Why you must not let your language disappear!

The title of this book gets ones attention in no uncertain terms. It immediately brings to mind the Gbagyi language and a Weekly Trust report of January 11 that focused on how its people are unable to speak their language and resort to Hausa or English. This is quickly followed by the obvious trend in […]

The title of this book gets ones attention in no uncertain terms. It immediately brings to mind the Gbagyi language and a Weekly Trust report of January 11 that focused on how its people are unable to speak their language and resort to Hausa or English. This is quickly followed by the obvious trend in the southern part of Kaduna State, where, sadly, many of the young people in that part of the state, which consist of ethnic groups such as Bajju, Atyap, Kagoro and many more, speak Hausa or English most of the time, rather than their native tongues. Worse, young parents work at mastering English and influence the same habit in their children with almost no desire to inculcate same when it comes to their original languages. Bukar Usman captures the dangers of this on page 10 when he writes:
“When the speakers of a language – usually aboriginal or ethnic minority speakers – abandon their language in favour of a more populous, prestigious, or economically viable one, they give up their birthright, since their language embodies their distinctive, self-defining civilisation and symbolises their exclusive contributions to human knowledge and development. When a language dies, an irreplaceable intellectual and social wealth of the people also dies, and the larger society’s pool of educational, social and cultural values is diminished.”
Although the author makes Biu Emirate in north-eastern Nigeria’s Borno State his case study, he clearly states that it is a problem the world is presently facing. This, he illustrates when he draws attention to the six (selected) official languages of the United Nations, which are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish, which automatically puts other languages (7000 languages spoken across the world) in the background as far as the UN is concerned.
Biu Emirate is home to speakers of over eight indigenous languages, mainly Bura or Babur, Tera, jara, Chibok, Kanakuru, Hwana, Marghi and Pidlimdi. All these are languages that probably most Nigerians – and the world – have no idea exist at all. But the ‘background state’ of these languages, just like many other such minority languages in Nigeria – started from somewhere. Using UNESCO’s classification of language endangerment, Bukar lists them as follows: “Safe” or “vulnerable” for those languages not spoken by children when outside the home, “definitely endangered,” meaning not spoken at all by children, “severely endangered,” spoken by only few members of the oldest generation.
In Biu, Kanuri was the first language to influence the people, but this was soon washed away by Hausa which is today unrivalled. The author attributes this to educational policies of the colonial government decades ago, which led to gradual disappearance of many languages spoken by indigenous minority groups, not only in Biu area but in many parts of the north. He points out through extensive research that language is the core aspect of any culture and that minorities are the key to understanding history and nature from its depth while homogeneity that excludes the existence of minority languages leads to alienation and lack of development which is fostered by contribution from every language in enriching a society through its unique interpretations of nature.
This work is rich, with the importance of linguistic diversity, history of migrations, and most of all, dangers of language disappearance and how to preserve and revitalise endangered or threatened languages. With special reference to the case study, Biu Emirate, it offers three approaches in solving the problem: Preparatory work in form of socio-linguistics surveys defining the current situation of the language to be studied and determining the safeguarding measures to adopt; then, data collection to study the phonology, morphology and syntax of the language; and preparation of language materials which may include orthography guides , reading and writing manuals, teacher guides, word lists, small dictionaries and grammar.