Halting the tide of language loss in Niger state, Nigeria
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Date
2011
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Publisher
Universite bilingue
Abstract
Though a number of Nigerian languages are now taught in schools up to the tertiary level, majority of the unwritten ones are endangered. The wave of endangerment and the resultant loss does not exclude the written ones though the effect of loss is more felt on the unwritten languages than on the written ones. It is so rife that it is reported that a language dies every fourteen days (LEAP 2009), which is worse than Crystal’s (2000) report that a language is lost every month. The continuing loss of languages particularly minority languages has shown that practical steps have not been taken to check the trend. The study uses Edwards’ (1992) model of language endangerment classification. This work concludes that in order to revive or revitalize endangered languages, the specific needs of these languages must be addressed.
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Keywords
: Language Contact,, Endangerment,, Language Loss,, Reversing Language Loss
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