DIGLOSSIA IN A MULTILINGUAL NIGERIAN SOCIETY

Abstract

In a multilingual society, there is always the problem of language choice. The study sets to explore the linguistic situations in Nigeria with regards to diglossia. As a multilingual nation, this work seeks to ascertain whether there are definite roles assigned to languages in the linguistically diverse Nigerian society. If yes, what are the pros and cons of such division of labour? Moreover, are there an overlap in the domains the languages occur and are the languages of H-variety and that of Lvariety in complementary distribution? The findings revealed that diglossia actually exists in Nigerian linguistic situations, such that the H-variety language being English language tends to be stable in the domains of usage but there are pros and cons associated with assigning functions to languages (diglossia). The methodology adopted is descriptive approach and the theory employed is Sociolinguistic theory which deals with the systematic study of the social uses of language or language use in social context.