Major Indigenous Languages and The Origin of Foreign Languages in West Africa
Keywords:
West Africa, foreign languages, indigenous languages, foreign culturesAbstract
The thrust of this paper is that we have different languages across West
Africa. Each of these West African countries has its culture which is
synonymous with its language as culture and language are inseparable.
On the other hand, these languages and cultures have been infiltrated by
alien or foreign cultures as a result of colonialism, religious activities
and trade. The infiltration of these alien or foreign cultures has brought
a distortion to the originality of West African languages and cultures. In
addition to the distortion of languages and cultures in West Africa are
code –switching, code – mixing of languages and Pidgin English spoken
in English speaking West Africa. The paper also takes a look at English
speaking West Africa, French speaking West Africa and Portuguese
speaking West Africa. The need to teach indigenous West African
languages and dialects to run pari pasu with foreign/second/official
languages in West Africa is a panacea so as to resuscitate extinction of
languages and dying cultures is advocated in this paper.
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