Paper short abstract:

Attitudes play an important role in the fortunes of languages and may lead to their advancement or stagnation. This paper probes the backlash phenomenon, as a feature of attitude, with regard to Nigeria's 'dueling languages'. It examines prospects for the resurgence of indigenous Nigerian languages.

Paper long abstract:

The dominant narrative regarding the status of English and general attitude to the language in Anglophone Africa is that English is the constant beloved language of the populace, one that they cannot do without - a salvaging, unifying and edifying language. Conversely, the dominant narrative regarding the general attitude to indigenous languages is that of indignation, indifference or even hatred towards the languages, being tribal, non-scientific and ineffectual. These narratives occur both in the research literature and in folk renditions. However, in reality, the attitude towards English language has been a "love-hate" one, or at least one of considerable ambivalence (Adeyanju 1989; Alebiosu, 2019; Oloruntoba-Oju, 1993, 2019). This paper probes this attitudinal curve involving English on the one hand and Nigerian indigenous languages on the other hand. Of particular interest is the backlash phenomenon and its manifestations. The paper examines the relative backlash against each of 'dueling languages' (Myers-Scotton, 1993) in the Nigerian context, with a focus here on the tango between English and Yoruba in Southwestern Nigeria. Attitudes play an important role in the fortunes of languages and may lead to their promotion, or their stagnation or even their death. How then does the backlash phenomenon, as a feature of attitude, key into the movement for the restoration of African indigenous languages in general, and within the academia in particular? The dominance of the English language in the environment is real, being the language of education, governance and international exchange; the prognosis for the resurgence of indigenous languages may therefore look bleak, more so within the context of the academia. However, this paper, through questionnaires and an analysis of the backlash phenomenon, attempts to tease out possible other outcomes for the indigenous languages in the future.