I am proud of my language.

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Here in Lagos State, Nigeria, we have people from different tribes and languages. They all came to make money and to live a better life. However, the only way to know them is by their language. For example, the word "NWANNEM" is commonly used by Igbo people, while Yoruba speakers will use "OREMI" or "AGBAWO" when exchanging pleasantries. For me, if someone calls me "ABONGOWO," it means that he or she is likely from my tribe.

So you can see that language helps us connect with people, making it easy to understand what they are saying. Sometimes we still need to learn other languages, like the one we were taught in school, which is English.

Which language are you proud of, and why?

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Like I said, I am a full-blooded Nigerian from Akwa Ibom State. We have different tongues in Akwa Ibom, like EFIK, IBIBIO, ANANG, etc. These languages may sound similar, but the pronunciation is different. For example, EFIK would say "NYEMIA FI O" (I will beat you), while IBIBIO would say it as "NYAUMIA O" (I will beat you).You can see that they all mean the same but what differentiate them is the way f saying it.

Even though I can understand other languages, I am glad to say that I am proud of my language, Ibibio. Ibibio isongo, iyaa.

Can you tell me the history of the language you are proud of, how it became a language and became common among the people?

From the little history I heard, though I was not there, the Ibibio language is a language used by the ancient proto-Bantu nation. From my research I realized that it used In Northeast Africa and later moved to the Cross River Region around 1000 BCE. It was the earliest language used by the inhabitants of southern Nigeria.

Like I said, the Ibibio language has similarities with other languages like Annang, Efik, Eket, Oron, and Ibeno. As people travel in and out of the country, the language has spread to different African continents, and you can easily recognize their influence in place names like Effiong Street and personal names like Enefiok okon( my middle name and surname) and linguistic vocabularies across different countries.

Avoiding miscommunication in language and creating effective communication

Remember when I said we have different tribes residing in Lagos, they all speak different languages but the common one are English, pidgin, yoruba and igbo. If I want to communicate with a yoruba man, I need to use the language he understands, the same goes to all the language.

if you want to create an effective communication you need to always use simple language and ask questions If you don't understand what the person is saying. It highly recommend to ask the person to explain it again.

Like me, if I noticed someone speaking my dialect, I won't waste my time trying to use English or pidgin when communicating with him and i notice that this strategies has bonded people together irrespective of their state.

Thank you for reading my post, let's us appreciate and be proud of our language so as to create an effective communication within ourselves. I will like to invite @emishaeal60, @goodybest, @mesola and @alli001 to participate on this contest.

CC:@alfazmalek