linguistic consequences of French Assimilation policy as it affects growth and development of African states would be looked into.

Consequences of the assimilation policy and its implications for national growth and development The realization that each time a language disappears, a culture also disappears is true and this leads to cultural and linguistic alienation. The neglect of indigenous languages and the resultant low self esteem leads to their speakers to develop contempt (apathy) for them, resulting

The linguistic consequences of French colonial policy of assimilation– Oyabebefa & Buku in language and cultural shift (Webb 1994) as cited Igboanusi et al (2009:139). Indigenous languages in French West Africa are functionally marginalised to the primary domains of life, Webb (1994:181) such as family and friends, local markets and domestic services, social institutions, religions consequent upon this, prejudices may impact negatively on indigenes and their languages and as French occupy a dominant position, for once a people occupy a dominant position, they strive hard to maintain their pre-eminence, using this position of advantage to continue to resist and perpetuate eclecticism with the use of favoured entail (Bangbosi 1990.1). This according to Bangbosi created two classes of citizens-the advantage included and the disadvantaged and excluded. The excluded group is denied basic rights to literacy information, law and participation in governance and discriminated against because of the languages they speak. This results in a decline in the status of indigenous languages known as dialects, vernaculars, jargons or even petit negre devoid of impressive written autographies and therefore debased, regarded retrogressive with harmful connotations to the republics such as Breton and Basque. The present crisis and under-development of the colonial states in Africa can be traced to the France Assimilation policy. This is succinctly exemplified by Lodhi as cited by Innocent Maja 2008. The dominance of the metro-languages deprives the majority of African languages of access to knowledge, and hinders them from participating in national politics and the decision-making process. It slows down national integration and development of a nation- state, with a national culture, creates insecurity and feeling of inferiority among those who have to operate in the foreign language of the ruling elite. This has led to the ethnic unrest, political instability and brutal violence from time to time in several parts of Africa where the main political problems are not really ideological but rather ethno-linguistic. Peace is a prerequisite for growth and prosperity, and in the African

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

context, peace language development in all forms should therefore be part and parcel of overall development.

In addition to the above facts, Africans have looked at their languages with contempt and apathy towards their development. They denigrated and belittled African languages as priorities as according to Prah as cited by Maja (2008): Colonialism triumphed through the perpetration of various degrees of ethnocide. The cultural world of the colonized was condemned in the names of inferiority and irredeemable primitivism. The languages installed by the colonial overlords dethroned the supremacy of African languages in the affairs of Africans. These languages of conquest and empire slowly formed the linguistic basis for the creation of indigenous elite which in the language of the time was “acculturated” and was in “culture contact” with an overwhelming western colonial culture. Western languages did not triumph on account of their innate or inherent superiority. They were culturally and politically installed only after the armed and forceful subjugation of native peoples.

Consequent upon this, Africans born in the communes of St. Louis, Goree, Rubisque and Dakar became French citizens automatically and so after 1916 did their descendants. Other Africans can quality for French citizens if only they were prepared to surrender their rights under native law, it only they had reached the age of eighteen, were monogamous had been educated in French language, had done the military service of required French citizens and had been in French employment for at least ten years. In 1937, out of some 15,000,000 Africans in French West Africa, only 80,500 were French citizens and all but 2,500 of these had acquired citizenship by the accident of birth in one of the communes of the Senegalese colony. How can a policy intended to preserve African institutions and discourage local self government in native districts and

The linguistic consequences of French colonial policy of assimilation– Oyabebefa & Buku in the larger two, the conduct of affairs in the colonies still remained in the hands of French officials? Broadly speaking France foreign policy veered towards the interventionist, with various French governments of all political strife, providing support, arms and client states and friendly regimes. Famous of such in the former German and later Belgian colony, Rwanda in the 1980’s and 1990’s as a result of Francophonic interest as symptomatic of 30 years of military intervention by Paris on the continent as identified in the rules of President de Gaulle, Pompidou Giscard d Estaing and Millerand. According to Andrew Wallis, French should be charged of complicity with the Hutu regime of Rwanda’s 1995 genocide. In the Educational sector, African countries have adapted the Education that advocates for a curriculum embedded in colonial languages, with a sense of inappropriateness of African languages as media of conveying knowledge as foreign languages-French Portuguese, English have become languages of opportunity, pathways to good jobs, material benefits and power in colonial Africa. Today, linguistic diversity is discouraged as educational policies are lopsided to favour colonial languages in French West Africa as local languages are marginalized. To sum ill, assimilation is an ideology of cultural annihilation. Lastly, linguistic loss is a crisis of biodiversity especially indigenous languages that are seen as containing within them a wealth of ecological information that will be lost as languages are lost. This ecolinguistic school of thought regards saving endangered languages as important part of the larger challenge of preservation biodiversity. The loss of a language is a permanent, irrevocable loss of a certain vision of a world, comparable to the loss of an animal or a plant, the number of speakers of that language deprives humanity of a part of our universal heritage in so far as the language embodies a unique world view and knowledge of ecosystems. It is our submission that French policy of Assimilation is responsible for the under-development of Francophone West Africa, economically,

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016 social and politically for language is the key to the challenges of African development.

Summary, conclusion and recommendations Findings from this study have shown that French Colonial policy was self- seeking and for selfish interest of the France to the detriment of the colonized colonies. French was not only for colonization, rather for total subjugation, plunder and ethnocide and that ignoring linguistic diversity is a problem which hinders national growth and development, that National unity does not imply cultural or linguistic uniformity. Nation states can be more representative and achieve sustainable unity if they guaranty the right to minority communities and their members to district languages and cultural practices. It is my submission that language is the key to the challenge of African development.

Works cited Crowder, M. (1968). West Africa under Colonial Rule: Evanston North Western University Press. Dada, S.A. (2007). Language Contact and Language Conflict: The Case of Yoruba English Bilinguals. In Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics. Vol. 29:pp. 85-113. Emezi, C.E. and Ndoh, C.A. (1999). African Politics, Owerri Achugo Publications. Herbert Igboanusi (2001), Language Attitude and Language Conflict in West Africa, Enicroft Publishers, Ibadan. Innocent Maja (2008). Towards the Human Rights Protection of Minority Languages in Africa/Global Research Tools/Globalexl Joseph, R. (1978) (ed). Gaullist Africa. Cameroon Under Ahidjos, Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishers. Mortimer, E. (1969). France and the African (1944-1960). A Political History. London: Faber and Faber Ltd.

The linguistic consequences of French colonial policy of assimilation– Oyabebefa & Buku

Nelde, P.H. (1987). Language Contact Means Language Conflict: In Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Developments, Vol. 8 Issue 12, 1987 (38-42). Nelde, P,H. (1997). Language Conflict info.coulmas(ed) Handbook of Sociolinguistics London: Basic Blackwell (285-300). Prah, K.K. (2002). Language, Neo-colonialism and the Colonial Curriculum in Africa 150 Tricontinental Http://www.Casas.Co. Zal. Papers. Languages. Him. Accessed 27th August (2007). Titi Adejumobi (2007). Applied Linguistics (An Introductory Handbook) Flag Publications, Lagos, Nigeria. Webb, Vie (1994). Revalouring the Autochonous Languages of Africa in Martin putz.ed. Amsterdam Philadelphia. John Benjamins Publish Company. Zeleza, P.T. (2007). The inventions of African identities and Languages: The Discursive and Developmental implications http://wwwingrefcom/cpp/acal /3 6/paper/402.pdf Accessed Sept. 2014.

Musa F. Oyabebefa English Department College of Education Warri, Nigeria & Harold B. Buku Political Science Department College of Education Warri, Nigeria

Re-enacting African cultural values cum postcolonial distortions in new Nigerian novels ecocritically: The study of Nnaji’s ‘the eagles tribe’

Onyeji Nnaji

Abstract There is a symbiotic relationship between language, culture and literature as each projects, reinforces and distils the other. The need for the projection of African culture had informed the development of modern African literature which serves the purpose of enlightening, educating and showcasing African worldview, practices and prejudices. To still re-inform and promote the language of African literature through African culture, the events in new Nigerian novels did not discuss the aspects of African cultural values peculiar to the settings alone, instead they attempted to present a microcosm of the situation in Africa in general using the setting as reference points. The artistic dexterity of Nnaji as an African novelist is obvious as he weaves African culture into English language in a novel too fascinating with enormous focus on African heroic lifestyle. In the same way, the novel has contributed in reconstructing and correcting – in a compelling storytelling style – the subjective portrayal of Africa; the cradle of civilization on the part of Nigeria called Nkalaha. This paper employs ecocritical approach to discuss the cultural pattern of The Eagles Tribe as a literature from Africa by an African conscious of his immediate and remote environments.

Introduction Culture, according to the social scientist; Simmel1, is referred to as the “Cultivation of individuals through the agency of external forms which have been objectified in the course of history.” Now, the objectification of the agency of external form of the people’s history and the cultivation of this history into the individuals in the community are

Re-enacting African cultural values cum postcolonial - Nnaji two ways channel culture passes to be credible. Culture is inbuilt but tradition is acquired. Agencies of external objects form the layman’s definition of culture as people’s way of life. As a dynamic phenomenon, culture encompasses the totality of attitudes, behaviours, beliefs and world-views. Culture is an integral part of every human society and all social groups are characterized by it. In other words, it is that “complex pattern of behaviour and material achievement which are produced, learned and shared by members of a community” Ameh2. Fundamental to the meaning of culture is a sense of refinement as the denotation of being cultured suggests. Every human community has its distinctive cultural patterns through which the totality of what, how, where and when of man in a context is known. One crucial part of culture is language as every culture has a language that best expresses it: there is no culture without a linguistic basis. This is the assertion held by Ngugi when he intoned that language is the carrier of culture while culture is the carrier of the people’s outlook. The statement still stands, for there is no natural language without a cultural foundation which it is designed to carry. From the foregoing explanations of culture above, it appears curious, if not mischievous, to assume that there is a human society without (a) culture as the expatriates’ criticism of Africa assert. This apparent misinformation or disparaging distortion incidentally contributed to the emergence of written African literature. By literature, we mean any piece of writing that expresses human experience and feelings through imagination. This writing becomes African when it addresses aspects of African life, society, philosophy and experience regardless of whatever language in which it is written. Chinua Achebe, who bestrides African literary landscape like a colossus, was taught that Africa had no culture while he studied Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Joyce Cary’s Mister Johnson, two colonial works that rate Africans as a sub-human race. The profound influence of Conrad’s novel on Achebe’s artistic mission and the author’s uncanny character assassination of Africans has been discussed in Achebe’s essay, “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness”. Through

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016 literature Achebe made the remark that Africa has culture. That is one of the ways literature liberate culture. Literature in the view of Brian3 is the “manifestation of verbal culture that cannot be filtered out of, or separated from, language’’. Literature involves an artistic use of language to articulate some insightful understanding of humans in their social and cultural environment. Thus, the subject matter of literature is human life and social experience. Since language is the major medium of expression in literature, giving attention to how it (language) has been creatively and artistically manipulated to articulate themes, project ideologies and aesthetics becomes imperative. Representations of the natural world need not to be narrowed to an angle, it may even be founded on self- consciousness about the language one uses; the author may even make this self-division explicit to the reader with the aim of dislocating him. In this way a culturally conscious writer insistently allows mind, language, history or environment to determine what nature can be, to suggest that the mystery out there is the ultimate judge of all human meanings with culture serving as the eyes with which every concealed aspect of the people’s lives can be unraveled. Ecocritical reading as a literary approach is a multiple alternative and discursive project of suggesting to the reader what birds and toads can see, that besides our noisy meanings of creatures, there is also nature’s silence. This notion of dual accountability is an indispensable critical tool with which, to sort out pastorals as ideological theatre and those striving for dialogical depiction and green consciousness raise through language, a set of culture that showcase the environment is made astute. According to Ngugi Wa Thiongo, the artist is the middleman who is faced with the task of unifying the society with the agencies of external forms that comprise culture. Dwelling in a changing society, Writer responds, with his total personality, to a social environment which changes all the time. Being a kind of sensitive needle, he registers, with varying degree of accuracy and success, the conflicts and tensions in his changing society. Thus the same writer will produce different types of work,

Re-enacting African cultural values cum postcolonial - Nnaji

sometimes contradictory in mood, sentiment, degree of optimism and even world-view. For the writer himself lives in, and is shaped by history. (Language, 47).

The main concern of ecocritical thinkers is to examine a text with the view to justifying how much the text discusses environmental situation and the considerable impacts of the ecological condition to the inhabitants of the setting of the text. From this perspective, it becomes apparent that what may possibly constitute the ecological factor of one people may constitute the ecological condition of another people in a completely or relatively variant ways. For instance, ecosystem as given considerable thought in the western communities where development has dully overtaken the entire setting should have certain variants from those of the relatively underdeveloped African societies. In this regard, the reader’s interpretation of a text via ecocriticism may vary within persons. In the African concept, for instance, ecological condition cannot be given due conclusion without the involvement of post colonial situations in any part of the continent. This is where the works of some traditional critics like Achebe, Elizabeth Beret and many others become relevant to ecological criticism. In Africa, a number of writers and critics, without the stamp of ecocritics, have traditionally been engaged in nature writing highlighting land issues, environmental evils studying them as the result of the long history of colonialism. From such perspectives, the position of Chinua Achebe is not easy to define. Unlike the avowal narratives of Nnamani in Rootless Bleed which goes right inside to exhume the degraded situation of the underdogs among the Nigerian Niger Deltas, Achebe has not shown any apparent awareness towards ecological crisis in his writings, his novels, mainly Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God bear sufficient proof of the writer addressing the theme of nature and environment. But he cannot deny, out rightly, his due involvement with nature and the African soil (environment). Of course, the storyteller, Achebe himself has explained his first novel to favour this critical concept. According to Nnaji4,

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

When Okonkwo was in exile in Mbanta, Obierika visited and announced to him that the Whiteman has put a surd on everything that kept the community together; separating sons from their father and husband from their wives, therefore things had fallen apart. Achebe reconciled this view in 2009, while presenting a speech in Okigwe Igbo conference that, Okonkwo (representing Igbo, African heroism) fell because he ignored the instruction of Agbala because the priestess was a woman (representing the earth; soil). Therefore, Africa will regain her consciousness the very day she gives attention to the content of her Ala, soil. www.ajuede.com

In an interview Achebe himself asserts thus, The European invasion resulted in Africans losing their “grip over history”. It also led to their losing “their memory of Africa”, a massive loss since “the “past is all we have (Speech, 63).

It is for this reason that he had endeavored to tell the story of Okonkwo and Umuofia’s destruction, for the story of their strengths and weaknesses must be told as effectively as possible if the people of Nigeria were to achieve some sort of balance again. To put Achebe’s position positively, among the reasons he wrote Things Fall Apart was to depict for his African readers a continent where, especially before colonial invasion, people lived in a complex, diverse and fruitful relationship with the African environment, a society morally conditioned by culture and tradition. The overall effect of Achebe’s perspective on the African’s links with the land is to make his African readers realize what it was to dwell in a harmonious relationship with the world, thereby raising what we would now term their cultural consciousness, that is to say their sensitivities about the importance of preserving the intimate link between the land and themselves is embedded in the people’s culture. He also intends to demonstrate through his fiction how the coming of

Re-enacting African cultural values cum postcolonial - Nnaji colonization induced a sense of strain in the African’s cultural consciousness and connection to nature.

Cultural distortion in The eagles tribe Nnaji, in The Eagles Tribe, portrays the spiritual relation between the Igbo and their natural world, a relation that went beyond the visible physical correspondence. Set in a village called Umugo, Nnaji portrays nature as another character in the novel, not just keeping it in the background. He presents nature as a living entity which acts along with the human characters. That the idea of exploiting nature for their own benefit is unimaginable for the Igbo is apparent in their physical activities and mental thinking which are shaped by the surrounding environment. Nnaji shows how the Igbo agricultural life, religious beliefs, festivals, their ideas about the world and human life are all intertwined with nature. The summary of all the struggles is culture, for the language which reveals the belief system of the Igbo nation is here dramatized as being informed by the people’s culture. Culture itself, as Nnaji tried to argue here, is not separated from the environment since the language that serves as the conveyor of the dominant culture is itself composed of the environment. The novel begins with the introduction of the colonial imperialistic tool to Umugo. After this, the succeeding chapters chronicle the different individual and community activities observed in different seasons. The Igbo maintained strict rules during the planting and harvest seasons. They believed that any violation of the nature‘s course would dissatisfy the earth. For example, clearing of the major farm road” was compulsory before the first or miniature harvest of yams which is marked with the new yam festival. As yam was a sacred food in the Igbo cultural circle, they maintained equal sanctity before its plantation. They believed that maintenance of peace in domestic and societal level kept the earth satisfied which would ensure good harvest. Flouting certain rules as believed were ordained by the nature attracts certain fines, it doesn’t matter the person concerned. Therefore, when Odumu, the protagonist, broke the sanctity, he was denied the most valued ritualistic

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016 purification meant for the community’s warriors among whom he reigned as a warlord (P.109). The novel presents a society orderly organized and controlled by natural law. The communities organized themselves into one bond, both in their minds and action. With this, the society was conducive and free from certain conspicuous lifestyle that characterized the culturally extinct colonial and post-colonial era. The joy so long sustained in the society was based on the tradition and cultural bond which collectively held them together. The meaning of family was dependent on the ideal concept which was only understood from some domestic activities such as eating together. It was not conclusively biological, that is why Agudu (the assumed serge in the novel) is counted among the family members of Odumu (the protagonist). It was apparent that anything eatable as food was designed to accommodate everybody present. In other words, anyone who could not crave the delicacies that the gods have blessed his neighbor with automatically becomes a non member of the family. The same could be regarded as an enemy. The question is on the mutual interrelationship and collective mind it promotes among the community members. Culture planted this in them and it becomes an axiom. Festivities also add certain definitions to the nature of the society. New Yam Festival was observed with all sincerity as it was an occasion for giving thanks to Ani, the earth goddess and the source of all fertility. Ani played a greater part in the life of the people than any other deity. She was the ultimate judge of morality and conduct. During the period of some festivals like New Yam and Aju festivals the Igbo did not fight any kind of war. This practice of keeping peace showed the Igbo’s great concern for not only nature, but also the ancestors who are believed to be around the inhabitants, especially during the festival. Aju is the festival dedicated to the activities of the founding fathers. The respect that the Igbo held for their ancestors was another evidence of their great love for the land. Their ancestors were the very part of the land. Thus the dead members of the community became a part of the land. This dynamic model of land extends genealogically from the past to the future. This idea is viewed from the supplications made by Odumu.

Re-enacting African cultural values cum postcolonial - Nnaji

The vultures do not disperse until the procession of the sacrifice is completed. So, your children are gathered again to crave the delicacies of their fathers. Ani the mighty goddess, the home of our spiritual fathers, to you in gratitude for the bounty of our king of crops, yam, are we gathered. And as the tradition demanded that you spirits eat first, we are bringing them to you (P.35).

Partaking in the conviviality which the festivals bring usually motivate a continuous communion among the elders of the communities. This communion as orchestrated by the communal festivals also encourages unity and same spirit. From the ongoing the novel presented to us a society whose sole purpose of survival is stirred by egalitarian drive. Culture is the builder of people’s acumen, as tradition may serve as the window through which the people’s acumen is pictured correctly. Environment as part of the people’s cultural properties then serves as the patterning force within which the sovereignty of the tradition is exercised. It is the source of peace among them and a means of livelihood without which life would be meaningless. Nature was thus appropriated by the Igbo to include both the living and the non-living members of the community. The land did not belong to the present generation only, the ancestors and the future generations too shared in the ownership of the land. For the Igbo, nature was divine. Trees, rivers, hills, cave, and different other components of the environment held divine powers. Ani was the goddess of earth and fertility, Amadioha - the god of thunder, Ufiojioku, the god of harvest and Anyanwu was the sun god. Other gods abide which are assigned with certain roles that correspond to the charge of sustaining the environment and the people in it. The Igbo believed that the divine nature influenced human life from birth till death and even after that; any violation of the natural setting meant simply a disruption of the flow of life. Any occurrence that appeared unnatural such as twin babies, abnormal childbirth (like a child who comes out with his legs rather than his head is considered as an ajo

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016 nwa, bad child), diseases like small pox and leprosy, death by suicide etc. were handled in different ways. For such cases the Igbo had a reserved area called the Evil Forest where they deposited such persons. Those things which were incomprehensible to the people or beyond the control of the human’s strength are usually attributed to natural instincts. It is the attempts to tamper with these assumed natural instincts that made communities to engage in war. This attitude is demonstrated in the chanted clauses on page 51. There are periods when the communities do not fight wars. At this time it was expected that the community involved must not go to war; the inhabitants were expected to live peacefully among themselves and maintain a same moral condescension. Such were the period of Aju festivals. Aju festivals last for four days, covering the four market days that mark the Igbo geometry of the cosmos. Aju was the festival of the Igbo ancestors as recognized by the communities that celebrate it. They believed that the ancestors lived in peace and had propagated the gospel of peace at their time. For such reason, it was believed according to the novel that the spirits of the ancestors move around during these period and would not be happy with the living when this propagated peace is not in place. The colonial masters had knowledge of this consolidated peace and the time when it reigned supreme. To succeed, they had to still this moment of less war condition and crept into the communities. Nnaji shows how the language of the Igbo was shaped by the landscape. Being an oral society, the Igbo used numerous oral devices for effective communication, such as proverbs, sayings, riddles, myths etc. in their conversation. Frequent references to flora and fauna implied the Igbo’s closeness to nature. It is apparent even from the use of proverbs in the novel, Nnaji’s claim that the Igbo language is a nature language. Addressing Okachie, Ikenna the eldest man said,

I have always said that in a day like this, there is no how it would rain in the forest without leaving dews behind, or should a river flow through the forest without hewing trees (P.39).

Re-enacting African cultural values cum postcolonial - Nnaji

This and numerous other proverbs were influenced by their environment. Nnaji incorporates a number of myths and folk tales to establish the same point. The myth of the Cosmic Quarrel between Earth and Sky, the folk tale of the Tortoise and Birds etc. were evidences of how their folktales were products of the land and the landscape. Regarding this aspect, it is evident that the pre colonial ecology of The Eagles Tribe is in a way indicating that language develops in a long historical relationship to a particular environment and culture. Thus, nature shaped the mental make-up of the Igbo which was reflected in the language. After giving a complete picture of the pre colonial Igbo life, Nnaji moves to show how the Christian missionaries and colonial rulers denigrated the philosophy of the natives. In their attempt to spread Christianity, the missionaries, the harbingers of colonial rule, stripped from nature and environment all the spiritual meanings held deeply by the Igbo, thereby distorting the entire cultural values that held the community as a body. They tried to persuade the local people to embrace Christianity by establishing that the Igbo religion was paganism and all their religious beliefs were baseless. But Edeoga, the chief priest of both land and water spirits had foreseen this circumstance and had predicted the coming of the Whiteman and the damages the culture and tradition of the land stands to suffer. At first, Edeoga announced his death thus,

It is said that if a man refuses to organize his house as he leaves, he would return having his properties scattered. You are my properties. Death said people make reference to it as if it does not kill. Now listen, a precious egg is about to break. And if it breaks you have to be careful. Take time before you do anything and do nothing without consideration (P.146).

After a long speech which incomprehensible proverbs were interlaced, he said,

I warn you all. Listen to your elders and much more to your priests. The eyes of the gods are upon you all for peace. But like

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

Onoja would say to the clan, ‘the beads that protect a man, if not carefully handled, is capable of bringing about his destruction’. The days are becoming brighter fast; you must be intelligent enough to follow its brightness (P.148).

The missionary, Mr. Otomba (as referred to by the community) tried to convince the people that nature did not hold any divine power and there was only one God. Thus all other deities of nature were dismissed and made fun of through the missionaries’ teachings. To make a heyday, the missionary’s attempts to force the pupils under mandate to abandon the practice of their fathers as that was considered fetish did not only cause injuries to the Igbo religious beliefs, but it also marked the destruction of nature for the advancement of colonial enterprise. Cultural denigration which had been the architect of environmental destruction as a result of notions and ideas acquired from foreign culture is indirectly aimed at withdrawing values from those natural instincts that formed the bases of the people’s moral and religious tenets. The tact in the colonial masters to penetrate the land was found in their involvement with Ofia, Odumu’s son, just for the sole interest on the presence of limestone in the area. Just as Nwoye was used to set things out of place in Things Fall Apart, Ofia was also used to set things out of place in The Eagles Tribe. In a historical book, Nnaji himself reveals thus,

The novel explores the fighting lifestyle of the community in her pre- colonial days and ended with the advent of the colonial masters. It does as well address the roles of various festivals, masquerading and deeply evokes the community’s belief system, superstition and prejudices that patterned the world of an Nkalaha man. The novel opens a fresh leaf and introduces us to a new society entirely with the death of Edeoga (the priest of Ebe deity) in chapter twelve. After this chapter we encounter for the first time the shadow of the Whiteman in the succeeding chapters through Ofia’s movement. Edeoga’s death in that chapter prepares the reader to meet a different event in the succeeding chapters in consonance with the changes in the society. The death

Re-enacting African cultural values cum postcolonial - Nnaji

refers to the end of the mediaeval era and a turn over to the modern era full of rile, conflict and struggles. This is played out in the community’s history through the demise of Ezeoko; the oldest priest of Ebe deity. He died in the year 1934. His death in the novel refers to the death of law, tradition, culture and religion, for he – being a priest – represents religion and tradition.

In the same line of cross-reference, the novel reveals Ofia the son of Odumu as being instrumental to the entrance of the Whiteman into Umugo. Ofia would not do this in the days when his father was active. Odumu’s old age and weakness in this manner signifies autumn (the period of death of the hero). He, being inactive means that he was dead to his heroic activities. This directly point to the death of Nnaji nwa Nnaji, the father of Ebe Nwachi. In his days he was a custodian of the community’s culture and tradition. Too staunch he was in his belief of the community’s religion that he wouldn’t have permitted his own son to be instrumental to the intrusion of any foreign culture or its tradition. We can see in the novel as Odumu regretted his weakness. Of course, one may ask, why is Odumu alive since he represent a dead character? He was alive in the novel to play out the community’s belief that their death fathers are within and around them. To be properly positioned, Odumu had to be inactive. He can speak even though he is inactive because the community believes that their late fathers speak to them. The usual heart-to-heart interaction we found amidst Odumu and Ofia which has always been randomly, signifies this communication with the spirit fathers (History, 137-138).

By giving a heart-rending portrayal of how the Igbo’s deeply reverenced values were negated by the colonial rulers, Nnaji‘s novel thus indicates the initial stage of what was going to take a devastating turn in the history of colonial exploitation. The Eagles Tribe is the evidence that the act of violating nature and destructing the environment was inspired by the very principles of the colonial rule which did not believe in the spiritual bond between nature and human beings. While colonial exploitation was in its initial stage in Umugo, it appeared in full aggression in other communities in the novel such as Odeke, Okoto and

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

Mba-miri. Evidence of the destruction of nature was estimated accurately through the activities of the colonial masters in Mba-miri. Christian missionaries encouraged the people to go contrary to the ancient concept which stratified the society amidst feudal lords and their subordinates.

Conclusion The impact of Postcolonial Ecocriticism is found necessary to the proper analysis of The Eagles Tribe. With it we understand cultural issues not only as central to the projects of European conquest and global domination, but also as inherent in the ideologies of imperialism and racism on which those projects historically and ideationally depend. It was not only during the colonial period, but even after the end of colonial rule, developmental projects master planned in Western countries have been continuously robbing nature of its riches and degrading the environment. Culture is completely overtaken by the incomprehensible concept, postmodernism; the entire globe notwithstanding. This paper is concluded with the note that Postcolonial Ecocriticism can play a crucial part in the study of present environmental degradation. This critical school can throw new insight into the western ideas of development which, under the disguise of neo-colonialism, has been a cause of global environmental crises. This is because the extinction of cultural relevance in man is always the precursor of disillusionment and loss of the consciousness of both self and the instincts that assigned value to societal history and moral tenets. A balanced view of development is the need of the hour and postcolonial ecocriticism can contribute to global justice and sustainability by exploring themes that centre on nature and environment across different literary works.

Works cited Achebe, Chinua. (1988). “An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness” in H.M. Abrams (ed.) The Norton Anthology of

100

Re-enacting African cultural values cum postcolonial - Nnaji

English Literature. New York: Norton & Company, 2000. Seventh Edition, Volume II. Achebe Chinua. Things Fall Apart. London: Heinemann, 1958. Achebe Chinua. No Longer at Ease. London: Heinemann, 1960. (2) Ameh, E. A. “Culture and Environment as Factors Influencing Students’ Comprehension of Poetry” In Lawal, A et al (Eds.), Perspectives on Applied in Linguistics and Literature. Ibadan: Stirllng-Horden Publishers (Nig.) Ltd. 2002, pp.165-174. (3) Brian, H. English as a second and foreign language. London: Edward Arnold. Print, 1993. P.47. (1) Levine, Donald (Edt) “Simmel: on Individuality and Social Forms.” Chicago University Press, 1971 Ngugi WaThiongo. “Language and Literature”.In, Literature and Society. (Edt) Earnest Emenyonu. Oguta: zim Pan African Publication, 1986. (4) Nnaji, Onyeji. Africa Resuming Her Rightful Position in the Global Historical Milieu. 2014. www.ajuede.com Nnaji, Onyeji. The Eagles Tribe. Enugu: Think Graphics, 2008. Nnaji, Onyeji. The Historical Foundation of Nkalaha. Akwa Ibom: Jerry Concept, 2013. Nnaji, Onyeji. The Contributions of Ebe Nwachi to the Historical Development of Nkalaha. www.ajuede.com; 5/03/2015. Nnamani E.C. Rootless Bleed. Enugu: Reality Prints, 2009. Searle, J. R. Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. New York. Cambridge University Press, 1969.

Onyeji Nnaji Department of English University of Uyo Akwa Ibom, Nigeria

101

The Màrgí traditional numeral system

Amos Dlibugunaya

Abstract Numerals (apart from 1-10) are formed through various mathematical and morphological processes. It is through the mathematical means, that languages/dialects are able to form complex numerals from basic ones. This study investigates the numeral system of Màrgí, a Central Chadic language spoken in Northern part of Nigeria, using a descriptive approach. The various mathematical and morphological processes involved in the derivation of numerals were examined. Findings show that both addition and multiplication are prevalent processes in forming numerals in the language under study.

Introduction Màrgí is a member of the Chadic language family. Newman (1990) classified Chadic as a family of languages which belong to Hamito-Semitic (Afro-Asiatic) phylum. It is estimated that the phylum includes some 140 languages, with its most prominent member being Hausa. The Chadic family consists of four coordinate branches: West, Biu-Mandara( Central), East and Masa. Margi belongs to the Central Chadic subgroup A, thus making it a close relative of Bura and Kilba and a more distant relative of Hausa (cf. Dlibugunaya 2004) The Màrgí are not a uniform group, but are split up into several divisions. The Màrgí themselves recognize four such main divisions: (1) Màrgí bàbál, (2) Màrgí Dzərú, (3) the Màrgí Pùtái, and (4) the Màrgí tí ntəm. Of these, the first name Màrgí bàbál means the Màrgí of the plain (bàbál open place). The second name Màrgí Dzərú means the Màrgí near (udzər) the mountain(ú). The third name, Màrgí Pùtái means the Màrgí of the west pùtái) or briefly, West Màrgí. The last name Màrgí tí ntəm (also simply mjir tí ntəm) is explained as the Màrgí (or people)

102

The Màrgí traditional numeral system - Dlibugunaya who cry (mourn) with a pot. This name is derived from their custom of crying (i.e. mourning) with a drum made from the upper part of a pot. This term was proposed by the bàbál people but was not accepted by the Màrgí tí ntəm who refer to themselves as Màrgí Dzàkwà (cf. Hoffmann 1963, Dlibugunaya 2004) This paper is the description of the last group which is Màrgí tí ntəm who refer to themselves as Màrgí Dzàkwà.

The cardinal numerals The cardinal numerals are just the ordinary counting system in Màrgí Dzákwà. The cardinal numerals are the following: 1 tài, pátlú, zəmù 2 səài, mətlù 3 mákər 4 fóù (fwáù) 5 tùfù 6 kwà 7 məəfáu 8 cìsú 9 ədláu 10 kùmáu 11 kùmáu à sər tá 12 kùmáu à pə mətlú 13 kùmáu à pə mákər 14 kùmáu à pə fóù(fwáù) 15 kùmáu à pə tùfù 16 kùmáu à pə kwà 17 kùmáu à pə məəfáu 18 kùmáu à pə cìsú 19 kùmáu à pə ədláu 20 mətlkùmnyì 21 mətlkùmnyì à sər tá 22 mətlkùmnyì à pə mətlú 23 mətlkùmnyì à pə mákər

103

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

30 mákərkùmnyì 40 fóùkùmnyì 50 tùfùkùmnyì 60 kwàkùmnyì 70 məəfkùmnyì 80 cìsúkùmnyì or cìskùmnyì 90 ədlkùmnyì 100 ghàrú 101 ghàrú əá pátlú or ghàrú əá zəmù 102 ghàrú əá mətlù 110 ghàrú əá kùmáu 1,000 dúbú(probably borrowed from Hausa) 1,000,000 dúbúràm or mìlìyàn Note: tài one and səài two are only used in counting. Otherwise pátlú and mətlù are used. Pátlú and zəmù are slightly different in meaning, but no rule can be given regarding their use, except that zəmù has more meaning of single only one. The multiples of ten are formed according to the following schedule: unit + kùmáu +àpə. It is noteworthy in this combination that the units take first place, while normally the numbers follow the things counted. Also note the tonal change in the stem of several units and in the stem of kùmáu. The word order is no longer unusual, if we take for example, kwàkùmnyì, as originally meaning six, then ten of it. The multiples of a hundred and a thousand are regular, i.e. the units follow the words ghàrú and dúbú e.g. 200 ghàrú mətlù 300 ghàrú 400 ghàrú fóù(fwáù) 500 ghàrú tùfù 4000 dúbú fóù(fwáù) 5000 dúbú tùfù 6000 dúbú kwà In connection with nouns, the numerals follow the noun, e.g.

104

The Màrgí traditional numeral system - Dlibugunaya

njì mətlù njì mákər njì fóù(fwáù) njì mətlù yàr kàu these two people njì mákər yàr kàu these three people But the numbers may also be used alone: nəá pátlú give one, (nəá zəmù give me one) Pátlú may also take possessive suffixes in a- possessive construction to express one of…,e.g. Pátlá yá one of us(exclusive) Pátlá ndá one of them.

The ordinal numerals With the exception of first, the ordinals are derived from the cardinals by suffixing – kur or kuranyi. In other words, the ordinal is the abstract noun of the cardinal numeral. Consider the following examples: 1st pátlkùrànyì, zəmkùrànyì 2nd mətlkùrànyì 3rd mákərkùrànyì 4th fó(u)kùrànyì, fwáúkùrànyì 5th tùf(u)kùrànyì 6th kwàkùrànyì 7th məəfkùrànyì 8th cìskùrànyì 9th ədlkùrànyì 10th kùmáukùrànyì 11th kùmáu à sər tá kùrànyì 12th kùmáu à pə mətlùkùrànyì 20th mətlùkùmnyì kùrànyì 30th mákərkùmnyì kùrànyì 60th kwàkùmnyì kùrànyì 100th ghàrúkùrànyì 1000th dúbúkùrànyì

105

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

Note: As is seen from these examples, the suffix – kur(kùrànyì) is only added to the last part of a compound number. There seem to be no tonal differences between the cardinals and the ordinals. Of the three words for ‘first’, pátlkùrànyì is formed regularly from pátlú. In ordinary use as ordinal numerals, the above forms are generally use with the suffix – ànyì, e.g. nàjà ή pátlkùrànyì he is the first pátlkùrànyì ή káu this is the first nàjà mákərkùrànyì he is the third

But the ordinals are also used as denominators of fractions, and in this case they are used without the – ànyì, e.g. mákərkùr mətlù two thirds ədlkùr fóù(fwáù) four- ninths

Numeral adverbs In Màrgí Dzàkwà, the numeral adverbs meaning ‘once’, ‘twice’, ‘three times’, are formed by putting sau before the cardinal numeral, e.g. sàu pátlú once sàu zəmù once sàu mətlù twice sàu mákər thrice, three times sàu fóù four times sàu tùfù five times sàu kwà six times sàu məəfáu seven times sàu cìsú eight times sàu ədláu nine times sàu kùmáu ten times

Distributive numerals The distributive numerals are like other distributive expressions made by reduplication of the cardinal numbers. The reduplication may be complete and the whole word doubled, or incomplete, so that only the

106

The Màrgí traditional numeral system - Dlibugunaya first syllable is reduplicated. Usually both forms exist. The higher compound numerals seem to double only the last part, e.g. 1 each pápátlú, zəzəmu 2 each məmətlù, mətlùmətlù 3 each mámákər, mákərmákər 4 each fófóù, fóùfóù 5 each tùfùtùfù 6 each kwàkwà 7 each məməəfáu 8 each cìsúcìsú 9 each ədláuədláu 10 each kùmáukùmáu 11 each kùmáu à sər tá à sər tá 12 each kùm áu à pə mətlù à pə mətlù 20 each mətlùkùmnyì mətlùkùmnyì 30 each mákərkùmnyì mákərkùmnyì 40 each fó(ù)kùmnyì fóùkùmnyì 100 each ghàrúghàrú 1000 each dúbúdúbú

Fractions The noun rètá ‘half’ probably borrowed from Fulfulde language is used for the fraction ½, e.g. rètár kùm half the meat. The other fractions( thirds, fourths, etc) are expressed by the ordinal numerals.

Other expressions of quality In Màrgí Dzàkwà, besides the numerals, there are a number of other words indicating some kind of quantity. Although they cannot be considered a grammatical category, but they play a very prominent role in describing certain things/situations. ‘Much’, ‘many’ is expressed by the indefinite numeral gá, which follow its noun. If ‘many of…’ or ‘most of…’ is to be translated, the corresponding abstract noun gákùr or the complex bà dəgàl ‘a great deal’ may be used in a genitive or possessive construction, e.g.

107

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

əfə gá(u) much much njì gá(u) many people gákùràndá many of them bà dəgàlár njì most of the people, majority of the people

‘All’ is rendered by pátú or pápátú. These two forms are used alone or after a noun. As the high tone on the final a indicates, these forms are joined with the following noun in an a-genitive construction, e.g. njì pátú all people njì pápátú all people pátú njì all people pápátú njì all people

They may also be used with possessive suffixes to express ‘all of…’, e.g. pát(ú) ndá all of them pápát(ú) ndá all of them

Another word for ‘all’ is təkəm. It is often used after its noun or pronoun or alone, e.g. njì təkəm all people nàndà təkəm all of them fár təkəm! take all

But it is also possible to place təkəm first and let the noun or pronoun( in suffix form) follow: təkəm njì all people təkəmndá all of them

A third word for ‘all’ is pápátú or pátú. Compare the following examples: fárndá pátú take them all! nàndà pápátú all of them pápátəndá all of them

108

The Màrgí traditional numeral system - Dlibugunaya

The word gyàpù means ‘both’. In combination with pronouns it may be used after the absolute pronoun, or it takes first place, and the pronouns are suffixed: nàndà gyàpù both of them gyàpùndà both of them

Conclusion The nature of the Màrgí Dzàkwà traditional counting system has been examined. An attempt is made to bring to lime light the different types of numerical system used by the speakers of the language and the various morphological and phonological processes exploited in the different formation of this numerical system. It was observed that the examples in 3 and 4 above show that the Màrgí Dzàkwà distributive numerals can be formed through the process of complete and partial reduplication, although we observe that not all the cardinal numerals follow the rules of partial reduplication. There are a few exceptional cases as seen in kwàkwà ‘six each’, ədláuədláu ‘nine each’, kùmáukùmáu ‘ten each’. part from these three all other cardinal numerals in the language follow the reduplication process in the formation of its distributive numerals. Such phenomenon operate in a similar manner in Kilba, Bura, and Hausa (see Abubakar 2000, Mu’azu 2009, Mu’azu and Balami 2013) It is hoped that this little effort will draw the attention of other scholars of Chadic languages and general linguists to the detail and accurate description of Chadic languages, Nigerian languages and African languages system of numeration in general

References Abubakar, A. 2000. An Introductory Hausa Morphology. Department of Languages and Linguistics, University of Maiduguri.

109

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

Dlibugunaya, A. 2004. ‘Some aspects of Margi phonology. A non- linear approach to the analysis of Margi Dzakwa’ PhD Thesis, University of Maiduguri (Unpublished). Hoffmann, C. 1963. A grammar of the Margi language. London: Oxford University Press. Mu’azu, M. A. 2009. An examination of the phonological processes in Kilba. Oye Ogun Journal of Arts, Vol. 15. Mu’azu, M.A. and Balami, F. 2013. The Bura numeral system. In Ndimele, Ozo- mekuri., and Chan, Eugene S.L.(eds.). The numeral systems of Nigerian languages( LAN Occasional Publications No.2) Mu’azu M.A. 2013. The Kilba traditional numeral system. In Ndimele, Ozo- mekuri., and Chan, Eugene S.L. (eds.). The numeral systems of Nigerian languages (LAN Occasional Publications No.2) Newman, P. 1990. Nominal plurality in Chadic. Dordretch: Foris Publications.

Amos Dlibugunaya Department of Linguistics and African Languages University of Abuja FCT, Nigeria

110

The musical drama approach to the study of Nigerian languages: Clement Ezegbe’s ‘nwa na-eku nwa’ as an example

Mabel Ugochi Okpara

Abstract Musical drama, also known as opera, is the art of disseminating information through the medium of play acted with music. Nigerian children particularly those brought up in the cities find it difficult to express themselves in their local languages as a result of exposure to Western education and culture. This paper is aimed at emphasizing the efficacy of musical drama in the teaching and learning of Nigerian languages with particular reference to Dr Ezegbe’s ‘Nwa Na-eku Nwa’, an Igbo musical drama. The same thing goes for the other Nigerian languages when musical drama is applied. Observation, interviews, test- retest of the same group and library methods were used to gather relevant data for this study. Some Igbo Senior Secondary School one (SS1) students from Federal Government College, Okigwe in Imo State, Nigeria were made to learn to act this short musical drama as a field- work and the result showed a dramatic turn around and a significant improvement in their speaking, reading, comprehending and writing skills in the Igbo language. It is worthy of mention that the same group of students were tested in the Igbo language before and after the musical drama presentation which led to the conclusion drawn.

Introduction It is an established fact that children enjoy demonstrations, dramatizations and other actions rather than the talk-chalk method of teaching. Employing these teaching methods is a sure way of bringing a child to grips with his studies and to adequately get his interest. The same principles apply to the teaching of languages. ‘Practice makes perfect’ is a popular adage which is true in teaching and learning. To

112

The musical drama approach to the study of Nigerian languages - Okpara gain the attention of children in the teaching-learning process, the teacher must be conversant with the use of dramatization, and demonstrations and other actions to set induce the children and gain their attention because their concentration span is very short. To buttress this point, Mda in Okonkwo (2011) posits that, “theatre as a medium, is effective for the realization of both communication and development of an objective.” (p.2). In this case the learner is trained to communicate fluently in the languages through musical theatre and also with the objective of disseminating information to the audience. Musical drama is a vital means of training children in the languages. As they get involved in musical drama using any language they are intended to study, the teacher imparts knowledge without much stress and gradually, assimilation and retrieval levels rise. Idolor (2009) reveals that: Teachers who apply music to the lessons not only achieve a lively lesson, but speed up the rate of assimilation of learners. One solid way to increase the speed at which people learn is with music. The learning is without stress and therefore makes learning permanent in learners that as long as the music is remembered, the content comes to mind. (p. 9).

The musical play is actually in African (Igbo) setting as Dasylva (2004) affirms that, “African plays are written by Africans.” (p.77). Ezegbe’s Nwa Na-eku Nwa is a purely African (Igbo) musical drama.

Definition of terms Music: This is the use of well-arranged sounds (tones) to disseminate information. Yekini-Adenifuja and Okunade (2013) define music as “the application of sounds that reflect the values of the society where it is embedded in order to stimulate the emotion of the audience (p. 23). This definition implies that music is transformative since it ‘reflects the values of the society’. Drama: Drama means the imitation of people and situations in a play form with the aim of informing and educating an audience.

113

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

Opera or musical drama: An opera is a musical setting of a drama for solo, chorus and orchestra. It is acted like a conventional drama with scenery, costume, plot, acts. Instead of spoken words, actors are meant to sing their lines. Randel in Aninwene (2011) defines opera as “a drama that is primarily sung accompanied by instruments and presented theatrically to an audience.” Sadie and Lathan in Aninwene (2011) also define opera as, “drama set to music, for performance on the stage, normally with orchestral accompaniment.” According to Aninwene (2011), “opera was initially meant for entertainment in courts for the aristocratic audience before it was later thrown open to the public. A public opera house was opened in Vienna in 1637. Since then, opera has witnessed many developments in types, nature and general structured.” (p. 83). Operetta: An operetta is a small opera usually with spoken words as well as music. Ezegbe’s Nwa Na-eku Nwa is best described as an operetta because it is a mini opera with spoken words allowed intermittently. Microsoft Encarta (2008) defines operetta as: Stage play with songs and dance interspersed with dialogue. In the 18th century, the term meant a short opera, but in the 19th and 20th centuries it came to mean a play with music of light character and popular appeal. The French operetta developed in small theaters such as the Bouffes Parisiens, founded by the composer Jacques Offenbach. The form, originally a one-act piece, later grew into a three-act or four-act play.

Revisiting Ezegbe’s ‘Nwa Na-eku Nwa’ musical drama Rev. Ezegbe taught children to eschew disobedience because of its costly repercussions. Ekemma,(alias, ‘Nwa Na-eku Nwa, that is baby care-giver) child-minds Utonwa, the only child of the mother. Utonwa’s mother is a petty trader also a widow, who goes to market on daily basis, comes in intermittently to see how her only child and daughter Utonwa is doing. Each time she comes home, she beckons on Ekemma (Nwa Na- eku Nwa) to bring her baby with the song:

114

The musical drama approach to the study of Nigerian languages - Okpara

Igbo Translation Nwa Na-eku Nwa Baby care-giver Awanje Awanje Kunye m Utonwa Bring Utonwa for me Awanje Awanje

Ekemma will always gladly bring Utonwa to her mother who caresses her only child, hugs, kisses her and leaves for the market. This continued until this fateful day when the chief of the land (eze) was to be buried and Utonwa’s mother warned Ekemma not to step out of the house with the baby. She must remain in the house because heads always roll during the burial of kings. Kidnappers and robbers parade the villages looking for whom to undo through robbery and kidnapping. Utonwa’s mother left for the burial. Meanwhile Ekemma (Nwa Na-eku Nwa) could not endure being indoors throughout that day because there would be many entertaining displays by different performing groups at the village square. Ekemma violated her madam’s restraint by going out with Utonwa to the village square, rehearsing and dancing with other youths (boys and girls) for the burial ceremony. Kidnappers raid the scene and kidnap Utonwa where Ekemma lays her on a wrapper.(See the appendix for Ekemma with the dance group during the rehearsals. Ekemma wails, wails and wails pleading with them to release the baby that the mother will kill her. They keep deaf ears and drive off on their bicycles with Utonwa. Utonwa is no more. The mother feels the mishap and hurries back home beckoning on Ekemma as usual to bring her Utonwa singing: Igbo Translation Nwa Na-eku Nwa Baby seater Awanje (2x) Awanje Kunye m Utonwa Bring Utonwa for me Awanje Awanje Utonwa di n’ura Utonwa is asleep Awanje Awanje I na-eli ife libe ife Come and have your meal

115

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

Awanje Awanje Utonwa di n’ura Utonwa is asleep Awanje Awanje

Ekemma applies delay tactics to prevent Utonwa’s mother from knowing what happened. At the end of the meal, Utonwa’s mother sings as usual for Ekemma to bring Utonwa. Ekemma’s response is: I na-echu iyi chube iyi Go to the stream and fetch water Awanje Awanje Utonwa di n’ura Utonwa is asleep

Utonwa’s mother left for the stream and on her way, she cannot continue for the terrible feeling she experiences and she comes back, drops her clay water pot and beckons on Ekemma as usual, this time with a loud voice to bring Utonwa. And the truth comes out as she can no longer hide the incidence from Utonwa’s mother. Ekemma cried with a background choir singing:

Ekemma ka nne ya ukwu Ekemma was warned by her madam Siri ya ledo nwa To take care of the baby O wee kwurunwa She took the baby out Wee jebe ebe masiri ya To I don’t know where Ndi na-eme aru n’obodo Perpetrators of evil came in and Wee jide nwa gbute Disappeared with the baby and slayed her Ewo, Ekemma, I mee Oh! Ekemma, you have Nne gi aru Dealt wickedly with your mistress

That was how the woman (a widow) lost her only child, Utonwa through the disobedience of the baby-minder, Ekemma. The moral lesson is that children, youths, all and sundry should shun disobedience because of its costly consequence. If Ekemma had not disobeyed, Utonwa would not have been lost.

116

The musical drama approach to the study of Nigerian languages - Okpara

Methodology Senior Secondary School (SSS) one students of Federal Government College, Okigwe, Imo State were used for the case study. Two hundred students were sampled out of the four hundred and eight SS1 students of the college through random sampling. They were made to pick yes or no from a ballot box and only 200 students that picked ‘yes’ were used for the study. The 200 students were given a revision on the Igbo alphabets before the pretest. The researcher with the help of the Igbo teachers used 2014 Igbo Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE),past question in the two Igbo comprehension passages and avoided using the 2015 BECE questions which the students wrote in their JSS three and have just been promoted to SSI to avoid biases. The result of the test was discouraging because it was not easy for the students to read, understand, assimilate and answer questions from the two comprehension passages in Igbo language. At the end of the pre-test, the students were made to act Dr. Ezegbe’s ‘Nwa na-eku nwa’. One thing about Igbo language is that, if one can master the Igbo letters A to Z, pronouncing any Igbo word becomes easy. This is because the Igbo words are pronounced or sound as written. To the amazement of the researcher, when the students were given other comprehension passages of the same difficulty level with the ones they failed in the pretest, the mean scores of the students rose drastically compared with the previous poor performance of these students before they acted the musical drama. This implies that there is a significant different between the performances of the students in the pretest and posttest, and the positive difference/effect is attributable to their participation in the acting of Ezegbe’s‘Nwa Na-eku Nwa’. This gradually improved their reading, spelling, oral and comprehension skills in Igbo language. The mean scores of 200 students in the pretest and posttest are displayed below:

117

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

Total scores N --- X Pretest (no treatment) 4,400 200 22 Posttest (with 18,600 200 93 treatment)

Before the treatment (without acting the musical drama), the mean score of the subjects used was 22 in the Igbo test conducted while the mean score rose to 93 after the posttest (acting the musical drama) showing the efficacy of doing/actions in learning hence learning becomes permanent and retrieval enhanced through continuous practice. In fact, it was like an impossible thing to achieve but the students were given enough time to practice their lines to speak fluently them in the musical drama.

Conclusion This study reveals the efficacy of musical drama (i.e. Practices /performance/demonstrations) in the teaching of the Nigerian languages. The researcher recommends that the teachers of Nigerian languages should expose the children to drama, particularly music drama which interests them so much as this will go a long way to improve their reading, writing and speaking skills in these languages as we have seen in this study. Government should insist on the use of the language of the immediate environment where the school is located to teach in the first three years of primary education as declared in the National Policy on Education (2013) and ensure compliance through frequent monitoring of the schools concerned.

118

The musical drama approach to the study of Nigerian languages - Okpara

References Aninwene, E. O. (2011) Music is theatre: Meki Nzewi’s Approach to operatic Workshops and Production. In Onyiuke Y. S., Idamoyibo, I. O. & Agu, D. C.C. Musical arts of Africa. Nimo: Rex Charles & Patrick Ltd. Dasylva, A. O. (2004). Studies in drama. Ibadan: Stirling-Horden Publishers. Idolor, G. E. (2009) The theorist and the performer in African musical practice: Music in Africa, Facts and Illustrations. Ibadan: Stirling-Horden Publishers Nigeria Ltd., 54-63. Federal Republic of Nigeria. (2013). National Policy on Education NERDC Press, 2- 3. Operetta: Microsoft Encarta 2008 (DVD) Redmond, W. A. Microsoft Corporation, 2008. Randel, D. M. (1999), The New Harvard Dictionary of Music. London Belknap of Harvard University Press. Yekini-Ajenifuja, I. A., & Adeoluwa, Okunade. (2013). Advocating music as a tool for preservation of language. Awka Journal of Research in Music and the Arts (ARJMA)), 9,234-240.

119

Journal of Linguistics, Language and Culture Vol. 3 No. 1, 2016

APPENDIX

THE RESEARCHER WITH THE SS ONE

STUDENTS OF FGC, OKIGWE DURING THE DRESS REHEARSAL OF THE MUSICAL DRAMA ‘NWA NA-EKU NWA’

WITH EKENMA IN BLUE, A DIFFERENT COSTUME DANCING120 WITH THE YOUNG BOYS AND GIRLS, AND UTONWA IS The musical drama approach to the study of Nigerian languages - Okpara

Mabel Ugochi Okpara Department of Music Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Nigeria

121