ABSTRACT
Many languages are being endangered on daily basis, and this has been a major concern of language researchers and analysts over time, because an endangered language represents the loss of accumulated knowledge encoded in such language, and the cultural diversity of such language owners. This linguistic situation referred to as language endangerment could affect any language; especially languages refer to as minority languages. To be endangered means to be in danger, or at a risk of incurring a loss. For a language to be considered endangered, certain features or characteristics must have been exhibited by such language (s), such as lexical loss, language degeneration, language attrition, language shift etc. These features do not just came to being, but are triggered by certain factors, which may be external factors (such as, colonization, language policies that negatively affect some languages while elevating others, these external factors refers to by some scholars as language murder) or internal factors (such as, negative attitude of native speakers towards their language, which some scholars referred to as language suicide). This study is therefore concerned with the investigation of the linguistic situation of language endangerment, using Ilẹ̀-Olújì Dialect of Yorùbá as a case study, by carrying out a statistical analysis of the percentage of the population of the community that still make use of the dialect, their proficiency levels, the rate of the dialect use in various social domains, and the level of the dialect’s intergenerational transmission among other. The study aim to ensure the protection of Ilẹ̀-Olújì Dialect of Yorùbá from endangerment that may result in extinction, by investigating the dialect’s endangerment status, and evaluating the dialect in determining the factors that could have exposed the dialect to endangerment, in order to proffer possible solutions in preserving and revitalizing the dialect. The research is carried out by a quantitative method of data collection through the use of questionnaire shared to the indigenous residents & non-residents members of the Ilẹ̀-Olújì community, with the results from the survey presented in tables and charts, using the descriptive statistics method of data analysis, and the theoretical framework employed is the Language Vitality Framework, using the model proposed by UNESCO (2003), to evaluate the vitality status of the Ilẹ̀-Olújì Dialect, which at the end of the research is considered to be definitely endangered, the 4th level of the UNESCO’s 4 levels of Language endangerment, with some causative factors including migration/urbanization, lack of written materials for pedagogical purpose, non-inclusion of the dialect in education, unfavorable language policy, and speakers attitudes toward the dialect among others, which provide insight to the lacking areas in the dialect that need improvement in reversing the situation, for the maintenance, preservation and revitalization of the dialect. Keywords: Language Endangerment, Minority Language, Language Murder, Language Suicide, Language Policy and Language Revitalization.
