Documenting Nigerian languages
In order for a language to be considered well documented, there should
be at least
-
a written grammar
-
a dictionary
-
a collection of texts
Taking this as a scale, only a small proportion of the about 500 languages
of Nigeria could be classified as "well documented". What is the reason
for this sad fact?
-
Lack of interest?
-
Lack of trained linguists?
-
Lack of funds and research equipment?
All this could be listed as possible reasons (excuses?). Apart from that,
there are political reasons. Will developing all these minority languages
not create disunity? Shouldn't we strive for one national language
only?
Certainly every government has to settle the issue which languages should
be developed to which stage in a wise and fair national language policy.
But in order to make wise decisions, languages first need to be surveyed:
-
Where are they spoken?
-
By how many speakers?
-
How many speakers are bilingual in another language and in which?
-
What is the attitude of the speakers towards their own and other, major
languages?
All these questions are part of the linguistic discipline called sociolinguistics.
On this webpage, we will be more concerned with the documentation of
Nigerian languages, disregarding their size or political importance.
Follow this link, if you want to learn to about the history
of documentation of Nigerian languages.
Follow this link, if you want to learn about practical
steps toward the documentation of Nigerian languages.
Dr. Uwe Seibert
Department of Languages and Linguistics
Faculty of Arts
University of Jos
Email address: seibertu@unijos.edu.ng
Date of last change:
Following Page
Home
Page
Previous
Page