CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The global spread of the English language led to the position that is now true: that there is no copyright in the use of English since the language no longer belongs numerically to speakers of English as a mother tongue. The effective ownership of any language in effect rests with the people who use it. However multilingual they are, the major advances in sociolinguistic research over the past half century indicate clearly that languages are shaped by their use. And for English, the users number up to seven hundred million, living in every continent of which less than half are native speakers. Statistically, native speakers are in a minority, and thus in practice for language change, for language maintenance, and for the ideologies and beliefs associated with the language in so far as non-native speakers use the language for a wide range of public and personal needs

(Brumfit 2001:116).

This extract highlights the historically unique position of English in the world, the fact that non-native users of English now outnumber native speakers and the argument that the power to adapt and change the language rests with the people who use it. It reminds us that English is used by both plurilingual and monolingual people alike. We should no longer think that English is still ‘based on a single metropolitan culture, nor is it any longer felt to carry with it implications of political dominion. Evidence of this worldwide phenomenon of language contact, variation and change can be seen through such designations as World Englishes, Modern Englishes, New Englishes, to mention just a few (Jenkins 2003:117).

The concept of New Englishes came into existence many decades ago but when Gerry Abott made reference to this concept in 1981, he thought of varieties of language that develop in countries where English is a second language. By implication, India, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda and Nigeria have developed varieties that are part of the New Englishes. The need for territorial expansion and the demands of international politics, trade, science and technology have established English as a world language. Nigeria, like many other nations of the world is part of the global network of information and communication technology. What happens in other parts of the world is of great interest to Nigeria just as what happens in Nigeria is of great interest to the world. English remains the most popular language for this kind of intercommunication and interaction. For this reason, English is not just a second language in Nigeria but one that is crucial for the survival of Nigeria as a nation and also for the maintenance of the Nigerian balance in the world economic order, (Onuigbo and Eyisi 2008:72). No wonder much has been invested in the stabilization and standardization of English language education and usage in Nigeria. It is for this reason that Oluikpe (1997:18) and others are committed to the existence of a Standard of English usage that is characteristically Nigerian.

English is neither the mother- tongue nor the first language of any of the over four hundred ethnic groups in Nigeria. Like the name ‘Nigeria’ the English language is a borrowed gown and one of the inheritances of our colonial experience. The language is indigenous to Britain, but it is today the language most spoken world-wide. In addition to being the lingua franca of Britain, it is the recognized language of the United States of American, a greater part of Canada, and the whole of Australia and New Zealand. It is also widely spoken in South Africa and it is also a language of Government, Law, Commerce, Education and International Communication for most of the former British Empire, including such faraway places as Hong Kong, most of Africa South of the Sahara (including Nigeria) and even the Caribbean.

Today, one would no longer talk of ‘the English language’ spoken in Britain, and the one spoken in Nigeria, Canada, or India as several Volkswagen beetle cars from the same line-production, but rather of ‘the Englishes’ to reflect the regional peculiarities of the English language. The development of regional or local varieties of any language resulting from its domestication in non-native environments has been found to be a socio-linguistic reality, an observation which has been made, and in the case of English, defended by such ethnographers and language scholars as Brumfit (2001), Mckay (2002), Trudgill and Hannah (2002),

etc.

According to Ogu (1992), Walsh (1967) was among the first to draw attention to the existence of a variety of English language known as “Nigerian English” (NE) Ogu quoted Walsh as saying that

The varieties of English spoken by educated Nigerians, no matter what their language, have enough features in common to mark off a general type, which may be called Nigerian English. Bokamba recognizes the existence of a Nigerian English and refers to it as a variety of what he calls “West African Vernacular English” (WAVE). Similarly,

Jibril in (Ajani 2007) sees Nigerian English as part of the continuum of “West

African English”. Ajani (2005) spoke of the emergence of a” Standard Nigerian

English”. Odumuh (1987) recorganized Nigerian English as one of the New Englishes and had this to say: “our position is that there exists at the moment a single super ordinate variety of Standard English in Nigeria which can be regarded as “Nigerian English”.

Other linguists such as Nwachukwu (2007), Onuigbo and Eyisi (2008), Oluikpe and Anasiudu (2005) and Balogun (2000) have written about, or made passing references to this variety of English language. Finally, Ayo Bamgbose, one of the foremost African linguists of our time, with a great reputation on matters dealing with language and society in Africa, not only reorganizes the existence of a Nigerian English but also has written extensively on this variety. His article,

“Standard Nigerian English: issues of identification” (1982) not only identifies Nigerian English, but also analyzes some of its identifiable features. However, not everyone believes in the existence of a Nigerian English. Theo Vincent (1974), for instance, sees it as “bad English” and Salami (1968) contends that what has been identified as Nigerian English is in reality “errors of usage”. Vincent and Salami are, to a large extent, voicing the concern of a host of English language teachers in Nigerian institutions of learning who find it quite derogatory and rather insulting to refer to such a variety of English language. They would rather see any departure from the British variety as deviant or incorrect.

According to Wolfson in (Ajani 2007), although English Language has gained worldwide prominence, it is not used exactly the same way everywhere. In the same vein, Ashcroft el al in (Ajani 2007) points out that, although British imperialism resulted in the global spread of the English language, the English of Jamaicans isn’t the same as that of Canadians or Kenyans, and that a continuum exists between the various practices constituting English language usage throughout the world.

A cursory look at history reveals that this phenomenon is not new. Similar occurrences have taken place in the past, and their results are still with us today. Latin, for example, gave birth to the present day Romance languages (French, Spanish, Italian, etc.) during the Renaissance period. Arabic gave rise to the various regional dialects in North Africa and the Middle East – Egyptian Arabic, Algerian Arabic, and Tunisian. What is happening today with the English language is not an anomaly, as some may think, but rather a normal and natural linguistic process that takes place in an atmosphere of mobility and language and culture contact.