MULTILINGUALISM IN THE LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE OF IBADAN, NIGERIA

Abstract

Multilingualism is one of the features of language contact that characterise language use in the public space of cosmopolitan areas like Ibadan. Existing linguistic studies on landscape mostly focused on semiotic analysis as well as the underlying motivations of power and solidarity communicated through signs. However, little attention was paid to multilingualism on signs in the public spaces of Ibadan. This study was, therefore, designed to investigate how multilingualism is reflected in the linguistic landscape of Ibadan. This was with a view to determining the languages used on signs, their patterns and statuses in relation to the sociolinguistic context of Ibadan. Peter Backhaus‘s Sociolinguistic Framework and Bernard Spolsky and Robert Cooper‘s Preference Model served as the framework. The descriptive design was used. Ibadan was purposively selected owing to its urban dynamics and metropolitanism. Seven communities in Ibadan (Challenge, Dugbe, Mokola, Iwo Road, Ring Road, Olodo and Sango) were purposively selected because of the strategic presence of different signs in them. Two hundred and eighty signs (40 from each location) were purposively sampled owing to their thematic relevance. These were made up of 10 public road signs, 10 advertising billboards, 10 commercial shop signs and 10 signs of inscriptions on buildings. The signs were photographed using a digital camera. The data were subjected to sociolinguistic and descriptive statistical analyses. Seven languages (English, Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, Arabic, French and Nigerian Pidgin) were employed on the signs. English and Yoruba appeared in all the communities. Hausa was found in Challenge, Sango, Mokola and Ring Road. Igbo was used in Dugbe, Mokola, Ring Road, Sango and Olodo. Arabic occurred in Iwo Road, Mokola, Ring Road and Olodo. French and Nigerian Pidgin were employed at Sango. There were four patterns of multilingualism on the signs: monophonic, homophonic, mixed-part and polyphonic. English, Arabic and Yoruba on the monophonic signs were used to show language dominance and distinctiveness. English, Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa were used on the homophonic signs to suggest distinctiveness, language hierarchy and facilitate communicative efficiency. Arabic, Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, Nigerian Pidgin and English were mostly used on the mixed-part signs to show distinctiveness and for economic motivation. Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, Arabic and French were used on the polyphonic signs to express multiculturalism and ethnolinguistic vitality. Seventy per cent of the signs were couched in monolingual English, Yoruba or Arabic; 27.9% were bilingual (English/Yoruba, English/Igbo and English/Arabic; while 2.1% were multilingual (English/Hausa/Yoruba, English/Yoruba/Igbo/Hausa, English/Arabic/Yoru ba, English/Yoruba/French and English/Yoruba/Hausa/Igbo/Nigerian Pidgin Monolingual language use had a high status in all the communities, except in Olodo where bilingualism prevailed. There were pervasive use of English, visibility of French, Arabic and Nigerian Pidgin and marginalisation of indigenous languages on the signs. These were due to the sign writers‘ skill condition, the presumed readers‘ condition and the symbolic value condition. The multilingual configuration of languages on signs in Ibadan, their patterns and statuses reflect the heterogenous and cosmopolitan nature of the city.