OUR MOTHER TONGUE AND THEIR MURDERED TONGUE

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Mother tongue
File photo of a traditional play.

By Ganiu Abisoye Bamgbose(Ph.D.), in commemoration of Mother Tongue Day

English has become the language of the home among many Nigerians. It is even a taboo in some homes to speak an indigenous language. In the end, we have hybrids who neither speak their indigenous languages with pride nor speak the borrowed language with finesse. This results in a situation where we negotiate the much revered English through the linguistic peculiarities of the indigenous languages we do not cherish.

For instance, daddy says, “Junior, go and finish your assignment now now.” And Junior replies, “Daddy, I want to be doing it small small, so that I will not make mistakes.” Our dear Yoruba and Ibo fathers would rather translate their “nisinsiyin” and “kitakita,” respectively, into English, than make their children speak their native languages. In marked contrast, English people do not lay emphasis by repeating words, as it obtains in Nigerian…



Source: Vanguard Newspaper