Linguistic repertoires of refugees in Internally Displaced Peoples’ (IDP) camps in North East Nigeria

Abstract

shows that negation is a complex process involving diff erent grammatical categories, such as person and number marking, as well as the syntactic organisation of the sentence. There are more irregularities and asymmetries between affi rmative and negative sentences than the presence or the absence of the negation marker. For example, completely diff erent TAM markers or copulas are used in negative and affi rmative clauses. The heterogeneity of the negative strategies and their interactions in Atlantic languages shed more light on internal clustering of the Atlantic group. Judith Mgbemena in "Linguistic Repertoires of Refugees in Internally Displaced Peoples' (IDP) Camps in North East Nigeria" shows a linguistic situation in Nigeria from the perspective of endangered languages. In reports and publications referring to the impact of terrorism and violent confl ict on national development, the language component is usually ignored. In a similar vein, humanitarian groups helping the people in need focus on social, economic, religious or medical aid, leaving the problem of language and communication aside. The paper focuses on language use spectrum in two Internally Displaced Persons' camps situated in east-north Nigeria showing how forced mobility resulting from violent attacks aff ects linguistic ecology of Nigeria. It is shown that indigenous languages are rarely used at the camps and the IDP people are exposed to other languages like Hausa and English. It poses a threat to the sustenance of the displaced languages not only locally, but also globally, as many of these languages are endangered.The forms of direct communication involving gestures are discussed in "The function of nonverbal regulators in Hausa face-to-face interaction" by Aisha Umar Adamu. She analyses the use of nonverbal signals called regulators in Hausa social interactions taking place in schools and at wedding ceremonies. The research shows that various gestures and body postures act as conversational regulators that help to keep the fl ow of the conversation. Regulators mark the beginning or the end of the conversations (e.g. turning the head aside)