Language Evolution: Guosa for Nigeria and West Africa

[Sokotocaliphate]

I stumbled across a random data for such an ambitious movement a couple of years ago. I assumed that Guosa (a hybrid language utilizing both the major and other minority languages in Nigeria) was solely created to cement a solid unity in Nigeria (whilst that remains a fundamental reason to the languages birth) the objective of this mongrel dialect is to create a cultural and economical cohesion via language throughout Greater West Africa akin to Swahili in the East.

The author of Guosa - Alex G. Igbineweka

[Sokotocaliphate]

LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICS: GUOSA AS NIGERIAN AND WEST AFRICAN FUTURE LINGUA FRANCA

The Guosa language is the result of natural scientific evolution. It assumes international limelight spreading across Nigeria and other West African Sub-Regional countries or the ECOWAS. It is a linguist link and complement to the languages and cultures of Togo, Republic of Benin, Gambia, Senegal, Chad, Niger, Liberia, Sierra-Leone and Ghana etc. As an evolving language, it will represent a long lasting lingua franca as well as a socio-cultural identity for the diverse cultural groups and languages of the West African countries. A similar position is held by Swahili the trade language, which facilitated communication and commerce in South Africa.

Alex G. Igbineweka inaugurated the Train-the-Trainer program at the Ikeja Grammar School, Ogba Lagos Nigeria in December of 2006. And in 2007 the second volume of the dictionary of Guosa language was published among other publications. This is the most comprehensive English-Guosa African language Dictionary evolution ever written to date. There are about 106,962 head words evolved from so many Nigerians and other West African traditional vocabularies and more to be discovered by any language researcher who is ready to take the road less frequented...

http://www.exportblueprint.com/blog/...ngua-franca-3/

[Sokotocaliphate]

It began like a child’s play in 1965. Forty-one years later, the dream is within the realms of possibility. Alex Igbineweka, who evolved the new language, Guosa, believes that there is no need searching for an indigenous Nigerian Nigeria lingua franca when Guosa has all it takes to be just that.

Before the first utterance of Guosa was made in 1965, there was an agitation in Nigeria to have common languages for communication by all the ethnic groups after the 1960 political independence from Britain.

That led to the approval of nine Nigerian languages, including Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, Edo, Fulfude, Efik, Izon, etc., by the government for media broadcast. As a young boy growing up in Nigeria then, Igbineweka was fascinated by the variety of languages in the country he was listening to on the TV. Out of curiosity, he began to acquire the various vocabulary structures.

An indigene of Edo State with Edo language as his mother tongue, when Igbineweka migrated to Enugu in the early 1960s, something amazing happened. He was set out to learn Igbo language, but found himself interlarding it with Edo language.

“I was unable to speak Igbo fluently, neither could I speak Edo fluently; I was missing them up,” he told Sunday Sun on recent visit to Nigeria from his base in the US.

In 1964, he told his family that he would like to be identified as somebody who would evolve a new language, but they made a jest of him, telling him to have a better dream. In 1965, when he came to Lagos to settle, his attempt to learn and speak Yoruba was similar to his experience with Igbo in Enugu. “I found myself mixing Yoruba with English. That was unusual, because for many people, it was common to mix Edo with English, but, in my own case, I was mixing Edo with Yoruba.”

Of course, that was a telltale sign that he was cut out to evolve a new language. The heartwarming piece of news is that Guosa is now an international language and has gradually spread its tentacles in international academic institutions worldwide. The American Heritage University in Southern California, for example, has adopted it as a subject.

Right now, anybody can apply to study Guosa language in the university and the university is ready to endow the language for research. Interestingly, West Contra Costa Unified School District Adult Education Dept, California, has included the language into its school syllabus. In both schools, Igbineweka teaches the language to students and the schools take enrollment fees from the students who study it.

Is it not surprising that while Guosa is making inroad into America education system, the reverse is the case in Nigeria? Igbineweka told Sunday Sun that when he first evolved the language in Nigeria, he tried all his best to get the Ministry of Education to support it, but instead of commendations, his initiative was criticized for lacking relevant parts of speech. He was disappointed in the position of the ministry, because it is not proper to use anglophone language to judge an African language.

“In the west, once you create something new, they encourage you, but here, they discourage you,” he lamented, adding that such a thing contributes to brain drain in the country.

Before travelling to the United States, he had worked extensively on the structure of the language, little wonder that he did not find it difficult to get the approval of the American authorities. What’s more, the language now has a dictionary. It took him nine years to write the dictionary of Guosa language vocabulary (about forty thousand words).

One of the problems of Nigeria, he said, is the multiple language we have, but experience has shown that any country that wants to be formidable and stay together must have one language. The leading countries of America, Europe and Asia are examples. Thus, he recommends Guosa language as Nigeria’s lingua franca.

Already there are indications that language would be acceptable by Nigerians. On November 23, 2006, it had its first trial in the country at the Training College, Moson College, Festac Town, Lagos, with thirty students. “The students were highly motivated,” he enthused.

He is, therefore, calling on the National Council for Arts and Culture and other relevant agencies to collaborate with him to realize the dream of having an “ultimate” Nigerian lingua franca. “If Nigeria will stay together, the new language will be Guosa,” he emphasized. “I am following the great steps of great people to make my own innovation. This is my own contribution to Nigeria,” he affirmed.

Below are the English translations of some Guosa words: àbíncí (food), gbóntì (hear/listen), in mo ng shìengá (I am going). The word “Guosa” is derived from Igbineweka’s Edo middle name, because when he evolved, it he did not want to use the name of any Nigerian language for it. But he hopes that if it is accepted as Nigeria’s lingua franca, the name of the language could as well be called Nigerian, just like in Chinese, German French, among others.

Unlike the aborted Wazobia language, Guosa language is formulated from both the major languages and other minority languages in Nigeria.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpage...2-2006-003.htm

[Sokotocaliphate]

...........
For more see below:
http://www.youtube.com/user/guosalanguage#g/u

[Sokotocaliphate]

So what do our West African/ Nigerian brothers think?....abi it's better to learn indigenous Nigerian languages than French/ English and co

I dey joke oh before una get high blood pressure.....

Viva West Africa

[HerachioBlo]

you know, that's really interesting, it would take a lot of enforce... a LOT, but i think even with a common language (which they we already have with english like it or not) people will still find differences.

[Sokotocaliphate]

Originally Posted by HerachioBlo

you know, that's really interesting, it would take a lot of enforce... a LOT, but i think even with a common language (which they we already have with english like it or not) people will still find differences.

Exactly....some will cry foul that their ethnic group's tongue numbering only 25 people never featured in the language or that shock horror a rival clan is being forced to merge his great ancestors language with a nemesis group

I was reading an article about the significance behind the name WazoBia by an Ibibio man and he say's Wazobia doesn't cover him because it highlights only the three major ethnic groups...*sigh*

some are never satisfied.

.....oh and of course the author of Guosa is spearheading this language across much West Africa which could be met with some resistance...

....................................................

However I am eager to study the syntax and the superstrate from which the language is taken from - it is highly ambitious however I will remain watchfully patient with this project.

[Naijaborn]

LOL

Me thinks this Guosa think wont work!!!!

Nigerians and West Africans are too PROUD of their ethnic groups and heritages to drop their indigenous languages. the developer of this language probably had his eye on Swahili's success on East Africa. But unlike The rest of Subsaharan Africa, West Africa arent one single monolithic group

We have Atlantic branch {Fulfude. Wolof}
Kwa group {Fon, Ashanti, Ewe, Ga}
Benue congo group {Yoruba, Igbo, Nupe, Edo}
Nilo Saharan {Kanuri}
Afro Asiatic-chadic [Hausa, Tangale}
Afro Asiatic-Semitic [Arabic}
Afro Asiatic-berber {Tamasheq}
Mande group {Bambara, Malinke, sononke}
Gur group {bariba Etc]
Ijoid group- {Ijaw, Defaka}
Bantoid group {Tiv, Ekoi, Ibibio, Efik, Annang}



West Africa is Just too diverse for this Guosa thing to work, .........

[Naijaborn]

oh, and BTW, I am not a fan of artificial languages.
i.e artificial languages with no meaningful history behind them.

[•eze•]

Igbo people are still trying to get the hang of central Igbo, let alone replacing their entire language with some.....creation.

I know for certain that this Igbo Yoruba Hausa concoction is certainly not going to replace languages like Wolof, Fulfude or Kanuri, which are already being used more than European languages in their respective regions.

[HerachioBlo]

unity usually comes through the overwhelming force of a dominate group at the expense of a minority group which is not the route most west african countries want to take, but there's no where in history where this hasn't been the case.

either way there's really nothing wrong with english, and it's just as foreign as Gbosa because in the end of the day it's still not your language. My only concern with the use of a foriegn language is the fact that second hand speakers (most nigerians) will have a harder time learning and conducting science in their second language then they would in their first


i've ran into countless situations where i've tried to explain something to someone back home in english because the person is an english speaker and not getting through until i say it in igbo. people still 'own' their native languages in a way that's advantageous for advanced communication and trying to learn chemistry in your second language is not impossible, but harder then need be. I would like to see Gbosa maybe playing the role Latin and Greek does for the english language.

the english language can be scientific and ever advancing because it can use Latin and Greek words as root words to create an infinite array of new words (that are reallly just latin and greek sentences)

for example telecommunication

in reality there's no english word for telecommunication because it's a compound latin sentence.


this will help because nigerians can in a way 'learn' in the same language (to an extent) and as the world advances and more words are made the languages will become more and more similar.

[•eze•]

The Latin and Greek for Southern Nigeria was Ibibio and Edo, at least, in Igboland.

[HerachioBlo]

......where did you get this bizarre and nonsensical notion......?

[•eze•]

Can you wait for someone with more knowledge to explain first before you start describing it as bizarre and nonsensical? First of all I would like to ask if you know what Ekpe is.

[Sokotocaliphate]

Originally Posted by HerachioBlo

I would like to see Gbosa maybe playing the role Latin and Greek does for the english language.

the english language can be scientific and ever advancing because it can use Latin and Greek words as root words to create an infinite array of new words (that are reallly just latin and greek sentences)

for example telecommunication

in reality there's no english word for telecommunication because it's a compound latin sentence.

Intriguing...that never even crossed my mind. Thinking of the language on those terms I now seriously ponder what Guosa could actually serve beyond cultural unification.

Greek has a word that encapsulates everything, English does not. Even some words in various Nigerian languages cannot be directly translated into English thus English is limited.

I wonder if Guosa would carry the same formula as Greek even though the evolution is different. Greek gave birth to many languages or rather many languages are composed of Greek/ Latin vocabulary. Whereas in short various Nigerian languages gave birth to Guosa ....so it kinda flips the script - Greek is a parent language, Guosa is an offspring. I also agree with Naijaborn about "artificial languages"...despite what some may view as an urgent necessity needed in Nigeria I believe languages should be organic. Pidgin for example evolved naturally. In fact initially I kinda just viewed Guosa as a type of Pidgin "English" minus the English of course. Now if only an indigenous language formed the superstrate of Pidgin instead of English...hmmmn.

either way there's really nothing wrong with english, and it's just as foreign as Gbosa because in the end of the day it's still not your language. My only concern with the use of a foriegn language is the fact that second hand speakers (most nigerians) will have a harder time learning and conducting science in their second language then they would in their first


i've ran into countless situations where i've tried to explain something to someone back home in english because the person is an english speaker and not getting through until i say it in igbo. people still 'own' their native languages in a way that's advantageous for advanced communication and trying to learn chemistry in your second language is not impossible, but harder then need be.

It would be really good to dissect the components of this language to study how it's structure correlates with our individual dialects and thus our thought patterns.

[Arinze]

Gbosa
Well I think maybe this could wait a little bit, the UN wrote a report recently that several languages in Nigeria were in risk of being endangered due to less speakers one of which was a major language. I think preventing the important languages from disappearing is a priority, but I like his idea

[HerachioBlo]

Originally Posted by •eze•

Can you wait for someone with more knowledge to explain first before you start describing it as bizarre and nonsensical? First of all I would like to ask if you know what Ekpe is.

yes i know what ekpe is
what do you know, you're 'from ekiti'.

[HerachioBlo]

Originally Posted by Sokotocaliphate

Intriguing...that never even crossed my mind. Thinking of the language on those terms I now seriously ponder what Guosa could actually serve beyond cultural unification.

Greek has a word that encapsulates everything, English does not. Even some words in various Nigerian languages cannot be directly translated into English thus English is limited.

I wonder if Guosa would carry the same formula as Greek even though the evolution is different. Greek gave birth to many languages or rather many languages are composed of Greek/ Latin vocabulary. Whereas in short various Nigerian languages gave birth to Guosa ....so it kinda flips the script - Greek is a parent language, Guosa is an offspring. I also agree with Naijaborn about "artificial languages"...despite what some may view as an urgent necessity needed in Nigeria I believe languages should be organic. Pidgin for example evolved naturally. In fact initially I kinda just viewed Guosa as a type of Pidgin "English" minus the English of course. Now if only an indigenous language formed the superstrate of Pidgin instead of English...hmmmn.



It would be really good to dissect the components of this language to study how it's structure correlates with our individual dialects and thus our thought patterns.

yeah most 'new words' in the english language are really just latin or greek sentences or a compound of prefixes and suffixes. I think teaching latin in schools is FUNDAMENTAL because it makes words like Neurologicalhemophageacyte very easy to understand (blood based nerve eating organmism)....and btw i made that one up, but you know what i mean.


the word i made up is nothing more then a sentence of words that are simple to the average latin speaker that tells you exactly what the thing being described is or does. if you know latin, your potential in science is limitless.

[•eze•]

Originally Posted by HerachioBlo

yes i know what ekpe is
what do you know, you're 'from ekiti'.

What are you talking about?

Anyway, Ekpe court language is Ibibio.

[igbinalex]

you and your big mouth as if you can do betterhttp://www.skyscrapercity.com/images/smilies/bash.gif