I feel this thread is probably applicable to other languages in Nigeria as a whole, but I am focusing on what I see from the language I speak.

Given the various exposure in social factors, it appears more and more of our people are now losing the ability to speak fluently in our mother's tongue.  Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the various development taking place, but there should be some sort of initiative to prevent  the corrosion and erosion of our culture - Specifically, our language.

I look around and it is even hard to find a Nollywood Yoruba movie that have a proper and grammatically correct Yoruba in it (Yes, yoruba have grammar, structures etc lol). While, I am not blaming the demise of our language on these actors and actresses, it however highlights what I perceive as a potential problem.

I mean, how many of our generation can actually speak Yoruba without adding any form of English or foreign language to it? 

With many people now exposed and many more to be exposed to various foreign cultures and what not, what are the chances that our language will survive another 1000 years?

There is so much examples to give and things to write about, but I feel people can get the picture of what I am trying to say without using many words jare.

^^ Good and interesting points.

Yes I agree that language do evolve over time. A good example is the English we speak. The English in the days of Shakespeare is very different from the Queen English and both are different to various variation that we have all across the world today. The problem however, with Yoruba is not that it is evolving in a positive way I would say. It is more or less getting spliced with foreign language and hence giving an alien form of the language. I am not so sure this is good for the language in the long term.

English was diluted with English for the greater part and a bit of Nordic, German and French, but these language do share similar roots in my opinion. Yoruba and English are totally different have very little in common. So mixing both will only result in a basterdized form in my opinion.


Another example will probably be the Welsh language spoken by people from Wales. There are now very little people that can speak the language in its entirety. Most of them are appears to be from the previous generation - That is, equivalent of our parents. It will be sad if Yoruba goes down such way.


Lol@the irony of complaining about death of Yoruba language while doing so in English lol. Well spotted.


Look at China, Look at Japan and other similar nations. These folks kept their own language and did things their way. You know, internet and books written in their language and not of English. While there is always going to be "evolution" in a particular language, I think languages like Mandarin (Chinese) and Japanese language may out last our very own Yoruba language.



Yes, I remember "Ti Oluwa ni Ile" lol. I was impressed by the script and the lines in the movie. I wish more emphasis is laid in getting things right, but then I guess I am alone here. lol.

Bump!

No more input?

Sounds like dead! Abi?

Title edited.


Here is a language that is spoken by a handful of people and what the people are doing to stop it from going into extinction.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/12/cherokee-apple.html

But the language has been largely lost among the younger generation -- only about 8,000 Cherokee speakers remain out of the tribe's 290,000 members, and most of them are 50 or older, Cherokee Chief Chad Smith told the AP.

I wonder if time will catch up with ours.

while this IS very worrying to those that value the indigenous languages , a lot is down to the way our educational system/Curricular is skewed. if proper emphases is laid on the proper teaching of our languages maybe the flaws exhibited in our local movies would not be that glaring.
apart from all these the commercialisation of our religions, music and so forth led to some of the demise we are witnessing. can you remember the good ALL days of hearing prophet OBADARE leading the congregation in pure Yoruba while some other person interpret in English but these days the reverse is the case. English, then Yoruba and the teaching is somewhat lost in translation.
another is that our language is evolving to accommodate current trend that appeals to the youth. some words are just spoken without great thought to it low and behold everyone speaks it and wala its part of us. words like OROBO,JEUN LO, JEUN SOKE,GBABESKI ETC i bet our mother will find them hard to comprehend.
i know this disc. will continue, just want to add this little irony. i sent my kids frm England back to Nigeria PURPOSELY for them to learn the culture and speak the lingo. after years in Lagos boarding school all their communication to date is still in English even with gran mas. well not to worry at least i tried.but they can sing to AYEFELE THOU.

Ode remo, you are right. It sucks when slang seem to take the place of normal language.  It wouldn't be a problem at all if it is just a trend thing. For example, in English language when slang words late used by the speaker, they tend to know the real word to use. I wish same can be said for those who use slang word in my language.

You hear kids saying stuff like you mentioned "orobokibo" "jeun soke" etc without knowing the proper word as they grew up learning bastardised version of yoruba and end up speaking more jargon that are grammatically wrong in yoruba.

I confess that I'm not linguistically gifted, so I trust that my questions will not seem to be misguided.

Yoruba is, as I understand, a fairly widely used language in Nigeria, so would it be in the best interest of the government to support its preservation? The French government has a board that, as its sole purpose, is dedicated to keeping the French language from being corrupted (or bastardized) by too much alteration from outside sources (e.g., other languages syntax and word usage). The government of Spain also has a similar watchdog group (which recently is responsible for altering the actual used alphabet of the language).

The only potential problem I can see with Nigeria's instituting something of this nature is that, as has been noted, the plethora of languages spoken and written by so many people. But, then again, a country's government must support its own cultural heritage, mustn't it?

^^on point.
Setting up a board will most likely set off a civil war.
I admire d Russians though.
Imagine Vladimir Putin on Larry King Live speaking russian all thru his interview(now, that's preservation)!

drrionelli:

I confess that I'm not linguistically gifted, so I trust that my questions will not seem to be misguided.

Yoruba is, as I understand, a fairly widely used language in Nigeria, so would it be in the best interest of the government to support its preservation? The French government has a board that, as its sole purpose, is dedicated to keeping the French language from being corrupted (or bastardized) by too much alteration from outside sources (e.g., other languages syntax and word usage). The government of Spain also has a similar watchdog group (which recently is responsible for altering the actual used alphabet of the language).

The only potential problem I can see with Nigeria's instituting something of this nature is that, as has been noted, the plethora of languages spoken and written by so many people. But, then again, a country's government must support its own cultural heritage, mustn't it?

To address your last point, I think Yoruba, just like English have widely accepted standard. I had the opportunity of experiencing different places where Yoruba is spoken - Ilorin, Lagos, Ogun (Ijebu), Ondo (Ekiti) etc. What I noticed is that in these places, there are slight variations but each and everyone from these places can still speak to each other if they ever come across.

Another observation of mine is that regardless of where these Yoruba people come from, they can always read the Yoruba Bible. This suggest to me that there is a standard and common ground in face of all the various dialects we have.


I do agree that it will be practical and a step in the right direction to have an over-seeing body that you suggested.

akyns:
Setting up a board will most likely set off a civil war.

OK, so I must also admit to being somewhat less than socio-politically astute!

Why might such an effort bring about such a catastrophic result?