Multilingual practices in Nigerian army barracks

Akande, Akinmade T.

doi:10.1080/14725843.2015.1100108

Cited by 10 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Perhaps the close contact of men from different ethnic backgrounds during the compulsory two-year-long National Service has a role to play: the armed forces generally have been found to be fertile ground for linguistic transfer of several kinds (see e.g. Berthele & Wittlin 2013;Akande 2016). Thirdly, some particles stand out as departing from the dominant Chinese and male effect.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnic and gender variation in the use of Colloquial Singapore English discourse particles

Leimgruber¹,

Lim²,

Gonzales³

et al. 2020

English Language and Linguistics

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Discourse particles are among the most commented-upon features of Colloquial Singapore English (CSE). Their use has been shown to vary depending on formality, context, gender and ethnicity, although results differ from one study to another. This study uses the Corpus of Singapore English Messages (CoSEM), a large-scale corpus of texts composed by Singaporeans and sent using electronic messaging services, to investigate gender and ethnic factors as predictors of particle use. The results suggest a strong gender effect as well as several particle-specific ethnic effects. More generally, our study underlines the special nature of the grammatical class of discourse particles in CSE, which is open to new additions as the sociolinguistic and pragmatic need for them develops.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnic and gender variation in the use of Colloquial Singapore English discourse particles

Leimgruber¹,

Lim²,

Gonzales³

et al. 2020

English Language and Linguistics

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“…It therefore calls for the strengthening of the capacity of Nigerian Pidgin to meet the emerging sociolinguistic challenges facing the army. The multilingual setting of the Nigerian Army barracks is the concern of Akande's (2016) study which profiles the linguistic ecology of numerous army barracks in Nigeria and concludes that most soldiers are functional multilinguals who use different languages to suit different communicative ends and construct professional, religious and ethnic identities. Bamigbola (2022) also offers a pragmatic interpretation of the creative language of the army parade ground, and reports that such a language is garnished with verbal and non-verbal codes in communicating meaning.…”

Section: Literature Review Jargon and Slang In The Militarymentioning

confidence: 99%

It's better to die before dishonour: Linguistic creativity and the negotiation of meaning in the Nigerian Army community of practice

Mensah,

Oreoluwa,

Ebong

et al. 2024

Forum Linguist. Stud.

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This article investigates emblematic language use and the negotiation of meaning with particular emphasis on generative mechanisms like jargon and slang in two Nigerian Army barracks in Calabar municipality, Cross River State, south-eastern Nigeria. The study is anchored in a linguistic ideology framework which is grounded in beliefs and values people have towards explicit and implicit language use in a particular communicative context. Drawing on qualitative ethnographic data sourced through participant observation and semi-structured interviews with 30 participants who were purposively sampled, the authors argue that jargon and slang are indexical linguistic resources that enable military personnel to create diverse new meanings in the informal linguistic ecology of the army. We conclude that beyond helping to create a new linguistic convention in the barracks, jargon and slang also facilitate the construction of professional identity, enact inclusion/exclusion and sustain dominant values and professional ethos. The study focuses on ways of interpreting the specificity of the military world and the reality of dominance through the prism of these linguistic specimens. Jargon and slang, therefore, offer a firmer lens to appreciate the army’s social universe and subjectivities, and more broadly to enhance an understanding of contextually embedded social practices in the military.

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“…It is claimed that after independence, there were more Northerners at junior levels in the army and, hence, Hausa was often used to aid communication between lower ranks and officers (BBC, 2017). Akande (2016: 47) maintains that Hausa is considered the most important (language in army barracks) because of the presumed historical link it has with the formation of the army in Nigeria. Further prominence of Hausa in the armed forces is seen in the code names of its operations.…”

Section: The Linguistic Ecology Of the Nigerian Armymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The study also discovered the use of international languages such as Arabic and French in the barracks. Arabic is closely tied to Islam (Akande, 2016: 47) and is spoken by a few Muslims in Calabar, but has more speakers in Lagos. French has the most negligible number of speakers in the army barracks.…”

Section: The Linguistic Ecology Of the Nigerian Armymentioning

confidence: 99%

The New Language Policy of the Nigerian Army: National Integration or Linguistic Imperialism?

Mensah

2018

Journal of Asian and African Studies

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I argue in this paper that the new language policy of the Nigerian Army recognizes and promotes the dominant languages as resources for military training, intelligence gathering and peace building, while the dominated languages are marginalized, alienated and relegated, thus the policy infringes on the fundamental linguistic rights of speakers of minoritized languages in the army. I further maintain that the Nigerian Army’s exclusive language policy is harmful to the army as a national institution and call for explicit status planning of the Nigerian Pidgin to serve as the language of wider communication in the army in response to its emerging sociolinguistic challenges.

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Multilingual practices in Nigerian army barracks

Cited by 10 publications

References 15 publications

Ethnic and gender variation in the use of Colloquial Singapore English discourse particles

Ethnic and gender variation in the use of Colloquial Singapore English discourse particles

It's better to die before dishonour: Linguistic creativity and the negotiation of meaning in the Nigerian Army community of practice

The New Language Policy of the Nigerian Army: National Integration or Linguistic Imperialism?

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