Found on Vanguard Online Edition on 7 May 2009
By Emmanuel Edukugho

THERE is gradual shift in language, among students in the universities and other tertiary institutions, from the Queen’s English to pidgin.

Professor Tundonu Adekunle Amosu, one-time deputy vice chancellor, Lagos State University (LASU), Dean of Arts and a professor of French in Translation Studies, recalled that in the years preceding our independence, our university undergraduates, a cherished and pampered minority, considered it below their dignity to be addressed in pidgin.

“This could be because they knew that, as students they had every hope for a serious career in the then senior service, with the assured access to a car and other advantages as soon as they graduated. At any rate, they believed that they were destined to replace the colonial administrators and therefore began to imitate them in every manner”.

He said that with their princely demeanour, no one ever dared to address them in any other language apart from the English of their studies.

“Today, the situation has changed dramatically and has placed the potential graduate in the solid robes of an eternal applicant unless divine providence is able to shred that terrible garment and give him cause to rejoice.”

At the Maiden Edition of the School of Languages Guest Lecture series, Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, Otto/Ijanikin, delivered by Amosu, titled: Your Language Defines You, he noted that as our national public universities emptied themselves of the scions of the higher classes who used to determine the norms in the student population, the language of the students assumed the colouration of the masses.

This was not just a sign of rebellion or aesthetic choice but a demonstration of the new reality of the paradigm shift compelled by the new majority.

“As the English language became more increasingly difficult to manage for daily communication, the majority of our students found it more expedient to use the popular form which condoned all grammatical errors and only concentrated on the message.”

He went on: “Naturally, this had its impact on the quality of examination script particularly in large classes. The result is that, today, the job interview has become a harrowing experience for the graduate applicant and an invitation to a sad commentary by the future employer.”

Raising the question: Does your language define the real you? Very often, we say that appearances can be deceptive, or as can be translated from Yoruba, your big gown does not make you a big man! With our language, this is a completely different matter.

Recounting his appearance for the doctorate programme when they were required to determine the background of several anonymous persons from a typed page of their own production, which included their peculiarities in style and thinking.
At the end of the exercise, they were able to identify the language of the cultured man which is confident, fluent, brief and straight to the point.

That of the factory worker is hesitant, often saturated with grammatical errors and rather amorphous in his thought.
“Since one is invariably judged these days first by what one writes, in an application, and then by what one says, at the job interview, it has become of utmost importance to pay great attention to these two primordial questions.”

He added: “But one can say with a great degree of accuracy that your language is perhaps the easiest element of identification because, well before people can conclude on your aptitude character or even world-view, your language is the opener. It is therefore imperative to know when and where a language can be appropriate.”

Pointing to a president who can say “I dey Kampe” on account of the message and the medium, but he would certainly hesitate to use the same language at the United Nations.

On perceptions of language, he asserted that human societies are easily distinguished from the animal kingdom because of  the specific, coherent nature of their mode of communication. When reduced to writing, this mode of communication can be learnt by other humans for whom such languages are not necessarily the mother tongue.

“Nations which are united by a common language readily develop recognizable uniform traits of perception, world-view and ultimately socio-cultural orientation. Beyond the regime of dressing and even social conventions on what and how to eat, human societies recognise their members on account of their ability to speak the language of the group.

According to him, it is estimated that there are over 4,000 languages in the world with a large number limited to less than 1,000,000 speakers. Given the tendency among bigger languages to consume smaller ones, many will soon fade away and possibly remain, like Latin, in the dusty regions of anthropological libraries.

While the major languages in the world like English (and American!), French, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, and Russians have a rich culture and literature, others like German and Italian which also have a strong literary tradition, are backed by a dominant technology.

“The truth, however, is that many other languages are, at best, national languages which allow for communication among citizens of a large country or region.”

It was noted that virtually every European country has a national language: English in England, French in France, Danish in Denmark, German in Germany, Polish in Poland, Swedish in Sweden, Norwegian in Norway. But some other countries could not achieve that level of linguistic nationalism and have had to use one of the available languages. Austria therefore uses German, while Switzerland combines French, Italian and some German.

“In Africa, the complex linguistic map was unwittingly simplified at the end of the colonial enterprise. Arabic is the language of the Maghreb region, there remains the French tradition as a reminder of the French colonial period until the time of independence. The rest of the continent, with its extraordinarily large number of languages, communication is shared between English, French, Portuguese and a few areas where Spanish is the official language.”

Amosu submitted that, “as a result, the educated African is automatically bilingual, if only for the fact that he speaks his mother tongue which is the language of daily communication, and the official language of his formal education.”
While governments in Africa are encouraging local languages, but there is the problem of resistance by minority languages to be submerged by more widely-spoken ones. He warned that a language which is not backed by a vibrant literature and a media tradition may very well be on its way out of existence.

“In Nigeria, some languages have continued to survive on oral tradition, but with the increasingly cosmopolitan nature of more state and local government headquarters, it is more likely that more languages will become obsolete and out of fashion, even against the unreasonable devotion to one’s native language.”

He affirmed that the English language is and remains the official language of this country. However, the language, which is the medium for all government and official business cannot cater for the larger population which comprises of lower cadre self-employed persons who are seldom required to come into contact with the official medium.

“As a result, the English language is the identifier of the educated class but only as far as official correspondence is concerned. Once outside the office (in Lagos for instance), the language of communication is Yoruba which brings everyone more or less under a single linguistic umbrella.”

It was pointed out, however, that there is also the section of the population in Lagos which cannot communicate in Yoruba in spite of long years of sojourn in Lagos. Such people essentially from the core north and across the Niger have to rely on either official English or the pidgin version.

Among those present at the event were Oba Adechina Bada, Associate Professor of Linguistics, University of Calavi, Benin Republic, Chief Sehubo Ajose Harrison of Badagry, Professor Igue Mamoud, Dean Faculty of Arts, University of Calavi, Benin Republic, Professor Adejumo, Deputy Director, NFLV, Professor Emmanuel Kwoffie, first Professor of French in Nigeria, Principal Officers and students of Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education.

“To proceed otherwise is to confuse issues and the end result is greater confusion among those who have the misfortune of listening.”

He recommended that in schools where the process of acquisition of knowledge and its eventual dissemination can be said to follow a rigorous pattern, confidence in speech is the first indicator.

“The paradox of school debates and public speaking is that only the chosen few ever get the opportunity to speak in public. The confidence in public speaking is bolstered by one’s grammatical competence and the ability to hold on to a line of logical reasoning for as long one is speaking.

Finally, one’s accent is invariably the greatest identifier since it is reflection of what one is really saying with the stress at the right places for effective communication.”