Abstract
Since independence, a chaotic linguistics situation has engulfed Nigeria because of the extoled qualities of English over minority languages. This situation is practically demonstrated at varying degrees by speakers (or elites) of dominant and dominated languages, hence, placing English at vintage position over minority languages. Furthermore, the degrading status and low corpus planning strategies of minority languages have negatively impacted the language status of indigenous languages. This Chapter examines the declining status of indigenous languages in Nigeria including Idoma, spoken by the Idoma people in Benue state. It further stresses on the linguistic community and their attitudes towards indigenous languages and dominated language(s). Factors responsible for the declining status of indigenous languages and preference for English including possible suggestions for reversing the decline are enunciated.
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Achadu, P.A. (2022). Linguistic Colonialism and Its Implications on Indigenous Languages in Nigeria. In: Ekpenyong, M.E., Udoh, I.I. (eds) Current Issues in Descriptive Linguistics and Digital Humanities. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-2932-8_25
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