Adaeze Onwuzuruike Writing Sample August 1, 2011

Igbo Language Endangerment Igbo is a language spoken by people of the Igbo ethnic group, one of Nigerias three major ethnic groups located in the present-day southeastern Nigeria. Roughly twenty million people speak the Igbo language in which many literary works have been written. Although Igbo is taught, learnt, and spoken as a first tongue in southeastern Nigeria, scholars anticipate that the language will become endangered in about twenty years. This estimated decline is due mostly in part to the Igbo peoples dwindling interest in having Igbo as a first language. The Igbo Language is indeed in danger of going extinct unless the Igbo people do something about it. Most Igbo people base their lack of interest in their language to its alleged poor structure. They claim that the Igbo language lacks the type of vocabulary necessary to adequately express the true meaning a speaker is trying to convey. That might be a real problem but sticking with a foreign language is definitely not a reasonable solution. The description of an illiterate is one who is unable to read or write. Many Igbo people can be described as being very illiterate in Igbo. Igbo is a tonal language that deviates from the classic model of phonology, on which major European languages such as English are based. This is the main reason why translating from English to Igbo and vice versa, is quite a challenge. In the 16th Century, the French language suffered a similar fate as the Igbo language does today. It happened that Latin, regarded then as a universal language, displaced French to the point where it became difficult to express ideas. French intellectuals and philosophers provided a metalanguage for professional language use, which Enoch Ajunwa suggests in Generating a Corpus-Based Metalanguage (2008), is the most effective way to facilitate the advancement of the Igbo language. He advocates that an Igbo metalanguage, a technical term referring to a body of coinages in local languages to express contemporary concepts in technology, arts and sciences

(537), will eliminate linguistic pollution resulting from abusive borrowing (538). Such abuse of the language stems from the constant use of foreign expressions even where Igbo equivalents exist. The globalization of the English language has created a dominant culture where English literacy has become a symbol of higher intelligence and status in todays society. This has immersed heavy pressure on the Igbo people to become more fluent in English while doubting the competency of their own language. Igbo people have discouraged their children from communicating in Igbo, especially in southeastern Nigerian schools, where children are reprimanded for being primitive because they spoke the language on school grounds. This practice has promoted a negative mental disposition towards the language and has aided in its depreciation. Uwe Seiberts Documenting Nigerian Languages: Publish or Perish (2009) illustrates how Igbo may be gradually given up in favor of more prestigious languages, and with time may be forgotten completely. Seibert observes how the younger members of the language community no longer actively speak many languages. He mentions that, they may still be able to understand the language, but they prefer to speak English or some other language of wider communication among themselves and to their children. The consequence is that the native language may become extinct within the next few generations. But do the Igbo people ever wonder why the French, just like in the 16th Century, as well as the Germans, put so much effort in preserving and maintaining their languages worth in the face of the expansion of English? Do the Igbo people ever wonder why the Americans have established their own category of English even though British English would have suited them just fine? Q. U. Njemanze answers in his Documentation of Endangered Language: An Assessment of the Owerri/Igbo Language (2008) that the documentation of a language indeed portrays the beauty and richness of that language. It safeguards values and experiences, stories and artifacts, encourages continuity, and creates an identity for a culture of people (137). It is as if the Igbo people have given up, but they need to understand that a language morphs and develops over time.

English itself has undergone quite a number of alterations during the past centuries. Bill Brysons The Mother Tongue: English & How It Got that Way (1991) explores the remarkable history, eccentricities and resilience of the English language. It has changed from German to Old English in the Anglo-Saxon era, to Middle English after the Norman Conquest, to Modern English in the Shakespearean era, to the current English spoken today. With many active speakers, the English language has stayed alive and is continuously thriving. Therefore, a general positive attitude by the Igbo people toward their language is a mandatory requirement for stopping any future calamity. They need to restore absolute interest in their language by reinforcing its usage not only in southeastern Nigeria but also in the Diaspora. The Igbo language will not go extinct unless the Igbo people themselves and nobody else, do something about it today and tomorrow.

Works Cited Ajunwa, Enoch. Generating a Corpus-Based Metalanguage: The Igbo language example. Translation Journal 12.1 (2008): 536-538. Print. Bill, Bryson. The Mother Tongue: English & How It Got that Way. (1991) Njemanze, QU. Documentation of Endangered Language via ICT: An Assessment of the Owerri/Igbo Language. International Journal of Development and Management Review 3.1 (2008): 133-140. Print. Seibert, Uwe. Documenting Nigerian Languages: Publish or Perish. Iowa.edu. U of Iowa, 24 Apr. 2000. Web. 3 Dec. 2009.