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Part of
World Englishes in their Local Multilingual Ecologies
Edited by Peter Siemund, Gardy Stein and Manuela Vida-Mannl
[Hamburg Studies on Linguistic Diversity 9] 2025
► pp. 258–290

Chapter 12
The sociolinguistics of English in the plurilingual ecology of Lagos (Nigeria)

A pilot study on class, ethnicity, and entrepreneurship

 | University of Hamburg
 | Lund University
Nigeria as a country is characterized by a highly diverse language ecology. In Nigerian mega-cities such as Lagos, English is the official language and dominant in media and education. Language attitudes and choices in Nigeria follow particular trends (Igboanusi 2008). However, language dominance patterns and the functional roles of Nigerian English varieties are still subject of research. Altogether, rather few sociolinguistic studies relate linguistic dominance of English in specific domains of urban settings and its relation to social transformation to social parameters from the perspective of urban ethnography. The paper presents results from an interview survey on English in Lagos among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) (n = 43/+10 test group) from the perspective of social factors, including class, ethnicity, and economic activity. Business is an omnipresent cultural theme in Nigeria and communication is one of the entrepreneurial skills needed for successful entrepreneurship in Nigeria (Inyang & Enuoh 2009). It is likewise the driving force behind social transformation and the emergence of social class identity. To determine the impact of sociolinguistic parameters on language choices, semi-randomly chosen participants located in Lagos were asked about their origin, social and economic status, business activities, and language attitudes towards English — in contrast to other Nigerian business languages. The study examines whether H varieties of English constitute a major factor in social transformation and entrepreneurial orientation and further provides insight into whether the SMEs sector of Lagos should be regarded as a domain in which ‘levelled’ English emerges continuously as a marker of an economic middle class, backgrounding origin and ethnicity..
Keywords: entrepreneurship, ethnicity, Lagos, language attitudes, Nigerian English, social class
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The setting: Lagos
    • 2.1A brief note on Lagos’ history and its languages ecologies
    • 2.2English and entrepreneurship in Lagos
  • 3.Project description and methods
    • 3.1Socioeconomic background
    • 3.2Social and self-identity
    • 3.3Educational background
    • 3.4Linguistic repertoire
    • 3.5Economic success and language use in business
    • 3.6Data collection
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Living situation and education
    • 4.2Linguistic repertoire
      • 4.2.1Home language
      • 4.2.2Language in business and entrepreneurship
    • 4.3Data aggregation
    • 4.4Dominance scores
    • 4.5Test group
  • 5.Trends and results
    • 5.1Language dominance (Kruskal-Wallis)
    • 5.2AE/BE Affinity (AEBSc) (Kruskal-Wallis)
    • 5.3Tests for Language Learning Score (LLSc) (ANOVA)
  • 6.Discussion
  • 7.Limitations of the study and outlook
    • 7.1Methodological issues
    • 7.2Outlook
  • Data and questionnaire data replies
  • Notes
  • References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
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