Morphology of English and Bokyi

Bisong, M. Tabang and Onucheyo, Antonio Friday (2020) Morphology of English and Bokyi. Catholic Media Centre Kogi State Nigeria. ISBN 978-92-8209-819-9

Text English and Boki (complete).pdf Download (1MB)

Abstract

English language has an official status in Nigeria; it is the language of politics, education, government, business and social interactions. This status of English in Nigeria is expressed in section 5.2 of the 1999 Nigeria Constitution. Many scholars have made tremendous contributions in their attempt to explore the position of English language in Africa and Nigeria in particular, as an official language base on historical antecedents. On their part, Akindele and Adegbite (1999, p.85) have argued that: Before the incursion of the Europeans into various African states, a kaleidoscopic linguistic diversity was already in existence … Many of the freed slaves had received formal education from abroad. Those among them who had Christian orientation proved useful as translators or interpreters in Christian Evangelization during the early missionary period… some indigenes were able to learn the language and later became catechists and teachers in the mission school. Later the British colonized Nigeria and used their language (English) for administration. Because of the above situation, English became prominent in the education system and was used for official purposes. It then became an elitist symbol, used by a few privileged Nigerians who were civil servants and who served as models for no less enthusiastic indigenes who sought after formal education. It has been established that English, German, Dutch, Norwegian and even Danish belong to the Germanic group of languages as they are derived from the same original tongue. All of these tongues “were developed from a primitive language spoken in prehistoric times by the early Germanic tribes” (Pink and Thomas, p.134). There is need to mention that before the present day English language, there existed the old English (i.e the language spoken in England before the Norman Conquest), which differed immensely (in pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary) from the present English language. One can therefore understand why a passage of English written in the time of King Alfred is unintelligible to a modern reader since old English, like Latin Greek, had a complicated system of inflections, and had different forms according to their grammatical relationship. A close look at the grammar of the English language will reveal that most of the old English inflections have disappeared and the grammatical machinery has been greatly simplified. Considering its vocabulary, significant additions to vocabulary have been made through the influence of invaders (Danes and Normans) and through borrowing form literary sources –especially Latin and Greek. The following chart shows English within the Indo-European language family:

Item Type:	Book
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PE English
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts > Faculty of Law > Faculty of Management and Social Sciences > Faculty of Education
Depositing User:	mrs chioma hannah
Date Deposited:	13 Dec 2022 13:46
Last Modified:	13 Dec 2022 13:48
URI:	http://eprints.gouni.edu.ng/id/eprint/3940

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