Language use and language attitudes in a Yoruba Suburban town: A sociolinguistic response to the factors of traditionalism and modernity

Abstract

This study explores attitudes towards dialect selection along with other aspects of language use in a Yoruba community. Also discussed are the problems inherent in trying to use Western social science survey techniques to elicit sociolinguistic data among traditional peoples. 1. Methodology. The methodological problem of devising adequate techniques for obtaining reliable information about language use and attitudes towards language varieties or dialects has always confronted sociolinguistic researchers. Objectively measurable techniques such as judges' rating of speakers' styles using multiple choice semantic differentials (D'Anglejan and Tucker 1973), rating of speakers' personality traits from their style of speech or the variety of language they use (Lambert 1967 and Giles 1970), or the use of reaction tests (The Index of Linguistic Insecurity -Labov 1966), have been variously employed to identify fairly objectively the several factors which contribute to the formation of opinions and the development of attitudes towards language use and language varieties. On the other hand, opinion questions, in either survey questionnaires or interview situations, to determine use of particular forms of speech, language or dialect, continues to have a place in ongoing sociolinguistic investigations (See Labov 1966, Williams 1973 and Macaulay 1975). In many indigenous African communities, the low level of literacy coupled with the general lack of enthusiasm on the part of the inhabitants to trust the good intentions of researchers, render the use of sophisticated techniques for measuring language competence and language attitudes impracticable. This makes it necessary for the researcher to have recourse to informants' opinions and self-reports. It is believed that the viewpoint of a speaker toward his dialect or the dialect(s) of others has a useful purpose if only to direct our attention more fully to the integral relationship which exists between the sociocultural status of a dialect and what speakers want to achieve by its usage. In this study, I have relied primarily on informants' self-reports on their language use and their opinions about dialects and the speech communities that use them, all gathered from questionnaire responses and tape-recorded interviews; in addition, the variable pattern of phonological/phonetic and lexical changes or shifts described in Akere (1977) was used