THE SOUND OF MEANING
An inaugural lecture delivered
at the University of lbadan
on Thursday, 14 July, 2011
By
FRANCIS OISAGHAEDE EGBOKHARE
Professor of Linguistics
Faculty of Arts
University of lbadan
lbadan, Nigeria.
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Ibadan University Press
Publishing House
University of Ibadan
Ibadan, Nigeria.
© University of Ibadan, 2011
Ibadan, Nigeria
First Published 2011
All Rights Reserved
ISBN: 978 - 978 - 8414 - 57 - 5
Printed by: Ibadan University Printery
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The Vice-Chancellor, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Adminis-
tration), Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Registrar,
Librarian, Provost of the College of Medicine, Dean of Arts,
Dean of the Postgraduate School, Deans of other Faculties,
and of Students, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen.
Preamble
All wisdom is plagiarism; only stupidity is original
(Hugh Kerr)
Mr. Vice-Chancellor Sir, I would like to start this presenta-
tion on a personal note. I would like to draw some inspiration
from President Goodluck Jonathan. Both of us are from the
South-South. He is from the geographical South-South; I am
from the political South-South. Even though, it is now
fashionable to claim origin or association with the Niger-
Delta, since the centre has moved to the periphery, my people
and I are closer to the Niger than to its Delta. Mr. President is
from the Niger-Delta, I am from the Niger plains. That is not
really the interesting part. Mr. President had a humble
beginning judging by the fact that he had no shoes and had to
walk to school. I had shoes, but I walked to school all the
same because I wore shoes only at big events, even then, I
carried my shoes on my head, most of the time. I remember
that as a child living with my maternal grandmother, I walked
the village naked like every other kid. I remember also that,
years later, when I returned to the village for holidays, I tried
to re-enlist in the village culture of "infantile nudism."
Although my social status had changed, I did not take notice.
My grandmother gave me a lesson that left me a permanent
imprint in my subconscious. Even today, I walk naked in my
dreams. Just like Mr. President, I have surpassed my
expectations in life. I came to the University of Ibadan only to
obtain a Masters Degree in Linguistics. Here I am delivering
an inaugural lecture as a Professor of Linguistics by the grace
of God. In the words of Mr. President, "if I can make it, you
can too."
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AN LIBRARY
Mr. Vice-Chancellor, I was two years old when the first
inaugural lecture in Linguistics at the University of Ibadan
was delivered in 1964 by Professor G. Armstrong for the
Institute of African Studies. Professor Ayo Bamgbose
delivered his in 1972. This was followed by Professor 0.0.
Olatunji's lecture in 1987. His inaugural entitled, "Beyond
the Spoken Word: An African Language Literature
Experience," was perhaps my first experience at inaugural,
coming less than two years after I was employed as an
Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Linguistics and
African Languages. Professor B.a. Elugbe delivered his
lecture in 1992. Elugbe's lecture, like that of Armstrong was
in the area of Historical and Comparative Linguistics. It was
entitled, The Scramble for Nigeria: A Linguistic Perspective.
The value of that lecture for me was that it brought the
relevance of linguistics and language to the fore at a time
when personally, I was questioning my decision to take up a
career as a linguist and a university teacher. Also, it was
presented at a time of a resurgence of the national question,
the struggle for supremacy and resources by various Nigerian
nations. In my view, "the Scramble for Nigeria" gave some
indications that the Nigerian nations are largely related by
blood, and more than that we are settlers with respect to
ownership of land. The distinction which we make therefore
between indigenes and settlers is a function of convenient
history. The real indigenes, the autochthons are swallowed up
in a complex narrative of power and privileges that neither
leave room for the weak to tell history, nor provide a place
for the marginal nor conquered to stand.
At this point, Mr. Vice-Chancellor, I wish to remark that
other inaugurals have been preserited in the Department of
Linguistics and African Languages by my teachers. These are
lectures by Professors AP. Omamor (2003), D.K.O. Owolabi
(2006) and AA Adeniran (2005). I believe that the present
"\ . l.ecture would be the 7th .
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Introduction: My Journey through Life into Language
and Linguistics
Speed is of no value to a man who has missed his way.
(cf. Dasylva 2011, City on the Hill: The Biography of Bishop
Gbonigi)
I believe that my personal circumstances had prepared me for
a career in Linguistics and by some act of providence I ended
up at the University of Ibadan. My first contact with the
University was from an oraclist and my father. I was a sickly
but very troublesome child, nicknamed Ojukwu during the
civil war. After awhile my parents began to doubt my chances
of survival. I remember my father taking me to an oraclist
around 1968 or 1969. The old wise man told my father that I
was going to become a doctor at the University of Ibadan. My
thinking and I believe that of my father, was that I was going
to become a medical doctor. They were the only doctors
around and Ph. D was relatively unknown. In Igarra where we
lived, Ibadan was the only university of repute. My father had
a Diploma from the University of Ibadan in 1958 or 1959.
With the benefit of hindsight, I think that the oraclist was
trying to encourage my parents not to give up on me. As my
father was to confess later, he and my mother resolved to do
their best and never give up.
My father was in Mellanby Hall when he came to read a
Diploma in Adult Education. He told me that during their first
week in the hall, none of them had bowel movement and so
they concluded that they had been afflicted by some kind of
illness. They went to the clinic in a group and laid their
complaint before the doctor. After a few questions, they were
dismissed and told that their body was absorbing all the
nutrients since hitherto, they had lived on chaff. This was a
time when students were fed three-course meals and buffet
style dinners. It was quite an experience for villagers and
first-timers in a modern university environment. There is also
the story of how he acquired the Yoruba honorific pronouns,
and how he got into trouble with an elderly man in my village
who said my father was indirectly accusing him of witchcraft
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by using the plural form of the second person pronoun to
address him.
As a young student of Literature and Geography, we
learnt about the second largest city in West Africa, home to
the oldest university in Nigeria, so picturesquely described in
John Pepper Clark's poem, "Ibadan". I drove through this
behemoth of a city for the first time in 1976 en route Lagos.
In 1983, I applied to read a Masters Degree in Phonology on
the advice of Dr. Ron P. Schaefer, my teacher, friend,
colleague and mentor. We had agreed to collaborate on a
project to comprehensively describe my mother tongue, Emai
and other Edoid languages. Dr. Schaefer had his training in
syntax and he felt that it was necessary for me to complement
him by developing skills in phonetics and phonological
analysis. We needed to collect oral narratives, transcribe data,
provide a description of the sound system, and develop
orthography before we could make significant progress with
our ultimate purpose of writing a grammar and dictionary.
We noticed early that Emai tones were interwoven in
complex ways with its grammar. We had also observed that
Emai, with a population of only 30, 000 speakers and
numerous other Edoid languages were not being transmitted
to new generation of speakers. Thus, we set for ourselves the
task of contributing to the documentation, preservation and
revitalization of these languages. Elugbe (1973, 1989) had
provided for us the platform for the take off of our quest.
I accepted Ron's suggestion and applied to Ibadan
because it was the only place to do any meaningful
postgraduate work in Linguistics at the time. It was to be a
one-year stint, after which I was expected to return to the
University of Benin to take up a position. When I did not hear
from Ibadan, I visited in July of 1984, discovered that I had
been admitted. I returned some weeks later to pick up my
letter of admission. I resumed studies in October 1984.
In the course of my undergraduate studies, I had become
familiar with such names as Ayo Banjo, Ayo Bamgbose, Ben
Elugbe, Kay Williamson, Augusta Omamor, Airen Amayo,
among others. I was scared that I was not going to measure
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up in their classes. Whereas, my first experience in the city of
Ibadan was one of great disappointment, that of the university
was of fright and frustration. I was relieved when I found out
that Ben Elugbe was on sabbatical leave and that I did not
have to take Ayo Bamgbose's Systemic Grammar.
Ibadan turned out to be a crappy city, quite unlike Benin
in the old Bendel State. It was unplanned and dirty, the streets
were windy and narrow. The taxis were scraps and their
drivers unkempt. It wasn't the kind of city I wanted to make
my life in. It took me two hours before I could bring myself
to take a cab from New Garage to the University. The
physical environment of the University of Ibadan was
disappointing compared to the newer University of Benin.
There was no glitter or sparkle anywhere. But as regards the
intellectual environment, it turned out to be a new and
pleasant experience for me. I ended up in Agbowo because I
could not secure an accommodation in Balewa Hall. The
Agbowo experience was a wake up from innocence and a
sheltered life. The religious tension in town and the ethnic
divide was visible. Landlords wanted to know your religion
and ethnic group before you were accepted as a tenant.
Ibadan was a new cultural and linguistic experience for
me, exciting as it was disturbing. It was here I first noticed
that moisture level in pounded yam and eba varied as one
moved from the west to the east of Nigeria. In Aba, in the
core east, there is only 10% moisture in eba, so they call it
garri. The food is so hard that you had to shed tears while
swallowing in order to compensate for the absence of
moisture. There is 70% water in eba and pounded yam in
Ibadan, to the extent that you cannot make a bolus with it. I
noticed that meals were generally soft, portion of sauce
served in Bukataria was disproportionately small and one had
to buy water. I quarrelled a few times but then realized that
people and places were just different. I noticed that different
ethnic groups had different technologies for eating with their
fingers. Ibadan people scrape through, Edos carve and mould,
Igbos dig and compress, Hausas scratch through, Efik pinch
and rock' n' roll around their fingers. It took me a while to
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understand why a Yoruba lady would turn her back to the
camera or me when dancing; what is the point? Why would
someone who is ill say that he is strong or tired? Someone
says that he has a lot of money in his possession, yet he
cannot pay his debt and is begging you for a loan! From the
foregoing, you can imagine how many more scenarios
language would permit. You would appreciate the fact that
we will all live better lives if we just try a bit to get into one
another's cultural mind through language.
I credit Dr. Akin Akinlabi for mentoring me in my first
two or three years at the university. He introduced me to
phonological theories, he loaded me with books to read and
we engaged in unending theoretical debates in and out of
class. Dr. D.K.O. Owolabi had to supervise my M.A. Thesis.
He taught me to stay with my data until it speaks to me. I was
employed by Dr. B.a. Elugbe in 1985, after Nagano Madsen,
a Japanese lady, resigned from her position in Phonetics.
Elugbe took me on as his Ph. D student, forced me to tone
down my flamboyant style of writing (which I acquired from
Akinlabi) and to understand the dialectics between data and
theory.
I applied for the post of an Assistant Lecturer in
Linguistics at the University of Benin following the
persistence of Ron Schaefer. My zeal to return to Benin had
dampened when I found out that the Head of Department was
not interested in me joining the Department because of
reasons which I can only speculate about. You can imagine
how privileged I considered myself when on December 1,
1985 I joined the staff of Linguistics and African Languages.
As the years went by, I "washed my hands" and was invited
to eat with elders. This metaphor has a similitude in the ritual
which we today describe as an inaugural lecture. I am
particularly delighted that in the past 25 years, I have had the
honour and privilege to be part of this great University.
The physical environment today speaks for itself. The
greater Ibadan City, unfortunately is a contradiction of the
University environment, evident of a disconnect. The city has
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witnessed progressive decay from that day in 1984, when I
set foot on the soil. One day, up in Bower's Tower inserted in
melancholy, I received a poetic inspiration and revised J.P.
Clark's Ibadan:
Ibadan
Oozing splatter of rust and mush
Squashed and scattered among
Hills of human wastes
Like Bodija market in the rain.
The Sound of Meaning
Language is more or less a formalizable system of correlation
between sound and meaning (Anderson 1994). Whatever I
say here today is sound, whatever you understand is meaning;
my meaning, your meaning, our meaning. We share mean-
ings, because we share a common language. How does man
package so much extensive meaning, information, knowledge
in wave forms and what mechanism does he employ to
recover these meanings? The morphemes, word, sentences we
utter are wave forms. There is meaning in language beyond
what is spoken; there is knowledge in it deeper than the
meaning of words and sentences. We tell our story through
language but language also tells its own story; it reveals our
secrets, things we may never be conscious of. The title of my
lecture "The Sound of Meaning," draws from my background
as a phonetician and phonologist. But as you would see, the
content goes beyond the narrow confines of phonological
research and linguistic preoccupations to address cultural,
symbolic and metaphysical meanings. The Sound of Meaning
addresses some of my core research interests in the last 25
years. It follows my belief that Linguistics must go beyond
theoretical abstractions and research for its own sake to
address critical issues of development. I believe also that
linguists must overcome the temptation to focus on a
language without regard for those who speak it. In this
pursuit, I follow a trend of popular science in inaugurals at
the University of Ibadan, by presenting a lecture that is
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accessible to a wide audience. The value of my lecture will
not be found in any radical propositions (as I would raise
questions which may not be sufficiently addressed) but it will
be in causing us to have a fresh look at old information and
use ordinary information to elicit new insights. According to
Marcel Proust, "the real voyage of discovery consists not in
seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. "
In achieving the above stated goals, I draw on some of my
personal narratives to set up critical questions in the mind of
the listener, in such a way that I become part of the data and
content to be interrogated. My primary goal is to put
knowledge in the market place and to engage in a transaction
of ideas with the listeners. The subject of negotiation is
language and the principal actors are the listeners. I see
myself as a director in a stage play, a producer in a movie; the
audience is the interpreter of a participative discourse and
translator of a hyper text. Everything has meaning, even the
lack of meaning itself is meaning. The lecture is presented in
a multimedia, multimodal, multitextual, multigenre, multi-
dimensional format. Everything speaks in a way characteristic
of traditional story telling situation.
If we must shift our focus a bit, I believe that we all
agreed that we are already in a "new age with new mode of
thinking, new concepts of self, new notions of what it means
to be a human being." We are in the knowledge age in which
knowledge is interwoven and human interactions are heavily
mediated by information technologies. Technology has intro-
duced new dynamics to human interactions, with implications
for language and linguistics. To the extent that technology has
significantly reduced the limitations of time and space in
human interactions, some have referred to the world as a
global village.
Let us focus for a while on the ideological question that
confronts us. An African dilemma remains, "the inability to
reconstruct indigenous knowledge which is very well pre-
served in indigenous languages". According to Zeleza P. T.
(2001), "the challenge for Africa's intellectuals, leaders and
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assorted friends is to map out modes of interaction into an
unfolding global system that will maximize, not further
marginalize, the interests of the continent's people and
politics, economies, and environments, societies and cultures"
(p. 65). Unfortunately however, African [intellectuals] have
been caught in the bind of addressing African realities in
borrowed languages and paradigms, conversing with each
other through publications and medii controlled by foreign
academic communities, producing prescriptive knowledge ... "
(p. 65/66). In the area of language, the use of foreign
languages "condemn most people, and thus the continent as a
whole, to a permanent state of mediocrity since people are
unable to be spontaneous, creative and self confident if they
cannot use their first language" (Melville Alexander). The
ideological issue pertains to what we characterize as
knowledge, who determines what constitutes knowledge, and
which language we use to access and disseminate knowledge.
It is not a trivial issue, hence we are foregrounding it. Take
for instance the fact that our mother tongue interferes with
other subsequent languages we learn; to the extent that the
systems of those languages are reinterpreted through the ones
provided by our mother tongue. The corollary of this is that
when we access knowledge or carry out a creative process in
a foreign language, whether at the level of conceptualization
or expression, we are handicapped. First, our world view and
logical processes anchored in our culture and experience
cannot be captured by a foreign language. Second, we are
limited by the level of proficiency which we are able to
achieve in the foreign language such that our mental
constructs cannot spontaneously find expression in language.
We are like an individual with a split personality or one with
a personality locked up in a strange body. We can easily
relate to this problem when we consider how difficult it is to
translate cultural imagery, proverbs, personal names,
ideophones and onomatopoetic forms. It is very difficult to
access our intuitions through a foreign language or access
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indegenous knowledge forms that are grounded in alternative
logics.
Every sense that man makes is couched in sound, every
code he has deviced can be verbalized. The way we speak and
what we say tell a lot about us, who we are, our group
affiliations, mental health, psychological disposition, mood
and attitudes. Speech packs meaning in sound. The Sound of
Meaning exposes the value of our language so that we can
learn to cherish it and live in its consciousness.
The Environment that prepared Me for Linguistics
I grew up in an environment of extreme linguistic and cultural
diversity. I lived through times, epochs and milieus with
significance for language and linguistics. The northern Edo
area where I thrived was a linguistic Babel of sorts. Almost
every village has its own language or speech variety, in some
places, one language is spoken at one end of the village and
another is spoken at the other end. The household in which I
grew up, the school which I attended each helped to define
my path in life; a bit of which relate to my training and
career. I was sensitive to linguistic and cultural diversity from
childhood. We noted the peculiarities of pronunciation of
every group and we joked about it.
I was born to an Emai father and an Ora mother. I spent
the first five years of my life with my maternal grandmother
in Oke n'ute, an Ora village in Owan West Local Government
area of Edo State. There were lots of hostilities between the
Ora and Emai. The Ora were well-educated and looked down
on the Emai (who embraced western education much later) as
dim-witted and heady. They considered the Emai as "bush
people" and had all kinds of stereotypes and stories to back
up their claims. I first learnt to speak Ora. In fact, I and my
siblings would deny being Emai because we were often
mocked by grown-ups in my grandmother's house. In 1967,
my father arranged for my siblings and I to join him at Igarra
(an Ebira speaking area in northern Edo). Within a year, he
encouraged my mother to go for further training; a three year
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grade two teachers training some lOOkms away at Ubiaja. A
day after my mother left for school, we were banned from
ever speaking Ora again in Egbokhare household. By the time
my mother completed her training, one had switched. The
first three children including me retained both languages
because our mother continued to speak Ora to us and she
would speak Emai only to mock Emai people.
We acquired English language at school, Yoruba was
spoken in the church and market, by 1969, I heard pidgin for
the first time and it was to become the primary medium of
interaction with our peers as the years progressed. My parents
were teachers. We lived in Agenebode (Etsako land), Afuze
(Emai and my hometown), Benin, Asaba, Sapele and Igarra. I
had my secondary education in a Catholic boarding school at
Auchi, a Muslim area. My youth service was in Nsukka area,
spent one year and three months in Germany and of course it
has been 25years, a wife and two children in Yoruba land.
While I don't speak all the languages associated with the
various locales I have lived in with equal or even satisfactory
facility, being just around them exposed me to enormous and
diverse linguistic data; set me up with the right questions
about language and the right mindset to explore and
understand our language instinct. I have focused pre-
dominantly on my mother tongue, Emai, as my window to
our linguistic consciousness and as a door to human
experience. One question has preoccupied me as a
phonologist and this is, trying to understand the connection
between sound and meaning.
My students have often asked me how I got into Linguis-
tics. I think Linguistics got into me. I think Linguistics chose
me. I was fortunate that my background provided me with
great leverage and experience with languages. I enjoyed
myself, enjoyed the challenges, and had some great teachers
at the undergraduate level. Mr. H.C. Capo (now a Professor)
taught me phonological analysis; he taught me to discover
regularities in linguistic behaviour. Dr. R.P. Schaefer gave me
fieldwork experience, discipline, tenacity of purpose, and
how to ask questions. Above these, he helped me to see the
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value in my language and culture and to experience the
dimensions of relationships between language, culture and
life. Schaefer and I started our partnership in 1982, when I
started accompanying him to the Emai field to record stories.
I spent 1983, my youth service year, transcribing over
seventy oral narratives. This was for me a great introduction
to postgraduate work. A linguist familiar with Edoid langu-
ages would understand the challenge; sounds get deleted at
the end of words and you need to know the words to
transcribe them and assign them with meanings. There was
the additional problem of marking the tones and intonations
in a highly deformed verbal signal, characterized by complex
interplay of tone and grammar. Looking back now I think it
may not have been the love of language that propelled me;
maybe, I just couldn't walk away from a challenge and the
unending puzzles provided by language data. Whatever kept
me going, by the time I arrived in Ibadan to start a
postgraduate study, I was not only ready to confront
Linguistics, I was also equipped to face it squarely. As we
shall see later, there can be no better subject of study than
human language; there is not a more challenging and
satisfying discipline as Linguistics. Linguistics interfaces
with Physics, Anatomy, Physiology, Neurology, Cybernetics,
Computer Science, Electronic Engineering, Psychology,
Sociology, History, and so on. Together with these
disciplines, they define sub-branches in the broad area.
Linguistics draws on theories, methods and concepts from
Mathematics and other Sciences. "Many biologists have
capitalized on the close parallel between the principles of
grammatical combination and the principles of genetic
combination." In technical language, genetic sequences of
DNA are said to contain 'letters' and 'punctuation'; may be
'Palindromic', 'meaningless', and are even stored in the
'Libraries'(Pinker 1995: 85). The description of the produc-
tion of sound is amenable to such laws as Boyle's law, the
'Bernoulli effect'; speech itself is a complex of wave forms
so we talk about the Physics of speech; terms such as
morphology find use in Geology; like environmentalists,
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linguists talk of language ecology and geography provides
insight in 'areal Linguistics'. Theoretical Linguistics tries to
answer the question, "what form can a human language
take?" It incorporates methods and concepts for abstracting
and modelling the human language instinct. Descriptive
Linguistics describes the pattern of individual languages and
phonology discovers the order imposed on sounds of
languages in order to communicate meaning. Meaning floats
all around, it is sounds that put form to them so that we can
communicate, live in communities, and influence behaviour.
Everyday Encounter with Language
We all encounter language everyday in one form or the other
and if we are sensitive enough, we all will have one story or
the other to tell. Many young parents are fascinated by the
babbling of babies and would record the first intelligible word
uttered by their child. I remember one case where the child's
first word was dugbedugbe, a bus conductor shouting out his
route to passengers. We are familiar with speech errors due to
difficulties of pronunciation arising from anatomical defects
such as oversized lips, large tongue, misaligned dentition,
inflexible vocal folds and cleft palate. Some speech defects
have to do with loss of brain function, motor control, and so
on, which affects linguistic functions at various levels of
language.
There are more subtle experiences as when a priest in a
shrine who is a ventriloquist convinces us that we are in
conversation with an idol or gods. The speech is often charac-
teristically invariant and the gods appear only to be mono-
lingual, speaking the language of the priests (Osanyin in
Yoruba). In my experience with prophecies in the church, I
have sometimes wondered why the prophecy is often in King
James' version of English and not in modem English and why
the format is rigid and formulaic.
I am curious also about "tongues" which linguists refer to
as "glossolalia." I wonder what patterns underlie them and if
there are predictable variations across linguistic groups. As
we go around and become conscious of the language we use
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and how other people speak and use language, we are bound
to be fascinated and develop more than a passive interest in
our language. My environment provided me with a lot of
questions about language and speech which stimulated my
interest in linguistics.
An individual once asked me why my people always
speak at the top of their voices. He put the question
differently so that I can understand. He said, "Why do you
people always shout when you are speaking?" I believe that
we are all familiar with stereotypes, while we often dismiss
them because they lack scientific basis in objectivity and are
often derogatory, they may contain some interesting inform-
ation.
One individual I met claimed that Etsako people (of Edo
State, Nigeria) are fond of pronouncing words forcefully
because they have thick lips. Another individual put it this
way: "if an average Auchi man is talking to you, you would
think he is quarrelling with you." "Edo (Bini) people speak
through their nose", "the British speak as if they are eating
hot yams or gasping for breath", "Americans eat their words
or speak fast", are some common observations which I have
encountered. An American told me that I speak English with
a flat tone.
We notice certain characteristics in an individual or
group's speech which we cannot explain technically and
sometimes, over generalize a trait observed in a highly
restricted.occurrence. It was to take me some years of training
at the University of Ibadan to find some plausible rationale
for some of the observations noted above. The generalizations
of course are wrong, but there is a reasonable basis for the
conclusion. For instance, in many dialects of Etsako
(Yekhee), there is a distinction between fortis (strong) and
lenis (weak) consonants. It is possible for an observant person
to notice speakers of Etsako use this in their speech or carry
over the distinction in their pronunciation of English
consonants. In the case of Bini speakers, there is a nasal
plosion that affects stops when they occur before nasal
vowels. Normally, sounds like p, t, k, are exploded or
released orally, but before nasal vowels in Bini, they are
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exploded through the nose. American English has a tapping
rule that changes t, d, to r-tap between vowels, creating a
slurring appearance in speech. When we speak a second
language, we carryover the features and patterns of our
native language, in what is known as interference. This can
affect our pronun-ciation and show up as an accent. It is
quite easy for us to tell what part of Nigeria or the world an
individual comes from or which language is his first language
by listening to him speak English. I speak Yoruba with the
two tones of my language, so, I sound like the popular
comedian Okondo. I speak Okondo variety of Yoruba.
Kabiyesi Oloja of the Village Headmaster, an old classic TV
series, speak English with a distinct Yoruba tonal melody,
thus, he sounds as if he "sings, not speaks English."
We confront different issues with the spelling of Nigerian
names. Normally, we neither mark tones nor sub-dot vowels
as required in the spelling systems of these languages (Joke,
Somefun, Dupe). The emerging trend propelled by popular
culture is to funkify spellings (Bolatito is spelt Bolahteetoh,
Jide is spelt Geedeh). Our broadcasters go to great length to
pronounce foreign names and words correctly. They are
trained on English pronunciation, but Nigerian places and
personal names are often carelessly pronounced. We can add
to this the current practice among some Christians who drop
deity roots in their names or change them completely.
Arabized spelling is gaining ground among some Muslims
who now change hitherto nativized spellings for Arabized
ones as a sign of spiritual commitment. The above speak a lot
about us and by tracking and anal ysing them, we can
understand a lot about our society.
If we go back to the observations above regarding "Emai
and shouting" and "English and gasping", the linguistic
foundation of the latter is in the aspiration of voiceless stops
in stressed syllables in English. Emai speakers like Etsako
speakers are not different from other people. But it so
happens that in Emai, tone has a high grammatical functional
load. The distinction between completive and non-completive
action; remote and immediate future; habitual and conti-
nuous; empathic and non-empathic mood are implemented by
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the same tonal parameter which kicks up lexical low tones in
subjects of the sentences to high (other things being equal)
and raise the entire tonal register to a super high level.
In fact, the entire verb phrase in the first members of the
pairs, may incorporate a preponderance of high tones and its
sequence (Egbokhare 1990). Similarly, noun phrases are
marked by the change of lexical low tones to high, to the
extent that the statistical occurrence of high sequences over
low is so overwhelming. If the grammar of Emai is such that
constructions are kept not just high but extra high most of the
time, it is easy to see why a keen observer or an individual
who has a phonetic ear would be led to believe that speakers
of Emai talk at the top of their voices. One is yet not clear
how this feature of grammatical tone plays out when Emai
speakers use English. It is important for me to stress that I am
in no way trying to make a scientific point here. One is only
interested in showing how each of us may encounter language
and how sometimes, the products of these encounters may be
rationalized.
Let us consider the following in a number of Nigerian
languages. Efik speakers often substitute [b] for [p] and [r]
for (t] in medial position. Consequently, the pair of words
repel; rebel; motto; morrow are undifferentiated. Hausa
speakers substitute [f] and [b] for [p] and[v] respectively.
Igbo speakers may delete final vowels in a sequence of names
whether or not both names are Igbo or one of the names is
English. Thus, Peter Obi is pronounced [pitobi].
In some Yoruba speech, fan and van; sip and zip, ferry
and very may be pronounced only as the first pair. In addition
[h] is sometimes inserted at the beginning of words before a
vowel and the same sound when it begins an English word is
deleted. Consequently, heat; eat and hair; air may be
interchanged. [1] and [r] in Tiv are realized as [1] and in
Japanese, election may be pronounced erection.
There are many more examples we can give. For instance,
Edoid languages must begin and end with a vowel, never a
consonant. Apart from the modification of English pronun-
ciation which these may require, depending on the speakers
facility with English, such features of speech are important
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evidence of group membership. Because of that, they have
forensic value.
Why are Our Children failing (English)?
Why are our children failing? Why is every generation
complaining about the falling standards of education of the
previous one? I am today a professor, my father believed that
the standards in my generation was apocalyptic and our use of
English disastrous. Today, colleagues invite me to look at the
curious spellings and essays written by their students. Are we
experiencing some "grammar challenge" or "language direc-
ted epidemic?" Let us not make a mistake about it, I believe
as many do that there is a crisis in education in Nigeria; but I
think we have not properly segmented the issues so that we
can address them properly. To begin, let us return to the issue
of interference above.
Table1: Summary of Performance of Nigerian Students in English
May/June SSCE (1993-2000)
Year Total SAT Credit Pass Fail Absents
(AI-C6) (P7-P8)
1993 496,685 66,176 145.545 285.023 4.833
(13.3%) (29.3%) (57.4%) (1.0%)
1994 524,294 74,157 159,900 290,237 5.713
(14.1 %) (30.5%) (55.4%) (1.1)
1995 464,270 57,588 128,450 278,202 2,701
(12.4%) (27.7%) (59.9%) (0.6%)
1996 516,196 58,533 124;041 333,614 3,471
(11.3%) (24.0%) (64.6%) (0.6%)
1997 618,139 40,488 165,533 412,188 4,294
(6.5%) (26.8%) (66.7%) (0.7%)
1998 636,777 53,990 136,873 417,312 3,849
(8.5%) (21.5%) (65.5%) (0.6%)
1999 752,233 73,531 171,096 471,593 3,827
(9.7%) (22.6%) (64.9%) (0.5%)
2000 784,129 84,932 172,158 523,117 3,922
(9.8%) (21.4%) (65.9%) (0.6%)
Source: Department of Statistics, West African Examination Council (WAEC)
Yaba-Lagos C. O. O. Kolawole, 2004. (Pg262)
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Beyond the level of pronunciation at the level of
grammar, there are also features of interference. To have
access to content in English, there must be a high level of
competence in the language. Here comes my impression. In a
multilingual setting like Nigeria, it is important for us to
know the challenges which individuals who are learning
English as a second language, and in fact individuals who are
learning any of the major languages, are likely to face for the
design of teaching materials and content for teaching English
as a second language to different language groups. What
would be suitable for Ijaw speakers will not be suitable for
Hausa speakers. To date, the approach to content develop-
ment is, "a one size fits all" approach. It is doubtful that we
even have a researched data base or mapping that can support
any serious effort to custom design content to address the
needs of various groups. Thus, an urgent action should be for
linguists to attempt a broad contrastive and error analysis of
language groups across the country to provide the necessary
data bank and resource pool to address the needs of second
language learners of English.
It is important to emphasize that the Nigerian national
census must now incorporate language data for planning
purposes to address the above in addition to providing useful
data on linguistic diversity in urban settlements. Part of the
problem of mass failure at the basic school level may in fact
be ascribable to Low English Proficiency. The poor reading
culture and poor performance in arithmetic have their
foundation not only in the choice of the language of education
but also in Low English Proficiency. "Bring back the book"
literacy advocacy project of President Jonathan may not
succeed if we do not address the problem of Low English
Proficiency.
It is important to mention that the value of a well-planned
language data in a census goes beyond simply knowing the
size of population which speaks a language as a first or
second language. We need to determine the extent to which
language plays a role in the mass failure at the basic level and
low enrolment in some parts of Nigeria. We need to deter-
mine if the enforcement of mother tongue education in Hausa
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and Arabic can help raise enrolment and achievement levels
in some northern states and educationally disadvantaged areas
of Nigeria. We acknowledge that there are other factors that
affect standard of education. But those factors do not concern
us here. There are two other issues which we will quickly
capture.
The collapse of the public school system is leading to the
creation of a segregated school system and with it sociali-
zation patterns that have linguistic implications. We need to
try to understand what impact over 30years of the collapse of
the public school system has had on the society not just in
terms of the quality of education but also on the nature of
society. For instance, we need to track the social class and
locales of those who are falling by the wayside and those who
proceed to tertiary institutions, which tertiary institutions?
Linguistically speaking, one thing that one can readily
observe today is the emergence and growing number of those
who claim English as their first language. There are indivi-
duals who passed through nursery schools and were taught
some form of English and spoke English to their parents at
home. They represent the extreme in an environment where
Nigerian languages are constantly witnessing shrinking
domains due to a number of factors.
The Influence of New Media and Social Networks on
Language
There is an even more important issue that we are not giving
sufficient attention to. This has to do with the influence of
new media, social networks on the use of language. The
media of the mobile phones and ICTs are' creating new
varieties of English language. Bodomo (2010) observes that
the mobile phone and 'other ICTs, such as the MSN that is
popular worldwide, are changing our language use in
profound ways, and making the youth in most parts of the
world evolve different ways of using language. New varieties
of written English thus seem to be evolving .. .indeed, these
new varieties of written English are finding their way into
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school wntmg and are the source of worry for school
teachers" (p 118).
"New leT tools are introducing new forms of language
and literacy and students' language is varying according to
the technological medium they are communicating with."
What is showing up as poor communication skills is the carry
over effect of the language patterns and informal style, to the
rigidity of formal writing and speaking situations of the
school system. We need to determine through research how
much influence this new language is having on the English
language usage of Nigerians. Below are a few examples of
the language of SMS:
Table 2: Language of SMS
Lol Laughing out loud
Cu See you
R Are
u/ur You/your
Sys See you soon
OMG Oh my God
Tmrw/tmr Tomorrow
IC I see
BRB Be right back
B4 Before
2nite/2day Tonight/today
Source: Bodomo (2010: 126)
My Experience of Flying
My experience of flying across the world has revealed that in
America especially, airline safety instructions are given in the
predominant language of the region. The situation in Nigeria
is different. Safety instruction is given in 'special English' by
cabin crew while the labelling of seats and emergency exits
are in Gibberish (Spanish, French, Portuguese). A flyer from
one of Nigeria's local airlines is shown in figure 1.
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Fig. 1: Aero flyer
The flyer is not a trivial matter. It is based on the
unproven and unfortunate assumption that all those who fly in
and out of the Nigerian airspace speak only European
languages. It is even more troublesome considering the fact
that some of the time, safety instructions are prerecorded and
cabin crew only have to demonstrate. Even those who are
quite good in English language sometimes have a problem
comprehending the cabin crew or the prerecorded voice. If
foreign airlines can deliver safety instructions to take care of
major population of their locality and if they take care always
to deliver safety instructions in the dominant languages in
their country of origin, whether or not speakers of those
languages are confirmed to be onboard, it should be possible
for them to address the needs of Nigerians.
One has heard it said that there are too many languages in
Nigeria; hence, it will be virtually impractical to meet the
needs of every group. This argument is specious because with
five languages, English. Nigerian Pidgin, Hausa, Yoruba and
Igbo, the linguistic needs of over 90% of Nigerians can be
met. Nigeria must insist that airlines address Nigerians in the
languages they understand best and planes flying in our
airspace must adhere to language requirements as part of
airline safety requirements.
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There is an urgent need for a survey of the categories of
fliers in Nigerian airspace, their linguistic affiliation, and the
extent to which fliers comprehend safety instructions. If you
have noticed, one would be disturbed that many Nigerians
hardly wait for planes to taxi to a halt before they get up from
their seats. Could that be related to the issue of lack of
comprehension of safety instructions? Perhaps not! It is now
important for Nigerian airports to post signs and flight
schedules, and make announcements in Nigerian languages.
This should be complemented with street signs in English and
local languages as a way of signposting our linguistic heritage
and improving the value of local languages.
Safety and Operational Manuals of Equipment and
Machinery
The minimum standard for manuals should be compliant with
Nigerian English. Associated with the above is the issue of
safety and operational manuals for equipments and machi-
nery, electrical and electronic equipments. The English in
most household equipment imported from a number of Asian
countries is mostly incomprehensible. Even the ones from
European countries need to be nativized to Nigerian English
to make them accessible. It is not too much for Standards
Organization of Nigeria to prescribe language standard for
machinery, equipment, and household appliances imported to
Nigeria. There is now a Nigerian English recognized globally
as a variety.
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Fi.g. 2: A typical equipment manual
C"A_Tue $OOC
OPER •••".ON METHOD AND
~~N;:ci~~~~':,,·TI'tUCT10H8 I /.
Fig. 3: Another typical equipment manual
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Stereotypes, Culture and Language Use
When I was leaving for Ibadan, I was told all kinds of things
about the Yorubas that were stereotypes; just as I was also
prepared for life in Igboland during my youth service year.
My feeling here is that cultural and linguistic differences are
often misunderstood or misinterpreted as evidence of
character, moral, ethical or behavioural dispositions. My first
few years in Yoruba land were difficult because I mis-
understood things a lot. Yoruba is full of nuances and
indirectness. When I asked a workman if he was going to
come the following day to fix my fridge and he said "by the
grace of God" (translated from Yoruba) I would think that he
would come barring any unforeseen circumstances; when
actually, it meant that he would not come, except God
brought him by the collar. When a guy who is indebted to me
says "there is a lot of money in my possession," I wonder
why he has refused to pay up. Someone who is obviously ill
says "I am strong" and this leaves me wondering. After I got
married, my wife will correct me often and will give me
interpretations of a statement that was way off my antenna.
She would say "that is not what he means". She and I had our
fair share of misunderstandings. For instance, I called her
once by my mother's pet name "mama 1010", her reply
stunned me "na your mama be mama 1010". This was clearly
abusive. She meant to say "Na your mama you dey call mama
1010" (It is your mother you normally call "mama 1010"). I
learnt fast. I noticed that to succeed, you cannot move around
with an erect posture or stand upright to greet. You have to
crouch, bow, nod, as the case may be. Prostrating is
tantamount to emasculating one in my culture. Since I
couldn't work out, who really deserved the bow, I followed
the route of addressing everyone as sir and ma until it got so
ridiculous and irritating to my wife that she called me to
order. Within a few years, I noticed my teachers moved up
from being addressed as Dr/Professor to daddy/mummy to
being called mamalbaba as if the students and younger
colleagues were eager to get rid of them.
I realized at some point how Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu
and his Igbo compatriots could have misread the Yoruba
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leaders in the Western House of Assembly, Ibadan around
April 1967, when they said, "if by any act of omission or
commission the Eastern Region Secedes Western Nigeria will
opt out [of the Federation of Nigeria]". The Yoruba speak
"Yorish" and the Igbo speak "Igbish". There were clearly two
world views, two languages, and two interpretations. Just to
drive home the point, "if' isa conditional in English, in many
Nigerian languages and Nigerian English varieties, it also
marks an adverbial time clause (*when). There is also the
issue of varying possibility of occurrence of the event and
commitment to event predicated on the condition. A state-
ment is a statement, a promise is a promise. Also is the issue
of when secession would be believed to have taken place,
when Ojukwu declares it or when the Federal Government
accepts it. It is the potential for language and cultural
differences to lead to conflict and violence that I see at every
time I find myself in a new contact situation. It is not often
what is said that we understand; it is what we think is said.
Language and Speech
Language is the Pedigree of nations
(Kay Williamson)
Language: From Babel to Pentecost
Two passages from the Bible are instructive. First is the
account of the origin of language diversity captured in the
accounts of the Tower of Babel in Genesis Chapter 11 verses
1- 9. Humanity was speaking one language and came close to
reaching heaven and God became worried. The story however
draws attention to the communicative and unifying functions
of language. Language makes it possible for people to
cooperate, live in communities, document their progress,
transmit experiences and influence the behaviour of other
people.
Human civilization is virtually impossible without langu-
age. Before I elaborate further, let us look at another event in
the Bible, with linguistic import. Acts Chapter 2, verses 1 - 12
reports an event on the day of Pentecost when a mighty
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rushing wind filled the house where the disciples were
gathered. A linguistic phenomenon took place. "They were
filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other
tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance". Galileans began
to speak a language that was intelligible to individuals from
diverse and possibly unrelated language groups.
The transition from Babel to Pentecost is a radical
linguistic statement that defines human possibilities and has
implications for the imagination. Babel makes a strong claim
that language diversity, at least the first incident, was neither
natural, nor gradual. It occurred suddenly as a result of a
radical and dramatic intervention of a "speech or language
scrambler", which zapped the relevant neural locus of
language and thereby altered the language code in systematic.
ways. We can stretch our imagination further, but whatever
happened, the language of Babelians was confounded and the
people could no longer understand one another's speech.
The Pentecost experience brings to mind an equally
radical intervention. This time, it was a "de-scrambler or
decoder" that provided a capacity for universal translation.
Automatic translation technology and voice recognition
devices give some indication that this is not far-fetched. But
since the Holy Spirit and tongues are not yet open to
scientific scrutiny and since we cannot locate a community
that speaks a language known as tongues or Babel as their
native language, we must return to the realm of the
observable.
Why Study Language?
I consider it a plausible calculation that - at the
rate things are going, the coming century will see
either the death or doom of 90% of mankind's
language.
(Kraus 1992:7)
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A if'~l~xe ibosi lil if'~l~jo
I remember that when I was admitted to read Linguistics at
the University, my father was initially unhappy because one
of his friends whose daughter was to read pharmacy talked
disparagingly about the discipline and the Arts generally.
The negative attitude towards the Arts generally persists
because of a general ignorance of the value of the disciplines
in Arts Faculty to contemporary national issues. At the
University of Ibadan, I have sometimes been described as a
Professor of Emai because some people believe that the value
of a language depends on the size of the population who
speak it and of course, professors who work on small
language groups would necessarily be inferior to those who
speak or work on big language groups. I have no point to
make here other than showing that language, all languages are
valuable and that there is a great deal of information packed
in every language that can benefit mankind.
Language is basic to human society; verbal communi-
cation is the universal background against which all other
communications take place (Slack 1984). Language is not just
a means of communication; it is a huge resource, a reservoir
of knowledge and folk wisdom, an encyclopedia of culture.
The argument for the value of language is best made when
taken in the context of language endangerment and language
death. We may ask ourselves the question, "Why should we
care about any language?"
Reflections
We spoke one language
In different voices
Our tongues grew out of the same root
Although they came in varied forms
But you said you heard different peoples
We sang the same songs
But you said that we made diverse music
You gave us ~irrors
We saw only your painting of us
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You gave us strange wine
Then our rhythm changed
You fed us with Agama lizard
Now all we can do is nod
Our speech is gone forever
Our voice is sold to foreign accents
We now whisper in monotones
We can no longer gather in the village court together
We cannot celebrate before our ancestors
Our shrines are overgrown with weeds
You have become king over us
Now we are truly indifferent
But you want us to be one
How can we be one?
We have lost our colour
And are bleached to different hues
The cords that held the village is in the sea
Where it was thrown
When you took away our children
Why must we be one?
There's a breach between us and our ancestors
We interpret the Ogene of Umuofia in Ohio
We learn the steps of the bata in Bayreuth
The kolanut does not understand Igbo
The language of its origin
/fa speaks Yoruba
We are no more our own interpreters
Who will tell our stories
Now that we are busy narratingforeign tales
We are children who have lost a taste
For their mother's soup
Dogs who do not recognize their owner's call
We have reincarnated in other lands before we are
dead
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We are warriors who have taken to orgies
With hostile women
We have gone to play across the river
And forgotten to return home.
"Why should a linguist worry about a small language like
Emai with a negligible population of speakers?" As Kraus
(1992) noted, "any language is a supreme achievement of a
uniquely human collective genius as divine and endless a
mystery as a living organism." We should care about langu-
ages because we can learn a great deal from them. Let us
enumerate some reasons given why we should care (Crystal
2000).
Language contains our History
Through the words and idioms it uses, it provides us with
clues about the earlier states of mind of its speakers, about the
kinds of cultural context they had ... words become part of the
evidence of social history ... everything forgets, but not
language (p. 75). Language is the archive of history ... it does
this most obviously by expressing, through the grammar and
lexicon of is texts, the events which form its past" (p. 41). Let
us see some evidence of this from titular names and other
language-based information in northern Edo.
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Table 3: Traditional Titles in Edo
Title Origin Communities LGA Language Remarks
Group
Ogie-/Oje- Benin Emai, Ora, Owan NCE Occurs in its different modified
Uzairue Etsako NCE forms. In Atte, Ogiawa is a recent
Akoko-Edo NEW development. Form is widespread
in Esan and for Benin lords.
Oba Benin/Yoruba Agbcdc Etsako NCE Agbcdc is an aberration since it is
only in Benin that the term is used.
Oni- Yoruba Ososo Akoko-Edo ~'WE
Akoko-Edo
Okpc, Ibillo NWE
Dezi Nupe Ibillo Akoko-Edo NWE A defunct title predating Oni.
Odafe Local Enwan, Akuku Akoko-Edo NEW Term for head of a household.
North Ibic
Okpashi Local Ojah Akoko-Edo NWE Could mean the syprerne one.
Ima Local Sornorika Akoko-Edo NWE Recent, only after Otaru. Current
Ima is second since creation.
Okumagbe Local Weppa-wano Etsako NCE
Iuleha Owan
Ukor Local Warake Owan NCE
Otaru Ebira Auchi Etsako NCE Traditional ruler of Etuno (Ebira)
is Otaru.
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From names and traditional titles we see evidences of the
influence if not dominance of Yoruba, Edo, Ebira, and
Nupe/Igala. We are also able to date these influences relative
to one another. We see also from these names and titles
evidence of dominance if not subjugation.
From a comparative point of view, the Akoko Edo area
shows the greatest variations in traditional titles. This also
applies to changes in the name of settlements. If we are able
to trace the origin of the names of the settlements, then we
may be able to tell which group held sway at which time.
We may divide the titles of Edo north to reflect the
influence of three dominant powers: the Benin (Ogie/ Ojie/
Enigie), the Nupe/Igala (Otaru) and various local titles which
should in fact be regarded as evidence of the absence of
kingship. The titles reflect different periods. The communities
which utilize local forms such as Okpashi, Odafe, Ukor,
among others reflect prehistoric situations where kingship
was not part of the Edo experience. This may not necessarily
be taken as indication that such communities were older. If
we were to consider power relations, it may be an indication
of subjugation. In Edoid parlance, Odafe is the head of a
household or family. Ukor is the court messenger. Conse-
quently, communities with these titles may have invented
kingship and adopted the terms as titles. One thing is clear
and that is, that before the wars, the older person in a
community became the head. A number of communities still
maintain this practice. The Otaru title is fading off in the
NWE (North West Edoid) areas in Akoko Edo and Etsako.
Only in Auchi and Igarra (non Edo) is the Otaru the King. In
other communities such as Somorika, Atte, Okpilla, Uneme,
they are either important chiefs or priests. Could it be then
that the Otaru was a foreign overlord? Could it also be that
the demotion of this office in those communities reflects a
rebellion against a foreign order? In Somorika, the Ima is the
head of the community and the current one is the second in
succession.
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The title of Oje in Ora and Okumagbe in Iuleha are recent.
The current holders are only the second in succession. Ibillo,
Okpe and Ososo in Akoko Edo (NWE) have the Yoruba
titular prefix Oni-. These are adjoining communities. In the
case of Ibillo, its relatives in the Okpamheri group do not
follow this pattern. We also gather that the leader of the
community was once a Dezi, suggesting a Nupe influence.
The title itself bears formal resemblance with the Deji of
Akure. We can see that the Akoko Edo area defined a highly
variable area of influence by different political and cultural
currents.
In terms of place names, Somorika has changed its name
from Amo, to its present name. It is currently named after
Usomo perhaps the leader of a migrating band who establi-
shed himself as overlord. There are reasons to believe that the
Somorika hills were occupied by diverse groups, many of
whom were forced to leave after Usomo established himself
as overlord. Ibillo was once known as Uma, it is not clear
how the present name came about, but we strongly believe
that it originated from the Yorubas. The Yorubas had
established themselves as a dominant group through wars,
Christianity, western education and politics in that area. There
was a wide spread practice of changing the names of places in
northern Edo, if they were difficult to pronounce or sounded
like words with negative reference in Yoruba. Thus, Ebone
was changed to Ikiran Oke and Ile, Osi to Aiyegunle, Ugboshi
lle and Ugboshi Afe, were changed to Igbo Ola Oke and Igbo
Ola lsale respectively. Ugboshi has since reverted to its old
name.
Ososo, Okpe and Somorika are clearly mixed communi-
ties. Personal names give indications to this. In Ososo, there
are traces of Igbira elements. This is confirmed by the fact
that a quarter in the village claim origin from Okene. They
speak the same NWE dialect. Okpe indigenes bear Yoruba,
Bini, Nupe and local names. The Bini connection is not clear,
but the Olokpe claimed he derived his royalty from Benin.
The Nupe name may have come from the Nupe mercenary
camp, which was once hosted by Okpe. The term for this
camp is uncomfortably close to the title (Okpashi), which is
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borne by traditional rulers from some Edoid communities. In
Afuze (Emai), a whole section of the town was once known
as Alafiaji. There is Sabongida Ora, a Hausa term for new
town in the midst of Ora country. All these point to the fact
that there is a closer tie between the Nupe and Edo north
communities than we have cared to understand.
Language provides a dependable basis for crosschecking
oral traditions or origin and migration in groups that have no
written history. We can use the methods of historicallinguis-
tics to determine the homeland of protolanguage.
"We can rationally assume that the homeland is in the
area where the languages show the greatest differentiation,
the result of having a long period in which to diversify into
different dialects and then into different languages; con-
versely, areas where the languages are more closely related
have been more recently settled and have thus had a shorter
period in which to differentiate from each other (Williamson
1987:70).
Elugbe (1973, 1989) show that in spite of claims of Benin
origin by groups of Edoid speaking peoples, the original
location of dispersal (i.e. Edoid homeland) is around the
Kukuruku hills. Through language, Egbokhare (2003 a)
contradicts the claim that the name Edo originates from the
_---'n""a""-mo,fe a slave who saved Oba Ewuare (1440-73) from a
murd~ kingdom was said to have been named after
the slave after his death (Ogie 2002). The name originates
from an ancient greeting form doo meaning hello which
persists in many Edoid areas and the Edo are people who
greet doo.
Linguistic evidence may also be taken to support the
plausibility of the derivation of the title of Ooni of lfe from
Oghene as reported in Akinjogbin and Olaniyan (1992:45).
Writing on the issue, Akinjogbin and Olaniyan state that:
There is of course the report received in Benin by
early Portuguese travellers of a sovereign named
"Ogane" or "Hoguane" (Pereira 1937) to whom
the Oba of Benin sent a messenger on his ascen-
tion to the throne ... it has generally been assumed
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that this Ogane referred to the Ooni of Ife but
Ryder suggests otherwise .... G.R. Grone, trans-
lating some early Portuguese travels documents
pertaining to West Africa (Codo Motto, 1937:
126 - 127) remarks in a footnote that the Ogane
was probably a chief in the Niger-Delta. E.C.C
Law also analyses this evidence and explains the
difficulties in accepting outright the claim which
assumes the Ogane to be the Ooni of Ife (Law
1993: 179 cf. Akinjogbin et al p 45 - 46).
Akinjogbin (1994), in his work, "Yorubaland before
Oduduwa", contains the word Oghene who was supreme ruler
of pre-Oduduwa Ife. Words like: Orisanobu Oghene
'Supreme God', Uko 'Policemen' (royal messenger in some
contemporary Edoid communities), Egbengben 'highest age
grade' (ogben/egben 'agemate'), Ukpolo 'terraces', Uhodo
'village headman', Otu petele (ekpete 'stool'; otu 'age
group'), Owiogho 'house where money is kept' (owa 'house';
ogho 'money/cowrie' in Edoid), Ogho (old kind of money;
cowrie), Odigbo 'means of exchange', Ekila 'trade fair' (from
Eki market') are distinctly Edoid. In fact some of the past
Oghene sound like Edo names.
The point here is not to make a historical claim of origin,
or join in the controversy- of the Ife- Benin struggle -for
supremacy, but to suggest that it is phonologically plausible
to derive Ooni from Oghene through the following processes:
Table 4: Phonological Derivation of the Title Ooni
Sound Ortho~hy
~'t€o1 Qg~ni _~~gfonn
:>£nI wni By consonant deleWln
~m QQnj By V2 assimilation to deriVe--
the Ife title
~ym£ ogbene By V1 assimilation to derive 1:
modem form in South West I!
Edoid
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Whereas, to derive Ooni, consonant deletion and total assimi-
lation of second vowel is needed, only a total assimilation of
the third vowel occurs in the realization of the form in the
languages of South West Edoid. We need a closer look at
linguistic evidence in resol ving the Benin- Ife relationship and
accountingfor origins and migrations generally. Ihievbe in
North Central Edoid has the form Oghena. Vowel harmony
adds a little more interesting dimension which is not
necessary to explicate.
Language contributes to the Sum of Human Knowledge
It is language that unifies everything, linking environmental
practice with cultural knowledge, and transmitting everything
synchronically among members of a community as well as
diachronically between generations (Crystal 2000:47).
Insights into the various plant species used by indigenous
healers may come from the way they are named and
described in ritual practices, formal oratory, or folklore. The
network of social relation within a community can most
efficiently be understood by examining the rules governing
the style of language used, the selection of vocabulary and the
choice of one manner of discourse rather than another.
Language expresses Identity
Language is the basis of all cultural activities. It provides the
basis of memberships of groups and sub-groups. The loss of a
language therefore leads to loss of identity. Every group or
sub-group has an associated language or manner of speech
which define social, economic, political, professional, geo-
graphical or subcultural affiliations. By listening for certain
indicators in speech, we can foresically place individuals in
the group to which they belong. The issue of identity can also
be taken to the level of the individual. We all have our
idiosyncracies and peculiarity of pronunciation or writing.
Literary critics and discourse analyst can locate the author of
a piece through the patterns and structures that are customary
to the writer. Individual idiosyncracies underlying voice
prints and language systems locate us within language
groups. We can assist in checking the problem of cultism and
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crime by studying the speech of individuals who belong to the
groups and mapping out the regularly occurring patterns
which set them apart.
Needfor Diversity
"If diversity is a prerequisite for successful humanity, then
the preservation of linguistic diversity is essential, for
language lies at the heart of what it means to be human. If
the development of multiple cultures is so important, then the
role of languages becomes critical, for cultures are chiefly
transmitted through spoken and written languages.
Accordingly, when language transmission breaks down,
through language death, there is a serious loss of inherited
knowledge. Any reduction of language diversity diminishes
the adaptational strength of our species because it lowers the
pool of knowledge from which we can draw" (Crystal
2000:33 - 34).
Language Provides Information on how the Human Mind
Works
"The aim of linguistics is to define the nature of the human
language faculty comprehensively and explicitly. What is the
range of possibilities which the human brain allows when it
comes to the construction of languages? ..each language
manifests a fresh coming together of sounds, grammar, and
vocabulary to form a system of communication which, while
demonstrating certain universal principle of organization and
structure, is an unprecedented event and a unique encap-:\
sulation of a world view" (p54). Examples from ideophones ,'
in this presentation illustrate this point.
Language is Critical for Education and Scientific and
Technological Development
There is a deep connection between language and develop-
ment. This connection is to be found in the provision of
education and access to information through the mother
tongue. Studies have shown that a child learns better when he
or she is taught in the mother tongue and reads better when he
or she has access to content in the mother tongue. Prah (1995)
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captures the relationship between mother tongue and
scientific development. He states that, "If language in general
relates us to reality, mother tongue in particular fulfils this
function in a special and fundamental way. Mother tongue is
the primary code for the perception of reality ... it is the
mother language which affords room for the creative
application of human ingenuity" (p 45 - 46).
What has Languages got to do with Science?
As a young man, I had a problem with mathematics. I learnt
addition, subtraction and multiplication in my mother tongue.
I had no problems carrying this over to English and I was
quite good in arithmetic. In my secondary school, my teacher
put a problem on the board:
3x +4y
I asked what X and Yare, and I was told that they are
variables. Then I wanted to know what variables are and I
was told X could be an orange and Y a mango. I had
difficulties understanding what would be the product of
mixing oranges and mangoes. The teacher got impatient.
There were a few language problems with simultaneous and
quadratic equations where I was simply told to memorize
formulas-and that was not quite working with me. Years
later, when on my own, I understood the language, it struck
me that a lot of science and technology was simply a
combination of language, methods, and gadgets. This is just
being naive, I guess. My problem with physics was different.
I had an Indian teacher whose pronunciation of English gave
us some comic relief. Then he would say: "vy you are
laughing?" meaning "why are you laughing?" We just had
fun and of course failed woefully.
Prah (1995) captures the relationship between mother
tongue and scientific development succinctly. According to
him "concepts, abstract notions and scientific linguistics tools
are most accessible and provide greater facility for effective
usage if they are grounded in the language which provides the
systematic grid for interpreting and intervening in reality.
Scientific practice is the mode of this intervention. It is
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mother language which affords room for the creative
application of human ingenuity. In all developed societies,
science and technological development is based on the native
language, cultivated as the mother tongue" (p 45 - 46). This
will allow elites who have access to European languages
innovate and technologically create and provide avenues for
the rural masses to participate. The use of mother tongue in
technology education will make science and technology part
of the cultural universe of the people, it will become part of
their thinking and rationalizing process.
According to Prah, knowledge cannot remain a culturally
indigested foreign body of ideas. Knowledge must melt into
the cultural landscape of the user in order to become an
instrument of creativity for the learner and user (p 49).
Language impacts our World View
Language is not only a repository of our world view but also
influences how we see the world. Language may not deter-
mine the way we think, but there is no doubt that through its
cultural content and its cognitive interface and structures, it
influences our world view. Sapir (1929) states that "the real
world to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language
habits of the group. The worlds in which different societies
live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with
different labels attached to them. We see and hear and other-
wise experience reality largely as we do because the language
habits of our community predisposes certain choices of
interpretation. Language is not merely a vehicle of communi-
cation by which man talks about some objective reality out
there ... but rather language itself represents an objective
reality by means of which man structures and organizes the
out there in certain characteristics ways" (p 64 - 65).
Language is Necessary for Effective Healthcare
Provision (Visiting the Hospital and using Medications)
What has language got to do with health and healthcare?
Owolabi (2006 excerpt, p 11) has two quotations which give
us some indications:
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Native language is a key source of information
and effective medium of communication. An
individual naturally feels more comfortable in
hislher mother tongue ... We believe that every
individual has an equal right of information and
access to health services ... We do appreciate the
positive role of mother tongue teachers .. .in
educating and raising health awareness in the
minority communities. (Minority Ethnic Communi-
ties and Health; Department of Health Awareness
Project M.C.H.A, Project, UK)
The success of health services depends on
good communication between provider and con-
sumer. Health personnel need to be familiar with
the language of their patients .... Nigerians are
accustomed to regarding health professionals as
authority figures. Such authority implies personal
interest and barrier to communication detracts
markedly from the success of the relationship and
therefore the therapy ... the health professional
therefore needs to communicate with the patient
in his (patient's) language to obtain or to give
information about disease, investigations, treat-
ments and prognosis, or even give reassurance or
counsel...it would be well to begin the task of
organized and synchronized translation of the
vocabulary of medical and allied sciences to
Nigerian languages as soon as possible (Fafowora
1995: 471 - 2).
It is clear that language has everything to do with health and
well-being. Healthcare starts in the interaction between a
client and a care giver. Every culture has a defined discourse
pattern that characterizes a patient-doctor relationship in
traditional medicine environment. This discourse is based on
the native not a foreign language.
There are many aspects of healthcare that cannot be
ascribed to language, but it is important that healthcare
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workers and beneficiaries are able to communicate, under-
stand one another and build trust. The native language assures
this. It is doubtful if primary healthcare can succeed without
addressing the language component.
It is not enough to recruit local healthcare workers, it is
important that linguists and communication experts provide
the technical basis and content which will serve the training
needs of the health workers. It is critically important for
hospitals to have demographic information of their catch-
ment area. One such information is the language use patterns.
In urban areas where there is a mix of population, it will help
healthcare providers understand which languages are
dominant and which are minorities and how to ensure that the
needs of clients are met.
Another issue of relevance is the one that relates to access
to doctor's prescription and information on drugs. The high
level of illiteracy means that a lot of people have no access to
information on the medication and dosage which they use. It
does not help to simply require materials to be translated to
the native languages. New technologies make it possible for
voice prompt to be attached to medications in the language of
the patient's preference and in fact it should be possible to
adopt a more cost effective means that requites sound bytes to
be downloaded onto the mobile phones of patients by texting
or dialing a code to a mobile number. Hospitals can also
provide doctor's prescriptions options in the language of the
patient to their mobile phones and provide options for
reminders to use medications at appropriate times to be sent.
The very final thing I want to draw attention to here is
that language can provide a good basis to access new reme-
dies and cures to diseases. Through language, we can access
indigenous medical knowledge. Independent herbal remedies
and their functions; plants and their uses are often known
from the way they are named. Just as we may gain insight
into family medical, social, and psychological history through
personal names, we can also know a lot about diseases,
epidemics and medical practices through language.
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Speech
PgI~ l'dko o I 'aha
Language exists primarily in the vocal medium. This medium
is speech. Speech is the most highly skilled muscular activity
that human 'beings ever achieved, requiring the precise and
rapid coordination of more than eighty different muscles,
many of them paired (Laver 1994: 1). Lenneberg (1967)
states that speech at normal rate is achieved by 1,400 motor
commands per second to the muscles of the speech apparatus
(cf Laver 1994). Speech is more than just sounds. Linguistic
meaning as well as accent, tone of voice and voice quality
ride on the stream of speech. Through speech we can locate
an individual within a group or sub-group and ascribe certain
social and personal information to him.
,..,\
A.' fipwfl_
anu·.,-A:,.. •. Sovlild
.('1..".•".'.'.'''''
Fig. 4: Location of speech functions in the brain '
Speech varies along many parameters such as style
(formal vs informal), discourse type, roles and relationships,
genre, mood, media among many other things. Although
speech is very fundamental to human communications, it
does not define all of human experience. Literacy is possible
for instance through writing and Braille for the blind, while
the deaf can communicate through sign language. Speech is
studied by various disciplines because of its pivotal role in
human existence. Some of these disciplines are Linguistics,
Communication, Philosophy, Neurology, Medicine, Patho- /
logy, Acous-tics, Physics, Cybernetics, Electronic Engineer-
ing, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence.
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Speaking is modified breathing. "When we talk, we
depart from our usual rhythmic breathing and take in quick
breaths of air, then release them steadily using the muscles of
the ribs to counteract the classic recoil force of the lungs ...
we time our exhalation to the length of the phrase or sentence
we intend to utter. This can lead to hyperventilation or
hypoxia, which is why public speaking is so exhausting and
why it is difficult to carryon a conversation with a jogging
partner" (Pinker 1995: 164). The source of air for speaking is
the lungs, pharynx or the mouth or their combinations in the
production of clicks, ejectives, implosives and labiovelars in
some languages.
Fundamentally, we need a body of air to speak. The air
has to be set in motion to generate an inflow or outflow by
rarefying the air in the chamber containing the body of air
(Boyle's law). It is the pressure variation that is created in the
chamber due to the constriction or enlarging of the space that
leads to,flow of air in or out.
,~,..
,
':...
Nasal
J}l-SslgelMaXilla SoftpalateHardpalate
Lms 8. Uvula
Teeth
harynx
Mandible Esophagus
fjaw) Larynx
Fig 5: Organs of speech
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The air flowing through the glottis may cause the vocal folds
to vibrate through the interplay of air pressure, tension and
elasticity of vocal folds in what is explained through the
myoelastic-aerodynam·i·c(8the.or.y (oAf v.o.ice production.(D, -D- I ••• /1'1•••... ;:.,. -," .' (: ( '. ) :\ .) fl'Q", ; 0:i _~:
A I e 0 E . •
Fig 6: Phonation process
(l fI~*n~()It
n..." Stirmnc:mUlZ t d,e foigaodcD ZyUcn ,
Fig. 7: Myoelastic-aerodynamic processes in voice production
As air flows past the narrowed glottis, the vocal cords are
sucked together and blown apart in rapid succession depend-
ing on the tension of the vocal folds and rate of airflow. Air is
chopped into tiny puffs which we hear as a buzz called
voicing. The other-extreme is to a1lnw- ~r to -flew- through
unimpededirrwhat is known as voicelessness. Intermediate
situations exist in whisper or breathy voice and laryngeal i-
zation. The entire activity is discussed under phonation. Pitch
of voice is a function of rate of vibration of vocal folds. When
pitch change causes a change in the meaning of a word, we
have-tones (as in Emai examples below):
1. Qkpa 'cock' Qkpa 'one': ekp« 'vomit' ekpa 'punch' .
The following examples from Yoruba tongue twisters
pun on tones.
~ enu t6 jf. dodo kolee SQ ododo
~ "the, mouth that eats fried plantain cannot speak the
tru~
3. aboood aa'Mai~·aEzdb?d!d baba
"ab"'ddbd moved a m'Orroi111the grandfather's father's
hamlet" "-...~
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4. obirin t' 6· f~ pf2.n f2.mQ.{kpQnmQ/ ko gbQdQ i«
pQ.nmQi kpQnmQ/
"a woman who wants to carry a baby on her back
should not eat cow skin"
5. QpQJQPQQpQIQ l'orope QIQpQIQ I'QpQIQPQ eniyan ldi
mQ wipe QpQIQPQ eniyan ni Q IQpQIQ rdrd
"numerous toads think that a lot of individuals are
brilliant not knowing that they are not"
When a similar change affects a phrase, clause or sent-
ence, we have intonation. English utilizes a falling intonation
in statements, wh-questions and commands, and a rising one
in yes/no questions, polite encouragement, requests, warn-
ings, or to express doubt or surprise.
When air flows through the glottis, it is buzzy, whispery,
noisy or turbulent or woozy (buzz + noise); or we just have
normal noiseless breathing or stoppage of breathing (for
glottal stops). Air from the lungs may go through the mouth
channel, the nasal channel (by lowering the velum and
blocking the mouth), or the mouth and nasal channel simulta-
neously. So a sound has an oral, nasal or nasalized quality
respectively. It is in the mouth that a lot of variation in sound
quality occurs.
Different shapes can be formed with the mouth to create
different resonance and thereby different sound qualities. It is
achieved by pairing an organ on the floor of the mouth (active
articulator) with another one on the roof of the mouth
(passive articulator). By combining these parameters in
universal and language specific ways, we are able to achieve
the sound producing capabilities of man. But as we shall see
later, sounds are just raw materials. It is by organizing them
into functional sets and putting them in highly restricted
sequences that we are able to convey meaning.
There is more to speech than what we have discussed
above. Let us consider the following paradox. Sounds are
wave forms. Although spectrogram and x-ray films show that
speech is a continuum.with no clear boundaries, we seem to
perceive it as a sequence of discrete units. In fact, Pinker
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(1995) describes speech as an illusion and phonetic percep-
tion as a sixth sense. This is compounded by the fact that:
1. The sequence of sounds we think we hear within a
word is an illusion. If you sliced a word cat into its
part k; a, t and piece them together in the reverse
order, they will be unintelligible, not tack.
11. We do not hear everything that is pronounced in
speech. Repeated pronunciation of the same sound by
the same or different individuals yield different sound
qualities. Articulation is imprecise.
Ill. Speech is often highly depleted as some sounds
occurring in words that are strung together are often
not pronounced at all (due to deletion) or take a
different form (due to overlapping or neutralization
of forms).
IV. Speech is very rapid. We hear forty-five phonemes
per second. Given how the human auditory system
works, it is a miracle that we hear and understand
speech at all. "When a sound like a click is repeated
at a rate of twenty times a second or faster, we no
longer hear it as a sequence of separate sounds but as
a low buzz" (Pinker 1995: 62).
"If speech signal is continuous, why should we perceive it as
discontinuous?" because our hearing is mediated by the logic
of language wired into our brains. Schane (1973) puts it
differently: "Probably because that is the only way our mind
can organize language .. .in language the perceptual, the
subjective, the discrete take precedence over the physical,
objective, the continuous." Syntax overrides carbondioxide
(Pinker 1995:164).
Chomsky and Halle (1965) sum it up:
The speaker produces a signal with a certain
intended meaning; the hearer receives a signal
and attempts to determine what was intended;
both speaker and hearer share a system of
internalized rules that determine sound-meaning
connections, which mediates the interaction (p3).
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"Language is more or less a formalizable system of correla-
tions between sound and meaning" (Anderson 1974).
The above leads us to a crucial assumption that underlies
the notion of a phonological system. That is, that "the
pronunciation of a language can be described with the help of
a finite set of features/segments/syllables, ere". The pronun-
ciation of every morpheme consists of a particular configura-
tion of these constituents. These phonological constituents are
meaningless, and distinct from meaningful morphemes,
words, phrases and sentences' (Gussenhoven and Jacobs
1998:36 - 37).
The Sound-Meaning Correlation: The Organization of
Sounds
My own subject, phonetics, is one which is use-
less by itself, while at the same time it is the
foundation of all study of language, whether
theoretical or practical.
(Henry Sweet)
From six organs of speech, languages can generate about
twenty distinctive features, which can occur in different
configuration to create a few thousand phonemes which can
be strung together in various combinational possibilities to
express an indefinitely large number of forms and sequences.
Phonetics is the study that deals with how speech sounds
are produced, perceived and transmitted through air. Phono-
logy deals with how sounds are organized and patterned in
the expression of meaning. Sounds are organized into
functional units called phonemes which are psychologically
real. We are able to talk about individual segments and
sequences of segments, develop an alphabet for writing a
language because of phonemes. Phonemes are much fewer
than the actual sounds we pronounce because a lot of
modification occurs that multiply the sound inventory in
speech. These modifications are driven by rules which are
stored together with words in the brain. The rules are called
phonological rules.
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Phonemes are however not the atomic, minimal or
ultimate constituents of phonological description; but they
dissolve into smaller, properties called distinctive features. If
we consider phonemes as atomic units, features are the sub-
atomic units. "The apparently vast number of speech sounds
in the languages of the world turns out to be surface-level
realization of a limited set of features" (Clements 1985:225).
When we capture sounds either with phonetic symbols or
letters, it is not obvious that they contain more basic units or
features. We write from right to left or left to right in a
unilinear sequence. This is supported by the fact that speech
itself occurs in time, we say the first word first and the last
word last and we capture this in the way we write. When we
write, we may have a letter or combination of letters for a
sound (as 'th' is for [8]) or use a diacritic (such as a grave
accent ['] for high tones, we assume that phonemes (or
segments) occur in a single row, never overlap or one on top
of another' (Hockett 1947 cf. Goldsmith 1990).
As I mentioned earlier, there is a sense in which this is
real, otherwise, it will not be possible for us to so naturally
segment a sequence. Just as we know that distinctive features
are more basic than phonemes, underlying the sequences of
phonemes, features are organized into a sequential order of
higher level units, as proposed in autosegmental and metrical
phonology and that of a simultaneous grouping of features
into functionally independent sets, as shown by auto-
segmental and dependency phonology (Clement 1985: 226).
Thus, 'phonological representation is expressed as a multitier,
multilinear representation in which individual features and
groups of features are assigned to separate levels. We imagine
a device that is made up of an encasement and components
that are independent of one another in terms of sequencing,
but related in terms of hierarchy. We can also relate this to
the stars (features) bunched together as constellations
(defining affinity and relationships); with each star and
constellation held together by centrifugal forces from their
sun (the skeleton, scaffolding, coordinating tier), kept apart
by centripetal forces exerted by their gravitational forces
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(featural autonomy, auto segmental properties), all existing in
geometric dimensions with one another. The stars are the
features, the sun is the CV -skeleton or frame, the segment or
phoneme is the galaxy, the morpheme is the universe, the
sentence is the multiverse and the discourse is the X-Verse.
Our phonemes provide a scaffolding, timing frame,
skeleton for integrating distinctive features which exist in
various sequential and hierarchical relationships. The illustra-
tions in figure 8a and b below provide some insight into
simultaneous and hierarchical relationship of features.
tier j
\ -- - - -- - - - - - - - - - -- - ------ - - - - - - - --- - - - ---- tier k
skeletal tier
\'------ tier n
tierm
Fig. 8a: Autosegmental representation
Source: Pulleyblank 1983:38
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Skeleton
Root node
Tonal node
laryngeal node
Spread Supralaryngeal node
continuant Manner node
sonorant Soft palate node
consonantal/liqUid Placenode
strident Nasal
Labial
Coronal
round
Oorsal
distributed anterior
High low back
Fig. 8b: Feature hierarchy
(ef. Egbokhare 1990: 64)
Support for multilinear representation comes from supra-
segmental features such as tone, vowel, harmony, stress and
nasality that occur over syllables, morphemes, words and
phrases. There are features that seem to ride on a segment but
when the segment is deleted, they are transferred to other
adjacent segments. Examples are tone and nasality in some
languages. This phenomenon is known as stability. Certain
features behave like a unit with respect t S6m~ tYl'e of
assimilation and resequencing rules, thus providing grounds
for extricating them from other features in a segment
The linearity assumption is also extended to morphemes.
We see morphemes as sequences of segments bounded on
both sides by boundaries. The reality however is that there are
discontinuous morphemes in which segments that constitute it
are not adjacent but dispersed within an entire unit. There are
also composite words, in which we cannot identify a stem to
which affixes are attached. But we have a structure in which
the sounds are varied to accommodate various meanings. In
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addition, it is possible to find features of segments such as
tone, nasality, palatalization, and so on, which function as
morphemes in their own right. We shall now proceed to
present a few examples in Emai phonology.
Vowel Elision and Glide Formation
Vowel elision affects fmal vowel of verbs in a verb + noun
sequence and N, in a noun, + nouns sequence, subject to
some restrictions. [i] or [u] may form a glide in-between a
consonant and an unidentical vowel within or across a
morpheme boundary. We can capture these processes with
the following rules:
RULE 1: VOWEL ELISION
V, ~e/-#V2
1a. gbe 6ft ~ gb6ft
Kill rat kill a rat
b. kpa obi ~ kp obi
vomit poison vomit poison
RULE 2 : GLIDE FORMATION
V, ~ [-syllabic] / C - V2
. [ - a X]
(where a captures identity, c is consonant, v is vowel)
2a. fi udo ~ fyudo
throw stone throw a stone
b. leU :;/cil ~ kw:Jka
pour maize pure maize
c. ildil eko ~ udwekO
big cornmeal ball of cornmeal
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The interesting thing is that tone and nasality may be retained
following the deletion of vowels bearing them as we show
below:
3a. J z€ eke ~ 5 zeke
he fetch sand -.. he fetch sand
b. ke ofe ~ k6fe
Share rat share a rat
([-] represents nasality)
This phenomenon is called stability of features. Consider
however that the same features are deleted with the vowels
bearing them, that is they are not stable, if the immediately
preceding form has an identical value for tone or nasality as
the case may be.
Tone
4a. ~ ZE ekE -+ ~ z ek £ HI+Llk-+ +HLI/lk (stability)
He fetch sand -+ he fetch sand
b. J kpolo ek -+ :i kp6 h~k£ HI H2+L1k-+HJ+ L1k (no stability)
He pack sand he packed sand
Nasality
Sa. kE Me ~ k5fe (stability)
Share rat share a rat
b. e hE ob ~ ~ Eh ob~ (no stability)
make hand place hand properly
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Observe also that a high vowel does not form a glide as
expected, but is rather deleted if the immediately preceding
vowel is identical.
GF&VE
6a. xu ewe ~ ~w€we (Glide formation)
chase goat chase a goat
b. xuxu ewe ~ xuxewe (Vowel elision)
chase repeatedl y goat chase many goats
c. isi og 0 ~ isy ogo (Glide formation)
pig bush bush pig
d. oisi oxumi ~ Olsoxumi(Vowel elision)
gun sky thunder
Any time a feature is in identity with an immediately
preceding one, it is deleted, but it is stable and retained if it is
preceded by a different feature value. What does this tell us?
If we agree that tones and nasality, notwithstanding how we
mark them, like every other feature of a segment represent a
composite part of the vowel on which they ride, then it will
seem odd that they are retained on adjacent vowels following
the deletion of the vowels bearing them. This creates con-
ceptual and analytical problems. If we present features by
colour-dots and we find that a red dot is never deleted with
others in a segment, it tells us something about the relation-
ship of the red dot to others in the segment. It is an evidence
of some level of independence. Although there are other
possible solutions, they are not nearly as elegant and simple
as assuming a multilinear representation. Observe that glide
formation and vowel elision occur in a bleeding order. GF
affects a subset of segments affected by vowel elision.
Assuming a hierarchical relationship between features will
enable us merge VE and GF as a uniform process of elision
with GF affecting only root nodes and VE affecting the
skeleton. If we assume that consonants, vowels, tones and
nasality are listed on independent tiers, we may then have one
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to many and many to one association of entities across tiers as
shown below:
One-to-many
1. T N
.r>: Tone material ;~
V C V Skeleton V C V
~ Phonemic
at melody
iji Many to one
-H +H
V
c V
Fig. 9: One to many and many to one association
The fact is that although we mark every vowel for tones,
it is not the case that the number of tones in a form
corresponds to the number of vowels. The truth is that a
sequence of identical tones is simply evidence of one tone
associated with as many vowels in sequence as bear tonal
identity. The same applies to nasality. In the case of vowels in
our data, a similar analogy applies; the only difference is that
vowels are interspersed between consonants in the language.
What our data is telling us is that vowel sequencing at a level
is blind to intervening consonants. Thus, an immediately
preceding vowel that is totally identical is really one vowel
associated with two or more positions depending on the
number in sequence.
Hence, if one tone, one vowel and one nasality feature is
linked to one position, there is stability following deletion.
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But if they are linked to more than one position, deletion of a
vowel only leads to the deletion of a slot, the segment or
feature still links to the other slot and so, is unaffected
because the condition for the rule has not been met. It is a
case of a gymnast standing astride on a stool; he does not
become one with the stool simply because he stands
transfixed. When you remove the stool, he can stand on
another stool. He can stand astride on two stools or on one or
he can share one stool with one or more other gymnasts.
While standing astride on two stools, if you remove a stool he
still has one to stand on.
McCarthy (1982) presents convincing example from
semitic morphology where a discontinuous sequence say k-t-
b in forms like katab 'write', kattab 'cause to write' and
kaatab 'correspond' would stand as the root morpheme and
the vowel content -a- in its occurences constitutes the
inflectional category. This is a very simplistic account. The
point is that a morpheme can be defined by a combination of
segments interspersed and at arbitrary distance from one
another in a word. In Emai, the entire deictic structure is a
composite one in which - CV2- is a deictic root in which - C-
marks deixis and V2 reference. V I position is occupied by
either a noun class or concord or locative or comparative
form and V3 is an optimal proximity marker found in
locatives and logophoric pronouns. Variation in reference
type (i.e. singular versus plural) and deixis (person) is exerci-
sed in terms of variation in the phonemic content of the CV -
skeletal.
Deictic categories in Emai include personal pronouns,
demonstrative pronoun, place and comparative adverbs. All
of the above categories are variations of segments within a
V Icv2(V3) structure, in which no segment in the structure
can occur alone outside the frame as a morpheme.
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Below is a schematic representation.
u
(Ilprox.)
IlDx IlRef.
v,- c
Ii if 'him logophoric'
fa III i/'there'
Fig. 10: Representation of deictic structure in Emai
(cf Egbokhare 1990:108)
Note: (Il = morpheme symbol; Dx = Deixies; Ref Reference; cl = class marker;
cd = concord; loc locative; comp = comparative; prox. proximity marker)
The gerundive marker in Emai is a discontinuous u - mi and
an intervening high tone.
fa ufami
run ~mg
sene: usenemi
be ugly ugliness.
The feature l+ round] (labialization) and the features [+high, -
back] (palatalization) are morphemes in Chaha, a semitic
language.
"Among other categories, labialization marks (with the
suffix +n) a third person masculine singular object." The
feature attaches to the rightmost labializable consonant in the
root (McCarthy 1983, cf. Lieber 1987). The example above
shows that underlying the sequence of segments that we hear
in morphemes and words are a complex relationship and
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structure. At a deeper more fundamental level of language,
relation-ships are multilinear and hierarchical.
Sound Symbolism: Non-arbitrary Relationship between
Sound and Meaning
The relationship between sound and meaning is largely
conventional not natural. In ideophones however, a more
natural connection occurs. It has been suggested that this
connection has its basis in human neurology and cognition
(Ohala 1994). For instance, Egbokhare (2001) describes the
formal and semantic properties of Emai ideophones and
demonstrates a natural connection between the sound-
meaning correspondences observed. He argues that at a
higher level, this connection reflects the way Emai speakers
evaluate the physical world as being made up of geometric
shapes with varying densities, whereas consonants capture
geometric and material properties of entities, vowels capture
their densities and molecular properties (p87). We can only
cite a few examples below. Egbokhare (2001) contains
exhaustive data of minimal pairs of Emai ideophones.
1a sh~kp~
(pers.) 'stunted'
b. kp~sh~
(sth.) 'stubby'
c. gdnyd
(pos.) 'gaunt'
d. nyagan
(pos.) 'haggard'
e. g~n~
(phy.) 'curved'
f. neg~n
(phy.) 'wiry'
g. kQtQ
(sb.) 'mushy'
h. tQkQ
(sb.) 'blobby'
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1. kede
(s.) 'small-sized'
J logo logo
k. 'lanky'
l. kpuku
(sh.) 'pointed/protruding'; small, compact and round,
short.
m. kputu
(s.) 'stumpy'; small, compact and round, disproportional.
n. kpushu
(sth.) 'stubby'; small, compact and round, rough.
o. kpQdQ
(sh.) 'round'; small, circular and supple, proportional.
p. duku
(sh.) 'horny'; proportional, compact and round, short,
p gbuku
(sh.) 'bulging'; big, compact and round, short
q. dugbu
(sh.) 'pod-like/rotund'; big, compact and round, short.
r. fgghi.
(tch.) Very fine'; fine, thin thread, delicate
s. hgghi.
(w.) 'very light'; light, fist, delicate.
t. ygghi.
(phy.) 'undersized' haggard frame, thin, fragile.
u. kpirikpiri
(sens) 'prickly' small compact, interspersed.
v. kpizikpizi
(sens)'creasy'; small,-compact, undulating.
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Table 5: Vowel Meanings
Vowels Meanings
i Compact dense
u Compact and round
e Tight, firm
0 Circular and hollow, fairly muscular
e Thin, flat
) Circular and supple, fat
a Very flat, diffuse
Table 6: Consonant Meanings
Consonant Meanings Meaning Class
Stops JJ Narrow Width
b Broad
t Disproportional, Measure
d Proportional
k Short, low Length
g Long, high
kp Small Size
gb Big
Fricatives f Fine Tactile
v
s Tactile
z Creasy
f Scruffy, rough Tactile
3
(x) Tactile
y fragile, delicate
Approximants v fused, clumped Material cohesion
y particulate, strung-up
w loose, chunky
h Light
l straight, erect
r intermittent
Oro-nasal Nasality: abnormal, crooked pejorative
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Table 7: Phono-semantic Naturalness: Consonants
Sound class Phonetic property Natural meaning
correlate
Stop vocal tract shape Dimensionality
Bibabial broad vocal tract shape Width
Alveolar vocal tract halving Measure
Velar high tongue position length/height
Labial-velar high tongue position + broad Size
vocal tract shape
Fricatives Airflow+ friction tactile sensation
Labio-dental low friction noise fineness, smoothness
Velar dispersed friction/extremely Delicateness
low friction
Alveolar high friction noise in upper Creasiness
frequencies
palate alveolar high friction noise distributed roughness
throughout the spectrum
Appoximants Frictionless airflow material cohesion
Labio-dental compressed airflow (over Cohesiveness
surface of grooved tongue)
Palatal dispersed air over humped particulate, strung up
front of tongue)
Labio- velar uncompressed airflow (in looseness, chunkiness
rounded mouth area)
Glottal absolute free low, breathiness etherealness, lightness
Lateral extended tongue and }lfteral straight, erect
airflow
r-sound intermittent interruption intermittence,
discontinuity
Phonation voice intensifier down-toner
voiceless
Nasal Nasal air by-pass Pejorative
Oral Oral airflow normative
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unrounded rounded
close
(compact) compact
Half-close
tlght, firm
Half open (fairly
diffuse, supple)
open
(diffuse) diffuse
<
compact non-compact
Fig. 11: Compactness scale of vowels
Sound symbolism in Emai ideophones will fall under the
class of synesthetic sound symbolism. This refers to the
acoustic symbolization of non-acoustic phenomenon (Hinton
et al. 1994: 4). In physiology, synesthesia refers to a situation
where sensation in one part of the body is produced by a
stimulus applied to another part. In psychological parlance, it
is when the stimulation of one sense produces a mental
impression associated with a different sense, such as when
hearing certain sounds causes a person to see certain colours
(Worldbook Dictionary 1976). Sound-symbolism and other
linguistic phenomena that seem to bring to the fore the
interpretation of reality through linguistics categories may
very well shed light on human cognition and neurology, with
particular reference to neuroplasiticty. An aspect of sound-
symbolism which we are exploring further is in the area of
tone in Emai grammar. There is a convergence in the use of
tones and tonal registers to delineate certain tenses/aspectual/-
mood categories in Emai. There is the need to explain further
whether that has a basis in the Emai world view on how time,
space, action and modality are conceptualized in the real
world.
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The Emai Language and Northern Edo Project
Over half the world's languages are moribund,
i.e. not effectively being passed on to the next
generation
(Kraus 1995; 1992)
The Emai and Northern Edo projects were driven by the need
to arrest the tide of language endangerment considering the
value of languages as a human resource and an instrument of
development. Although there are about 30 Edoid languages,
only Bini had some remarkable level of description, incorpo-
rating a grammar, dictionary and texts, at the beginning of the
projects. Also, since none of the Edoid languages is domi-
nant, Nigerian pidgin spread throughout the region.
~
1,. f'fI19N~'4?
PfIF'/,
,IU~..~ .
Fig. 12: Map of Edo north Showing study area
Schaefer and Egbokhare (1999) note that two general
assumptions underlie the interpretation of language endanger-
ment in Africa: "The first is that minority language use across
sociallinguistic domains has diminished ... such that minority
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speech varieties are being used in fewer and fewer markets,
churches and schools. The claim is that 10% of the rural
African population exhibit competence in imported languages
like English. Thus, it would then appear that indigenous
majority languages are replacing minority vernaculars" (p
381-382). The Emai and Northern Edo situation show that
Nigerian Pidgin and English, not indigenous majority langu-
ages are responsible for the declining fortunes of the
languages. Yoruba which was once extensively used in
northern Edo has in fact, receded to the borderline geo-
graphical area and witnessed the loss of function since the
creation of the Midwest. The ascendancy of Nigerian pidgin
is a result of a combination of factors which include;
linguistic diversity, creation of new political structures,
sports, urbanization, popular culture, politics and the collapse
of public schools system. I would refer to the last point as the
suppression of the English language. Although English
continues to be the language of education, and in fact is
extended to lower levels of education where indigenous
languages are prescribed, the low enrolment of youths, high
dropout rates and low English proficiency have conspired to
reduce what would have been an "English language Tsunami"
with regard to language endangerment in Nigeria. Nigerian
pidgin has gained as a second best alternative.
Schaefer and Egbokhare (1996, 1999) provide material .
evidence for our initial impression that Northern Edo
languages were under threat of extinction in a few genera-
tions. For instance, the use of Nigerian pidgin in the northern
hill country and north central margins was confined mainly to
youths and secondary school age children at the commence-
ment of our research in early 1980s. By 2001, pidgin had
permeated all generations through natural aging of population
and diffusion. Our 1999 study of the language preferences of
Emai people revealed a shift in language use profile with age.
Adults manifest a rather consistent multi-language profile
regardless of place or person indices. Teenagers and children
exhibit a distinct trend towards a single language profile,
noticeable especially among teenagers. The latter's choice of
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single language varies according to place and person, with
Emai preferred in home setting with parents and English in
non-home, school settings with peers. Children on the other
hand, evince a profile which is beginning to merge these
indices in the direction of non-home value, leading to
increased use of English with parents and even greater use
with siblings (p.389). What was striking in the study in spite
of the above was that, "regarding evaluation, all age groups
expressed a desire to write Emai. Across age groups, interest
in developing Emai literacy skills was very high or relatively
high".
One thing we would like to point out with regard to the
dangers faced by Nigerian languages is the effect of the
Nigerian demographics. According to Schaefer (ms.),
Nigeria's age distribution highlights a telling predicament of
our time. Thus, 45% of Nigerians are under 15 years of age,
while only 3% are over 65 (World Almanac 2005). Defining
more than a statistical trend, these figures identify a serious
problem for our future ability to articulate humankind's
potential for linguistic and cultural diversity. Let us put it
bluntly, if we manage to get our basic school system back,
improve enrolment, and maintain English as the language of
education across all levels of the educational systems, most
Nigerian languages, irrespective of the size of their popu-
lation will be extinct within a generation. This is food for
thought.
The enormity of the challenges before Nigerian languages
and the implication for development got to me as a student
even though at the time, the realities were not as grim. The
choice of Emai and later northern Edoid group was a strategic
and scientific decision. We wanted to start from the known to
the unknown and produce results which we hoped would
serve to motivate similar efforts in other parts of the country.
It was customary and is still is, for linguists to work with a
simple informant using a wordlist in the comfort of their
office, write a paper, get published and get promoted. There
are linguists who base their articles almost entirely on the
data and analysis done by others and draw theoretical
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conclusions based on a highly restricted set of data. Early in
my career, I was persuaded to get out in the field and describe
languages. I think the most important decision I took relevant
to my career was to work with Dr. Schaefer on the Emai
language project and later the northern Edo project. It has
been 29 years of productive collaboration. Let me borrow
from Dixon (1997: 137) to express the level of my satis-
faction.
It is hard to convey the sheer mental exhilaration
of fieldwork on a new language. First, one has to
recognize the significant analytic problems. Then
alternative solutions may tumble around in one's
head all night. At the crack of dawn one writes
them down, the pros and cons of each. During the
day it is possible to assess the alternatives by
checking back through texts that have already
been gathered and by asking carefully crafted
questions of native speakers. One solution is seen
to be clearly correct - it is simpler than the others,
and has greater explanatory power. Then one
realizes that the solution to this problem sheds
light on another knotty conundrum that has been
causing worry for weeks. And so on.
In the mid 1980, a compressive documentation effort was
initiated with respect to Emai. As part of this, prose narrative
samples were collected in naturalistic circumstances from
story tellers recognized by their local communities. A total of
70 narratives were collected, their orthographic rendering and
interlinear translation leading to 880 pages of Emai text was
produced. Of the 70 narratives, 63 were produced by story
tellers in their 40s, and 60s, another 7 by a story teller in his
20s.
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Fig.13: Story telling situation
Emai would today stand out as one of the most
compressively documented and described African languages
with over 100 publications between Schaefer and I. The
language now has a Dictionary (Schaefer & Egbokhare
2007), Oral Tradition narratives (Vol 1 & 2, Schaefer &
Egbokhare 1999), a Master and Ph.D theses (Egbokhare
1985, 1990). A grammar of Emai is currently being edited for
publication.
The Emai language project received funding support from
the National Endowment for the Humanities, National
Science Foundation, University of Ibadan Senate Research
Grant, various travel grants from the Southern Illinois
University at Edwardsville, Alexander von Humboldt
Stiftung. For me, the most significant contribution of the
project was that it keyed into community efforts at teaching
Emai in schools, by providing a standard orthography and
narrative texts. Today Emai is being taught in local schools.
We shall now look at the linguistic and non-linguistic
elements that characterized the Northern Edo habitat.
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Northern Edo: A Brief Survey
The term Northern Edo is a geographical reference to the
northern area of Edo State of Nigeria. It includes six local
government areas in Etsako, Owan and Akoko-Edo divisions.
These divisions were once known as Kuku'ruku and later as
Afenmai division. Thus, Edo is not only a geographical
description but also a political one. To the west and northwest
it is bounded by the Yoruba and to the north and northeast by
the Ebira and the River Niger. In terms of vegetation and
physical features, it is in the large part made up of savannah
bush, except to the western extreme and the north where it is
defined by rough terrain and the rocky and extensive
Kukuruku hills.
The Kukuruku hills are in Akoko Edo Local Government
Area. They fall off to huge low-lying boulders to the
northwest end of Owan East Local Government Area and
Etsako Central Local Government Area. The Etsako area
extends to the River Niger in the North and Esan forest area
in the East. Owan area is a plateau between the series of
rivers Orle, Edion, Owan, Oss~ from north to south. The land
is extremely fertile for fanning.
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£BlRA
AKOKOID QSQSQ •
Okpella
Qs~River
) ~;~:r
• Auchi
Emal Y!:khee
Inyami
River •
Atuze
YORUBA • Edion
Ora Esan Niger River
¥'
Igara
IGBO
Bini
• IdahBenin City Onttsha
Fig. 14: Map showing location of Edo north region and neighbouring
language groups
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Fig. 15: Dr. Emerson on the rock in Ososo
Linguistic Diversity and Mutual Intelligibility
Elugbe's classification (1989) identifies thirteen northern
Edoid languages in his family tree. This is far from being
exhaustive. Languages spoken in Ihievbe, Ivbiaro, Warrake,
Era, Uokha, Atte, Enwa, Ososo and some other places were
unclassified. He however notes that in the Akoko Edo area,
groups are small and mutual intelligibility is restricted. He
puts it succinctly, "in NCE area i.e. from Benin City up to
Afenmai (also called Kukuruku) hills the Edoid speaking
units are large. However, from Yekhee area, movement from
one village to another tends to coincide with a change from
one language to another. In this hilly country, North-Central
and North-Western Edoid peoples live side by side sometimes
within the same village! For example, Ghotuo (a NCE
language) and Idesa dialect of Okpe (a NWE language) exist
side by side at Otuo." (p. 11)
The picture painted above is much more a reflection of
the Akoko Edo area where NWE are interspersed with NCE
ones. For instance, the Uneme (blacksmiths) and Ososo, both
NCE languages intersperse the Okpamheri, Atte, Ikpeshi,
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Okpe, Emalhe, Etuno, Akuku groups within relatively short
distances. The Okparnheri are by far the largest group. They
have about twenty two villages and occupy most of the plain
around the hills of the west and northwest. Some of them are
found in the hilly environments. Ososo, Okpe, Igara (Etuno),
Akuku, Enwan, Atte, Ikpeshi are one- village communities.
There are at least six Uneme communities in Akoko Edo, all
scattered between the old villages. On the basis of mutual
intelligibility one may identify the following groups in
Akoko-Edo: Okpe, (NWE) , Etuno (Igbira), Uneme (NCE),
Ososo (NCE), Okparnheri-Emalhe (NWE), Atte Ikpeshi-
Enwan-Okpilla-North Ibie (NWE) , (the latter two are spoken
in Etsako), Akuku. The complexity arises from the fact that
these communities are not often contiguous but scattered.
There are claims by the Ibillo that a generation of the
Ibillo people once spoke Etsako because of their sojourn in
Ayogwriri in Etsako land, during their migration. The Akuku
also claim that they understand other groups, but all others
regard their speech as distant and difficult. There is a high
degree of mutual intelligibility between groups in Owan.
Oyakhire (1997) confirms this when he defines the following
dialect groups:
A: Emai, Ihievbe, Ora, Iuleha, Ievbu, Uokha,
Urore, Ohami, Sobe.
B: Era, Ozalla
C: Ivbiaro, Warrake
D: Arokho, Ikhin
E: Igwe, Ikao, Otuo
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Linguistic Features and Distinction
The primary linguistic features which are characteristic of
Edo are breathy voice or murmured consonants, vowel
harmony, noun class and concord, lenis consonants, complex
liquids and labiodentalized sounds.
From the table above, the NWE area shows the greatest
complexity. It retains all the features and shows tonal flux
between two-tone systems ahd three-tone systems. The Osse
group of NWE area pattern with NCE linguistically. Yekhee
(Etsako) retain lenisness, Uneme retains breathy voice in
addition probably due to their location in the NWE area. The
NCE of Owan have developed fricatives in place of the lenis
consonants. They also have nasal vowels which are absent in
others. This is an innovation, following the deletion of nasal
consonants in Edoid. Again with respect to tone, NWE is
more complex, showing potentials for three tones. Ghotuo
alone shares this characteristic. Perhaps proximity to Yoruba
areas may have informed the retention of mid tone in this
area.
Table 8: Linguistic Features of Nee and New
Classi- Nasal Vowel Noun Lenis Breathy Tones LGALanguage fication Vowels Har- Class Cons. Voicemonv Concord
Okpamheri NEW NO YES YES YES YES 2+DS AlEDO
NO YES YES YES YES 2 AlEDO
Oloma NEW (Deca-
dent)
Emalhe NEW NO YES YES YES YES 3 AlEDO
Ehuen NWE-O YES NO :-'<0 NO NO 3J2+DS ONDO
Uhami NWE-O NO NO NO !'IO NO 3/2/+DS ONQO
Uhure NWE-O YES NO NO NO NO 3/2/+D5 ONDO
Ghotuo NCE NO !'IO NOcv- YES NO 3+D5 OWANPrefix
Ora NCE YES NO NO NO NO 2 OWAN
luleha NCE YES NO :-'<0 NO NO 2 OWAN
Emai NCE YES NO ;-':0 NO NO 2+D5 OWAN
Yekhee
NCE YES NO
;-':0 YE5 YE5 2+D5 ET5AKO
(Auchi)
Uneme NCE YES NO NO YE5 NO 2+D5 ETSAKO
The northern Edo project was conducted within the
framework of funding and collaboration provided by the
United States Department of State Bureau of Educational and
Cultural Affairs, under its Colleges and University Affilia-
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tions Program (CUAP). The collaboration was between the
University of Ibadan and Southern Illinois University at
Edwardsville. CUAP funding was to enhance curricula and
research with minority cultures, and Northern Edo area
defined the locale for the minority culture.
The project had four primary goals:
1. Augmenting research capability with respect to
American and African letters and to Northern Edo
(NE) minority populations.
2. Developing disciplinary and interdisciplinary curri-
cula reflecting this capability.
3. Establishing a faculty exchange between the Univer-
sit¥ of Ibadan and Southern Illinois University.
4. Sharpening American and African studies pro-
gramme .
. Belowis a li~t of collaborating Faculty from both institutions,
their expertise and research objectives.
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN TEAM
Department Objective
Sam Asein English American letters
Francis Ezbokhare Linguistics NE languages
Demola Lewis (Student) Linguistics NE languages
Ohioma Pososon African Studies t-.TEcultures
Remi Raii-Ovelade English American letters
Rernv Oriaku English American letters
SlUE TEAM
Anthony Cheeseboro History NE history
Mathew Emerson Anthrooolozv t-.TEculture
Francis Odemerho Geography NE geography
Ronald Schaefer English NE language
Monica White Sociology NE culture
Laura Strand Creative Arts t-.TEArts
Eugene Redmond English African Literature
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The CUAP funding lasted for three years (2002-2004) and
it involved summer visits by teams from both institutions.
There was a fieldwork component where a team made up of
Francis Egbokhare, Ohioma Pogoson, Ron Schaefer, Mathew
Emerson, Demola Lewis, Francis Odemerho and Monica
White spent some time in the NE area interacting with
communities, collecting and analysing data.
Fig. 16: Some members of CLAP team interacting with host community
The project involved d~~eloping an audio and video
archive. Oral traditions narrative samples were recorded and
videotaped in some cases. One or more 90-minute audio tapes
were acquired from Uokha, Akuku, Avbiosi, Atte, Ekpedo,
Okpilla, Enwa, Ibillo, Igwe, Ihievbe, Ijaja, Ikhin, Ikpeshi,
Ivbiaro, Ogbe, Ojah, Okpe, Ososo, Uneme Osu, Otuo, Sasaru,
Somorika and Warake. Acknowledged story tellers in these
villages could be identified and were available. The narratives
were collected in outdoor settings, under natural conditions.
Male and female story tellers were alternated among a village
assembly serving as chorus and providing musical accompa-
niment. The audio archives are now at various stages of
processing. We have developed orthographic and English
interlinear representations for the earliest recording, entered
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the texts into computer files and thereafter adjusted them as a
prelude to idiomatic English translation. To date, twenty three
90-minutes tapes from the northerly villages of Akuku,
Uokha, Iuleha, Atte, Ihievbe, Ekpedo, Enwa, Ibillo, Ikpeshi,
Okpella, Uneme Osu, and Ososo have been transcribed and
translated. Wordlist based on the Ibadan 400 wordlist was
collected for all NE communities. This is currently serving as
primary data for the Ph.D research of Demola Lewis (cf
CUAP report 2002).
The NE project hopes to bolster community efforts aimed
at incorporating local languages instruction and evaluation
into the school system. Many NE communities access the
local language through the Junior Secondary School but have
minimal instruction and extremely limited materials. Narra-
tive resources developed through this project will be supplied
to local teachers and administrators through workshops and
other formats.
The potential of oral narratives to stimulate local artistic
talent has been acknowledge by Femi Dsofisan (pc). Beyond
this, narratives can become materials for local content for
animation and symbolism in the movie industry in Nigeria.
We are beginning to see great potentials for literacy training
and promotion of reading in the ongoing efforts of Dr. Bola
Adelore and Dr. Sola Adedoja who are both working on the
talking book proj ect.
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Fig. 17: Cover design of the talking book project
(Courtesy: Bola Adelore)
Transcribed oral texts are proving relevant in the evaluation
of how aspects of tone and syntax interact in grammatical
constructions, linguistic typology, ethnography, historical
evolution of NE, migration among other things. In terms of
the linguistic value, the narratives have shown the existence
of a class of adverbs and logophoric pronouns which are
difficult to elicit with conventional elicitation techniques. The
narratives are providing primary data for a study on tone and
grammar in Edoid by Egbokhare (ongoing).
As part of NE project, Odemerho acquired base maps of
Edo and Delta States, as well as contour maps of former
Bendel State that cover the area of study. He has produced
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georeferenced maps of the area to capture specific geo-
graphical features. These maps are proving very useful in
analysing and interpreting linguistic and cultural data.
Emerson and Pogo son examined rock shelters, cloth
making, staff, and masquerades and took pictures of material
culture and daily life. Pogoson took 240 coloured photo-
graphs. Emerson took 455 digital photographs and 13 short
digital clips (10 - 15 seconds). Results of the research and
documentation efforts are in press in a collection of field
notes on NE. There are plans to make all materials from the
project available at a dedicated website.
At the end of the CUAP project, SlUE and the University
of Ibadan signed a memorandum of understanding for
institutional collaboration. This has since been extended for
another five years. SlUE has been a destination of choice by
MacArthur Grant training awardees in the last five or more
years. About twenty two staff and students. from the
University (Registry 3; Bursaryl; Library3; Arts 8;
Engineering 2; Institute of African Studies 1; Education 2;
Science 1; Distance Learning Centre 1) have benefitted from
exchange visits to SlUE. This long list of lecturers and
students have had an opportunity to have international
exposure because of a private collaborative relationship a
teacher and his student, which grew into a relationship
between academics with converging interests; two Univer-
sities with shared goals and two nations across the Atlantic.
This is the power of the academia, the way of the intellect.
Language and Politics: Effect of Creation of New Political
Structures
Egbokhare (2004) discusses the relationship between langu-
age and politics in Nigeria. Although there is now room to
update, if not revise some of the claims and data in the paper,
the fundamental thesis remains relevant. Related to the above,
Egbokhare (2003a, 2003b, 2009) dealt with the dynamics that
propel the spread of Nigerian. Pidgin. Politics affects
languages positively and negatively. It may create an
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enabling environment for a language to flourish or lead to its
loss of vitality; gain in power, prestige, territory, function,
etc.
This can happen through altering or tempering with power
relations and prevailing socio-political equilibrium or through
naked power, conquest, legislation or policies that confer
advantage on a language to the detriment of others. Socio-
economic and political policies affect the balance of language
usage pattern, even if indirectly, especially where uneven
population distribution is the result or where the population
affected is unequal. For instance, urbanization may lead to the
mixing of diverse linguistic populations with significant
advantages given to the bigger population. Migration,
whether forced or voluntary, may deplete population of a
rural-based linguistic group and cause a forced assimilation of
this group. Social mobility, increased communication,
religion, technology and the introduction of new functions are
some forces which overcome the balance which exists in each
sociolinguistic setting. Where politics alters perception, alters
power relations, creates classes of people, it often has linguis-
tic concomitants. The prevailing .political philosophy or
mentality, the political system has linguistic consequence.
Where inter-group relationship is characterized by rivalry
instead of competition, dominance not cooperation, exploita-
tion instead of collaboration, we end up with linguistic
tensions and conflicts. Where a political system is centralized
and dictatorial as opposed to being decentralized and demo-
cratic, the prevailing mentality is control.
For constraint of space, we may only summarize some
linguistic concomitants of politics in Nigeria. The linguistic
ecology of any multilingual setting is always in a state of
change, even if insignificantly. Where forces of change
endure over a period of time, their effect become remarkable
eriough to warrant investigation. But a significant handicap
arises when documentation of linguistic preferences and
choices of a people is lacking at any point in time, and where
no systematic study exists to expose changing sociolinguistics
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parameter as is largely true for Nigeria. Population census
presents a unique opportunity for the gathering of linguistic
data, yet we ignore the opportunity.
It would be interesting to find out the effect of the
religious crises in Kaduna and some northern states on the
status of Rausa as a lingua franca among Christian dominated
minorities and how these correlate with political choices at
elections. One clear area that demonstrates the link between
politics and language in Nigeria is the creation of new
political structures. The status of Igbo, Rausa, and Yoruba
increased substantially with the creation of regions by the
Richards constitution of 1954. .
The institutionalization of regionalism created majorities
and minorities in the regions. Each region had a territorial
nucleus dominated by an ethnic majority and a periphery
inhabited by ethnic minorities (Osaghae 1986: 153).' For mino-
rities, there was an overwhelming need to acquire and use the
dominant language of power and opportunity. Consequently,
these languages spread beyond their ethnic domains, acquired
new functions and became lingua franca. In the western
region for instance, Yoruba was spoken widely. In some parts
of the Midwest, Yoruba names were adopted. Yoruba was the
language of education, religion and trade. It assumed imperial
influence prior to and in the period after independence. Place
names in Northern Edo were changed arbitrarily from
indigenous names to Yoruba names. People were compelled
to take Yoruba baptismal names. In the East, Igbo served
similar purposes up to the coast. The creation of new states
and local government had several impacts. States were
created along ethno linguistic lines (6 in 1976, 2 in 1989,9 in
1991,6 in 1995).
This has led to the loss of status and function of hitherto
lingua franca; former minority languages gained ascendancy
and became state and local government languages. The term
minority acquired a derogatory reference. Some so called
minority languages such as Urhobo, Igala, Nupe, Edo, Ijaw,
have come to acquire a dominant status. Thus, the distinction
is now between the major, main and small group languages
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(Bamgbose 1992). The new dominant status of hitherto
minority languages meant that they began to perform new
functions. They became languages of mass media, several
were taught in schools. The point basically is that the creation
of new states and local governments gave political
administrative and territorial space to hitherto minorities thus
eliminating the pressure to assimilate. New linguistic realities
arose. A paradox here is that while the Federal Government
was busy pulling together a strategy for integration through
the official constitutional and policy recognition of Hausa,
Igbo and Yoruba as national languages, its policies of state
creation promoted (linguistic) disintegration.
The creation of the Midwest led to the receding of Yoruba
to the border areas where the demands of trade makes its use
imperative. Individuals officially changed their Yoruba
names to local names, place names reverted to their original
ancestral nomenclature, Yoruba street names were replaced
by local ones and within a decade Yoruba was almost
completely lost from linguistic memory. Amfani (2001)
described the loss of official recognition and patronage of
Hausa by Hausa states since the demise of the Northern
region. He claims that prior to the creation of states and local
governments in Nigeria, Hausa enjoyed concerted efforts of
the regional governments in the development of the language.
In his words, "Hausa under the state no longer enjoys
official status accorded it under the regional government. .. no
state has a special board whose responsibility is solely the
development of Hausa ... " The demise of the regions has led
to the loss of ownership of the major languages and the
reassertion of sub-ethnic identities, with non-standard varie-
ties getting attention in various media.
There is a renewal of pride and interest in dialects because
of their perception as symbols of identity and historical
landmarks. In the face of the diminishing influence of major
languages, English and Nigerian Pidgin have continued to
gain in profile. It will be interesting to investigate how and if
the Niger-Delta's struggle for resource control is affecting the
linguistic situation in Nigeria.
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Globalization, LC'I's and Indigenous Languages
Globalization and some Linguistic Implications
When we hear the word globalization, many of us
immediately think about the economy, ICTs, and the concept
of the global village. We are all now too familiar with the
capital market, and analysis of economic policies and market
behaviour are now available at our finger tips, on the internet,
via cable. But we forget that polices and markets run on
language. We need language for trade and culture underlies
human behaviour and human behaviour is at the heart of
business. If for instance, a significant population cannot
access loans or"banking services, cannot open bank accounts,
use ATM, because they are not literate, it is obvious that the
problem has gone beyond the issue of literacy or language; it
has assumed an economic impact. If 60% of a population are
illiterate, and over 70% do not use the Banks, but utilize the
currency all the same, it means that a large amount of
currency will circulate outside the banking sector and thus
make nonsense of monetary policies. There are also implica-
tions for poverty alleviation. Let us also look at the dicho-
tomy between the formal and informal sector! Is it not a
matter of language and literacy? An illiterate population will
largely operate outside the formal sector. It will be difficult to
track their activities because they cannot operate within the
bureaucracy.
So language is very critical to economic activities to the
extent that it can also provide access or constitute a barrier.
We also need to understand that human needs are diverse but
culture provides converging points. To address the needs of a
people we have to address their cultureA lot of business is
about, transacting cultural goods, knowledge and services as
well as negotiating cultural space and experience. Language
is the most dependable aspect of culture.
When we talk of ICT generally we -think of the latest
models of hardware, software soiutions, mobile application,
the internet, etc. but we hardly pay attention to the language
that these applications speak and the languages that drive the
internet: whose language? A reference to local content in the
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Nigeria media immediately calls to mind the oil and maritime
industries. If we hear such reference with regards to IT, it is
often that interest groups are fighting for business interest.
Local language content in business, in ICT, in the global
information infrastructure, in aviation, technology, etc is
hardly an issue. Egbokhare (2003) contains some interesting
perspectives on making local languages count in ICT,
Aviation, and so on.
Globalization refers to the increased interdependence of
world communities facilitated by ICTs. Globalization has
cultural and linguistic ramifications to the extent that it
creates a new networking of relationships, affects settlement
patterns and leads to new power structures and configuration.
By so doing it affects the vitality of local languages through
the values assigned these languages by their speakers.
English is the language of the science and technology and
the global information infrastructure. It therefore, is the
primary instrument to global knowledge resources. English
language is often blamed for the endangerment and dimini-
shing vitality of Nigerian languages. Correspondingly, the
television with its associated western culture is held
responsible for the growing cultural illiteracy. But the high
rate of illiteracy in Nigeria, poverty and the growing
unemployment give one some grounds to re-examine this
position. To what extent can English be held responsible
given the fact that about 54% of Nigerians are illiterate? To
what extent would English be responsible across the various
states and regions given the varying literacy level? Whose
language is really in danger? Which languages are under
threat? Which social varieties are threatened? Which
demographics are challenged? It would even seem that it is
really those who already have English as a second language
and states and regions where literacy levels are high that are
experiencing a shift or endangerment of their mother tongue.
The shift to English appears to be facilitated more by the
educational process than by exposure to western media. Is
Yoruba for instance really in danger or is it the educated
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Yoruba speakers of English and their generation who are in
danger of losing Yoruba? This question is very important
because if we find that it is only the educated Yoruba
speakers .of English who are experiencing a shift to newer
domains, then we cannot begin to bemoan the loss of Yoruba
as if it were a generalized occurrence. If on the other hand we
are also witnessing a shift or loss of Yoruba everi among the
non-English speaking group, then some other factors not
English language would be responsible.
leT and Language
Finnegan (1998) asked the following questions among 'others:
Do the changes in communication technology determine our
future or do we have-any other choice? Will ~T revolutionize
current forms of-organization and democratic participation or
will it merely reinforce existing power divisions? -
I believe that the use of social networks in the revolution
sweeping through the Middle East and the use of K'Ts during
the 201'1 elections in Nigeria already indicate that K'Ts 'are
bringing about fundamental changaes to human experience. Aset of dependent question~-,from linguistic perspective are:
how will developments inK'T affect the acquisition, use and
transmission of local languages? How can- K'Ts enable
Nigerians access the global information infrastructure through
their own -langpages and how can iit help them contribute
indigenous knowledge content to.' the' global" store of
knowledge? Finally, how can K'Ts help in achieving the
language component of the National Policy on Education?
.Barngbose (1292:;8 - 9) outlines some problems
associated with the use of the mother tongue as a medium of
instrucjjon. These are..
'. ~.~
i.>;, Multiplicity of languages and problem of choice,' ..
11. Existence" of small group languages' in which "
education, is hardly feasible, since there are q. few
. children of school going age· who speak the
i,,laZ\guages.."· ':
111. Lack of suitable teachers ,
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IV. Lack of suitable texts; in fact several languages are
yet to be reduced to writing.
v. Lack of technical terminology for use m teaching
mathematics, science and other subjects.
Vl. Lack of political will.
Vll. Negative attitude towards local languages.
The above relate to problems of economies of scale,
expertise, leverage and perception. Let. me quickly state here
that the above sets out the mandate. for the Linguistics
Association of 'Nigeria, Departments 'of Linguistics (and
African Languages) and Linguists. To the extent that they are
not relevant to providing solutions, they have failed the
country and their profession. In the context of (i - vii) above,
K'T may become relevant if it is found to provide a means of
bridging linguistic diversity, or if it provides an avenue for
promoting literacy, documentation, translation and conver-
sion of information from one language to another. It will also
prove useful if there are means or instruments for efficient
and sustainable publishing in small group languages; if it
creates opportunity for cost effective training of teachers; if it
provides opportu-nities for interaction and social networking.
The issue of attitude of speakers is incidental on the
evaluation of the value of the local languages. The real
challenge relates to the strategy and policies that will ensure
that the desired results are achieved among the possible
outcomes.
Anderson's (2006) book, The Long Tail: Why the Future
of Business is Selling Less of More, gives us insight into how
we may approach answers to the issues in (i - vii). There are
two fundamental problems; which are economies (of scale)
and linguistic. The linguistic problem has to do with expertise
and access to content. We can only solve the linguistic
problem if we deal with the economies of scale.
Although Anderson's (2006) piece is not exactly about
language, there are insights to gain from his submission. The
digital environment is characterized by:
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(a) The democratization of tools of production (anyone
can make content).
(b) Democratization of distribution which has led to cut in
the cost of production.
(c) Connecting supply and demand (through search
engines, blogs, recommendations lists, etc).
Whereas print and broadcast media are built for mass
markets, the internet can reach an individual and can reach
millions. Print and broadcast media are a one size-fits-all
business; the internet is a market of multitudes, of the mass
and niches. The lesson to learn from this is that diversity is
no longer a problem and size is no longer a disadvantage in
the digital environment.
In the last ten years, Nigeria has witnessed phenomenal
upsurge in the use of mobile technology. There are over 80
million active users. There are community radio stations that
broadcast only in local languages (Amuludun, FRCN,
Ibadan), while other stations have good local language
content. Nollywood movies in Nigeria incorporate a vibrant
local languages component, to the extent that there are
dedicated channels for Yoruba and Hausa on DSTV - cable
TV. Mr. Vice-Chancellor Sir, the impact of Nollywood goes
beyond the major languages. There are home video
productions in such languages as Edo, Etsako, and Emai. We
have drawn attention to the above to show that globalization
and ICT can be beneficial if we institute policies that will
promote access. Whether or not ICT is catalytic or obstructive
is a function of a .number. of forces outside it. With voice
driven media, Nigerian languages and culture have fared well.
It is only with the internet that we have witnessed a severe
marginalization. The forces at play here are illiteracy, lack of
infrastructure and inadequate policy environment. Internet
penetration is low, access is expensive, computer literacy is
very low, a high percentage of Nigerians cannot read and
write and so the internet is still a restricted technology.
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DAN LIBRARY
Bridges and Dreams
ICT; Eye See T; Q ::::l;r;
l-ean Team; Info-city
W, double you, U U
Dot com( e) and the dots connect
Bullish Billy's barking by the GATE
Yahoo! bow wow! woof woof!
I-Bea Mers, Apples and Dell(ies) in the NET
I can see; Q ::::; EJ
Sizzling HOT MAILS '
Billions of MICRO SOFT ideas
Like beaded codes on the NET SCAPE
Surf through the nodded web
We are the web
I am dreaming "
Dreams are not for the nights only
Facts GOOGLED infrom cyberspace
Fiction, myths and tales doodle in virtual real'
The present browses the future
The past surfs the time net
Reality no more is so real
Fiction not now so fictitious
Time has warped
The quantum has leaped
Yes, this is the bridge!
Now there's a bridge to every place
A GATE WAY to every mind
This is the bridge we need
To traverse through DESTINE( d) nations
A probe into our E-MERGING nations
AH MAZE IN(g)!
We have a solution to an ancient puzzle
No more tongues to confuse
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UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
No colours to interprete
No time to delay
No distance to traverse
Just SIGH BAR SPACE
We are free at last-
Ifwe will
From DISgrace of gridlock
disCHAR GE(d) of a weird wiredless world
Free from limitations of COMMUNE-ication
We've stopped the backslide to SHUT DOWN
re-BOOTING from a psychedelic
HANG UP
We're up from underDEVELOPMENT
What can you see?
Where do you stand?
We have the bridge we need
The bridge across the dark
Ifwe dream we'll browse
If we dare
We'll surf this bridge of our dream.
Francis Egbokhare (December, 2003)
Mobile technology now offers an opportunity for cost
effec-tive and accessible training for people even in remote
areas. At the University of lbadan, Dr. Sola Adedoja, Dr.
Bola Adelore and I are in partnership with Educational
Advance-ment Center. We are working to deploy the mobile
phone as training and learning tool. There is so much to be
done with ICT using indegenous language content.
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Fig. 18: Mobile phone as a learning tool
• 3~~Jb-hl~~itt.:t~
CIIIII"'lII'SIMil'l~ Pla5I!J..~~,~
• k' ••••••J~lf(lttlY~Am~tko_~ClDmlrf~Ma.!F~~1
• ~fJQ •••• IIII~;"urd;WlctJn.u-:.>~J' f!k3lmlllUCI:llll\'I
• ~~~f. •••••~ ~
• ~~t'¢If\'~I-"'tt1';~m"J:2'fta~ :':t:eaIt :;mauzmWU~rrrmm,"• ~.,bl..N.fA..&'I&.lf''fm'5lI'b:n,{:t~?-''',£n,*if.'»<~. mll'I~ .•u!iVldtl
~~~
'" p~rllf~rsl",~ UI. ".
Enquiries: tQ'tIl5io~
"·,1",,,., ....-ot:II<t'.IIlr: l-:-cba
Fig. 19: Jambmobile
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UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
Training of local teachers and dissemination of language
content can be accomplished through mobile technology to
rural communities. They can also use the phone to access
local language sites, teaching and learning materials on the
internet. Digital printing technology now make the printing of
a few copies of materials possible, if and where necessary.
Electronic copies of materials may be accessed by rural
dwellers in text or audio or multimedia through mobile
phones. The television set can also be deployed actively as a
teaching platform.
African Languages Technology Initiative (ALT -I)
If Nigeria is going to take full advantage of the new
technology environment in the short run, it has to deal with
the problem of literacy. To do this we have to first redefine
the concept of literacy by providing voice recognition capabi-
lity to mobile phones, computers and internet operations in
local languages.
I stumbled on a programme on BBC, Horizons
(www.horizonbusiness.com). It featured a report on some
technological innovations and research in India. In the
programme, it was stated that IBM ill India was working on
what they call the "spoken web." It is simply about creating
audio search capabilities on mobile phones and the Internet.
Thus, the new giant search engine may search for sound in a
local language. During the programme, (about eight years
ago) Dr. Tunde Adegbola of ALT - I discussed the idea of
overcoming Nigeria's illiteracy problem by utilizing voice
enabled technologies. In the Postgraduate Interdisciplinary
Lecture which I presented in 2003, Breaking Barriers: leT,
Language Policy and Development, I suggested the incorpo-
ration of voice chips that speak local languages on
medications sold in Nigeria market so that people can have
access to health information in their languages. ALT -I is an
NGO based in Ibadan with which I am associated. I am a
member of the Board. I would now wish to report some of its
activities.
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ALT - I is a research and development organization with
a mandate for making all modem ICTs usable and useful for
African languages. It focuses on both advocacy and produc-
-tion of tools and solution. The following are some of the
success 'stories, at ALT - 1.- .
a.. Localization of Microsoft windows and office pro-
ducts for Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba through a working
partnership with Microsoft. ALT-I is now rounding
off work on MIcrosoft Windows 7 and initiating
work on Windows 8.
b. Software development around Human Language
Technology. TheSE!include keyboards and alternative
input approaches such as speech. These include
technologies such as' speech recognition in Yoruba,
speech synthesis and machine translation. ALT -I
recently developed Yoruba spelling checker for open
office 'based on 5,000 root words and morphemes as
well as many highly productive morphological rules
that are used to derive over 10,000 words from the
relevant morphemes.
c. Mobile Communication, An example of this is
linking of GSM networks to IF-based networks. This
will make' it' possible to use cell phones to obtain
information from database resident on such IP-based
networks.
Naija Language Project and Naija Langwej Ak§.d§.mi
There is evidence that around 1869, there was already a form
of English based Pidgin between the British and Niger-
Deltans. Dike reports a discussion between Oko Jombo, one
of the contenders for the throne of Bonny, and Consul
Livingstone over a statement with his rival, Jaja (later of
Opobo). Oko Jombo said to Livingstone about Jaja, in Pidgin:
He be one of ourselves, we no want to crush him (1956: 188)
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Waddle (1848) reports that "broken English was already
spoken along the coast from Gambia to Gabon." (cf. Ade
Ajayi 1965). The above assertion is reinforced by the follow:-.
ing statement credited to the men of Calabar in early 19th
century explaining why girls are excluded from schools. .
They no can saby book ... they no want go for ship
make trade.
Suppose they sabi book, they saucy book.
It no fit they pass bos.
(Isichei 1995: 176)
Nigerian pidgin has evolved from being derogatorily called
"broken English", through pidgin English to Pidgin and now
Naija. It has also spread from its humble origins -to become
one of the most widely spoken languages in Nigeria. It is
believed to have creolized in Warri-Sapele axis where it
serves as mother tongue to a sizeable population.
The spread of Nigerian 'Pidgin has been aided' by the
music of Fela Anikulapo Kuti; sports and the Midwest factor,
urbanization and urban settlement patterns, trade specia-
lization by different ethnic communities, the Nigerian civil
war, politics and the creation of new political structures,
popular culture (music and comedians), Pentecostal revival,
community radio, collapse of public school system and low
English proficiency among other factors (see Egbokhare
2003, 2010). Nigerian Pidgin is now widely used in the
media, in advertising, in political campaign and is growing In .
profile as a medium of intellectual exchange.
The Naija project started after the conference on Nigerian
Pidgin which was held at the University of Ibadan in July
2009, under the auspices of IFRA. The conference set out to
lay the ground work for a platform for the progressive and.
sustainable development of Nigerian Pidgin," given .its
growing profile, population of speakers, its potential as a
language of integration in the ECOW AS zone, its ethnic
neutrality and a language of mass mobilization and·
participation. The conference adopted the name Naija, partly
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UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
to rebrand it, destigmatize it and align it with 'the emerging
concept of "naija" identity in media and popular culture. The
term was to finally help to rid it of its negative baggage while
acknowledging that it is a language in its own right.
The 2009 conference put in place a Naija Langwej
Ak~~mi, of which I am president. The Akedgmi is entrusted
with the responsibility of the Naija Langwej project. It has the
following objectives:
1. to research, facilitate research and/or publish research
on the nature of Naija (including scientific articles,
journals, books, dictionaries, etc);
2. to develop a standard and acceptable writing
system/orthography for Naija;
3. to document, publish and/facilitate the development
of scholarly and non-scholarly, literary and non-
literary materials in Naija;
4. to establish a scientific committee to govern and
facilitate sound and original research on any aspect of
Naija;
S. to compile and make available online digital corpus
(in form of audio files and transcribed glosses) of the
language; and
6. to develop a method for teaching and learning the
Naija language.
There is now a Naija spelling that can be accessed on
IFRA website. Field research is currently ongoing towards
the production of a Naija corpus. Three research teams are
working in Lagos, Benin, and Warri, each recording regular
everyday use of Naija. The audio recordings will be digitally
annotated, glossed/transcribed and made available online.
Prior to the inception of the project, I had undertaken a
dictionary project which was aborted when funding was
withdrawn after a year due to change in focus by the funding
agency. I am also working on and proceeding with the
translating of Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart." A
. tentative title for the book is Katakiitd. In addition I have a
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UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
wiki based website pidginpedia.com which is an initiative to
promote the development and propagation of Naija.
In the last few years, the demand for resource control has
been a primary agenda on which the South-South political
platform has been built. Yet the primary resource under the
control of its people has been largely ignored. The struggle
against political marginalization of the region has also found
expression in rotational presidency, yet the best evidence of
its marginalization to date is the lack of recognition of
Nigerian Pidgin. Nigerian Pidgin is an invention of the Niger-
Delta. It is its primary asset- and if properly exploited, it can
provide its best opportunity not only at relevance but also real
power. Nigerian Pidgin, like oil, flows from the Niger-Delta
but not through pipelines. It does not come from the belly of
the earth. It is a resource that erupts in the bellies of people
and flows through social networks.
The Literacy Dilemma and Harmonization of
Orthographic Practice
Underlying the great diversity (in language in
West Africa) there is afundamental and elaborate
unity, the exploration of which by African
scholars in the decades to come can only
contribute to the development of African social
and political unity.
(Armstrong 1967:23)
How do we recognize the shackles that tradition
has placed upon us?
For if we recognize them; we are also able to
break them.
(Franz Boas)
Literacy
The problem of illiteracy is sometimes dramatized by the
anecdote of an individual in the village who pretends to be
literate and buys newspapers which he holds upside down.
People gather around him as he gives them the news of the
day. What can also be more dramatic than an individual that
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urinates on a sign that says "do not urinate here"? You can
imagine the- gravity of illiteracy when you consider the fact
that people take overdose of prescriptions simply because
they cannot read instructions. Bamgbose (2001) puts the
problem succinctly. He states that:
a person who is unable to read and write is at
great disadvantage in the modem world. Docu-
ments, including personal Ietters, have to be read
to him or her by other persons, forms to be
completed, bank transactions, receipts for purcha-
ses, business records, voting etc. require the
intervention of an intermediary. (p 10)
Those who are literate in' a Nigerian language only do not
have much better opportunity than those who are completely
illiterate. Dr. Tunde Adegbola 'related, a story to jne of a
cooperative in Ibadan that 'was turned back at one of the
banks when they tried to open an account because their
minutes of meeting were written in Yoruba, If it is not a,bank
policy that minutes ofrneetingarnust be in English-before
they can be accepted,' could it be then that there Was no one
among the bank staff who could read, Yoruba?
UNESCO/UNICEF figure quoted in Bamgbose (2006) puts
the illiterate population in Africafor 1990 at 52.7% as against
the world average of 26.9%. Pari"of the problem of literacy in
Nigeria is that the public school system has become an
"illiteracy mill." This is compounded by low enrolment in
schools in many states of the country, At another level is the
problem of reading. "Bring Back the: Book" initiative of
President Goodluck Jonathan has to go beyond the show in
the media. If the school system is functional and we put in
place mechanisms for assisting people withreading difficul-
ties, we can then focus on generating interest jn reading by
ensuring that people have access to content that speaks to
them culturally through a language -diat they can understand
best. There are now cases of undergraduates who cannot read
at the level of a primary school kid. Vje need a survey to
determine the reading levels of our undergraduates at the
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point of admission. Universities need to be responsive and
responsible instead of gleefully publishing "tsunami list" of
candidates who have been asked to withdraw. It is not an
evidence of high standards when students are failing in their
numbers; it is an evidence of a fundamental flaw in the
system. For instance when students have no opportunity to
evaluate their teachers, and teaching ethics are not defined
and enforced, one should not be in doubt that learning cannot
take place.
The connection between literacy and development and
cognitive processes is widely discussed in the literature.
Anderson (1960) states that a society requires 40% literacy
rate for economic take off (p2). Literacy is believed to affect
cognitive processes in that "it facilitates empathy, abstract
context-free thought, rationality, critical thought, post
operative thoughts, detachment and kinds of logical processes
exemplified by syllogisms, formal languages, elaborated
code, etc"(p.21). Goody (1968, 1977:5) states that, "Writing
is closely connected to 'fosters' or even 'enforces' the
development of logics, the distinction of myths from history,
the elaboration of bureaucracy, the shift from little communi-
ties to complex cultures, the emergence of scientific thought
and institutions, and even the growth of democratic political
process" (p.3). Literacy promotes the accumulation of
information, transmission of knowledge, free and scientific
thought and growth of sophisticated literary expression.
There are over 400 languages in Nigeria. This raises the
question of which language to use for literacy. Experience
has shown that there is no unique solution to the choice of
language of literacy. Three critical points noted by Bamgbose
(2001) are:
1. It is very difficult to carry out literacy programmes in
the official language when it is not the mother tongue
of adult learners. (UNESCO 1992a: 23).
11. A language that excludes most of the learners is
unlikely to be productive.
111. We should not underrate community interest and
commitment.
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UNESCO (1992a cf Bamgbose 2001:27) proposes the
following in selecting the ideallangua-ge of literacy:
• it should be familiar to and preferred by learners and
teachers;
• it should be spoken by a large number of people over
a large area;
• it should be useful for communication in the local and
national life, and especially working life
• it should be well-supplied with enough teaching
materials; and
• it should be provided with enough printed texts to
prevent newly literate people from forgetting what
they have learned.
The above thus requires that in some cases, speakers of small
group languages will have to receive literacy training in
languages other than theirs. There are compelling reasons
why we cannot promote the above recommendations. But we
do recognize that there is a need for a national survey to
determine various community initiatives, existing orthogra-
phic practices and the state of publishing in local languages
(especially small group languages).
During the course of my fieldwork in NE, I came across
some efforts in publishing local languages. There is a degree
of community effort going on in terms of literacy, as well as
translation of portions of religious materials. Wf? should also
determine the extent to which there is compliance with the
national policy on education as it relates to the use of mother
tongue and language of immediate community at the pre-
primary and primary school levels.
The argument against literacy training in mother tongue
has drawn some sympathy from the fractious linguistics
situation in Nigeria. Because of the shear number of langu-
ages, planning is said to be difficult and unworkable. The real
problem however appears to be the criteria used to count
African languages (Prah 2001:188 - 9). The languages are far
less if they are classified on the basis of more practical
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UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
criteria. For instance 80% of Africans speak no more than 12
key languages: Fulfulde, Hausa, Swahili, Nguni, Sotho-
Tswana, Western Interlacustine Bantu, Amharic, Yoruba,
Igbo, Bambara, Oromo and Luo. In Nigeria, the 400
languages can be reduced to about 100 mutually intelligible
clusters (see Egbokhare, Oyetade, Urua and Amfani 2001).
Besides, if we take the population of those who speak the 10
major and medium languages as first or second languages in
Nigeria, we would cover close to 90% of the population.
There is no reason for instance why Efik, Ibibio and Annang
should be listed as separate autonomous languages. The
distinction between Urhobo, Okpe and Uvwie as autonomous
languages is not linguistically supported. The North Central
Edoid language group such as Bini, Esan, Emai-Ora-Iuleha,
Yekhee show a fair degree of mutual intelligibility, yet they
are all added up to the 400 languages in Nigeria. But we
."""~cbnsider Akoko and Ijebu not as separate languages but
dialects of Yoruba. Igbo linguistic area is very diverse, yet the
dialects are not listed as separate languages. Yoruba and Igbo
are united by orthography, history and politics, while the
same forces divided related minorities.
Harmonization of African Languages
Prah (1999:·'2 - 7) argues that in as far as African develop-
ment is concerned, . . . the harmonization of African
languages, which show high levels of mutual intelligibility
would greatly facilitate the economies of scale in the develop-
ment of educational, media and cultural materials which
would go a long way in strengthening the basis of society for
the cultural and social development of Africa ....
I got involved in efforts to harmonize orthographies of
African languages working with the Centre for Advanced
Studies of African Society (CASAS). This followed a
colloquim held in Cape Town and a workshop in Lagos in
October 1999. I was the leader of the group of five scholars
from Nigeria. Three volumes were produced through our
efforts: Language Clusters of Nigeria (CASAS) monograph
series No 12, 2001, Egbokhare et al. ed and Harmonization
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UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
and Standardization of Nigeria Languages (co edited with
S.O. Oyetade). Whereas the former was a preliminary
reclassification of Nigerian languages on the basis of mutual
intelligibility, the latter proposed strategies for unification of
orthographic practices of Defiod languages (Yoruba, Igala
and Isekiri), Edoid languages, lower cross languages and a
group of closely related languages of North West area of
Nigeria.
Our initial efforts in 1999 - 2001 have since been
followed by the harmonization of Nigerian and related
languages in Benin, Cameroon, and Niger Republic. Yoruba
spellings across Nigeria, Benin and Togo have been
harmonized. Similarly, Hausa in Nigeria, Niger and Chad
have been done. Ijaw cluster and once intractable Igbo
cluster have also been harmonized. I played an active role as
the Nigerian coordinator and facilitator at a two-day
workshop organized by the centre for Black and African Arts
and civilization in collaboration with CBAC. The workshop
was held on 27 October zoio at Abuja. A follow up review
meeting was held in Johannesburg in December 2010 and the
final documents were launched and presented to the public on
. 4th of May 2011 at Abuja.
Some pertinent observations were made in the
communique of the Abuja workshop of October 2010, which
may help accentuate the significance and intellectual value of
the project in harmonization of orthographies.
1. That to attain development in Africa, the use of
indigenous Africa languages is not only imperative
but also strategically important.
2. That the quest for regional and continental integration
and development can best be met by the harmoni-
zation of African languages.
3. That the harmonization of African languages is the
first step towards creating a firm foundation for the
production of literature which could be used to
enhance civil participation or advance public service
media.
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4. that ihere is a.need to unite Africa~ languages such
that they, could reach wider audiences and this could
be achieved if the orthographies are harmonized.'
5. Thus,: the desirability to remove orthographic
differences between mutually intelligible languages
becomes a compelling necessity because, in the first
instance such differences arose on account of the fact
that different and, often rival missionary groups
produced orthographies without cognizance or regard
for the profound structural similarities between these
languages. '
6. In the same" vein, orthographic revision has the
advantage of economy of scale because instead of
"producing literature for say one or two million
people, it is .possible to produce it for ten, twenty or
more million people. '
7. That apart from encouraging mass" education, the
revision and standardization of orthographies has the
added advantage of upgrading :spelling systems -and
simplifying them for readers and writers.
Leadership and Higher Education Management
. A leader is best when people barely know that he
exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim
him, worse when they despise him... but a good
leader, who talks little when his work is done, his
aim fulfilled, they will all say, we did this
ourselves.
(Lao Tzu)
OnQkhifa rid fd ghe, agbon kha r~ de dgbon ghi
igbegbe, OnQkhifa rid [d ghe (an Ora song).
Meaning: ','A person with honor can never lose
face in spite of trends, fashion and changing
values"
Mr. Vice-Chancellor Sir, I have been involved in leadership
positions in Higher Education as a unionist, scholar, and
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UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
administrator. Because of this, I have gained useful insights
which I hope to integrate into a book before long. I was
secretary of the local branch of ASUU, Chair of Research and
Publications Committee, Chair of Editorial Board of The
. Scholar, headed the cornmittee : that established ASUU
Library, and so on. I was Head of Linguistics and African
Languages Department between 2002 and 2004, Director,
Distance Learning Centre (2004-2010), member of Council
among many other opportunities to serve. My scholarships in
Higher Education management are reflected in the following
local and international papers (among others): Nigerian
Universities Today: Imperatives for Change and Relevance
(2000); Industrial Disharmony: Socio-economic Implications
, on Human Resource Management (2005); Issues in Labour
Management and Relations (2005); University Decline and
its Reasons: The Nigerian experience (2007); Institutional
Autonomy: Promoting Competition, Collaboration and
Exchange among Nigerian Universities (2007); Bridging the
Knowledge Gap (2007); Developing the Academic Industry in
Nigeria through Distance Learning (2008); The Concept of
Entrepreneurship (2008); Fund Generation and Institutional
Support at the University of Ibadan (2009); University
without Walls: Open Distance and E-Iearning and the
Challenges of National Development (2009); Engaging the
Crises of Higher Education in Nigeria (2011). I participated
in numerous workshops and seminars on Higher Education in
Nigeria and abroad. I was a participant at the Brainstorming
E-Learning Think Tank in 2006 (foundational member of the
Think Tank for Africa); Intellectual Leadership and African
Information Society Initiative; What Roles for Africa's
Academic Community organized by Ford Foundation (2003);
Discussant at the Consultative Forum on Education for
Modernization: Creating World Class Universities in Nigeria,
organized by the Independent Policy Group (2005), plenary
paper presenter at the Third Biennial Seminar for the National
Association of Pro-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities:
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Managing for Organizational Stability and Growth in
Nigerian System (2007).
In the last six years I steeped myself completely in the
business of the Distance Learning Centre of the University of
Ibadan. I have observed that the problem of access must be
solved before we can address the problems of quality
effectively; when 'demand far outstrips supply and you cannot
have a direct-fofmal upward review of cost, indirect and
informal costs augument, which reflect as various vices and
quality issues in education today. In solving the problem of
access, we must also recognize the demographics; that is, the
crisis is not generalized, not. at the same level across the
country; that it reflects at different educational strata across
different states, affects different gender, etc. The real problem
of access has not started; it will begin after we have addressed
the problem of enrolment at the basic level. We shall see a
dramatic increase in those demanding for university educa-
tion. Demand for access varies along the lines of disciplines.
The poverty element also plays a critical role to the degree
that the crisis reduces as we move from federal to state to
private universities. Also, it is only the university system and
not the polytechnics and colleges of education that have a
cnsis.
Mr. Vice-Chancellor Sir, quality assurance cannot be
legislated until we get to a situation where Nigerian
institutions begin to struggle to get students and keep them,
where we move from a demand side economics to ~ supply
side one, quality will remain an illusion.
There is no incentive today for any university to reform
and restructure. Funds and allocation will' come no matter
what; staff will get promoted whetheror not they teach or
whether or not students are. satisfied. Nigerian universities
will not attain global ranking until their budgets, expenditures
and management practices reflect their vision. The funding
strategies by government is totally unprogressive, expendi-
tures are not, integrated with visions. An analysis of the
expenditure patterns of an average university will show a
disturbing trend.
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Mr. Vice-Chancellor Sir, my experience in the .last 29
years has exposed me linearly and dimensionally" 'to four
realities: The- realities of leadership, followership, the
marginal and their convergence. I have witnessed the
centrifugal pull of intellect, ideas and high moral grounds
collapse and be replaced by centripetal forces of religion,
ethnicity, nepotism and cultism. I have witnessed the
evolution of unions from loose intellectual associations to
radical leftist ideological monolith. I have also seen the fall of
ideology, and the concomitant morphing of ideology into
rabble rousing; idealism has given way to opportunism and
the politics of ideas has been overtaken by the politics of
control and domination. .z
Ladies and gentlemen, one problem with the university
system today is that the military orientation of a command
structure persists because governance is driven by power and
authority riot service and responsibility. ,The loss of diversity
in staffing and the pre-eminence of relationship networks that
are driven by religion, ethnic and sub-ethnic affiliations,
affiliation to external groupings is subverting the university
idea. Some union leadership have become the beneficiaries of
the space for autonomy and control vacated by government.
Students' unions describe themselves as (alternative) govern-
ments while leadership of staff unions are known for their
abrasive language and militant dispositions, In fact,
ironically, they constitute the new mafia that muzzle dissent
and disseminate patronage. University environments have
become like a political party where you either hold a 'broom'
or stand under an 'umbrella.' Union leaderships in many
institutions are the new threat to academic freedom and free
speech. Perhaps I should draw attention to the crisis
associated with succession and change of leadership in
universities all over the country. There is now zoning,
rotational leadership, sub-ethnic balancing and localizaton of
leadership. At the University of Benin, the Binis carried out a
most volatile campaign and they got the "son of the soil"
selected to appease them. So also the Efik at the University of
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Calabar. In Amadu Bello University, religion and ethnic
sentiments are the driving forces. All over the country,
Federal Universities are increasingly succumbing to the
primordial forces in the selection of their leaders and
succession now look like a military coup or an opposition
taking over from a ruling party. Private universities are not
different. The faith based ones prefer people who share their
religious inclination. Baptist prefer Baptist, Seventh Day
Adventist hire their members, the CAC similarly, not to talk
of the Muslims. Territoriality has led to in-breeding in
leadership selection. In-breeding is "intellectual incest."
Outsiders cannot compete fairly with insiders as processes are
fixed from the beginning and are made to look transparent.
You can no longer have the Adamu Baikie, the Tomori and
the Ade Ajayi. The spirit of resource control has swallowed
up our best judgement.
Ladies and gentlemen, I quite believe that people have the
liberty to do whatever they like, but I would like to believe
that there are sacred lines which should not be crossed and
ancient landmarks which ought not to be moved. What I am
saying here today has a high capacity to make me unpopular
before a highly vocal minority: But what is popularity when
you get lost ina crowd and are afraid to have a point of view.
Mr. Vice-Chancellor, ladies and gentlemen many tertiary
institutions today can conveniently hold their Senate in a
Nigerian language not because of policy but due to the loss of
diversity in staff compliments. Diversity gives the "hybrid
vigor" needed for perspectives, innovation, creativity and
meaningful transaction of ideas. Complicating the above is
the decay of institutional memory arising from a growing
incompetence and politicization of administrative machinery.
Administrative staff now lack confidence and to make up for
this, they are preoccupied with psychophancy to the extent
that there is an epidemic of "administrative amnesia."
Mr. Vice-Chancellor Sir, it is my belief that a systems-
conversation should be opened nationwide and actively
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prosecuted. This is necessary if Nigerian universities are to
achieve their goals of becoming world class institutions.
I would like to acknowledge my belief in unionism as a
means of protecting the interest of staff and students,
especiall y in a country like ours where office is personalized
and institutions of governance are weak. But I must confess
that I am disturbed that the once conservative, idealistic and
ideological unions are appearing more like political parties of
the day in their methods. Union aristocracy has replaced
service and sacrifice. Conformity to prevailing currents has
overcome intellectual sobriety. We have become blind to our
errors, unwilling to challenge ourselves, but ever eager to
agitate against the shortcoming of others. We have become
like the rooster with the flaming crest and golden voice that
sleeps in its own droppings. We urgently need to direct the
agitation against ourselves to save our country. Ladies and
gentlemen, bystanders, the indifferent and key actors, it is my
opinion that the Ivory Tower has fallen and in its place we
have built a temple to the worship of mammon.
Poetry
Our Glories, Our Shame
Our glories are like the dew
While the sun is yet asleep
They scamper like goats on a rocky ledge
Then vanish at the first rousing
Of the sun's embers
Our achievements are mists in their best forms
They infect our sight and diffuse our visions
Our fame makes us bloated when we ought to run
We are grass
We are flowers but do not bloom
We swell up but do not grow
We produce but do not fruit
We stand up but are not upright
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Our righteousness is the stuff of a beggar
It stinks and begs the point
In their glamour they trade unfair bargains
Our pious conducts are overlays of entrenched perversions.
Our lives, your fame, their glories
Are solitary giants in a deserted star
We are lunatics
Our world is our psychosis
We are master illusionists
Performers and audience together
Conclusion
We can be knowledgeable with other people's
knowledge; we cannot be wise with other
people's wisdom.
(Michael de Montaigne 1533-1592)
One would like to conclude by asking: given what we know
about the value of language and most especially-indigenous
languages, what should we do? What should Linguists be
doing? How should a universit \ respond? Answers to these
and other questions have oc.upied linguists; have been
subject of numerous articles which have been the basis of the
promotion of countless individuals to the professorial chair.
Our interest in language should not end with getting
promoted and receiving applause and recognition.
I would like to recognize the efforts of Professor D.K.O.
Owolabi as a model in terms of the directions that Nigerian
linguists should follow. He is largely influential, with others,
in the use of Yoruba in the conduct of the business of the
house of Assembly in Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo and Oyo states as
well as Hausa in Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto, Kastina, Jigawa,
Zamfara, Kaduna, Niger and Plateau states. The groundwork
for the use of Yoruba was laid when as Head of Linguistics, I
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got Professor Owolabi to head a ~am to translate the
Nigerian Constitution to Yoruba.
I align myself with the thrust of Owolabi's inaugural
(2006) that Nigerian languages should be used in specialized
domains, technologized (to promote scientific thought) and
modernized for national development. It is the business of the
linguist to see to these. Every Nigerian linguist should get
involved in literacy efforts. Departments of Linguistics and
African Languages should collaborate with Adult Education
and Teacher Education Departments in this regard.
I have spent 29 years already on -documentation efforts,
teaching and researching in Linguistics. Language description
has provided my life with meaning and linguistics has
provided the resonance in this world with complex waves and
vibrations.
Acknowledgements
I cannot thank everyone enough in this short space. I cannot
in fact, acknowledge everyone who God has used to assist me
in my life. I would like to remember Professor Sam O. Asein,
to whom this inaugural lecture is dedicated. He died in the
course of duty in the US during one of our exchange visits to
Southern lllinois University. I always remember what he said
to me: "There is no formula to life." I thank him for showing
me much love. I acknowledge the positive influence of the
following individuals in my life: Ron and Diane Schaefer,
Ben Elugbe and Adams Onuka.
My gratitude goes to my Head of Department, colleagues,
staff of Linguistics Department, Dean of Arts and staff of the
Faculty. I wish to acknowledge specially the support of the
Linguistics Students Association, Association of Faculty of
Arts Students, Union of Campus Journalists, Edo Students
Association and other young friends in the community who
have continued to give my career a meaning.
I acknowledge the Chapel family, Bishops Olusola,
Ibeagha, Very Reverend Timothy Olatunji, Very Reverend
Oyelade and the entire leadership of the Chapel for their
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spiritual support. I want to thank my senior friends at the
senior staff club for their friendship and good counsel and
others who make the days work less stressful through their
company. I must not forget the following individuals for their
unqualified support: Festus Egwaikhide, Remi Raji, Ohioma
and Irene Pogo son, Tunde Aiyeleru, Ayo Kehinde, Ayo and
Member Ojebode, Bisi Crown, Aina Adeogun, 'Demola
Lewis, Tayo Bankale, Ibukun Ayanwale, Michael Amuize
(who typed part of this presentation), John and Rabi Ekore,
'Deola Sanni, Emma Onuka, Ola Lazarus, Adebisi Adetunji,
Pastor Ade Adegbamigbe; Harrison Adeniyi, Lame
Oladoyinbo, Tunde Adegbola, Oni Ola, Julius Momoh, Duro
Adeleke (Ire 0) Bola Adelore, Sola Adedoja and a host of
others too numerous to mention.
I cannot forget Professor Abiola Odejide and Professor
Ayodele Falase who gave me the opportunity to serve as
Director of Distance Learning Centre. I thank them also,
together with Professor Adigun Agbaje, for helping me to
succeed during my tenure as- the Director of the Distance
Learning Centre. I benefitted immensely from the support of
the staff of the centre, the various Boards and Finance
Committees; I must acknowledge the loyalty of all the drivers
of the centre especially Gabriel Ayanniyi and Timothy
Akanji; and my secretary Mrs. Akinrinola.
I am indebted to the former Vice-Chancellor, my friend
Professor Olufemi Bamiro. I am sure he still agrees that when
God answers a prayer, it takes a process. The D.V.C.
Administration, Professor Bamgboye and the Registrar, Mrs.
Omotayo Ikotun, will always have a place in my heart.
I must come home to my family. I will remain eternally
grateful to my late father, Philip Oarhe (Ekun) Egbokhare
who spent his life educating nine of us. My praying mother,
my siblings, my in-laws, my uncle Professor J.A. llevbare
and his family have given me much room to be grateful to
God.
My daughter and heir apparent Olohikhuae and my son
and Prime Minister Ohizei are God's gift to me. I thank them
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for being an excellent part of my life. My wife, Yinka has
always stated that I am married to two wives; the first being
the Distance Learning Centre and the other herself. I thank
her for her patience; for being with me totally; for
encouraging me in difficult times; trusting and believing in
me at all times. As I have promised her, in Heaven she will
have a part of my mansion but she can have all of me on
earth.
I am who I am by the grace of God.
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In The cradle of a Yoruba race: Ife from the beginning of 1980.
Akinjogbin I. A ed. Lagos: Sunray Publications.
Akinjogbin, I. A ed. (1993) Yoruba before Oduduwa, Ife Journal
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Appendix
Field Experiences (1982-2004)
Ron Schaefer and I had some good times in Emai field between
1985 and 2000. We spent between 8 weeks and 6 weeks at a time
in the field. We lived in a guest facility provided free of charge at
the Institute of Physical Education, Afuze. We ate at the other end
of town, about 2 kilometers from our accommodation, at a
restaurant called K-Hut; this was during our first two visits.
Subsequently, we found a spot opposite my father's house on Izobo
Street. There we mingled with the village elite and locals who were
friendly. I remember the pepper sauce vividly. Before every meal,
one has to brace himself up to tackle the ordeal. After the meal, it
took about 45minutes to cool down one's tongue and lips with
Coca-Cola or Fanta. The real issue was the rear end and the
staccato that accompanied the toilet ordeal. We had no choice. That
was the only place to eat. Ron had his breakfast in the morning
taking oat meal and lunch and dinner had to be at the restaurant.
One problem was that each time we had oily things around our
accommodation; we had to battle soldier ants with fire for a good
part of the night. I was often afraid that we will set the place on
fire. The accommodation was in the extremity of the town and
lonely. But we had no worry for safety of our lives and property.
Much of Edo North is peaceful and the people are extremely
hospitable. We sometimes had issues with the police. Ron got
invited a couple of times to the police station. They were suspicious
that he is a CIA official on an espionage mission. But I suspect the
real interest was his camera. They were looking for an excuse to
confiscate it.
Being in the field with him was helpful. Nigeria was in the
thick of dictatorship and it was easy to pick up any white skin at the
slightest excuse. The policemen were very interested in Ron's
camera. He always managed to talk himself out of trouble by
speaking Emai and showing them how Emai is written. I think
everyone including the locals appreciated him for that. We were
sometimes required by our informants to share hard drinks from the
same cup. Ron and I gladly did that and I ate the cola nuts. If you
know the level of poor oral hygiene in the village you. would
understand the sacrifice.
Once we got caught up in local politics. I believe that some of
the visits to the police were engineered. Afuze had two factions.
Our chief consultant was quite possessive and was in one camp.
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The clan head belong to another. The consultant did not want the
chief to have any part or share in the glory of our work and he
forbade us to see the chief. I thought differently and as a native of
Afuze, I advised the contrary and took Ron to see him. It was a
case of the lesser of two evils. The chief was glad to receive us and
we fulfilled what was culturally expected of us. Our consultant was
offended and he wrote a letter to Ron's university accusing him of
meddling in local politics. The same individual took the manuscript
of the oral narrative which he was given to review, bound it and put
his name as author. After this he was no longer friendly. I was
perceived by some as colluding with a white man to cheat and
exploit the village. When Ron took ill during one of our field trips,
I feared the worse. I had to spend a week in the field and a week
back at Ibadan. I left Ron behind on the weekend and travelled
400krri to Ibadan. Sometimes he would be by himself a couple of
days if I am unable to get back in good time. At other times, he
spent the weekend in Benin with Ann and Renato Pedrocchi, a
European couple who ensured that Ron received some opportunity
to eat decent food and get refreshed. Ron had a very stubborn strain
of malaria and it lasted quite a while. When I got to the field, I was
told that he had gone to Benin. I hooked up with him and he was
really very ill. I was actually afraid he had had it when things
turned round for the better. By the time he got on the plane back
home, he was so pale and ghostly that I was just praying against
bad news. You know the village environment well and our belief in
witchcraft and Juju. You never know when these things turn up in
the mind. One thing I remember vividly was that on a few
occasions, we passed by a shrine where some ladies were
confessing to some heinous crime. In one instance, the wife of a
drunk- musician claimed to have stolen his voice and kept it behind
a water pot. The musician was experiencing poor fortunes. When
she was asked how they were to restore the voice, she burst into
tears claiming that ants had eaten the voice. The crowd was livid
and explosive; but a psychiatrist would have evaluated the situation
differently. One other lady had ended her confession but claimed in
addition that she had rendered the shrine ineffective by urinating
and defecating on it. When witches defecate on a shrine in local
beliefs, it is a big blow to the shrine and the priests. People stop
patronizing it. One observed- an attempt to hush her up, but the
damage had been done. My conclusion was that the behaviour of
the lady was a simple protest of a helpless soul. There are so many
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stories about witches and wizards and juju and you can imagine
that for me, the darkness was pregnant with meanings and there
were foes around everywhere beyond bacteria and viruses. I must
confess though that fieldwork was a purgative of sort to me as I
observed and dealt with many cultural inconsistencies and
contradictions. One of course was that only women and girls under
one crisis situation or the other often were the witches.
My headaches in those days were many. Being seen in the
company of a white man always in the field and the university
brought its troubles. I made several trips to the U.S. Family, friends
and relatives considered me rich and selfish. In the field, I was
accused of exploiting the consultants. Some thought that I kept the
money that I was supposed to give to them. When we had video
recordings, one or two individuals thought that we were going to
make a lot of money using them to make movies. I handled the
transactions, so you can understand my situation. What helped
though was that when they tried to engage Ron in bargaining in the
markets, they found him shrewder than me. Ron was not just
bargaining to buy, he was also interested in the process and
conversation. In addition, we took a good decision to provide
copies of the video recordings and pass them on to participants and
chiefs to own and use as they wish.
It was really difficult to explain to some of the village elites
that there are poor people in America and that Ron and I did not
have enough money to spare. We operated a shoe string budget.
When I travelled to the U. S., I spent long hours at airports,
sometimes spent the night at an airport to catch a flight the
following day. On one of my trips, I had only 20 dollars on me. At
the University of Ibadan, I got all kinds of requests. My colleagues
who had fewer opportunities to travel than me were living big and
lavishly. I just couldn't convince people that I was living in a
different reality. There was pressure on me to stay back in the U.S.,
some said just take off at the airport, all kinds of crazy things. What
kept me focused was my long term perspective, my word of honour
and patriotism. I also had so much interest in what I was doing that
I couldn't just imagine walking away from it.
I survived in the U.S. by staying with Ron and his wife Diane.
They would provide for my needs too. When Ron visited Nigeria,
he would stay with me. Ron stayed with me at Agbowo, Orogun
and Akobo. At Orogun, we narrowly escaped being robbed. The
robbers stood in front of our house for over thirty minutes confused
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because the adjacent building was identical. In my compound, there
was nothing to suggest a place of abode for a white man. The
neighbouring building had the trappings of wealth, there was a
flashy car parked in it. They went there.
I witnessed the operation through my window and heard their
conversations. My neighbour downstairs later informed me that
when he observed the group standing in front of our gate he
challenged them on their mission. But his wife restrained him from
further interrogating them since they were on the streets.
The CUAP fieldwork and visits took some time to plan and
organize. On arrival from the U.S., the group cooled off for two
weeks at the Vice-Chancellor's guest facility. Then a smaller group
left for Northern Edo field. We had sessions where we discussed
earnestly and addressed expectations of all concerned. I will skip
the experience we had on the first visit of the UI team to the U.S. It
was a perfect visit. On our own side, we had to surmount some
challenges from the planning stage to sourcing counterpart funding
from UI, which we provided by share ingenuity. UI would provide
boarding, accommodation and transportation at international rates.
The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Falase, provided a part of the funds
and the Department of Linguistics and African Languages provided
the other part. As a matter of fact, Dr. Pogoson and I made our cars
available for transportation. We were also the drivers. From the
first few days of the trip to Nigeria by the U.S. team, there were
already signs of personal differences. It got really bad sometimes.
Later on, it was between one member of the team and a member of
the Nigerian side. Ron and I were the dust bins into which issues
got dumped. Matt Emerson was in Nigeria for the first time. Laura
Strand and Monica White did not have much of an experience
either-both came on different trips. Rudy Wilson, Deputy Provost
of Cultural Diversity (SlUE) tagged along during one of the trips.
He was interested in telling folktales to primary school children and
he was damn good at it. Ron and I did our best to ensure that
conflicts were minimal and everyone respected the boundaries of
other members. Matt was text book ready for the trip and his
background as an Anthropologist came in handy, or so we thought.
We often had arguments with him and on one occasion we
threatened to embarrass him with juju during a presentation he was
to make at the Institute of African Studies. You know that juju that
makes one fart as broom sticks are broken. The point was that Matt
had too much opinion about some cultural facts. He was operating
from a pure intellectual angle and we wanted him to pay some
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attention to the human angle. He succumbed to our threat or
pretended he did; I think we were able to convince him to a certain
level. You know how these things work, tell a lot of stories about
personal experiences, let people corroborate. After all, Matt was
still human.
We referred to Matt as the gadget man. He had all kinds of
gadgets for fieldwork, had medications that could cure everything.
He had Larium, a malaria prophylactic which gave him lucid
dreams in technicolor. We would spend the mornings listening to
him describe his dreams which would make the writer of AVATAR
green with envy. Matt had CIPRO, a broad spectrum antibiotic
which is equivalent of the local gbogbounse-one drug that cures
all. He gave us an expert lecture on the powers of CIPRO.
Soon after the SIDE team got acquainted with the UI one, we
got on our way to the field with great expectations. Like Mungo
Park, we were on a mission of discovery. Our location was Ososo,
the highest point in Edo State. We had arranged to live in a decrepit
government guest house and to have our meals there.
The road from Igarra to Ososo was unpaved and wound
through the sides of Kukuruku hills. It was a rainy day. That road
ruined my "brand new" second hand Volkswagen Passat. I
remember vividly the explorer's excitement that had gripped Matt
and Pogoson who rode together in Pogoson' s Mercedes. I
remember also the groundnut saga. Pogoson bought some
groundnut at Igarra. Matt had some. Ron cautioned him against
eating anymore, but he was in the spirit.
If you know Ron, he is a rule's man. He lived a disciplined
routine that he had developed by years of study and experience.
You can trust his judgement. From Igarra to Ososo was an uphill
task, literarily speaking. We had to drive in the rain, up rocky
ledges, through the scenic beauty of Uneme Osu to Ososo. I often
wonder if the spectacle in Jos or Zuma rock, compared to the
grandeur of Kukuruku hill. At Igarra, the hills are framed against
the sky and the rocky projections are like animal heads stuck
against a great canvas. The village itself stands like little footings
on this enchanting footage of a volcanic past.
Just about dark, we settled in. The guest house is perched on a
rock. You get to it through tens of steep steps which are a traction
test for an overweight person. We spent most of the first two hours
monitoring Francis Odemerho's progress on his journey from
Benin. We were worried because of the rain. He arrived just before
we thought he would not make it. He hobbled up the steps to the
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restaurant and just as we were going to heave a sigh of relief, he
slipped and landed on the floor, really heavily; I thought I saw him
bounce up and down like a football. There was dead silence and
anticipation of the worst, when he broke the silence with a joke, got
on his knees then on all fours, then supported himself up with a
table. Had Odemerho been less endowed with weight, size, and
flesh, I am very sure that we would have returned him to the
emergency ward in Benin that night. We joked and laughed and
were relieved and ate and went to sleep. Not before green bottles
were emptied into the alimentary canal.
I can't remember all the details, but I think the following day,
Matt went to inspect the cooking area. You can imagine coming
from the U.S. to see a firewood hearth and some scruffy looking
fellows waiting to cook your meal. Matt saw a pet monkey pissing
very close to the fire place. He came to report his consternation and
gave us a lecture on monkeys and HIV-AIDs. I enjoyed Matt but I
just think he got too serious sometimes to realize that we had some
education too. The monkey business set the tone for his misery in
Ososo as he could not bring himself to enjoy the meals.
I think, while the Americans were worried about hygiene, we
the Africans were more concerned about the darkness and its
inhabitants. Ososo hill-top is heavily forested down the north
valley. It is very cold and eerie at night.
Monica White is an African-American lady. Our first contact
with the village was interesting. Youths gathered around Monica
who had dreadlocks. They thought she was Queen Lateefa. You
can imagine Queen Lateefa unannounced in an isolated village.
Someone thought that Ron Schaefer was a Reverend Father and so,
we began to address him as "Father" throughout the rest of our
stay. Demola Lewis was the butt of all kinds of joke. He was yet a
"catholic brother" and had not gone the way of all flesh when we
undertook fieldwork. We enjoyed hearing him say "I beg your
pardon" with his head cocked up like a British knight. Pogoson and
I feasted on all kinds of bush meat which we renamed venison
when we realized that our habit met with disgust from one or two
of the others. "-
The turning point of the Ososo visit was when Matt todk ill,
quite early in the visit. Remember that he quaffed much cooked
groundnut on our way to Ososo. Remember also the monkey-piss.
First he stopped eating stew with his meal, then he stopped'
eating-altogether. I was told that he started eating bullion cubes.
Initially we would tease him, and then things got serious. Ron was
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
handling the situation well and then I think everyone.realized that
something had to be done. Matt was very knowledgeable. It was
difficult to persuade him to consider other options. He was
stooling, and running temperature, and unable to join in our
foraging. Demola came to me one night, looking very frightened.
He warned me that Matt was going to die if nothing changed. I
calmed him down, and persuaded him that if Matt was sure that he
had turned the bend, he would cooperate. Then, I called my
younger brother at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital,
200km away, to alert him that I may be bringing him an emergency
case. The problem was that I knew that Matt would not agree to be
treated in any local hospital. I think it was a day or two later that I
went to hold the ultimate conversation with Matt. He was hopeful
and placed absolute trust in Cipro and all that it can do. I joked
with him that Nigerian Bacteria don't respect all that "America
Spec." Then I advised that he should not focus on what Cipro can
do but on what works. That was the expression that changed his
outlook. At the time we were talking about, I was still addressed as
a Doctor and in the village during fieldwork I sometimes had
people seeking medical help from me. This should prepare you for
what I am going to tell you now. From my experience and analysis
of Matt's symptoms, I realized that he needed Tetracycline
capsules. I also realized that he needed to eat some decent meal.
Having won his trust or maybe, he realizing that he may not have
much time left, I went to the village chemist, bought eight tablets of
tetracycline capsule and prescribed a 4:2:2 dosage. Matt only took
the first dose and in less than an hour, he had a miracle and I
became his hero.
On one of the visits, Laura Strand also took ill. We were
fortunate that it was close to her departure. She managed to get on
the flight back home. Rudy Wilson had asthma. I have also had my
own experience failing ill at least twice on my trips to the U.S. I
remember a moment of great pain and great sadness. During our
second trip to the U.S., Sam Asein took ill and was rushed to the
hospital. He was there for about a week or so and was discharged
with a clean bill of health. He had a pre-existing heart condition.
On the eve of the day when we were to return, he had an
emergency and died shortly after in the hospital. I can never forget
the pain, the sadness, and the confusion. The lot fell on me to break
the news.
The motivation behind sharing these experiences is to help
students understand that when they read articles or works done, that
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there are sometimes painful experiences that are not considered as
part of the data. But they are human experiences and important in
the narrative of intellectual growth.
Armed robbers visited my house after one of the trips to
Nigeria by the SIUE team. Normally, the team will leave their
travel documents with me and the money which they needed to
change or money which they will not need for a while. On the last
few days of that visit, we went to Agbowo shopping complex
opposite the University to buy analgesic and a few other things. I
had four Americans with me. I drove right into the park area. It was
about Spm. Some six young men sat on the fence close to where I
parked my Passat. In the trunk I had travel documents of our guests
in-between books which I was taking home. For some reasons I felt
uneasy and had to come out twice in a space of ten minutes to
check my car. When we were done, we came out to find that my
car trunk had been forced open. The key was damaged. I panicked,
sloshed through the books and found all documents intact. In relief,
I exclaimed loudly, "all the passports and documents are intact."
The young men heard me. I asked them if they saw the person who
burgled my car, they said no. One week later, I was robbed. That
was the time it took them to find my house. The robbers were
asking for dollars. My international passport with an American visa
was stolen; my brother's Mercedes, phones and personal
belongings were taken. For the next six months, my family and I
were traumatized.
Let's get back to the light side. In Ososo, we had to bathe
fetching water with a bowl from a bucket. That was too much for
Monica. One day, she hiked with Odemerho to Abuja; just two
hours away, stayed two nights in Sheraton, had a decent shower,
shampooed her hair and feasted on decent meals. Odemerho was
not supposed to let us in on the secret but he did, but after a long
time. The average Nigerian may regard this as a big deal, but it
really is a big transition for an American. Put this together with the
power outages and all the many inconveniences, you will
appreciate what sacrifices our non-Nigerian team members had to
make. Going to America, I have also made sacrifices. For instance,
the shear frustration of going to Walmart and having to decide
which cereal in a hundred I should chose; knowing which way the
door opens, having people pass you by without greeting as if you
do not exist, seeing all the flashy cars and houses which you cannot
afford. Need I continue? Different strokes for different folks!
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Anthony Cheeseboro is a Professor of History. He was not part
of the field trip. He remained in the campus and integrated well. He
is an African American. He is interested in Steatopygia; "the study
of bumbum, i.e. excessive deposit of fat on the buttocks and thigh";
I hope not the history of it. We had a lot of opportunities to joke
and laugh. I remember one individual asking me why I never look
at the female booty. The guy said he almost always falls over
watching the moving sculptures. Well, I said it is a difference in
technology. I capture the images and store in my hard disk for later
viewing. His own problem which is dangerous to driving is that he
captures it real time. One other guy asked me why our young men
were in the habit of grabbing their crotch as if trying to confirm
that it was there or lost or perhaps trying to find out if there was an
outbreak of some fungal infection. My reply simply was that they
were only imitating Michael Jackson. On our second visit to SIUE,
Rudy Wilson took us out to lunch as was his custom. After the
meal, he asked me why we almost starved them during their visit to
Nigeria. I was filled with shame. I was to learn from them that
some particular university caterers helped themselves to a decent
portion of the meals and left five of them with a portion suitable
only for two people. They were afraid to inform me while still in
Nigeria. They feared they might be poisoned if they made an issue
of it. The following year, we used a private caterer.
We can go on and on. I believe that other members of our field
team have their own stories to tell. I have tried to be accurate and
have left out materials where I felt I would be making an unfair
comment. I still would advice that this piece should be taken with
intellectual skepticism especially where references are made to
individuals. They have not had any opportunity to read through and
express their opinions.
Let me conclude by stating that we can measure the success of
my field work with Ron and the CUAP project by the fact that
SIUE and UI have maintained a relationship since 2004. SIUE is a
preferred destination of MacArthur Grant Awardees on staff train-
ing. I have a long list of lecturers and students who have had an
opportunity to go for professional development because of a private
collaborative relationship between a teacher and his student, which
grew into a relationship between people with similar professional
interests; two universities with shared goals and two nations across
the Atlantic. This i~ the power of the academia; the way of the
intellect.
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BIODATAOF
PROFESSOR FRAi'\'CIS OISAGHAEDE
EGBOKHARE
Professor F. O. Egbokhare was born on 22 September 1962 to
Mr. and Mrs. Philip Oarhe and Margret Abunovbo Egbokhare
of Afuze-Emai, in Owan East Local Government Area of Edo
State. He had his school certificate from Our Lady of Fatima
College Auchi in 1978. In 1979 he was admitted to study
Linguistics at the University of Benin. He won an award as
Best Student of Linguistics and graduated with a Second
Class Honours, upper division in 1983. In 1985, he obtained
an M. A. Degree and subsequently a Ph. D Degree in 1990,
both from the University of Ibadan. Professor Egbokhare was
appointed as an Assistant Lecturer in 1985; Lecturer II in
1988; Lecturer I in 1991; Senior Lecturer in 1994 and
Professor in 1999. He has held many administrative positions.
He served as Head of Linguistics (2002-2004); Director,
Distance Learning (2004-2010); Member Strategic Planning
Committee; Member Committee on Drafting of Inter-
nationalization Plan; Chair Business Committee of Senate
(1999-2000); member, search committee for the appointment
of Vice-Chancellor (1999-2000); member, Committee for the
Decentralization of Disciplinary Processes (1999-2000); UI at
60 Committee; member, committee on Diamond FM;
Member University of IbadanlUCH Development Blueprint
Committee (2002); Secretary Academic Staff Union (Ibadan
Branch, 1992-1996); Chair, ASUU Library Project (2003-
2006); Chair, ASUU Publications Committee (2002-2006);
Chair, Editorial Board of the Scholar (2002-2006); Member
of Council, University of Ibadan (2008-2011) and so on.
Professor Egbokhare has been involved in several grants and
funding initiatives. He was a member of the McArthur Grants
Proposal Writing and Implementation Committee (2004-
2010); Partnership for Higher Education Grant Writing and
Implementation Committee (2009-2010); World Bank STEP
B Project. He is a recipient of the Endangered Languages
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Fund; numerous Senate Research Grants; collaborator with
Ron Schaefer on National Science Foundation and National
Endowment for Humanities Grants (on Emai and Northern
Edoid project); State Department funded Colleges and
Universities Affiliations Project between UI and SIDE, USA;
Nigerian Pidgin Project (funded by IFRA) and so on.
Professor Egbokhare has many academic fellowships and
professional affiliations. He is a Fellow of the Institute of
Development Administration of Nigeria; Institute of Social
Works of Nigeria; Member/Vice-President Institute of
Management Consultant, Ibadan Chapter; President Naija
Language Academy; Member of Council West African
Languages Congress (2004-2008); Member Inter-ministerial
Committee on Development Information, Science and
Technology (CODIST); E-Learning Think Tank. Professor
Egbokhare has enjoyed Visiting Fellowships to the Southern
Illinois University, University of Georgia at Athens, and
University of Hamburg as a Fellow of the Alexander von
Humboldt Foundation. In addition, Professor Egbokhare has
received a number of Awards, some of which are: Distingui-
shed Alumnus Award 2010, awarded by the General
Assembly of the University of Benin Alumni Association at
the 40tli Foundation's Day celebration; Distinguished
Personality of the Year 2011, Linguistics Students
Association; Association of Faculty of Arts Students,
Lecturer of the Year Award (awarded by Linguistics Students
Association) 1998; other awards are from Senior Staff Club,
Non-Academic Staff Union, Association of Nigerian Authors,
Oyo State, Union of Campus Journalists, and Preliminary
Science Students Association, Faculty of Science. He has the
honour of having the library of the Department of Linguistics,
University of Benin named after him. Professor Egbokhare is
a good teacher, mentor and connector with colleagues and
students. His relationship with Southern Illinois University at
Edwardville led to the signing of an MOU with the University
of Ibadan: 3 Registry, 1 Bursary, 3 Library, 8 Arts, 2
Engineering, 1 Institute of African Studies, 2 Education, 1
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Science and 1 Distance Learning Centre staff and students
have benefitted from the UI/SlUE relationship. Professor
Egbokhare is very active in the community. He is a member
or chair of many boards and councils, one of which is African
Languages Technology Initiative. He is Chair of the Project
Implementation Committee of the Proposed Dominion
University. Professor Egbokhare is a story teller, a poet, a
writer, a dreamer, a teacher, a community and grassroots
person, a connector, a leader, a highly creative, resourceful
and innovative man. Ladies and gentlemen, Professor
Egbokhare is married to Yinka Egbokhare and they are
blessed with two children.
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