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Publication details [#63238]

Babarinde, Olusanmi. 2017. Wázóbìá: A Comparative Study of the Linguistic Structure of Nigeria’s National Languages. Language Matters: Studies in the Languages of Africa 48 (3) : 98–129.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Language as a subject
Place, Publisher
Routledge

Annotation

This article describes the structures of the three Nigerian national languages at the morphophonological level with a view to displaying the aspects of convergence and divergence in them. This will help define the possibility of developing a pocket of pronounceable words, as a stepping stone towards a national language formed from the three languages to promote national unity like wá , zó and bìá, meaning ‘come’ in Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo respectively as broadly suggested. Using descriptive analysis of data gathered from Hausa and Igbo students at the National Institute for Nigerian Languages, it is discovered that coinage is easier between Igbo and Yoruba (Niger-Congo/Kwa) than it is between these two languages and Hausa (Chadic). This paper proposes the use of Nigerian Pidgin English (a natural language) which is English-based with widest acceptability.