| Title: |
Emergent Varieties of Nigerian Youth Language, Implication for Language Engineering, Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria in Focus |
| Author(s): |
Lucy Mgbengasha Apakama & Gloria U. Amadi |
| Abstract: |
Nigeria is a multilingual, multi-cultural and multi-racial nation state that officially adopted English language while retaining the many diverse native tongues in differing domains of use. Within the different varieties and evidence of code switching in language use necessitated by the fusion of English and those native tongues is the peculiarity of language use noticed amongst the youths. Youth language, stylized, variable and a marker of social identity presents the communicative choices the youths are faced within their daily interactions with other members of their social environment. These preferred choices have often made the standard form loose relevance as a code for communication amongst the youths thus affecting acceptability and compliance to the policy on language use in Nigeria. This paper adopting Sense and Reference theory and Harvard Giles Communication Accommodation Theory investigates the language choices of youths in Alvan Ikoku Federal College Education Owerri in their daily interaction with different people in differing domains within the school. This will enable us discover how relevant attempts at language engineering is to the youth ofour nation, Nigeria and in extension to an emerging Africa. This language of the youths cut across nations and can actually foster unity in diversity in Africa. It can be standardized by a standardization committee and the different languages of Africa exposed and known by different peoples. This paper suggests a proper documentation of these youth languages across the globe. |
| Keywords: |
Youth language, Social identity, Domains of language use, Code switching
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EBONYI JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE
