A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF THE LATIN–ENGLISH VERSUS ENGLISH–IGBO LANGUAGE CONTACT SITUATIONS ON THE SUBORDINATE LANGUAGES
Keywords:
language contact, comparative linguistics, Latin–English, English–Igbo, subordinate language, linguistic dominanceAbstract
Many Igbo language scholars continue to bemoan the negative impact of the English Igbo contact on the Igbo language. Issues ranging from lexical erosion, domain loss, standardisation problems, attitudinal decline, lexical dilution and so much more are the challenges bedevilling the growth of the Igbo language, and which many scholars have blamed as an effect of the imposition of the colonial imposition of English on the Igbo people. Contrarily, English language, once a subordinate language profited much historically and lexically from its Latin contacts, boasting a wide range of vocabulary, word formation resources and register diffrentiation, all thanks to cross linguistic borrowing from Latin. This study investigates the comparative impact of these two historically significant language contact situations; the Latin–English and the English–Igbo encounters, on their respective subordinate languages. Both situations reflect unequal linguistic relationships where sociopolitical, educational, and religious factors influenced linguistic transformations. Using qualitative historical and descriptive approaches, the paper analyses linguistic outcomes such as lexical borrowing, structural modification, semantic extension, and code-switching. The study is anchored on Weinreich’s(1953) Language Contact Theory and Thomason and Kaufman’s (1988) Framework of Language Contact Outcomes. Findings reveal that while Latin significantly enriched English lexically and stylistically during the Middle English period, English imposed a largely unidirectional influence on Igbo, affecting its lexicon, morphology, and orthography without substantial reciprocal influence. The paper concludes that power relations, domains of use, and literacy development determine the direction and depth of linguistic influence. It recommends deliberate policies for indigenous language empowerment and balanced bilingualism in postcolonial contexts.References
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