LANGUAGE AND GENDER IN NIGERIA: PERCEPTION, PATTERNS AND

PROSPECTS
Clara .1. Ikekeonwu Ph.D, JP, WMGA, FCAI*
Department of Linguistics and Nigerian Languages
University of Nigeria
Nsukka
Preamble:
A Tale of two Passions
Besides the reverence and worship of my
Creator
two Passions rule my being
the miracle of speech,
feminity, its force, frailty and fragrance
unlike the Road in the forest
my travelling both
has made the difference
these Siamese passions
cohere and co-habit in my Being
bravo to the wedlock
Clara Ikekeonwu
Prof. Clara Ikekeonwu is currently, Director, Institute for Nigerian Languages, University
of Nigeria, Aba Campus

I thank the Almighty God for today. It is amazing. It is real. Since I was promoted
Professor about nine years ago. I had longed for today; the day to share my thoughts,
my research, my experiences, my idiosyncrasies and many more.
As the rather self explanatory title of my lecture indicates the paper is delicately or is
it deftly, balanced on two concepts - my dual passion. It is dipodic rather than
'tripodic'. It is usual to conceptualize and execute a 'tripodic' arrangement but at the
end of our intellectual excursion, it should be clear that the dipodic arrangement is
also wholesome, and may indeed be more natural given the circumstance of
occurrence. Perhaps our starting point should be a cursory glance at the key concepts
indicated in the title of the address. This may well be seen as opening of the dish and
location, by sight, of the basic elements in it, preparatory to consumption.
1. Language
Language, unfortunately is amongst the least understood concepts ever studied.
Paradoxically virtually everyone believes they 'know' much, if not all about language.
Some may even, in response to the challenge implicit in this assertion, rattle off in
their mother language or any other to show their fluency and 'presumed' excellence in
language use. But does fluency in the use of a language constitute knowledge and
effectiveness in the language? It is doubtful. Bloomfield, 1933 in a sound
consideration of the issue of linguistic research and general assumptions about language,
rendered a treatise that in all fair considerations has proved prophetic and confirmed over
the years this dilemma of language learning, comprehension and use.
Bloomfield remarks

The most difficult step in the study of language is the first step.
Again and again scholarship has approached the study of language without
actually entering upon it (Bloomfield, 1933 p.21)

What is this first step? One may ask. I would humbly submit that in my understanding the
first step is the erroneous assumption that we know all about language. Bloomfield's
Assertion came several years before the manifestation of Digitized language, that is
computer language - yet another type of language. However, for the avoidance of doubt
here this paper is focused more on human language (HL) and Human Language
Technology (HLT) than other forms of language.

Generally, language may be defined as an arbitrary set Of codes used for communication.
With this very broad definition of language, the concept becomes the habitat of strange
bed fellows encompassing all sorts of codes that engender communication, animals'
codes; insects' codes, signs; digitized codes, human language codes etc. But we know
that the human language is significantly different from the other codes. For one thing the
codes are vocal.
Then, perhaps a modification of the earlier definition could make the difference and
specify our HL. We then try a modified version:
Language is an arbitrary set of vocal codes used for communication.
We would soon note that our new definition has been seen in some quarters as suspect.
The word arbitrary in this context had been queried, with some language scholars of 19th
and early 20th century contending that there is hardly any arbitrariness in language as they
argue that there is a close link between an item and what it is called.
While some of the arguments may today sound ridiculous, given the wholesome
input from Linguistics, during that period it was no laughing matter. The proponents of
this theory quickly cite the occurrence of onomatopeas as key evidence for the link
between the word and its referent. Hence the cooing of the cukoo; the 'wow wow' of the
dog; 'miaow' of a cat. But they were hard put to it explaining why many other lexical
items -- a legion as it were, do not correspond to this pattern. Even among those that are
onomatopoeic, there are variations, the Igbo dog for instance barks 'gba-gba', while the
French does not.
Perhaps a similar controversy, more or less complementing the one above is that
of the origin of language. Apart from the biblical account there were a number of
contentious claims. The inherent nature of language has not been spared in the attempt to
'enter upon its study'. It is largely upheld that language is a living organism - grows,
flourishes and is capable of dying as well. In this. respect the concepts, 'language' on the
one hand and 'Dialect' on the other have attracted a lot of attention from various linguists
and language scholars of different theoretical leanings. There were those who believed
that language is simply a wholesome entity that should not and cannot strict I y speaking
be decomposed into subsets, variants or dialects. The De Saussurean School holds the
concept of dialect suspect . Their rather extreme reductionism does not accommodate the
existence of dialect. They argue that phonemesJ are distinctive only within the
individual's speech, that is the idiolect4. The speech sound /i/ for instance is distinctive or
contrastive in Mr. A's speech because it contrasts with say /u/ in his speech. It is
therefore, inconceivable from this standpoint to conceptualize a dialed which implies the
comparison of speech forms of groups of individuals. With the rather extensive evidence
that in many languages, subsets or microcosms of the broader macrocosm, exist made the
De Saussurean reductionism rather shortlived, li is apparent, and may even be said to be
commonsensical that A and B in the following could not be, effectively argued, (o belong
to different linguistic superstructures-languages.

English Igbo
1. A Come here [kAin his] 2. A Anu'dirhma [ anur dir tf^ma] 'meat
is good' B " " [kum his] B alu di mma [alu dj m ma]

3. Yoruba
A. iyen ko daa [ijen ko daa)| 'that is not good'
B. eyiun ko daa [cjiu ko daa | 'that is not good'

For l.A would he typical of (he speaker of Southern British English (SEE) with the
Received Pronunciation (RP) rendition, while B of lh;il number is typical of the Northern
British English of the Yorkshire accent/pronunciation. For 2, the A would be typical of
(he standard Igbo speaker or speakers of standard Igbo while the B would be typical of
the Achi-Igbo speaker for instance, for 3 the A is typical of the standard Yoruba speaker
wink- ihe B counterpart would be typical of Ibadan, Off a or i'cnerally Kwara speakers of
Yoruba.
It is clear that even without any training in Linguistics one would rather confidently
assert that A & B of each of the linguistic systems pointed out here can not belong to
different languages. Their cohesion cannot be 'accidental'. To try to take into cognissance
overwhelming evidence of similarities between variants of a language, the 'Overall
Pattern' came into being. It is based on the concept of minimal pairs5. Proponents of the
overall pattern hold that minimal pairs of individual phonemes when considered in their
totality would account for all the differences or contrasts found in the speech of anyone
speaker in a given language area or community. Although this approach was based
mainly on the phonological parameter, which of course is not the only basis for the
delineation of linguistic differences, it succeeded in providing a convincing establishment
of "affinity" between the speech of people from a common language background; and
therefore argued for the recognition of "similar languages within a language".
 Uriel Weinreich's 1954 classical exposition Ts Structural Dialectology Possible'
upholds the existence of languages within a language i.e. variants within a language but
insists that there is a pattern to be followed to establish them. This ushered in the concept
of Diasystem. An example of a diasystem is presented below.

Lang AI Lang A2
i u i u
e o e o
sc a

I mm the above Lang AI and Lang A2 have four (4) vowels in common in the vocalic
inventory. The differing vocalic segments are /a/ and /a?/. In the diasystem principle
their similarities and dissimilarities would be reflected thus

I ~ e = AI [EC]
_______ ~ o ~ u
A2 [a]

While the diasystem is able to show differences and similarities between linguistic
systems' languages, for instance, it raises a number of critical questions. For instance,
must the similarities observed be within cognates in the linguistic varieties under
consideration6. One could readily say 'yes' since any answer in the negative would yield
very embarrassing results. Some languages such as Yiddish and Spanish have identical
phonemic inventory // i ~ e ~ a ~ o ~ u// yet they are different languages. On the other
hand, insistence that the similarities be within cognates would make it impossible for us
to set up diasystems for linguistic systems that are to a large extent very similar. Moulton
1960 reports that two German dialects, spoken barely fifty miles apart, have only three
phonemes in common, yet they are completely mutually intelligible.
The point of mutual intelligibility has often been used by language scholars and linguists
in the establishment of affinity between linguistic varieties. It has often been overtly
argued that for two or more speech varieties to be regarded as varieties/dialects of a
language they must be mutually intelligible. This assumption, for instance has underlined
many a work on the varieties of English language whether spoken in
Britain/America/South Africa/Australia etc. This criterion of mutual intelligibility is not
sacrosanct. Indeed Agard 1971 had this to say on the issue:
The factor of mutual intelligibility does not furnish a relevant criterion for differentiating
dialect from language...mutual intelligibility is at best a matter of probability.
Alongside the structural/analytical principle for the establishment of the dialed or
varieties of language are largely subjective descriptions. One of such submissions is
found in Raven 1969.
...Note I use the term dialect where others might use some other term such as accent. This
choice of term is basically an American one. In other parts of the world scholars would
not use dialect for the speech of educated men and women; they
would restrict it to the speech of uneducated men and • women; they might not use it to
describe the speech of a city but only that of rural areas, usually remote ones (see also
Ikekeonwu, 1986)
Raven however presents his definition of dialect as ";inv habitual variety of a language,
regional or social". These parting words of Raven 1969 appear to sum up the general
perception of the concept of dialect by most linguists. Finally, as pointed out in
Ikekeonwu 1986b, from the De Sausurean riddle which makes the dialect an elusive, non-
starter, subsequent views agree to the existence of varieties within a language. These are
generally called dialects.

Linguistics
Although De Saussaure, often accepted as the father of modern linguistics, missed the
mark in the dialect conceptualization, many of his conceptual constructions in language
study/analysis threw significant light on the nature and nurture of language. Subsequent
scholars such as Leonard Bloomfield, Noam Chomsky, Morris Halle etc built on some of
his insights. Subsequently it became more enlightening to discuss the nature of language -
- in other words, how best the nature and workings of language could be described, rather
than looking for ready made textbook definition(s) of language. From this approach
which is basically known as typifying the discipline of Linguistics, it became clear that
human language while being the most significant code of communication is also
multifaceted and not amenable to any straight jacket description. Linguistics anchors the
description of language basically on the following parameters
• Phonetics
• Phonology
• Syntax
• Semantics
• Applied Linguistics

Phonetics and Phonology

For Phonetics the speech sound or phone is central to the analysis. Any and every speech
sound used for the production of speech constitutes a phone or the basic building block
for speech. No speech is possible without the phone, and interestingly no phone is
meaningful on its own unless in construction with other phones. Examples of more
commonly occurring phones in speech across languages are (i) [p, t, k, f, v, s, z, h, 1, t, m,
n) and (ii) [i, a, u, o, e, e] The phones in (i) are contoids while those in (ii) constitute the
vocoids. We note the square brackets | | which typically are used to enclose phones in
linguistic analysis. It is also important to note that phones are not the same as letters of
orthography, hence the usual difference in rendition or pronunciation. The phones are
represented using phonetic symbols and constitute a phonetic/phonemic transcription,
not letters of orthography or the spelling of language
Phonetics is the very first step in the analysis of speech and consequently HL as speech is
basic in all human communication. Closely related to phonetics is phonology. In fact
phonetics and phonology can be seen as two sides of a common coin as both are focused
on the nature and function of the speech sound. While phonetics is interested in all the
speech sounds used for speech production in various languages, phonology is interested
in only those speech sounds that can be used to make meaningful utterances in respective
languages. Such speech sounds are called Phonemes. The phone is the building block for
phonetics while the phoneme is for phonology. Both phonetics and phonology use phonetic
symbols in the representation of utterances in phonetic transcription and
phonemic transcription respectively. For the phonetic transcription all speech sounds, and
modifications are represented. However, for the phonemic transcription only those speech
sounds and modifications that arc used contrastively or distinctively are represented.
While phonetic transcription is enclosed in square brackets [p eij], phonemic transcription is
enclosed within slanting strokes /pen/. Note also the details of the phonetic transcription.
This is due to the fact that the phonetic transcription captures and reflects all aspects of
speech used in a given pronunciation. On the contrary, phonemic transcription reflects only
those aspects of speech used contrastively in the given language.
We would present the following passage both in the phonetic and phonemic transcriptions.
Passage
No one knows the way
Yet we all claim to know
the way of life
Only the Maker is and knows
Clara Ikekeonwu
representations across languages. Hence we have the following:
Spanish
espana [espapa] 'Spanish'
Igbo
Anya [ana] eye(s)
We see that in Spanish the palatal nasal is represented as 'n' while in Igbo it is 'ny' yet the
same pronunciation [p] in both.
Both phonetics and phonology have anchored various theories and analytical postures
that have resulted in a robust growth especially in recent times. For phonetics the book,
Principles of the International Phonetic Association has guided the various approaches to
the identification, production, classification or description of speech sounds across
languages. The International Phonetic Association is the author of the International
Phonetic Alphabet which encodes the various phonetic symbols used in speech sound
representation. Incidentally, both the Alphabet and the Association share a common
acronym (IPA). The association which came into being in the later part of the 19th century
has had two major reviews, one in 1949, and the more 'recent' one in 1989. For such
reviews input is drawn from linguists especially phoneticians and phonologists working
in various languages across the world. This often accounts for the comprehensiveness of
the data supplied and reflected.

In phonology various theories have emerged starting with classical phonology;

also often called segmental phonology. We have witnessed linear and non-linear
approaches to phonological analysis. Generative phonology as presented in Chomsky and
Halle 1968 (often called SPE) represents the linear approach while Autosegmental
phonology, metrical phonology and lexical phonology are good examples of the non-
linear approach. Each of these approaches has been effectively applied to various natural
languages. Greater insight into the tone languages of Africa and South East Asia has been
gained, for instance, through Autosegmental phonology. In more recent researches
generative phonology appears to have been relegated to the background. The Optimality
Theory (OT) attests to this line of phonological investigation.
Syntax
The sound structure does not exist independent of other levels of linguistic analysis
though it remains the first port of call in the investigation or analysis of HL. The speech
sounds generally combine to make up lexical items or words.
p-e-n > pen
Igbo
o-k-e >6ke rat

Yoruba
e-t-i > eti ear

French
f-en-e-tr-e window
The words are mapped up into phrases or clauses or sentences.

English
John has a pen

Igbo
6ke. tara ami 'A rat ate the meat'

Yoruba
Eti meji la ni 'We have two ears'
These combinations have been examined from various perspectives - combinatory
arrangements and their implications, the semantic implication etc. Some sentences are
classified as simple, others complex and some others compound. Apart from this, one
may ask, do sentences with identical structure have identical semantic implications,
especially when they have fairly identical lexical items? Consider the following adapted
examples from Lyons 1977.
1. The book is John's.
2. John has a book.

Could these two mean the same? A closer look would show that the book in 2 may not
necessarily be the one referred to in (1). Consider the following again.
3. There is a book on the table
4. There are lions in Africa
Would we consider 3 and 4 closely related? There is a fundamental difference between a
generic, existential reference and a rather narrow 'locative' reference. While (3) is
'locative' (4) is existential.
The 'stringing together' of words for the formation of sentences, phrases etc is referred to
in linguistics as syntax. The precursor of syntax is traditional grammar with which many
of us are familiar. For instance we recall the basic sentence analysis of subject and
predicate; the objects, complements etc.
Syntax has taken some of these fundamental elements to a higher, more insightful level,
based on some constraints or shortcomings of the earlier grammatical approach. For
instance
The subject - predicate approach would fail to x-ray, as it were, the inherent ambiguity in
this commonly cited example.
"Flying planes can be dangerous"

The sentence could mean 'the planes flying' or 'the act of flying planes". In syntax the
generative approach would through the specification of the underlying representation
(UR) of the sentence as against the surface representation (SR) would reveal the inherent
ambiguity. Apart from the Transformational Generative grammatical theory often called
(TG) several other theories have appeared in the analysis of syntax. We have the Phrase
Structure Grammar (PSG), which appears the closest to traditional grammar; Government
and binding etc. Some of the generally discussed topics in syntax using these theories
include constituency; hierarchical ordering of constituents, structural ambiguity, and
transformations.
Syntax like the other components of linguistics goes beyond individual languages to the
establishment of general trends across languages. The language typology of sentence
structure is among the most basic of such approaches in syntax. Among the basic
sentence structure - types across languages are the
SVO - Subject-verb-object
SOV - Subject-object-verb
VSO - Verb-subject-object
SVO languages are the direct opposite of the SOV in terms of various properties of
grammar. For instance prepositions are preferred to postpositions, conjunctions are
attached to succeeding conjuncts; modifiers follow the nouns they modify. Some
examples would suffice here.
English
John killed the goat
S V O Igbo Obi gburu ewu 'Obi killed the goat'
S V O
Yoruba
Ade pa ewure Ade killed a goat S V O
However, in the realization of adjectival constructions, Igbo and a number of other
African languages may be considered as inconsistent SVO languages as they consistently
post pose their adjectives. Hence we have
Igbo
ewu ojii 'black goat'
nwoke ocha 'fair complexioned man'
Yoruba
ewure dudu 'black goat1
pkunrin pupa 'a fair complexioned man'
This is of course different from what obtains in English 'black pen' 'red shoes'. It is clear,
therefore from the foregoing that there may well be general tendencies, in typologies,
there are however no straitjacket solutions to the issue. The various theories noted earlier
grant further insight into this complex tapestry of grammatical affiliations.
Morphology
Closely related to syntax in its operation is a rather smaller area, more or less an adjunct
of syntax. There is morphology which specializes in the preparation, for syntax, its basic
tool of operation - words or lexical items. The general operational concept in
morphology is the morpheme. This, of course, can be sub-categorized or broken down
into morphs. Morphemes may be 'free' or 'bound'. Words, morphemic constructions
that can stand on their own and convey a meaning are said to be free morphemes while
those that cannot are designated bound morphemes. Consequently, in the English word
'untrue' true is a free morpheme while un - is a bound morpheme. It is noteworthy that
while 'un' inherently has no meaning on its own, when attached to lexical items a
meaning emerges thus •
untrue not true
unequal not equal
unholy not holy
The phonological component impacts on morphology as well. consideration of the
following will convince us of the validity of this assertion.

illegal not legal

irregular not regular
improper not proper
The change in the rendition of the prefix is supplied by phonological rules.
By this we sec that while morphology has a close association with syntax, phonology is
actively involved in morphological process. Morphophonology is an area of Linguistics
that captures and discusses the interface of morphology and phonology.
Semantics
Semantics is all about meaning in language especially natural languages. No matter how
well structured a sentence is, meaning is the only factor that ensures its relevance in
communication. Chomsky 1965, virtual parody of the Structuralists near obsession with
sentence structure makes our point clear. In the work Chomsky gives an example:
'Colourless green ideas sleep furiously'
Structure wise the utterance is flawless. It can be broken down into NP + VP. The NP
'colourless green idea', while the VP is made up of 'sleep furiously'. But the whole
utterance is all sound, structure and no sense. It is meaningless, with no ultimate semantic
component. Hence semantics deals with various shades of meanings in language.
Meanings could be denotative or connotative. Denotative meanings reflect the 'direct'
meaning of a given utterance while the connotative or 'hidden' or 'indirect' may not be
seen to emanate from the utterance's components.
'John kicked the bucket'
From a denotative sense a male individual called John using his foot struck a metal or
plastic container, bucket. From a connotative, opaque dimension 'John died'. Hence
idioms, proverbs collocations constitute issues of interest in semantics.
Applied Linguistics
The various aspects or components of Linguistics so far discussed viz phonetics,
phonology, syntax, morphology and semantics constitute the core of Linguistics. They
are often classified as theoretical Linguistics. The application of the findings of
theoretical Linguistics yields the other aspect of Linguistics known as Applied
Linguistics. More often in these parts Applied Linguistics is rather narrowed down to
the application of linguistic principles to teaching. While the aptness of the
application of linguistic framework to pedagogy cannot be doubted, the application
has a wider scope. Sociolinguistics discusses the interface of language and society;
psycholinguistics is concerned with detailing the interface of language and the mind - all
these through the use of linguistic theories. For instance Sociolinguistics often is
preoccupied with the social and other indices that determine how people use their
language. Indices such as age, sex, social status - all have significant influence on our
speech.
From the foregoing it is clear that a lot about language is now known, through modern
linguistic research. But has Nigeria actually benefitted from this, in spite of her
multilingual setting? In the early twentieth century in Nigeria, the issue of linguistic
research especially as concerns local languages was almost non-existent. This may well
be a factor of our colonial experience. English was the only language most people felt
needed to be studied and spoken effectively to secure a good education, a good job and to
be accepted in a society governed by the English. The rather robust multiciplicity of
Nigerian languages and their dialects was seen as a setback and some expatriate scholars
bemoaned this. Ward 1936 bared her mind when she explained the difficulty of selecting
a standard variety of Igbo. Multiplicity of Igbo dialects and the absence of a common or
central ruler constituted a great barrier to this unifying force or project.
Indigenous Languages' Teaching/Learning
We note here that part of the problem at that point of the Nigerian national developments
with regards to linguistic research was largely non-awareness of the wide range of
possibilities open to linguists, properly motivated in the study of languages. It took
linguists like Bamgbose to draw attention to these possibilities and declare
multilingualism a way of life of some speech communities and not a calamity or

disaster. All that was needed was proper management of these linguistic resources.
With the efforts of linguists and favourably disposed politicians and government policy
makers, the issues of learning and teaching of Nigerian languages got the much needed
attention they deserved. That, of course, was the preliminary stage. The National
Policy on Education, (NPE) had a language component, advocating the teaching and
learning of three major Nigerian languages, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. Pupils were also
expected to be taught in their mother tongue/the language of their immediate
environment. The latter, we believe, is to ensure that other local languages are not left to
extinction. However, after over two decades of the existence of the (NPE) has
indigenous languages' teaching and research in Nigeria fared any better? To most
linguists and interested onlookers, the language component of the NPE has been a huge
paper tiger. No doubt some success has been recorded. Certainly, it could be better,
indeed a lot better.
Although, the three major languages are taught in schools - primary, secondary and
tertiary; there are problems. These range from outright apathy on the part of native
speakers to Government's partial or lukewarm commitment to the promotion of
indigenous languages in the country. A good example of both is the policy on the use of
the mother-tongue or the language of the immediate environment, for pupils in Nursery
and primary school. We know that such schools often prefer to use English as medium
of instruction. Some even introduce other European languages at the expense of the local
languages. In Ikekeonwu (1986a) it was shown that many university Nursery and primary
schools as well as our 'high brow' schools arc culprits.

In the secondary schools the trend is not much different except, of course, in the Unity
schools where the three major Nigerian languages are taught to usually a handful of
students who opt to study them. The reluctance to teach the indigenous languages has to
do with the apathy on the part of the teachers, students and parents.

This situation needs an active intervention by the Federal Government, State

governments as well as well meaning, patriotic Nigerians. Universities and the Institute
for Nigerian languages could be called upon to proffer solutions to the ugly situation that
threatens quite a significant number of languages with total extinction.
Families must be alive to their responsibility of rearing children that are not aliens to their
roots and pathetic parroters of alien languages and cultures. By this posture, it is not
being advocated that our children be exposed only to our local/indigenous languages.
Given both our antecedent as an ex-colony, and the all pervading globalization, that
would be playing the ostrich. What we need do as suggested in Ikekeonwu and Nwadike
2004 is to get our younger ones bilingual or multilingual as the case may be early in life.
This is linguistically possible, since the younger the child the more readily amenable to
language acquisition/learning.

Some may, however, be skeptical about the whole issue of promoting multilingualism in
a country that some claim is already suffused or awash with languages. Various estimates
have been presented on the number of languages in Nigeria. These range from 250 to
well over 400 (see Ikekeonwu 2007). The current population of Nigeria (see the 2006
census) is put at about 140 million7. This means a population of 140 million speaks
between 250 and 400 languages. The impact of this multiplicity of languages palls into
insignificance when compared with the linguistic situation in Papua New Guinea where
only about three million (3 million) people share 800 languages! (see Edward Finegan,
David Blair, Peter Collins (2000).

What we need is an effective management of our languages through the enunciation and
strict implementation of well-thought out language policies. There is also the need to
motivate all those interested in Linguistics and Nigerian languages.
Various communities can do a lot to promote their indigenous languages. They can
sponsor their sons and daughters to study Linguistics and their language. Everything
should not be left for the Federal and state governments. they should encourage
publications in their languages and use the language(s) in their public gatherings,
television, radio etc. This would go a long way to preventing language loss/extinction.
The loss of a language is the loss of a people, their identity and cultural heritage. Even if
these people are alive and healthy they are psychologically empty and enslaved by the
language and culture that have supplanted theirs. I believe we are beginning to see how
important, our languages are. State assemblies that rattle off all their deliberations in
languages other than theirs would probably now see what great disservice they are doing
to the development and propagation of their language.

2. Gender
For many, especially those in language studies, in the past the word gender would
immediately be located within the threshold of grammar. Some languages classify their
lexical items along gender lines hence some words are masculine, while others are
feminine and yet another group neuter. Languages like Latin and French readily come to
mind in this respect.

Our consideration of gender here is not in this manner but in respect of the contemporary
understanding of gender as referring to all about the woman from her cradle to the grave.
It is in this sense that the United Nations encapsulates her Millennium Development goal
(MDG) number 3. We would take a look at the girl-child, the woman in her prime and
finally the woman in her old age. These various facets of the Human female (HF) as she
frets and struts on life's stage would be examined from the Nigerian perspective. This
invariably would showcase some experiences of many an African/Asian woman.

The Girl Child

In many African countries the girl-child is born into a strictly regimented, socially
delimited arrangement. She is seen as tender; she is loved; she however is born with roles
engraved as it were, on her soul and palms the roles of care giving and procreation. It is
the duty of her parents and all and sundry - neighbours, strangers, passersby and all, to
help her get well prepared for the execution of these roles. Starting from the naming day,
these roles and qualities earlier pointed out are specified. In Ikekeonwu 2002,1 did
indicate this 'mixed-bag' naming phenomenon. The names are categorized into Gender
Prone Names (GPN). GPN subsumes names that indicate the following:

- The girl as an object of beauty and feminity

- The girl as a chattel lamentation/disappointment it's a girl (lamentation labels)
the girl as prospective mother and supreme caregiver market day names
In that paper many Igbo girls' names were used as relevant examples.

1. Mma 'Beauty'
2. Ulumma 'Beautiful second daughter'
3. Nwanyimma 'Beautiful girl'
4. Adamma 'Beautiful first daughter'
5. Akunna 'Father's wealth'
6. Egonna 'Father's money'
7. Ogbenyealu 'Not to be married by the poor'
8. Egobekee To be used to fetch the white man's money'
9. Ndidi 'Patience'
10. Nwanyibuife 'A girl is also something'
11. Nwanyimeole 'What can a girl do?
12. Nneamaka 'Mother is good'
13. Nneoma 'Good mother'
14. Nneka 'Mother is supreme'
15.Mgbeke
16.Mgboye
I7.Mgbafor
I8.Mgbokwo

Names 1-4 exalt the beauty and inherent feminity of the girl. The beauty names
emphasize facial or surface values. Names 5-8 emphasize the traditional 'chattel' value of
the woman in the culture. She is to be sold off, as it were to make money for the
father/family. Names 9-11 are the lamentation labels often to comfort a family that has
had successive births of girls. The undertone is that she is not welcome but what do we
do but to manage or tolerate her. Names 15-18 depict the market days on which the girl is
born. One would wonder why that should be of any significance here. Aren't boys also so
named, that is based on the day of birth. However a close linguistic scrutiny of the
morphology of such names reveals unsettling connotative references or innuendoes? For
the male child it is

19. Nwa + eke —> Nweke 'the child of Eke' .'

20. Oke + eke —> Okeke 'the portion of Eke'
For the girl it is
21. Mgbe + eke —» Mgbeke 'time of Eke/on eke day'
22. Mgbe + oye —> Mgboye " " Oye/on oye day'

The undertone of the assertiveness in the male names 19-20 is clear while the diffidence
of the female names 21-22 is also .ipparent. A happening on a day - the birth of a girl-
child -rannot be compared with the assertion of ownership of the day the child of Eke/a
portion of Eke.

The semantic implications, therefore, show the extent of language engineering and the
anthropocentric values involved.-

There are petting names for the girl-child in Yoruba.

Abike "born to be petted"
Folake "petted with wealth"
Morenike, "I have someone to pet"
we have dwelt on these names because of their overt or covert effect on the bearers of the
names. We note that for of care-giving and procreation would not bother if the girl drops
out to marry. Some of the younger drop-outs could be forced into marriage, sometimes
with dire consequences for the girls. The many cases of Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF)
are eloquent testimonies to this terrible malaise in our society. Further, poverty stricken
background of the girl exposes her to the whims of some wealthy, morally bankrupt men.
So teenage pregnancy or even HIV/AIDS comes knocking. Poorly supervised co-
educational schools springing up in every nook and cranny of our urban centres,
especially, compound the problem of immorality and increase adolescent girl casualties.

A recent billboard that appears to adorn every major street in Kampala, Uganda shows a
full grown, apparently married man pot-belly, receding hair, thick palms and all-standing
suggestively close to a teenage girl and there is the inscription "Would you like your
friend to be found with your daughter? Why are you with his?" In Nigeria the scenario, in
this respect is not much different, if different at all.
The adolescent or young woman getting into the university in recent times is also faced
with problems of distraction and economic crunch. Some who find the pressure
overwhelming may even readily succumb to the enticing campaign of traffickers
promising greener pastures abroad after an easy passage. They take the plunge and never
really recover as they are prostituted across various European towns/cities. No thanks to
what may be described as negative globalization.

It is no longer news in our Ivory Towers that some lecturers and administrative staff take
turns at sexually harassing their students. The Igbo adage that states "A dog does not
chew the bone hung on its neck" is of course not wholesome to these interesting
characters who not only chew the bone on their neck but snarl at or even bite anyone that
dares to come near or comment on this despicable act turning character molders to
character marauders!
In the earlier days of the woman's foray into university education in Nigeria, that is in the
1950s and sixties when there were only a few women in the universities, this trend could
hardly be imagined let alone actualized. This, probably, was due to the age and maturity
of these women, most of who were derisively referred to as 'acada'. It is also possible that
the morality threshold of the male lecturers and administrators of the time was reasonably
high. We do not however advocate the setting back of the clock, making the women go
through various circuitous academic programmes before getting to the university at a
much older age, at many of these women would have gone through primary school,
teacher training colleges, higher school etc. before eventually arriving at the university
fully mature. The MDG(specifically 2 and 3) which advocate equal educational
opportunities for boys and girls would not support this8.

We advocate firm disciplinary action against any lecturer/administrative staff found

wanting in this regard, that is in the sexual harassment of any female student.
Alongside social matters, we must also consider the content of the disciplines/courses
female undergraduates embark on. This of course is invariably an offshoot of the subjects
they handled or learnt in the secondary school. Williams 1987 remarks on the issue of
dichotomy in disciplines male and female students take to:

...in addition to other factors which are contributory to the rate of female participation in
STM education female students tend to take the least line of resistance by going into
disciplines designated as feminine such as liberal arts, education etc and shy away from
courses in STM designated masculine.

There has been some improvement in this observation, as some women have- gone into
and prospered in Science, Technology and Mathematics. It is no longer a strange event in
Nigeria to see women graduating from the Engineering faculty or the medical school.
There is, however, still so much gap to be covered.
On graduation two main challenges face the young woman - labour market and marriage.
The one-year National Youth Service which is compulsory for all Nigerian graduates
below the age of thirty (30) plays a role here in that some of the female graduates meet
their husband during the service. The latter promotes inter-ethnic marriages since corpers
generally serve in states other than theirs. With the issues of marriage and employment
sorted out the female graduate feels partially fulfilled. Her fulfillment comes after the
arrival of the baby(ies). This is not restricted, however, to the female graduate, even her
sisters who had dropped out of school or who never went to school have the same burden.
A childless marriage in many African cultures results in either separation or divorce. The
birth of all girls has an identical result. In both cases the woman is often held responsible,
sometimes in defiance of contrary medical report. The unfortunate ones die during the
holocaust of violence, and I lustration unleashed on them both by their spouses and his
relations.

To contain issues of violence against women, the UN has instituted the convention for the
Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Over eighty
countries have ratified CEDAW but only a negligible few have actually domesticated it.
Nigeria, unfortunately, is yet lo domesticate CEDAW.

Perhaps, among the most outrageous acts of violence against women in Nigeria, and
indeed many African countries are the barbaric and cruel widowhood practices. Cases
abound of these very dehumanizing practices. The story of one Mrs. Patience Nwose
from one of the southern states in Nigeria is a case in point. She recently relayed her
experience during the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN) Widows' Forum
in Lagos in Nigeria.

A mother of four, her husband died in an automobile accident as he was returning

home from work in the ever busy Lagos traffic. She was taken home with her children for
the burial and after the burial, her head cropped and donning on a black dress she was
taken to a bush. There her clothes were removed and she stayed for about three weeks
all alone getting little or no food for the period. She was to go through the ordeal to show
she was not guilty of the husband's death. If she was, it is assumed she would not
survive. Patience
survived but came back very ill.

'

Some widows are made to many the late husband's brother or relation. Refusal
always constitutes a good ground for the total abandonment of the widow and the
children. Some others are completely dispossessed of all the property and sent into the
cold with the children. Most of the studies from which our conclusions have been drawn
are focused on the South Eastern part of Nigeria among the Igbo.
 These practices affect both the uneducated and educated women. In some
cases though the educated women refuse to succumb to the threats of their in-laws as they
(the women) were salary earners and were able to cater for their children to some extent.
Some have sought for help and protection from various religious organizations.
Women in Public Life

We now turn attention to the woman in public life in Nigeria. On this score the
results are not heartwarming. The rural woman is generally relegated to the background
in virtually everything. Generally, she is uneducated, a subsistence farmer or a petty
trader and often a mother of many children. Luckily, some Non-Governmental
organizations have taken a keen interest in their plight in recent times. The Nigerian
Association of University Women (NAUW) the affiliate of the International
Federation of University Women (IFUW) in Nigeria has for the past four ( 4 ) years or
so concentrated one of her projects (partly sponsored by the international body, Bina
Roy Partners in Development (BRPID)) on rural communities in the country, trying to
empower rural women both through adult education/literacy classes and skill
acquisition arrangements.

The educated urban dwelling women while they may Make their mark in their
various disciplines are often discriminated against in terms of appointments.
The educational and political platforms provide support for this assertion. Iliya (1999)
comments on women's appointments
in the teaching industry as it were.

In Nigeria a substantial proportion of teachers particularly at the lower

levels of education are women. There are more women teaching in the
Nursery, primary and Secondary schools than we have in the tertiary
institutions but very few women ever become headmistress and
principals...

Iliya's 1999 assertion is still largely true of the situation ten years on. At the tertiary
level the story is not cheering. There is a glaring gender disparity in number and ranks
of the academic staff. There are certainly more male Professors, Deans, Directors and
Chairpersons of vital university committees. To date the highly elevated post of the
Vice Chancellor has been held by only three (3) women in a country that has over
sixty (60) universities - (Federal and State). Since there is the common adage, charity
begins at home we may look at the situation at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka
(UNN).

The University has never had a woman as the Vice Chancellor, UNN may not be
alone in this regard as none of the older universities has had a female Vice Chancellor
as well. UNN indeed only produced her first female Deputy Vice Chancellor recently
during the administration of Prof. Chinedu Nebo. This is really commendable for
the administration and we hope will blaze a new trail in elections/appointments of
women to elevated policy making positions in the institution. We also note that
Professor Chinedu Nebo's administration has produced the highest number of female
Deans in the history of the University.

It could however be argued that only a handful of women, given the constraints
already stated, get to teach in the university. Those who get there in many cases are
not readily promoted into higher lectureship cadre/rank that would qualify them to
vie for these positions. While it is indeed very necessary for more women to get into
academics and prove their mettle through effective research and worthy publications,
the constraint against them, even if they so wish, should not be underrated. The
younger woman has to combine raising a family and serious academic work. In
many developing countries, Nigeria inclusive, cybercafe's are the rather few, and on
university campuses, they are heavily patronized such that many academics have to
jostle for spaces in (hem with their students. The female academics especially the
younger ones can hardly get access to the internet, for instance, since the school-run
period takes its toll on the break lime that might have been used to visit the
cybercafe. We are, however, happy to observe that Prof. Nebo's administration
has tackled rather vigorously the access to internet problem for the academics.
Facilities are provided to enable staff take advantage of them and readily gain access to
the internet. We are however not advocating a quota system m the university with
regards to women academics as this could be abused either overtly or covertly. We
however insist that any academic - female or male - who qualifies to be I promoted
or appointed to policy making position should be so 1 elevated without any form of
discrimination.
In the political arena in Nigeria the women have not fared better. A brief
consideration of the gender statistics of our various arms of the government shows this.
Nigeria has never, to the best of our knowledge, had neither a female Head of State nor
a female governor of a State. The House of Assembly in any of the Republics has never
had up to ten percent (10%) of its membership as female at any time in Nigerian history.
The current assembly is no exception.

However, it must be noted that the Obasanjo-led administration has so far in

Nigerian history been the most gender sensitive and appreciative. His administration
gave Nigeria the first female Minister of Finance after over forty years of Nigeria's
corporate existence. Bravo! The difference in this and other choices of women in
strategic policy making positions is always clear. The current Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's
administration has continued this trend and we hope it would gather momentum in due
course.
Having attempted, howbeit briefly an outline of the female child's life - from early
childhood through the teens, through adulthood, it may be necessary to comment on
her old age as well, since this issue has become an important global one especially
among various NGOs. In many countries especially the developing ones women get
neglected in old age. In the developed countries where there arc policies for taking
care of the aged the problem is not as severe. The aged get into Old Peoples' Homes in
many cases. Since the gradual disintegration of the extended family system in
Nigeria, the aged especially the aged female has been consistently neglected. Many if
not all their children leave for the cities and only visit once a year -- during
Christmas. While some money or gifts may be sent to them sporadically by these
children, they are very lonely and weak and getting to the local market may sometimes
become extremely difficult. Consequently, hunger becomes a serious problem to
grapple with. Shresta 2002 lists some of the problems of the elderly in Nepal as
follows: loneliness, limited income and social obligations, alienation, fear and regret.
These are very similar to the experiences of the elderly especially women in Nigeria.

Many of the problems we have noted in our gender survey above emanate from
the wrongful perception of the nature and role of the female in our society. Women are
generally relegated to the background and perceived as weak physically, mentally and
emotionally. But this is a dangerous, largely unfounded theory. However, the wrong
perception of the girl/woman in our society has taken a serious toll on their
personality, career and general wellbeing. A change in this unfortunate perception is not
impossible if all concerned will maintain an open mind. The way most African
cultures laud motherhood leaves a bright hope for this,"
When this is achieved our society would definitely experience a great positive turn-
around, right from the family. A proper perception of the potential of the women
would almost automatically get them into the policy making arena where they need to
be, at various strata of the society and a better, happier society would emerge. Lets
consider the submission below in the Unicef publication earlier noted.

The consequences of women's exclusion from household decisions can be as

dire for children as they are for women themselves. In families in which women are
decision-makers, the proportion of resources devoted to children is far greater than in
those in which women have a less decisive role. This is because women generally place
a higher premium than men on welfare -related goals and are more likely to use their
influence and there sources they control to promote the needs of children in particular
and of the family in general.

Conclusion
Language and gender as we have seen in my brief survey constitute veritable
areas of investigation, dedicated research and societal appreciation.
A multilingual setting as ours in Nigeria calls for a better understanding of the nuances
of language and language engineering best practices that would turn these languages
into assets rather than liabilities. Linguists must be involved in issues of language
appreciation and re-positioning language policies should be dutifully implemented.
This is facilitated when such policies are unambiguous in their couching. Indigenous
language development should not be left for the Federal Government alone. State
governments, speech communities, the religious organizations all have significant roles
to play. Some communities have their language on the brink of extinction while
waiting for the Federal government to come and develop their orthography, document
their sentence structure, showcase the role of language in their society/culture etc.
They might as well be waiting for Godot.

Various communities gather during festivals and discuss development projects

such as building town halls, providing pipe-borne water, electricity etc but never to talk
about the fate of their language in a highly multilingual, competitive and dynamic
nation where only the fittest survive. With all these trappings of modernization without
a vibrant living language, the centre cannot hold, and it is only a question of time
before a full manifestation of the loss of their collective psyche, common voice and
identity.
The global awareness of the potential of • the girl/woman has in recent times led
to significant shifts in policy making at indeed very high/elevated levels. The UN has
blazed the trail in this regard; appointing women into significant positions. We note
the positions of Dr. Oby Ezekwesili and Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iwela in the UN monetary
institutions. A Tanzanian lady is next in rank to Ban Kimoon the UN Secretary
General. All this is heartwarming and promises a great future for the woman in
particular and for humanity in general. We hope that future would arrive soon; and be
sustained.

Chairman Sir, this inaugural lecture would, to me appear inconclusive

without a mention, no matter how brief, of those whom God used in various
capacities, to actualize the event of today.

My dear parents Hon. Chief and Loolo Josiah Iwuala started it all. I fondly
dedicated my doctoral thesis to them with the words "To my parents, Chief and Mrs
J.U. Iwuala who saw the gem in giving a woman a formal education". I thank God for
blessing me with such wonderful parents. By His grace, they saw me through before
ascending to greater glory.

I wish to acknowledge with gratitude the intellectual seed sown in me by all

my teachers from primary to the tertiary level. At the tertiary level I was privileged
to have been moulded by such accomplished scholars as Prof. M.J.C. Echemo, Prof. D.I.
Nwoga (late) Prof. Romanus Egudu, Prof. (Mrs) Juliet Okonkwo; Prof. Helen Chukwuma
(then Helen Peters), Prof. Emmanuel Obiechina - all at the time lecturers at the
Department of English of this great institution.
.

For my Masters and Ph.D I was again in the hands of international scholars of repute,
Prof. Allan Cruttenden and Prof. Robert G. Armstrong (late) respectively. To all of
them I say a big thank you. I must also mention with gratitude the influence on my
academic work, of that revered colossus of phonetics, late Prof. Peter Ladefoged. His
encouragement led lo I lie publication of some of my better known international
contributions to phonetics.

I thank my Swedish colleagues and friends at the Department of Linguistics and

Phonetics, Lund University, Sweden. My sabbatical leave there proved to be very
productive, due to the co-operation and conducive social environment I enjoyed. I
thank specially Prof. Gosta Bruce, i he Head of Department then.

It has also been very interesting working in the Department of Linguistics

and Nigerian Languages of this University. I thank God for the experience.

I appreciate my friends at the International Federation of University Women

(IFUW), Louise Croot (current President) Dorothy Meyer, Jenny Strauss, Elizabeth
Poskit, Reiko Aoki, Shirley Randell Leigh Bradford Ratteree, Susan philips, Alice Kagoda,
Clara Osinulu and many more. My interaction with these seasoned academics,
administrators, and voice for the voiceless women has really positively impacted on
me in my assessment of women empowerment issues and global gender
equations/politics.
May I also acknowledge the contribution to my academic odyssey of my many
MA and Ph.D supervisees. I NOTE particularly my ex-doctoral supervisees - Drs
Ijeoma Okorji, Frances Chukwukere; Cecilia Eme; Joy Uguru, Gideon Omachonu
and Evelyn Mbah. These have all through their various academic achievements both
nationally and internationally, continued to prove their mettle and make me proud. Bravo,
I say to them!

I would like to appreciate my children. They have been a significant source of

comfort and courage in my life. May God bless them the more.

I remember with warm regards my friends at the SCOAN, especially our great
mentor and quintessential servant of God, Prophet T.B. Joshua OFR.

Finally, I thank in a very special way Prof. Chinedu Ositadimma Nebo our Vice
Chancellor for effectively redefining and galvanizing inaugural lectures at the University
of Nigeria. At the inception of his administration there were only a few inaugural
lectures to the credit of an institution that came into existence over four decades earlier.
Today we have well over twenty more. We will not forget this great achievement and
commitment to academic excellence of your administration. The efforts of the dedicated
scholars that constitute the Senate Ceremonials Committee under the able leadership of
Prof. Obi Njoku, are highly commended and appreciated for the achievement of this feat.
Thank you.
In conclusion I thank all that found time to attend this lecture. Thank you and God
bless.

NOTES

Prof. Clara Ikekeonwu is currently the Director, Institute for Nigerian Languages,
University of Nigeria, Aba Campus.

De Saussure, a French linguist is generally considered the father of modern linguistics.

Any speech sound used distinctively in speech of a linguistic community constitutes a
phoneme.

The idiolect is the totality of an individual's speech mannerisms or idiosyncrasies.

A minimal pair is a pair of words that are similar in all respects but differ in one sound
segment. This difference results in a difference in the meaning of the words.

pan /paen/ -'a metal container often with a handle' ban /baen/ -'embargo'
pan and ban constitute a minimal pair in the English language.

Cognates are a pair or set of words that depict systematic sound correspondences and
semantic

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