THE IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE IN AN INDIVIDUAL'S LIFE AlJannah Adedamola Sanni

Linguistics, as an educational discipline, is the scientific study and structure of human languages. Under this area of study, we have syntax, morphology, phonetics, and semantics. Some of the categories are sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, dialectology and many more. 

Languages are ways of differentiating individuals from each other and also identifying people with where they hail from asides from names being the first recognizer. There are various types of languages in the world, which also come with dialects or accents. Languages such as Mandarin, Hindi, Spanish, French, Arabic, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Chinese, Punjabi and many more. 

The aim of this paper is to promote and recognize the Nigerian languages since the author is a Nigerian who loves Linguistics and she had the plan of studying Linguistics as a course. Nigeria, as a country houses 520 tribes which include Yoruba, Hausa/Fulani and Ibo (the three major languages), Efik, Tiv, Nupe, Baruba, Ibibio, Edo, Igala, Ijaw, Egun and many more. 

Showing pride in what one has is very key to valuing one’s identity and personality because there is nothing that another person would have that would seem to freak one. This brings me to the issue of the majority of Nigerians (home and abroad) not treasuring their mother tongues, rather they tend to adopt another person’s culture. If not so, Nigerians as individuals should be speaking their respective languages, rather than the United Kingdom imposing the English Language and other things such as educational system and ways of governing our people on us when they gave us our independence on October 1st, 1960. 

This matter at hand brings the problematic dispute of most Nigerians not knowing how to read, write and speak their languages because their parents didn’t or don’t conversate with them in the vernaculars as well as allow them speak the mother tongues, and the fact that all the educational institutions, except for the universities do not allow the usage of mother tongues, though they implement the teachings of the languages in their schools, The students only speak their mother tongues when in Language classes. If Nigerians are deprived of communicating in their languages, how do we expect them to have a deeper and clearer understanding of these languages?

Yoruba, as a tribe, is one of the major languages of Nigeria, and as well in other countries such as Ghana (called Fon), Togo, Benin, Brazil, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and few more. The Yoruba spoken in Nigeria has different dialects, such as Ijebu, Ilesa, Ife, Oyo, Egba, Ilaje, Ibadan, Edo and many more. 

Some Nigerian parents, especially Yorubas, even ban their children from speaking the mother tongue because they believe it is an archaic language which to the author of this article sounds stupid and redundant. If some international individuals are more linguistically endowed in these Nigerian languages, what stops the real owners of the languages to be vast in them? There are few American students who did study abroad some years back at the Premier College, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria and the University might still be engaged in it all for their love of the Yoruba language who now speak it to the advanced level of proficiency. In addition to this fact, some non-Yorubas or non-Nigerians are still developing the interests in learning the Nigerian languages by majoring in the Yoruba language or having friends who are Yorubas in order for it to be a daily routine. 

The author of this paper loves her language, Yoruba, a lot. All she needs is to learn the Ami Ohun (tonation, any Yoruba should help with the English word, please) and few other words and she would be a very great Yoruba writer, as she speaks and reads the language proficiently. She can pass for a Yoruba lexicographer and translator if she can just obtain a Bachelors of Arts (BA) degree in Yoruba Language. Apart from having an advanced prowess in the Yoruba Language, she is also advanced in the English Language. Additionally, she has an intermediate adeptness in Spanish which is the official language of Spain and other countries in North and South America as well as a beginning skill in French which is the official language of France and some Francophone nations. Furthermore, she knows few words in Arabic, which is the official language of Saudi Arabia and knows less than 1% of the words in Hausa (the tribe of the Northern Hemisphere of Nigeria). As a lover of languages and a polyglot, she would like to perfect her skills in the languages aforementioned and many more. 

Understanding and knowing one’s language does not stop an individual from comprehending any other languages, but leaving your own cultural aspect for someone’s else is what the writer of this paper doesn’t seem to apprehend. Being a polyglot (knowers of various languages at the same time) is something to be proud of, but put your language first, because Yorubas say tara ?ni la k?k? n gb? ka to gb? t?lomiran and a o gb?d? gbe ?ru wa l?, ka fa t?lomiran.