Dynamic Resilience of an African Proverb-Culture against the Lingual Colonialism in Westernization (A Case Study of the Igbo Language)

Abstract

This Paper sets out to state inter alia that as essential elements of a language in particular and consequently a culture in general, the proverbs and proverb-culture of any society can easily be used to chronicle, measure or evaluate its tracks of culture-contacts or consequent culture-changes. To do this, it uses the Igbo language of South-eastern Nigeria as a casestudy. Once more, our aim includes to plumb the lines linking language and culture-contacts as manifested in the dynamics involved in the evolvement, use, spread of and changes in proverbs and proverb-culture, as a possible index to the cultural changes that occur, when cultures encounter each other in culture-contacts experienced in and by any society. It all hinges on the fact that language itself is a natural bearer, preserver and transmitter of culture. Thus, it is and remains a major and ineluctable player in any game of culture-contact.