Is Erohwa Still Alive?
Abstract
This paper presents a preliminary report of a survey on Erohwa speech community. It is based on the field notes from a one day visit to one of the speech communities in which the language is spoken. Erohwa is a south western Edoid language spoken in Delta and Bayelsa States. Researches on Erohwa are scanty. Besides, the language is not mentioned (to the best of our knowledge), in any academic fora or studies, hence the visit. The visit was occasioned by the desire to examine the vitality of Erohwa. The data underlying the discussion in this report were elicited from six inhabitants of Erohwa community using unstructured interview. Information from secondary source is also employed in the discussion. It is observed, inter alia, that although the Erohwa language exists, and it is spoken in two communities, there are few speakers of the language left - about 850 contrary to Ethnologue’s estimation of 64,000 speakers. Most of these speakers are already in their sixties (and above). It was also noted that intergenerational transfer of the language has ceased. The foregoing suggests that the language is severely endangered, and in need of urgent documentation and revitalization efforts.
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