LINGUISTIC BORROWING IN A BILINGUAL SITUATION: A STUDY OF BASSA-NGE ACCENT

Abstract

The need for socio-cultural and politico-economic interactions has necessitated contact between one language and another. Historically, migration, sojourning and wars are factors that influence languages in contact, be it local or foreign. As a result, linguistic borrowing at phonological and morphological levels becomes imperative to both the donor and receiving languages. In the light of this, this study investigates linguistic borrowing in accent of Bassa- Nge bilinguals. 85 words based on cultural, intimacy and dialect contacts were collected as data within Kogi State, specifically, Lokoja and Bassa-Nge District of Bassa Local Government Areas where majority of the people being investigated reside. The total population for the study constitutes all vocabulary common to Bassa- Nge/Nupe/Yoruba languages. The data were analyzed based on the theoretical frameworks of linguistic borrowing and optimality. The result of the findings revealed that migration, sojourning and/or intimacy are major influence of change of accent in language contact situation. The study further revealed that socio-cultural and politico-economic contacts with Yoruba and Oworo people influenced Bassa-Nge (Nupe-Kogi) accent. The study concludes that a language may lose its originality due to contact with other languages.