The Efik Language: A Historical Profile.

Abstract

The Efik language which is spoken in the Southern part of Nigeria is one of the first languages to be written and studied in Nigeria. The profile of the language was very high before the amalgamation of the Southern and Northern Nigeria. Missionaries developed the orthography, the lexicon, the grammar, and the literature of the language. We are determined to analysis the language looking at it from a historical perspective, specifically from the diachronic angle. The paper is searching for historical facts which is nothing more than a scholarly interest in truth. Our sources are mainly from classified materials and documents. Also the instrument used to generate the performance data from the subjects comprised of structured questions. The samples used in this paper aids us determine the dependent variables. We are therefore trying to gain a clearer perspective of the present using the past as it concerns Efik. This paper benefits from Whorfian theory in the sense that linguistic determinism and cultural relativism are both socially and culturally bound. The study discovers that the profile of Efik is at its lowest ebb like most minority languages the world over. The paper notes that Efik which had very early contact with English when compared to most other Nigerian languages is gradually losing its security because of lack of encouragement from parents, teachers, government and the native speakers themselves. Therefore, there is an agitation by the language owners to revitalize the language.

Keywords: Contact, culture, language classification, orthography, Whorfian hypothesis,