Oppressing the oppressed: the threats of Hausa and English to Nigeria's minority languages
-
Herbert Igboanusi
Abstract
In Nigeria, English is generally perceived as a dominant language. The dream of “one north” makes Hausa a lingua franca in northern Nigeria, with the potential of annihilating the over 200 indigenous languages spoken in that region. However, the increasing wave of ethnic consciousness as well as the ongoing agitations for the rights of minority languages have raised questions on the continued domination of minority languages by Hausa and English. Using data from a language-use questionnaire among northern and southern minority language speakers, the study shows that Hausa and English are fast replacing minority mother tongues in informal domains and situational contexts which are expected to be dominated by mother tongues.
© Walter de Gruyter
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Multilingual writing: a reader-oriented typology — with examples from Lira Municipality (Uganda)
- Political power, national identity, and language: the case of Afrikaans
- First-name changes in South Africa: the swing of the pendulum
- Globalization, the African Renaissance, and the role of English
- Ethnic identity and linguistic hybridization in Senegal
- Language, social history, and identity in post-apartheid South Africa: a case study of the “Colored” community of Wentworth
- Oppressing the oppressed: the threats of Hausa and English to Nigeria's minority languages
- “Ya know what I'm sayin'?” The double meaning of language crossing among teenagers in the Netherlands
- Asturian: resurgence and impeding demise of a minority language in the Iberian Peninsula
