Nigerian Languages in the Digital Era: Challenges and Opportunities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.60787/jolan.vol6no1.462Keywords:
Nigerian languages, digital era, endangered languages, resources, challengesAbstract
The UNESCO Ad-Hoc Expert Group on Endangered Languages (UNESCO, 2003) notes that the capacity of a language to readily expand into new media, including broadcast media and the Internet, is a critical parameter for assessing its vitality. It notes further that this capacity usually serves “only to expand the scope and power of the dominant language at the expense of endangered languages” (p. 11). Nigerian languages, in general, have struggled to secure a place in the digital space and, for most of them, the “response to new domains and media” (UNESCO, 2003, p. 17) is slow or inexistent. This paper explores the challenges and opportunities the digital age presents for Nigeria’s indigenous languages. It first reviews the current state of Nigerian languages in the digital era, and then identifies digital tools and resources that are available for Nigerian languages. Thereafter, it identifies the challenges to integrating Nigerian languages into the digital ecosystem and then highlights the potential and opportunities that digital tools and resources offer to Nigerian languages in a rapidly globalising world. It then proffers suggestions and recommendations for positioning Nigerian languages to take advantage of opportunities in the digital era.
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