Language Endangerment
Okpe and Uvwie speakers have been protesting the dominance of Urhobo-speaking clans over them. As such, they have gone beyond linguistic self-preservation to seeking politico-cultural alienation from other Urhobo clans. Therefore, people of the other twenty-one Urhobo–speaking clans view these activities as a threat to the historical and cultural unity of the ethnic nation.
Previous research shows that the three languages of the Urhobo people are endangered to various degrees. Urhobo is only seriously endangered by the impact of Nigerian Pidgin and English in communication. Macaulay Mowarin (2005) notes that Uvwie is the most endangered of the trio, facing serious impact in the urban and rural areas from Nigerian Pidgin, Urhobo and English. Okpe is seriously endangered in Sapele, the major Okpe town because of the impact of Nigerian Pidgin, Itsekiri, and Urhobo. In the rural areas, Okpe is endangered too, mainly from Itsekiri and Urhobo impact.
There are several factors responsible for the gradual loss of the three languages. The contact between the three languages on the one hand, and with other neighbouring languages on the other, have greatly impacted the trio, especially Uvwie. Generally, the language of communication is English among literate people and Nigerian Pidgin among illiterates and semi-literates of Urhobo and neighbouring communities. This is the case in all spheres of activities, except in annual or periodical traditional religious rites or elders' and chiefs' meetings, especially in rural areas. Okpe, Urhobo and Uvwie are also spoken in some rural homes, markets and Orthodox Church services.
Moreover, the non-implementation of the National Policy on Education continues to cause negative effect on language acquisition by newer generations of the Urhobo people. The policy which states that the language of instruction for the first three years of education should be the pupils' mother tongue or language of the school's host community has been largely ignored. Fines and other punishments are usually imposed on pupils and students who speak their native languages during school hours in both public and private schools across Delta State. This is to encourage the use of English as a lingua franca. English is made a core subject in order to graduate from secondary school and to gain admission to higher institutions.
Intermarriages between native speakers and people of other language communities also affect intergenerational transfer of the languages, and thus children are raised with English. The impact of English on these native languages has spread to rural areas, especially among the youth and children who communicate in Pidgin and English because of the negative psychological effect of being regarded as primitive if they speak their native language in public. Finally, the adoption of Agbarho dialect as the only acceptable form of written Urhobo has led to the non-documentation of Okpe and Uvwie languages as well as other dialects of Urhobo.
The city of Warri is an oil hub within South-South Nigeria and houses an annex of the Delta State Government House. Warri City is one of the major hubs of the petroleum industry in Nigeria. Warri and her twin city, Uvwie are the commercial capital of Delta State with a population of over 311,970 people in 2006. The city is the indigenous territory of Urhobo, itsekiri and Ijaw people.
Delta State is a state in the South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria. Named after the Niger Delta—a large part of which is in the state—the state was formed from the former Bendel State on August 27, 1991. Bordered on the north by Edo State, the east by Anambra and Rivers States, and the south by Bayelsa State across the Niger River for 17 km and the Forçados River for 198 km, while to the west is the Bight of Benin which covers about 160 kilometres of the state's coastline. The State was initially created with 12 local government areas in 1991 which was later extended to 19 and now has 25 local government areas. Asaba as its state capital is located along the River Niger on the northeastern end of the State, while the state's economic centre is the twin cities of Warri and Uvwie
The Itsekiri are one of the Yoruboid subgroup of Nigeria's Niger Delta area, They speak a Yoruboid language and can be found in Delta State. The Itsekiris presently number 2.7 million people and live mainly in the Warri South, Warri North and Warri South West local government districts of Delta State on the Atlantic coast of Nigeria. Significant communities of Itsekiris can be found in parts of Edo and Ondo states and in various other Nigerian cities including Lagos, Benin City, Port Harcourt and Abuja. Many people of Itsekiri descent also reside in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. The Itsekiris are closely related to the Yoruba of South Western Nigeria and also close to the Okpe people and Edo peoples. The Itsekiris traditionally refer to their land as the Kingdom of Warri or 'Iwere' as its proper name – which is geographically contiguous to the area covered by the three Warri local government districts. The area is a key centre of Nigeria's crude oil and natural gas production and petroleum refining and the main town Warri forms the industrial and commercial nucleus of the Delta State region.
Ughoton is a town in Nigeria's Edo State.
The Edoid languages are a few dozen languages spoken in Southern Nigeria, predominantly in the former Bendel State. The name Edoid derives from its most widely spoken member, Edo, the language of Benin City, which has 25 million native and secondary speakers.
Yoruboid is a 'megagroup' of 14 related Yoruba language clades, composed of the Igala group of dialects spoken in south central Nigeria, and the Edekiri group spoken in a band across Togo, Ghana, Benin and southern Nigeria, including the Itsekiri of Warri Kingdom.
There are over 525 native languages spoken in Nigeria. The official language and most widely spoken lingua franca is English, which was the language of Colonial Nigeria. Nigerian Pidgin – an English-based creole – is spoken by 30 million people in Nigeria.
Igbide is an Isoko clan located in the Isoko South Local Government Area of Delta State, Nigeria.
Isoko people are an ethnolinguistic group who inhabit the Isoko region of Delta State and Bayelsa State, Nigeria. They are people of southern Nigeria, near the northwestern Niger delta. Delta State and Bayelsa State are part of the 36 states of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Isoko is an Edoid language, one of the languages in Delta State spoken by the Isoko people in Isoko South, North and part of Ndokwa East Local Government Areas of Delta State, Southern part of Nigeria in Niger Delta region. It is also spoken in some part of Bayelsa. The Isoko language has close similarities between them and Edo people with other Edoid language because it is an Edoid language,the Isoko people are “an ethnic nationality made up of people and their ancestral roots can be traced through history to the Benin (Aka) kingdom, attested to by the linguistic and cultural similarities that exist between the Isoko people and the Benin (Aka)people” although a few of the Isoko communities or clans have their origins attached to the Ibo language and Urhobo language. Some 750,000 people consider themselves Isoko. Language is a mark of identity and plays an all-important role in the life of a people. The Isoko language however, is being threatened with extinction as reported by Idudhe (2002), as a result of neglect in teaching, learning and use. The Isoko language has about 20 to 21 dialects, but the Aviara/Uzere dialect is the standard dialect of the language.
Urhobo is a South-Western Edoid language spoken by the Urhobo people of southern Nigeria.
Uvwie (/hu-we-ɛ/), is a principal Urban Local Government Area in Delta State. It lies along the Warri River and it is one of the twenty-four Urhobo Kingdoms. The entirety of the LGA is conurbated with the city of Warri, making it a greater part of Warri metropolitan area
Effurun is a town and the headquarters of Uvwie Local Government Area in Delta State, Nigeria. It is an Urban center, densely populated with different infrastructural development. it borders it's twin city Warri, also serves as an entrance to Warri.
The Local Government Area of Ethiope East is located in the center of Delta State, Nigeria. Although it is not directly adjacent to Asagba, Asamagidi, Orerokpe, Ovwori, Orhokpokpor, Eruemukohwarien, Ekrokpe, Ughelli, or Agbasa, these places are nearby. The local government of Ethiope East is home to three districts and 67 settlements. Agbon, Abraka, and Isiokolo are the districts in Ethiope East and Isiokolo is where the local government administration is headquartered.
The Itsekiri language is a major branch of the Yoruboid group of languages, which as a group, is a key member of the Volta–Niger sub-family of the Niger–Congo family of African languages. Itsekiri is spoken by nearly 900,000 people in Nigeria as a first language and by many others as an additional language notably in the Niger Delta and in parts of Edo and Ondo states of Nigeria. The other key members of the Yoruboid group are Yoruba and Igala along with the various Yoruba dialects spoken in Benin and Togo.
The Urhobos are people located in southern Nigeria, near the northwestern Niger Delta.
Uvwiẹ or Ẹphrọn (Effurun) is a Niger Delta language spoken by the Uvwie people of southern Nigeria. It is classified alongside Urhobo, Okpe, Isoko and Eruwa as co-ordinate members of South-western Edoid branch of Proto Edoid language spoken by the Uvwie people of southern Nigeria.
The Agbon Kingdom is one of twenty-four subunits of the Urhobo people that have been in existence since before the rise of the Benin Empire in the 1440s and before the arrival of the Portuguese in the Western Niger Delta in the 1480s.
The South South is one of the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria representing both a geographic and political region of the country's eastern coast. It comprises six states – Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, and Rivers.
Rose Oro Aziza is a Nigerian linguist. She is Professor of Linguistics, Head of Department of Languages and Linguistics and Director of the Urhobo Studies Programme at Delta State University (DELSU).
