Language Contact in Nigerian Multilingual Society

Abstract

Multilingual society, being a society that has more than one significant lan-guage group is a sociolinguistic phenomenon that arises as a result of language contact but the fundamental problem in this type of society is that to enthrone one of the languages can be accepted conveniently as the National language. Any attempt to enthrone one of the languages at the expense of the other has proven a failure due to the fact that it appears as distinct, which is inherent and regrettably discriminating and domineering on the other languages and this dies in the mine of ethnic bickering. In Nigeria, like many other African nations, multilingualism is a rule, rather than an exemption, the problem of 'forging ahead' is of crucial importance. Among the competing languages that scramble for national recognition or official status, whether indigenous or for-eign, one must emerge as the official language (the language of administration and education at some levels), the language of relevance, from the competition for the purpose of uniting the nation. Fortunately, English has emerged as that privileged language of its kind. The Nigerian society is irretrievably heterogeneous. Students from diverse ethno-linguistic, cultural and economic groups are exposed quite early to several languages, including their mother tongues and English. Nigerian scholars have variously, as have others examined the connection between multilingualism and interference; we avail ourselves of such studies in situating our reflections. This paper thus looks into the importance of language, most especially English language in the multilingual society.

Keywords

• language contact
• multilingualism
• bilingualism
• ethno-linguistics
• socio-linguistics