Civilisation shouldn’t kill indigenous languages, says Akeusola

A Professor of Yoruba- French Comparative Linguistic, Olu Akeusola has said civilisation should not be allowed to make indigenous languages go into extinction. He made the observation as a guest lecturer at the fifth Inaugural Lecture organised by the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) in Lagos last week. And he spoke on “Preserving Yoruba language through linguistic vaccination of comparative grammar.”

Akeusola, who is currently the Provost of Michael Otedola College of Primary Education (MOCPED), Noforija-Epe, Lagos pointed out that the use of indigenous languages as a medium of communication would not only promote effective learning and national unity, it would also lead to the sustainability of the nation’s development.

While advising parents and guardians to encourage the use of Yoruba language in particular with their children at home as a way of preserving it as a national language of communication, he decried the way and manner the language has been distorted both in written and spoken forms today.

The distortion in the language, according to him, has led to a lot of misconceptions whereby what somebody speaks or writes has different meaning from the intended meaning of the speakers or writers.

He however noted that the application of extensive comparative rules between French and Yoruba languages for instance would help in correcting the distortion. Noting that through the years, French language has been well developed by both the government and the people of the country to the extent of establishing Academy (Academie francaise) to keep the language under check, he called on Federal Government to equally intervene and put an end to distortions in local languages.

Speaking further, Akeusola stressed that the morphological evaluations had shown that there were some words formed in Yoruba language that denoted the antonym of its semantic value and morphological process.

He gave the example of ‘Onigbese’, which he said was translated wrongly to mean debtor, saying a better look at its morphological engineering and diachronic use could make people change their minds on the usage of the word. Arguing that since ‘Gbese’ is the money owed and yet to be paid back by someone, the morpheme “Oni” in Yoruba as a prefix denotes “the owner of” and therefore‘ Onigbese’ should be the creditor rather than “debtor”.

In his remark, NOUN’s Vice- Chancellor, Prof. Ado Tenebe commended the lecturer for his commitment to the preservation of the Yoruba language, adding that the language in its original forms should be jealously guided. Prof. Tenebe, represented by his deputy in charge of Administration, Prof. Nebath Tanglang challenged other academics that are yet to present such well researched lectures to do so in order to become a member of the family of professors.

Among dignitaries at the event are the frmer Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede; Lagos State Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Olayinka Oladunjoye, Chairman, House Commkittee on Education, Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Wahab Alawiye-King and a retinue of traditional rulers and chiefs from Epe Kingdom.

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