Nigeria: Revitalising the Igbo Language

28 November 2005
column

Enugu — Okuko n'akpa nni, anya ufie akonaya (while a chicken scants for food, it should not lose sight of other odd happenings around it) is a brief but all encompassing statement of wisdom used to capture the essence of guarded sovereignty - which in the instance of this write-up will factor in on the plight of our dear but scantily revered Igbo language.

Some people do not think it is an overstatement to refer to our language - the Igbo language as being endangered and facing gargantuan threats of extinction going by its declining level of acceptability amongst umuigbo. It is disheartening to see a language that is supposed to be an insignia, a trademark and a common identity amongst us rather than being proudly flaunted as treated with so much scorn and disdain. We seem to have jettisoned the inter-generational transmission of the Igbo language in exchange for 'newer trends', which include the Nigerian pidgin English and the English language with their obvious linguistic threats.

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