MULTILINGUALISM IN URBAN ILORIN: A STUDY OF LANGUAGES IN CONTACT

Abstract

The dynamism of language contact situation is a global and general phenomenon. Thus, this present study is a pointer to the multilingual nature of urban Ilorin. It analyzed the languages in contact in this urban setting; such as Hausa / Fulfulde, Nupe and Yoruba languages, as well as English and Arabic language. This study posits that languages in contact, as a sociolinguistic phenomenon, have both positive and negative outcome in this urban multilingual community. This study was analyzed from both diachronic and synchronic perspectives. And it was posited that the contact between the foreign and indigenous languages in Ilorin has a positive influence such as bilingualism, multilingualism, code – mixing, code- switching, and borrowing. However, the negative aspects of languages in contact in this community are issue of linguistic suicide and murder, or what is called language and cultural endangerment and extinction.