English Loans in Yorùbá language: Linguistic Empowerment or Disenfranchisement?
Abstract
Many of Nigeria’s indigenous languages have developed an intrinsic affinity with the English language, and this has resulted in crossing of forms and elements; and intermixing of linguistic features through loans especially. This paper examines this phenomenon in the Yorùbá language with a view to ascertaining its effect on the language. Using the Lexicalists’ theory of Generative Morphology, the paper analyzes the structures of some selected loan words in Yorùbá. It conjectures that the English language, serving as a veritable communication bridge, boosts the Yorùbá lexicon with words for notions and ideas that are alien to the Yorùbá culture. Conversely, the Yorùbá language has been suffering consistent and systematic lexical percolation through the substitution of native words with English equivalents. On these grounds, it is observed that the system or patterning of loaning in this case comes in three basic ways: domestication, integration and code mixing.
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