Endangered Tongues: Issues in Contexts

Abstract

Language endangerment is a serious concern to which linguists and language planners have turned their attention to in the last decade. On account of different reasons speakers of some languages are spurred into using another language in preference to theirs. This paper examines language endangerment as an issue which affects a wide variety of languages of the world especially African language and Nigerian languages in particular. It identifies the meaning of language endangerment and associates it with language shift. Then, it puts across the stages involved in language endangerment. It goes further to identify the root causes of language endangerment and associates it with language shift. Then it puts across the stages involved in language endangerment. It goes further to identify the root causes of language endangerment, weighs the causes with the current socio-political, economic and global issues and attempts to answer a nagging question: can endangered languages be shielded from extinction? If yes, in what ways? And if no, why? Then, finally the aftermaths of language endangerment are examined and suggestions made on how endangered language can be revitalized.