Greetings everyone!
I haven't traveled much around the cities and villages in Nigeria, but I've read a lot and been, in one way or another, in close contact with people from different places in Nigeria, and I know how they play along with their languages.
In Nigeria, we have over 500 native languages being spoken in different parts of it, but majorly, there are just three of them that are being recognized as most popular because of the way they span through the different regions connectively.
What am I saying?
- In the North,
We have the HAUSA language, generalized to be spoken by the residents there. This does not mean that there are no other little languages being used by small villages of different clans; there are, but the Hausa is made in such a way that it's being heard (understood) when spoken by everyone in that part of Nigeria.
With this, if you go to the North as a stranger, the language is commonly used as if everyone understands it.
It's done like that because it's the language known for that part of Nigeria.
- For the West:
I've been to this land once, and hey, the YORUBA language is widely used in every corner of this region. This is one of the languages widely used in Nigeria to the extent that non-indigenes, like me, go ahead to learn it. The dominance of this language is so high that the music industry of Nigeria has a dedicated part to the Yoruba language just the way it is with IGBO language.
- For the East:
I'm from the southern part of Nigeria, and I once lived in this eastern part of Nigeria for a complete year. I saw how they value their language to the extent that they speak it more than the official language, even in official occasions. Motorcyclists and drivers would speak the language to anybody, not minding if the person is a stranger to the land.
Also, this language is the only language found in the Eastern part of Nigeria; all the different states speak it, though with some minor differences.
- For the South:
This is where a big difference lies. I'm from this part of Nigeria, and it doesn't have one standard language like the other regions.
In this part, we have languages for the Edo people, languages for Bayelsa people, languages for Rivers/Cross Rivers, Akwa Ibom, and that of Deltans.
Picking it from my very state, Delta state, the languages there are so numerous that it makes me wonder a lot how all those came about.
Among all the languages in this Southern part of Nigeria, it's only one set that has an advantage over all of them, and that's the one that looks alike to that of the IGBO language (Language for the eastern people).
Fortunately for me, I understand this language. When I lived in the eastern part of Nigeria, I wasn't deceived or cheated by any of them because I understood all the said.
Since we have three major languages in Nigeria, which are;
- Hausa language for the Northern part,
- Yoruba Language for the Western part,
- Igbo language for the Eastern people,
it's only the Southern part of Nigeria that's being left behind and feels cheated because they don't have one singled out language. People from the south find it so hard to relate to any of the three major languages except for some that share boundaries with the east, which makes them speak alike like the east.
Thanks for reading.
This is for day 4 for the #Aprilinleo prompt.
Read here to get full details.