The Influence of English Language on Our Nigerian Indigenous Languages: Examples of Borrowing From English Into Yoruba by Unilorin Undergraduates
Chapter One
Objectives of the Study
The primary focus of this study is to examine the influence of English language on our Nigerian indigenous language (Yoruba); specifically, the study seeks to:
- Find out if students in the University of Ilorin borrow words from English in their daily conversation.
- To determine the extent of language borrowing by students in the University of Ilorin.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
In this chapter, we shall review available materials on the advent and functions of English language in Nigeria and language contact and its effects
This research work will also take a sociolinguistic stance in looking at the relationship that exists between English language and the indigenous language.
The Advent of English Language in Nigeria
The advent of English language in Nigeria dates back to the 16th century when ports and trading posts were established on the African coasts. English Merchants had arrived at the coastal areas like Calabar, Warri and Brass to compete with the Portuguese who had dominated the commercial scene of Africa before the arrival of the British. From that time on, English had started to grow from strength to strength in the Nigeria socio-cultural milieu. But a discussion of the advent of English language in Nigeria will be incomplete if the factors that contributes to the survival and the advent of English language in Nigeria are not mentioned.
The first factor to be discussed is the Portuguese, being the nearest Europeans to African, were the first to sail down the Nigerian coast in the 15th century in search of commerce. The need for communication resulted in the birth of combination of languages and also Portuguese. Pidgin which developed from attempts by Portuguese traders to speak ‘Sabir’-an already pidginised form of English language. (Odumuh 1997:9). After they had stabilized in Nigeria to be precise in Benni, they gradually imposed their language on indigenous language because that was the only means of communication with them.
Another factors is early commercial contact. The first English people to come to Nigeria were traders who came after the Portuguese in quest of anything to boost their economy and this eventually led to the Trans-Atlantic slave trade which was in a triangular format. Africans mostly Nigerian’ were extracted from their roots to work on the plantation field in the New world (American) from where the goods were shipped to European. As a result of this contact English language became a phenomenon on the African soil and to facilitate trade, it had to be learnt. In other words, the contact between the Europeans and the Nigerians warranted communication.
The Missionaries impact is another factor. With the abolition of slave trade, those Nigerian’ (West African) who had been slaves were repatriated to Sierra Leone. During their stay in America plantation fields, they had learned English and had got in contact with Christianity. The returnees served as assistants to the missionaries in their evangelist activities. A prominent Nigerian ex-salve was Bishop Ajayi Crowder. Having become a Christian himself, helped the missionaries in evangelizing the Africans with the concomitant entrenchment of English. He also served as a teacher and an interpreter of the English language as a way of advancing the work of God. To be a Christian then, one needs a little knowledge of English which was important since it was the language of the Bible. English language spread with the spread of Christianity. The free slaves from Sierra Leon served mainly as interpreters and teacher in this respect of Christianization.
The impact of Colonialism is another factor. In the era of colonialism, the British wanted the Nigerians to be able to speak their own (English) language. They became unsatisfied with the method of the missionaries use of indigenous language which they later found out to be more effective in evangelizing people. Therefore the 1840 policy of educating the natives in their indigenous languages was reversed in 1882.
In 1842, there was the founding of a set of schools by the colonial masters. This was due to their not being satisfied with the missionary’s method of communication and the missionaries aim which was to spread the gospel. But with the 1882 educational ordinance, the then government made grants to school under one condition that the grants would be given to schools whose students speaks fine English. This also aided the growth of English language in Nigeria till date (Ogu, 1992:69).
CHAPTER THREE
DATA ANALYSIS
Introduction
In this chapter, we shall examine and analyse the examples of borrowing from English into Yoruba. These borrowings are classified broadly into two types: loantranslations or calques and loanblends. In addition to this, how the borrowed or loaned words from the source language (English) are code-mixed with the native lexical items within the target language (Yoruba) sentence shall be exemplified.
Presentation of Data
CHAPTER FOUR
SUMMARY, FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION
Introduction
In this chapter we shall present a brief summary of the whole research work based on our findings. Also, appropriate conclusion shall be done
Summary
By and large, efforts have been made in this long essay towards examining the sociolinguistic concept; the borrowing and code-mixing among Unilorin undergraduates. In other to achieve this aim, this research has taken down the utterances of certain groups of students in their respective faculties with respect to how they code-mix the linguistic items of English and Yoruba during conversation.
Chapter one examined a brief history of English language in Nigeria and then talked about its usefulness in Nigeria as a whole. It then went on to discuss how students at the University of Ilorin borrow words from English into Yoruba in their day to day interaction which is a reflection of code-mixing. In addition, it addressed why and when code-mixing is used on the campus.
In chapter two, we made a review of literature related to the research topic there by discussing the advent of English language and some factors that contributed to the survival of English language in the country. We also discussed some of the functions of English language in Nigerian such as instruments of education, integration of unity intranational and international functions, English as an official language and above all, as Nigeria’s second language. In chapter two, we alsoreview what language contact is and the effects with respect to borrowing it has on our indigenous languages. And finally, we made a review on the influences of English language on our Nigerian indigenous languages both positively and negatively.
Chapter three presented the research methodology; it stated the data on instances of borrowing (code-mixing) and analyzed the data in full.
Finally, chapter four summarized and concluded the essay by recapitulating the salient issues regarding borrowings by users of English among the sample population.
Findings
In the above given sets of data, the findings or observations are as follows:
It is observed that whereas some borrowed words from English into Yoruba are loantranslations or calques, others are loanblends. In other words, a speaker of Yoruba can borrow items from English and either assimilate them directly by translation without any linguistic modification, or make the words conform with the linguistic system of their language, hence, modified respectively e.g. ‘get’, ‘like’, ‘pretend’ and ‘church.’
Also, we find out that in the sentences (data) above, the Yoruba speakers use their language predominantly during communication but only borrow in most times, a single lexical item from English and incorporate it within their utterance. It is only on a few occasions that the speakers borrow more than one lexical item in each sentence.
Another finding in our data is connected with the structural positions in which the borrowed concepts (words) from English can occur within the Yoruba native sentences. We discover that the majority of the borrowed elements occur at the medial structural position linearly in the Yoruba sentences followed by some occurring sentence-finally while very few ones are inserted at the sentence-initial slot.
Finally, we observe that in Yoruba-English code-mixing can take place in any sentence type in the recipient language-Yoruba. That is whether in a declarative, interrogative or command sentence, the Yoruba speakers can entertain Yoruba English code-mixing.
Conclusion
Code-mixing, as a sociolinguistic phenomenon, is a familiar practice throughout the world, most especially among those who are bilingual in which they combine certain linguistic items from two different languages as a linguistic reflection of borrowing.
University of Ilorin whose undergraduate students are our case study in this research work is an academic community and English language is the official language in the institution. So while the people could be said to be fluent in English they nonetheless still have their mother tongue which sometimes does not take care of all the concepts especially the ones they have acquired through formal education.
This is why code-mixing appears to be the main feature of the academics using their mother tongue words such as ‘block’ ‘church’ ‘office’ ‘bread’ ‘skirt’ ‘card’ and so on are commonly used not only by literate people but also by those who have not been to schools at all.
These words and many could then be treated as loan words because of their low frequency of usage among Nigerians and most importantly because they denote concepts which are alien to us.
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