Language and National Development

Indigenous Languages and Development in Nigeria

By A. H. Amfani

1. INTRODUCTION The present Institute for Nigerian Languages of the University of Nigeria is not a new institution.  It is the former National Institute for Nigerian Languages (NINLAN).  Indeed the function and the objectives are very much the same.  Essentially, the Institute is all out to cater for the development and sustenance of all Nigerian languages.  However, under the new administration of the Institute and especially under the stewardship of Professor Clara Ikekeonwu, and in line with the vogue around, and more so one initiated by women of caliber, we shall all expect a re-branding of the entire activities of the institute.  This public lecture is part of the re-branding.

I have been called upon, in my capacity as the President of the Linguistic Association of Nigeria, to talk on the topic Indigenous Languages and Development in Nigeria.  The topic sounds simple and straight forward, but on a close examination, it is elusive and controversial.  On one hand, it is not easy to say with some degree of precision, the number of indigenous languages available in Nigeria.  On the other hand, it is equally not easy to convince people that indigenous Nigerian languages have any significant role to play in the overall development of the Nigerian nation.  My task in this talk is to try and give a picture of the indigenous Nigerian languages with a view to sensitizing Nigerians on the need to appreciate their mother tongues.  Another task is to explain how indigenous Nigerian languages can play significant roles in various sheds of development.  It must be pointed out here and now that development is a very wide concept and subsumes quite a number of issues.

Writing in Igbo Language

Writing in the Igbo Language: Standards and Trends, by M. C. Onukawa

1.0      Preamble

Before the advent of Christian Missions in Igboland (through whose efforts the Igbo language was reduced to writing) Igbo, like several other Nigerian languages, had no written form. The Igbo language, literature, and culture were transmitted orally from parents to their children, adults to young ones, generation to generation. 

Children “were taught the history, geography, literature, civics, etc., of their people through stories, songs, myths, legends, and even contact with the environment” (Nwadike, 2008, p. 2). They were also taught different traditional trades and spheres of life in practical terms. 

The Igbo, however, had some esoteric sign writings through which they kept some accounts and records, and also preserved and transmitted some information (particularly secretly). There was also the NSIBIDI sign writing that was popular among the Igbo and their Ibibio neighbours.

1.1      Some Facts of Orthography

Orthography consists of the letters (i.e the alphabet) used in writing the sounds, as well as the rules that govern the spelling of words, phrases and sentences in a language.  A good orthography should therefore provide the following: the alphabet, the spelling rules, the punctuation marks and the rules governing their use. There are five recognized principles

that make a good orthography: accuracy, consistency, convenience, harmonization, and familiarity (Williamson, 1984).