With around 30 million speakers, it serves as a lingua franca, alongside Nigerian Standard English. The country is also home to a number of Indo-European languages. The most spoken Afroasiatic language in Nigeria is Hausa, but it is far from the only one.
Research has shown that the majority of these languages date back for around 4, years. The Niger-Congo language family is huge. It includes languages spoken across much of Africa.
The main language in Nigeria from the Nilo-Saharan group is Kanuri. Bagirmi and Zerma are also from this tonal language family, which is the least represented of the three main language groups in Nigeria.
The country is also home to a million French speakers, almost all of whom speak it as a second language rather than natively. What language is spoken in Nigeria? It has a distinctive form — Nigerian Standard English — and has spawned Nigerian Pidgin, a widely spoken creole that is used for day-to-day interactions in many parts of Nigeria.
As well as being the language of government and education in Nigeria, English is also used in the entertainment sector most notably in film and television and on the internet.
Its extensive use means that fluency in English is essential for those who live and work in some areas of Nigeria, yet very few people speak it natively. Indeed the total number of native English speakers in the whole of Africa is estimated to be in the region of seven million people. I want to look now at some of the major languages in Nigeria, aside from English as the Nigerian national language. I should start by saying that accurate speaker numbers are notoriously hard to obtain when it comes to the languages of Nigeria, so the numbers below should be seen as broadly indicative.
Nigerians have spread the use of Yoruba around the world, as well as speaking it in Nigeria. The language has spread so much that globally it is the most spoken Nigerian language. Igbo is widely spoken in Nigeria, as well as increasingly in Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, with Nigerian migrants spreading its use to those countries. Fulfulde is spoken mainly in northern Nigeria by the Fulani diaspora, as well as across the Sahel.
Kanuri has two main dialects Manga Kanuri and Yerwa Kanuri and three tones high, low and falling. Tiv is the largest of the Tivoid group of languages. It is spoken mainly in the state of Benue. Traditionally spoken by the Ijo people in southern Nigeria, the Ijaw languages are a branch of the Niger-Congo language group.
Also called Bini, Edo is spoken in Edo State. Its use dates back to Igodomigodo, which later became the Benin Empire. Annang is also called Western Ibibio. It is spoken by the Annang people in southern Nigeria. The Shuwa Arab community speaks Arabic in Nigeria, while Arabic is also spoken in several towns dotted around the country. Interstingly, many words in both Hausa and Fulfude have been borrowed from Arabic.
Igala is spoken in Kogi State, which is notable both for bordering 10 other states and for being the home to the confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers. Maps and resources:. Northeast Nigeria language map. Northeast Nigeria language map: individual languages. Northeast Nigeria communications dashboard. The words between us: how well do enumerators understand the terminology used in humanitarian surveys? MSNA language data can help humanitarians communicate better with affected people.
Contact Us [email protected] How to contact us Report misconduct. Yoruba is of the Niger-Congo family and drew in many loan words from the Arabic language. It has many different dialects, which depend primarily on the region. In addition to being a common language in Nigeria, Yoruba is also spoken by many in the Caribbean who are of West African descent and is the primary liturgical religion of the Santeria religion.
Another common regional language of Nigeria is Igbo. Igbo culture was popularized in the novel Things Fall Apart, which features an Igbo tribe. It is from the Niger-Congo language family and has as many as 24 million native speakers, both within and outside of Nigeria. There are over 20 dialects of Igbo, but Umuahia and Owerri are considered to be the official dialects. In recent years, the government of Nigeria has made steps to recognize and preserve the indigenous languages and cultures of Nigeria.
Some of the indigenous languages are endangered, and out of over , at least seven are now extinct. Additionally, rapid urbanization — rural people leaving their farms and villages to try to find economic opportunities in bigger cities — is causing people to have to drop their indigenous languages in favor of English.
Deaf people in Nigeria generally communicate with Nigerian Sign Language. It was developed primarily from American Sign Language and was introduced in — the year that Nigeria gained independence — by a missionary named Andrew Foster.
Other indigenous people, particularly the Bura, use Bura Sign Language. What Languages do People Speak in Nigeria?
0コメント