Unfortunately, Chidi, many European languages could be described as being "spoken only in a very tiny enclave", if by "enclave" you meant a small population. Yet, they are spoken and used. If those "tiny enclaves" are regarded as developed scientifically and technologically, you bet it is because they are not using someone else's language/s in their education and commerce (their world of existence). If mother tongues are dismissed by virtue of size (a euphemism for localization as opposed to globalization), where does that leave members of the Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Swedish languages? The big question, to borrow Paulo Freire's time-tested truism is, how can you name your world in the words of others? Adeshina has summed this position up when he talked of "people's titanic engagement with its environment" and "the ability of humans to come to terms with their world" through the channel of language, that is, in essence, their mother tongues.
The debate has been an age-long patient on the operating table of sociolinguists, and it's always an interesting one.
Michael
On Sunday, March 1, 2020, 11:44:58 AM GMT+1, Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM <chidi.opara@gmail.com> wrote:
One important issue the advocates of "mother tongue" do not address is the relevance of a "mother tongue" spoken only in a very tiny enclave in this era of globalization.
CAO.
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Chidi Anthony Opara is a "Life Time Achievement" Awardee, Registered Freight Forwarder, Professional Fellow Of Institute Of Information Managerment, Africa, Poet and Publisher of PublicInformationProjects
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