Creative writing - LANGUAGE EXTINCTION || @daprado1999

Nigeria is blessed with over 525 languages but its so surprising to note that some of those languages are going extinct due to the fact that these languages do not stand the test of time and consequently go extinct. This is a major issue as these languages depict our culture and our culture is our identity

FACTORS AFFECTING LANGUAGE EXTINCTION

• INADEQUATE ENLIGHTENMENT

Most of our elders and leading founding fathers who grew up at rural areas do not pass down these languages to the younger generation due to various reasons which could cause these languages to go extinct.

scenario;
^{Granny living on the village has little or no social activities just from home to farm and home again, most kids reside in the city. She waits for her grandchildren every Christmas and easter, and barely teaches the their local dialect. The language gradually dies with her and her generation!!}
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• GOVERNMENT FACTORS

The government legalised the "English" language as our "linguafranca" which is a foreign language. This makes children crave and concentrate all the more on learning the English language and forfeiting our indigenous languages causing language extinction on the long run.

• CITIZENRY IN THE DIASPORA

Most citizens of Nigeria in the diaspora studying abroad, barely knows their indigenous language and when they visit the heart of the nation Nigeria, they insist on using this foreign accents to interact with others thereby letting their indigenous languages die a natural death. This is seen to be a factor of language extinction.

scenario;
^{Debby is back from the states and she insists on seeing her cousins and relations in their hometown and resorts to speaking the English with the accent and letting the indigenous language die a natural death}
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• ACADEMIC FACTOR

It is no news as for students to gain admission into colleges in the country. They must be English literate which is a borrowed language. The idea is really causing our indigenous languages to go extinct. It is so painful as we now see students relate more in English than in their natural dialects making the language go extinct too.

SOLUTIONS TO LANGUAGE EXTINCTION

• Adequate rules guiding the language to foster the growth of our indigenous languages. The government setting out rules and regulations to improve the indigenous languages for a better future.

• Proper enlightenment of the generation to speak their indigenous languages all the more. This would reduce risk of our language extinction.

Salient Point

^{Our language is our culture and our culture represents our identity. The fight against indigenous language extinction begins with us as a people, tribe and nation.}