What is it about?
One of the ways to preserve and propagate a language is ensuring that it features prominently on the Internet. The development of the Yoruba version of the Google search engine is supposed to boost the Nigerian language's prospect of preservation and propagation. It is the enthusiasm of the about 40million Yoruba people that would determine if this feat shall be actually beneficial to the language or not. The study, therefore, investigated the level of awareness of the Yoruba elites about, and actual use of the facility to determine the language's prospect of escaping death and eventual extinction.
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Why is it important?
The timeliness of the study is obvious from the fact that most Yoruba elites do not speak Yoruba to their children at home. They also enroll the children in private schools that forbid the children from speaking the "vernacular". This linguistic practice has been described as portending the likely death of the language. The study thus derives its importance from being a clarion call to all Yoruba-English bilinguals to seize he opportunity to preserve their linguistic heritage which is a crucial component of their cultural identity.
Perspectives
The study would an eye-opener to Yorubas who are guilty of killing their language to see how they have been contributing to the death of the language as well as how they make amends in their respective little corners. Speakers of other languages who are concerned about preserving their mother tongues would find some insights from the article.
Dr Samson O Olatunji
Univeristy of Ilorin
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Translation feat underexploited, December 2020, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.4324/9780429316296-16.
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