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Languages of Nigeria, need advice | ||
Tags: African languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Po-ru Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5481 days ago 173 posts - 235 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, Spanish, Norwegian, Mandarin, French | Message 1 of 6 04 October 2010 at 3:02am | IP Logged | ||
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Good day. I have recently wanted to start learning an African language and I think I
want to start in Nigeria. I have gotten a good amount of information on-line but I am still not clear on the usefulness of Nigerian languages, and how widely understood they actually are. I am of course referring to Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba. 1.Are all Nigerians(at least in the major cities) bi-lingual or tri-lingual in these? Which are the dominant languages? 2.After English, which language(s) are most useful for travel and life in Nigeria? 3.Outside of Nigeria, which of these languages come in most handy? Thanks for any insight that can be given 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| lynxrunner Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States crittercryptics.com Joined 5923 days ago 361 posts - 461 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Swedish, Haitian Creole | Message 2 of 6 05 October 2010 at 5:37am | IP Logged | ||
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I am not Nigerian, so I can't answer on a detailed level. I do browse some Nigerian
message boards, though, so I can say a few things. A lot of Nigerians (especially in urban centers) speak English. There are quite a few that speak only English. You'll also find a lot of people that speak Nigerian Pidgin English. This might be a problem if you want to learn any of the languages since people might switch to English if they feel that you are more comfortable speaking in English. As for dominant languages, I think it depends on the region. There's a Yoruba region, an Igbo region, and a Hausa region, and there seems to be some rivalry between these groups. Those are just the most famous - there are many smaller but still important groups that have their own language. I think that in urban centers you might find people speak, say, Igbo and English, but not too many that speak Igbo and Yoruba. Which one would be most handy outside of Nigeria? I don't know. I'm biased here. I love Yoruba. :) Those three are all spoken in other countries as well, so I guess it would be wise to research which countries interest you culture-wise and such. Hausa seems to have the most speakers. I'm sorry that I was so unhelpful. I hope that perhaps I helped a little bit. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6440 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 3 of 6 05 October 2010 at 6:57am | IP Logged | ||
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A friend of mine is from Nigeria. He only speaks English.
Other Nigerians I meet in Switzerland tend to speak Igbo; none have mentioned Hausa or Yoruba. This is a small and biased sample, admittedly. Beyond that, lynxrunner's post and wikipedia may be useful. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tracker465 Senior Member United States Joined 5353 days ago 355 posts - 496 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 4 of 6 05 October 2010 at 10:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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The small population of Nigerians at my university all speak atleast Hausa and English.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| khalilmk01 Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5535 days ago 1 posts - 2 votes Speaks: English, Hausa* Studies: Arabic (classical) | Message 5 of 6 02 November 2010 at 7:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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The choice of which language you wan to learn will depend on how frequently you'd want to
speak it and where. If for example you'd want to remain in the states and get to converse with Nigerians that come there or live there then you're probably better of learning Ibo as they form the largest Nigerian tribe in the states. If however you'd want to converse with Nigerians outside the US and say in Europe then Yoruba, but if you are looking to communicate with Africans in Africa and say the middle east then definitely Hausa. It is the most widely spoken language in Nigeria & even West Africa and probably has the largest population. Learning Hausa will also give you a foot in learning Arabic if you so wish since it has a lot of borrowed words from Arabic (>40%). I'am a Nigeria and Hausa (Fulani actually but we speak Hausa) & I've tried not to be biased. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Po-ru Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5481 days ago 173 posts - 235 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean, Spanish, Norwegian, Mandarin, French | Message 6 of 6 02 November 2010 at 9:15pm | IP Logged | ||
Thanks for the advice! How about if I want to communicate with Nigerians in Japan or China or other Asian/South East Asian locations? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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