CHOICE OF LINGUA-FRANCA IN A MULTI-LANGUA SOCIETY LIKE NIGERIA (A STUDY OF AWKA NORTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA

Victor Nnamdi Nwankwo

Abstract


A linguæ franca is a language prescribed by law and enforced on the citizens of the land for purposes of communication, learning, government and the law. This paper is on the Choice of Lingua franca in a multi-Lingual society like Nigeria. Nigeria has been faced with the problem of being unable to select a lingua franca due to the multiplicity of languages. The paper seeks to address the question associated with the choice of a lingua franca and also find out the extent the English language has influenced the development of the Nigeria indigenous language. The research instrument is a structured questionnaire which was distributed among one hundred and sixty (160) samples. Part four focuses on the analysis of data, from which it was found out that the English language has a very powerful influence over the Nigeria indigenous languages. The paper recommend that Government should set up a large and professional language centre instead of a largely administrative set up that now exists as a unit of education. The Government should set up linguistic departments in different higher institutions where Nigerian languages would be given adequate attention.


Keywords


lingua –franca, languages, indigenous language, and Government

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