ABSTRACT

Multilingualism has been defined as the ability of an individual to speak two or more languages in any communicative event. Therefore, intra-group societal multilingualism is a situation where a speech community has access to two or more languages without any of the languages threatening the existence of the other. The study seeks to find out how Ogori/Magongo people, who are multilingual, use the various languages they speak in that setting and the effects this behaviour produces in them. The aim is to understand the impact of multilingualism on a population where more than one language is in use. Fishman’s theory of language choice in a multilingual setting has been adopted as the framework for this study because of its suitability. In doing this, the questionnaire and interview methods were adopted to elicit responses from the respondents, in addition to non-participant observation method. The findings revealed that certain factors like topic, domain of interaction and role relation determine who speaks what language to whom, when and why in that setting. Also, the study has established that intra-group societal multilingualism is stable and widespread in Ogori/Magongo as well as the fact that multilingualism has positive impact in the behavior of Ogori/Magongo which has given them wide range of choice of languages.

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CHAPTER I

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

“It is impossible to conceive of a rational being or of a society without implying the existence of a language” (Crystal, 1971:1).

Language, the tool by which human beings relate with one another,

has been defined as “a self-contained system of words, sounds and

meanings linked to each other in various complex ways” (Hudson,

1986: 228).

It has also been referred to as “rule governed behavior” (Broughton

etal: