What is a spoken word community

Vernacular

A speech community is a group of people who share rules for conducting and interpreting at least one variety of a language or dialect. The term can be applied to a neighborhood, a city, a region or a nation. We all belong to at least one speech community. The earliest speech community we belong to is the one we share with our primary caregivers (usually our parents) and is the basis for some of the most intimate and long term relationships we form across our life. The rules and norms of this speech community show up in a dialect referred to as the vernacular, the most basic variety or dialect of language we command. Our vernacular speech is least susceptible to monitoring and least likely to change across our lifetime.

Most of us were immersed in language from our first awareness of the world around us. Since infants can hear the sound of their mother’s voice and the noises and interactions in her environment in the womb, we probably hear our first sounds before we take our first breath. Fairly early in our development, we target in our babbling those sounds that form the phonology of our language or dialect. In interaction with us, our mother adjusts her speech to reflect the phonology, morphology, semantic and syntactic relationships that we are learning. Indeed, our vernacular speech forms the very basis of all future linguistic interaction and development. Across our lifetime we will participate in, construct, engage in, and possibly abandon many speech communities. No other will be as primary.

How are identity and vernacular connected?

Our vernacular speech is the language of this earliest communication. Through this community, we are introduced to our culture, our heritage, and the ways of being that are important in our development as a member of the human community. It forms the basis of our adult identity. That is why vernacular speech is often called our mother tongue. It is the form of speech spoken to us by our mothers, and it is the mother of (the basis of) the development of other forms of speech.

Our next speech community involves our neighborhood and the larger extended family. Unless we were reared in multi or bilingual communities and neighborhoods, the norms of our vernacular speech community and other early speech communities are not that different from each other. In fact, the first contrast probably occurs when we begin to participate in religion or school. Both of these communities involve regular, face-to-face interaction between us and a larger group of people who may or may not share vernacular speech similar to our own.

Home and School

What may be sources of a conflict in one’s identity, particularly when children enter school?

When we enter school we bring more than the pronunciation patterns, lexicon, syntactic structures, semantic and interpretive frameworks of the language variation or dialect we speak. We have begun to learn to whom we should say what and when. Furthermore, we have learned rules of conversation and linguistic interaction. We have learned to identify whose turn it is to speak, how to get the floor ourselves, and when a person’s turn is over. All of these linguistic skills support us in our first steps toward the development of literacy. When the patterns of the speech communities we join at school are not that much different from the discourse patterns of the speech community (or communities) we participate in with our parents, literary development is more natural and easier.

When the linguistic heritage we bring to school contrasts sharply with the norms of the speech community of the school, it creates difficulties not just for speaking but for participating. If our linguistic heritage is viewed as problematic, divergent, or substandard, we may think of ourselves as problems. We may feel shame for who we are and the community we come from. If how we speak, gain access to participation, interpret behavior, or respond politely is misunderstood by the school as laziness, recalcitrance, disrespectfulness, or stupidity, our entire educational future and our ability to achieve our intellectual potential may be called into question.

Linguistic heritage that is suspect usually comes from those who either speak a different language or use dialects judged to be non-standard. John Ogbu points out that just because people speak a different language or dialect does not mean they will not do well in learning a new language and in achieving success in a new culture. But in the United States as well as other countries in the world, some groups do better in this process than others. Some point to cultural patterns to account for differences in successful participation. Yet, as we look at different immigrant groups we find this may or may not be true. For example, people often suggest that the reason Puerto Ricans have not done well in American schools is because of differences in eye contact in their culture compared to the dominant or majority culture of the United States. However, the Punjabi usually do very well in the United States even though they share similar cultural differences involving eye contact. Furthermore, immigrant Korean and Japanese students do equally well in the majority culture of the U.S., even though their cultural practices are quite different from ours. Ironically, Korean students in Japan whose families were brought there as forced labor do significantly worse than Japanese students, even though the cultures of Korea and Japan are much more alike than the cultures of the U.S. and Korea.

Different Reactions

How do voluntary vs. involuntary groups react?

John Ogbu accounts for these discrepancies by pointing to the difference between voluntary and involuntary (or caste minority) groups. Voluntary immigrants are those who came willingly to this country. They expect to learn a new language and find ways to gain access to and participate in a new culture. Therefore, while the speech community they meet at school is different from their own, they expect to be able to use the vernacular speech they brought with them as the basis from which their new language will emerge. For voluntary immigrants, learning the new language and participating in this new speech community is, in the long run, viewed as a positive and exhilarating experience. Voluntary immigrants plan to add this new language and culture to their repertoire of language styles. They expect to participate in additive bilingualism.

Involuntary immigrants (caste minorities) come into a country against their will, or they represent caste minorities like the forced labor Koreans in Japan and the African Americans in this country. They are also represented by groups of conquered and oppressed people within a country, like Native American groups. In the foundations course we discussed resistance theory. After consistently experiencing rejection by the majority community, students sometimes become aggressive or belligerent toward or actively resist the majority culture. Involuntary immigrants respond in similar ways. Because of the response to their culture and language, these immigrants have developed cultural practices which have emerged either in response to their rejection by the majority culture or have been interpreted by the minority group as resistance toward the majority culture. In order to become part of the majority discourse community, involuntary immigrants feel they will have to give up their own culture and practice subtractive bilingualism. However, when individual members of the community have rejected the language of their speech community, this has not guaranteed their success in the dominant culture.

Language Choice

How do identity and culture formation/crisis translate to an individual’s choice of language(s) and attitudes toward culture(s)?

Involuntary immigrants and caste minorities may feel that they have to give up their vernacular, a vital and central part of their identity, to participate in the speech community of the schools. Caste minorities usually have a shared heritage of rejection by majority institutions. Parents and grandparents may have tried to participate in the discourse of schools and been rejected by those institutions. Therefore, while they recognize the power of the majority culture, they may not be willing or able to support their children in engaging successfully with school speech communities.

Most of us either now or in the past have participated in many speech communities. There is the speech community of our religious affiliations, our occupations or careers, our neighborhood, and our families. As adolescents, we all learned a new language consisting of the register of adolescents. We developed new words for old concepts. We shared language and interaction patterns with our peers that marked us as distinct from the adult culture we would one day join. What we learned as we participated in speech communities was that just because we use the correct language, have the right clothes, and use the right moves, doesn’t mean we will be able to command the discourse of the speech community. In fact, we might still be rejected by it.

When we don’t feel comfortable in a particular speech community, we may adopt strategies like silence, avoidance, or other social practices that protect us from what we perceive may result in public rejection.

Usually, we move easily and fluidly from one speech community to another. We are in the situation—the family reunion, the class reunion, the Sunday School class, and the grocery store—and we simply use the language and social interaction patterns that come to us. Only when we are uncertain of our ability to reproduce the linguistic and social norms appropriate for the community do we become uncomfortable. William Labov pointed out that teachers usually come from white lower-middle-class backgrounds. In the process of becoming educated as teachers, they have crossed the boundary into a different class. As a result, they are hypersensitive to the norms that govern academic discourse communities. This hypersensitivity results in their hypercorrection of the speech of their own students.

Classroom Rules and Power Relations

As teachers, we often forget that we have authority and power in our classrooms. For the most part, we can decide what kinds of social interaction and linguistic styles, registers and patterns will be acceptable in our classrooms. We can create classrooms that have rigid performance standards rather than classrooms that are places for students to gain experience in learning the culture and linguistic practices of academic discourse. Instead of creating a speech community where all are not just welcomed, but the culture and language they bring is valued and respected, we create communities of exclusion. Research shows that children who can command participation in the widest range of academic discourse communities are those who will be most successful. It also shows that the best predictor of academic achievement is the home background of the child. What this implies is that for most children, schools are not environments for learning and developing skill and potential but a great sorting ground where they are constantly tested and evaluated on what they already know and can do.

Teachers can also be so non-judgmental and inclusive they send false messages to their students. My own daughter once said to me, “My teacher says it doesn’t matter if I can add and subtract. What matters is that I feel good about what I can do.” While I want my daughter to have a strong self-concept, it does indeed matter for her long-term success whether she can command the language of mathematics with precision and accuracy. Thus, as Lisa Delpit points out, teachers may disenfranchise students if they pretend that whatever they bring is enough and if they do not help students from minority and culturally diverse backgrounds to position themselves to command the academic discourses that lead to future success.

Impact on Identity and Development

How do classroom rules impact our students, their identity, and their development?

Teachers need to create classroom communities that not only embrace diversity, but school students in discourse practices allowing and encouraging them to become bidialectal, bilingual, and bicultural and support their identity. We can do this by teaching students the rules of speech communities, by helping them understand differences in the vernacular language they bring to schools and the language of schools—not in ways that discredit their language and cultural heritage but in ways that support its value and complexity.

Teachers belong to many speech communities. More importantly, every year they have the opportunity to co-construct a new speech community. Each year they have a new opportunity to engage students in ways that guarantee them ongoing access to their vernacular speech and primary culture and also give them access to the majority discourse of schools.

References

Adapted with permission from:                                                                                             

Teemant, A. & Pinnegar, S. (2007). Understanding Langauge Acquisition Instructional Guide. Brigham Young University-Public School Partnership. 

ABSTRACT 

The concept of speech community has attracted a lot of discussions for decades. Different scholars with divergent views have presented their opinions in order to elucidate the matter. In the light of this, this work does not only look into various definitions by these scholars, but also explains the concept of speech community.
Moreso, it seeks to differentiate language use between a typical Nigeria village and a city.
 

TABLE OF CONTENT 

1. Abstract
2. Introduction
3. The concept of speech community
4. The concept of language use
5. Differences: Language use in a typical Nigerian village and a city
6. Research Report: A village and a city (A case study: Abaa-gbooro and Lagos).
7. Significance of language use in Nigerian society
8. Conclusion
 9. Reference.

INTRODUCTION 

The adoption of the concept speech community as a focus of linguistic analysis emerged in the 1960’s. This was due to the pioneering work by William Labov, whose studies of language variation in New York City and Martha’s vineyard laid the groundwork for sociolinguistics as a social science. In his studies, it was revealed that class and profession were not only clearly related to language variation with a speech community, but socio-economic aspirations and mobility were also of great importance.

Prior to Labov’s studies, dialectology was the closest linguistic field that studies linguistic variations between different dialects. The application of dialectology is in rural communities. Therefore, there was no framework for describing language variation in cities until the emergence of socio-linguistics and speech community that applies to both rural and urban communities.
Since then, a number of studies have been done which further our knowledge about how speech communities work and extended its use. Prominent sociolinguists who have worked on speech communities include William Labov, John J. Gumperz, Lesley Milroy and Robin Lakoff.

THE CONCEPT OF SPEECH COMMUNITY 

Speech can be simply defined as the oral presentation of feelings, thoughts and expression. A community can be seen as a group of people living together who share the same norms and values for mutual interaction.
The concept of speech community is relatively important when talking about language. Speech community, as it is defined so far by different sociolinguists, can be regarded as a group of people living in the same location or scattered, who recognize a dialect or language as a medium of interaction.
According to Halliday (1978) “A speech community is one which is built and held together by people. The inhabitants of a particular community spend much of their energy, communicating with one another and sharing common ideas about a peaceful and productive co-existence.” All the people speaking a particular language or dialect, whether in a single geographical area or dispersed throughout various regions.
John Gumperz (1982) defines linguistic community as a social group which may be either monolingual or bilingual held together by frequency of social interaction patterns and set off from the surrounding areas by weaknesses in the line of communication. However, Gumperz later introduces the requirement that there should be some specially linguistic differences between the members of the speech community and those outside.
Hence, the criterion of communication is added, if two communities both speak the same language but had no contact with each other at all, they are regarded as different speech communities.
On the other side of the coin, a speech community could be a group of people who are scattered in many locations but maintain contact in abstraction by adopting one language. For instance, Nigeria, a large region is a speech community having a large population of people speaking different dialects in several geographical areas having English language as the major string binding their general communicative understanding.
Nevertheless, large region does not necessarily connote total abstraction. There are some factors that serve as agent of contact. For instance, kolanut, pepper and tomatoes trading facilitates contact between Northern and Western Nigeria.
Webster New World College (2010) defines speech community as the people speaking particular language or dialect whether in a single geographical area or dispersed throughout various regions. According to Romaine (1994:22) “A speech community is a group of people who do not necessarily share the same language, but share a set of norms and rules for the use of language. The boundaries between speech communities are essentially social rather than linguistic. A speech community is not necessarily co-extensive with a language community.”
Cordere (1973:53) “A speech community is made up of individuals who regard themselves as speaking the same language; it need have no other defining attributes.”

Hence, in the view points of the above scholars, a speech community can be related to people, a social organisation, a group of people, a linguistic community or simply speakers, members of the same speech community who share linguistics norms i.e they share understanding, values and attitudes about language varieties present in their community. They share some norms, either linguistically or paralinguistic features which make them mutually intelligible to each other. Spoken forms may differ but the written form is the same. For example, in China, Mandarin and Cantonese have the same graphology but speak differently. (topinsn) stopped

Moreover, when discussing about speech community, a lot of factors come into play such as language choice, language shift, language maintenance, language and identity, language and ethnicity etc. and of course, while the exact definition of speech community is debatable, there is a broad consensus that the concept is immensely useful, if not crucial for the study of language variation and change. This confirms the opinion of Dwight Bolinge that it has no limits to the ways in which human beings league themselves for self-identification, security, amusement, worship or any other purposes that are held in common. Consequently, there is no limit to the number and variety of speech communities that are to be found in society.

However, we have two types of speech community — the primary and secondary speech communities.

Primary speech community is composed of people who have always live in the same neighbourhood and who usually speak the same language. Rural communities fall under this category, e.g. Tonkere and Abagbooro in Ife. Secondary speech community composed of people that come together from different regions for a number of reasons. It could be for social economic, political, religious, educational reasons. These groups of people adopt one language for social and linguistic interaction because they are heterogeneous in nature. Cities like Ibadan, Port-Harcourt, Lagos fall under this category.

THE CONCEPT OF LANGUAGE USE 

Language is an indispensable tool in a speech community. Hence, language is a crucial factor that binds the people together in a speech community. The indispensability of language in a speech community is more or less like culture. As culture is a mode to identify a particular speech community; so is language, it could be seen as the trade mark of a particular speech community.

  
DIFFERENCES: LANGUAGE USE IN A TYPICAL NIGERIAN VILLAGE AND A CITY

Language variation is a major factor that features in the language use between typical Nigerian village and cities. There are some factors that are responsible for this, the group’s socio-economic status, common interest and the level of formality expected within the group and by its larger society. For instance, village inhabitants adopt a variety of a standard language not only for free flow of communication, but also to foster integration among themselves thus, building unity in the community. For example, the residents of Abaagbooro village in Ile-Ife speak the Ife dialect of Yoruba language.

Meanwhile, standard languages and varieties of languages that are spoken in cities are employed for several purposes ranging from families to government parastatals. It could be for political, economic, religious reasons. Standard language is used in offices because of the formality that is attached to various professions. For example, in city like Lagos, employees at bank or a factory would likely use formal language than a group of teenage workers at Tonkere village in Ife. This is because formality and professionalism is expected of bankers than from an informal circle of adolescent friends.

Educationally, in an urban setting, English is the medium of instruction, therefore, English language is not only the country’s official language but also the language of education. English still enjoys the sole language of instruction even at this lower level. The teachers are therefore forced to disseminate information via a common language (English). The more reason why the use of pidgin English is discouraged in a school environment but in the village setting which is homogenous like Abagbooro, Ile-Ife mode of instruction in schools are traced to the dialect of that particular town. The children in such setting are taught in the common language i.e. Ife dialect used by the community of Abagbooro.

In religious circle, Lagos is a city identified with three major religion: Christianity, Islam and traditional religion. The first two, are however becoming more pronounced especially with socialization and education. In this respect, language use in religious beliefs and practices are some of the factors that determine language use. Some assemblies like Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) Oke-Iyanu, Ikotun, Lagos do have a need for interpretation of discussion from English to other languages while some assemblies see no need for interpretation. Interpretation can either be from English to Yoruba, Igbo or Arabic. For instance, Assemblies of God Church Isolo, Lagos. The reason for this differences is traceable to the fact that Yoruba, Igbo, Arabic is the language of immediate environment. The programmes of event in the churches/mosques are printed in English, and it could also be printed in Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo or Arabic as the case may be.
 While in a village setting, the adopted language of religion is their mother tongue which is accepted as standard language. For instance, in Abagbooro, the language of religion is Yoruba according to our respondent (Oba Olowa of Elefon Palace Ile-Ife). In Abagbooro, their programmes of events are majorly printed in Yoruba.
In addition, language use in a rural setting by its dwellers tends to be raw i.e. the original form of a language. For instance, in Oyo land the expression “booin” which is the original Yoruba word is used. But Yoruba speakers in Lagos use the expression “bo si bi bai.” In cities, they are more refined in language use. In a Yoruba speaking village, if an important figure or individual dies it is said “erin wo” while in an urban setting, the announcement of the individual’s death is announced “O ku.” Due to the homogeneity of typical Nigeria villages, the level of improvement on language from raw to refined is very low. Urban centres harbour so many people with different ideologies as well as availability of industries, higher institutes of learning, recreational centres and other various organisations; the use of language is often standard. While a dialect/ethic language is spoken in our villages, english or pidgin is preferred in our metropolitan cities.
Furthermore, the use of language in a typical Nigeria village is used to show respect especially among the Yorubas’. For instance, a typical Yoruba wife will tell her husband “Your food is ready” meaning “Ounje yin ti de le” or “I have placed your food on the table” meaning “mo ti gbe ounje yin sori tabili.” With this, there is level of respect in her language usage. This also features between young and old folks. But in cities, housewives may call their husbands by name or pet name. Thus, language use between the speaker and the addressee to show respect in typical Nigeria village is different from the urban centres where there is little or none.

Also, language use in Nigeria villages promotes interpersonal relationships. For instance, in a typical Igbo village, there is no distinction between a brother, nephew, uncle and cousin they are all addressed as brother, more because of the extended family system that operates in the Igbo society. Even when they reside in the same area or community, they call themselves brothers and sisters, there is no clear- cut distinction. In contrast, urban dwellers sees themselves distant i.e. cousin will be a cousin, even if they are dwellers of the same street; face to face contact is rare, this creates a lot of gap between individuals not to talk of mutual relationship.
Nonetheless, language use in conversation between two individuals in cities most times lead to code mixing or code switching since most cities dweller are bilingual. They will not want to stick to one language thereby switching from one language to another, while some prefer to mix one language with another. Conversely, code mixing and code switching are rare in villages as they may not enhance communication flow more because of the existence of the homogeneity in villages, the dwellers are more of monolinguals. Few people that engage in code making are the few young educated ones who feel comfortable in mixing languages when conversing.

Similarly, the topic of discussion is another crucial thing that distinguishes a typical village from cities in language use. Villages are seeing as the seats or sources of cultural practices. Hence, cultural values are better discussed in rural expressions as the speaker will exhaust everything in details. Then, the topic will be easily understood. On the other side, the issues of politics, education, sports etc are often handled in English/pidgin in urban centres in order to carry people along. The issue of public opinion can be best discussed in pidgin or a low variety of English so as to let people to contribute meaningfully.
Most importantly, the use of proverbs is very common among rural dwellers. This shows that the inhabitants of villages are highly proficient in their dialect compare to those in cities. In the city, there is a use of situational code switching or mixing among the people. Most situations require informants to use Yoruba language for example, the informants need to speak to their landlords/landladies who are Yorubas to the security man or neighbour who are also Yoruba speakers. (UNDER CODE MIXING). Not only that, city dwellers tend to discuss issues on sports and political issues at their leisure whereas, village dwellers spend time telling moonlight tales, folklores etc due to their primitive way of life. Hence, the registers used in the cities are in sharp contrast with the ones used in the villages.

Furthermore, in our metropolitan cities, language use in fashion is more colourful and attractive e.g. jergens, tanktop, pencil skirt, swagger skirt, alter neck, pencil jeans, boot-cut, gladiators, etc. In contrast, fashion in villages is attached to the culture of that particular village. For instance in Yoruba culture they have wears like Agbada, Kembe, Abeti-Aja, Buba and Iro, etc.
Finally, social variation is another factor that distinguishes a typical Nigerian village from a city. By this, we mean that some city dwellers belong to the highest class who use social accent i.e a high variety of a standard language of that society. Whereas rural dwellers, which are mostly of the lowest class predominantly use localized accents. A stereotypical dialect speaker who is an elderly rural person is all but unintelligible to modern city dwellers. Meanwhile dialects are simply linguistic varieties which are distinguishable by their vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation; the speech of people from different social, cum regional groups may differ in these ways. Received Pronunciation is a social accent, so any standard language is a social dialect.

RESEARCH REPORT
Questions
(1) What is the major language spoken?
(2) What is the variety of language spoken?
(3) What is the rough estimated population of the residents?
(4) Is the community monolingual, bilingual or multilingual?
(5) How many schools are located in the area and the language used?
(6) What is their colloquial language?
(7) Which language is used in gatherings (formal meetings, social gathering etc)?
(8) What is their major occupation?
(9) What is their language of occupation?
(10) What is their language of worship?
 

Name of place Major language spoken Variety of language spoken Population Monolingual or bilingual Number of schools Language used in schools Colloquial language Language use in meeting Occupation Occupational language Language use in religion
Abagbooro Yoruba Ife dialect 1,000 plus Monolingual One
(primary) Mother Tongue/
English Mother Tongue Ife dialect Farming, palm wine tapping, small scale trading Ife dialect Yoruba
Lagos English pidgin or Mother Tongue English/pidgin Over 7,000,000 Bilingual & trilingual Many (all levels) English Pidgin/Mother Tongue Pidgin/ English/ Mother Tongue Teaching, Trading Driving, civil service English/ pidgin/ Mother Tongue Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, pidgin, English and other MT.

SIGNIFICANCE OF LANGUAGE USED IN NIGERIAN SOCIETY 

 Basically, language in every linguistic community is for communication. Communication itself varies in form. Language use could be for educational purposes. Pedagogically, in most Nigerian schools, Mother Tongue and English are used in primary schools while English is used in secondary and tertiary institutions.

Meanwhile, the significance of language used in all human endeavour cannot be overstated as it leads to mutual understanding among Nigerians. It goes a long way in uniting people of the same speech community.

Moreover, language is an essential tool for trading and commerce, in other words, language is needful in the quest of exchanging goods and business transactions from one town, community, city or country to another. The buyers and sellers of commodities need a common language of business for easy transaction to enhance the sales or transactions which could be international or national.

In the same vein, language use is pertinent to the activities of international organisation such as United Nation (UN), Economic Community of West African State (ECOWAS), Commonwealth of Nations , European Union (EU), African Union (AU) etc. in this view, such organisations have a uniform language code they all interact with in manipulating or executing their projects amongst member states of each organization. e.g. Nigeria as a member state of the UN.

Consequently, language use is needed for securities purposes. As security operatives engage in the use of encoded terminologies for easy flow of information without the comprehension of a “third party” especially during tribal wars, civil wars, military wars etc. terms like Alpha, Delta, Bravo, Charlie, etc, are used.
 

CONCLUSION 

 With everything that has been discussed above, it can be deduced that language use between a typical Nigerian village and a city results to language variation. However, due to the homogenous nature of Nigerian villages, each of the speech communities is often monolingual, while cities are always heterogeneous; they are either bilingual or multilingual.

Nonetheless, the extent to which language use varies between a village and a city in Nigeria is attested to in the way some words in a particular dialect are used. Language choice between one speech community and another is like one man’s poison is another man’s meat. This connotes that each community has some peculiar words which another community may not cherish as such. Most importantly, the pertinence of Mother Tongue in any speech community cannot be over emphasized. This is because mother tongue is the First Language (L1) which everyone needs to comprehend before learning the Second Language (L2).
Both rural and urban dwellers can speak Mother Tongue, and it is from this acquisition of L1 that helps in acquisition of L2 although, there are some cases of Mother Tongue interference in the acquisition of the second language. Hence, bilinguals and multilinguals switch from one language to another when the need arises. In a nutshell, the gap between language use in a typical Nigerian village and a city is widened every day.

REFERENCES 
Crystal, D (1994). The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of English. England: Cambridge University Press.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/speechcommunity.html
Igboanusi, H.S. (1995). Igbo English on John Munoye, Chukwuemeka Ike and Nkem

Nwankwo: A Linguistic Stylistic Analysis, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Ibadan.
Janet Holmes (2008). An Introduction to Socio-Linguistics. UK: Person Education Limited
Oyetade S.O (2003) Language Planning and Identity in Multi-ethnic States: The Majority/Minority States.Nudic Journal of African Studies (vol 2. No 1): 105-117

Style of Language used in Yoruba Speech Community : UniZik

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about a performance art. For recordings of books or dialog, see Audiobook. For the 2009 film, see Spoken Word (film).

Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer’s aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of recitation and word play, such as the performer’s live intonation and voice inflection. Spoken word is a «catchall» term that includes any kind of poetry recited aloud, including poetry readings, poetry slams, jazz poetry, and hip hop music, and can include comedy routines and prose monologues.^[1] Unlike written poetry, the poetic text takes its quality less from the visual aesthetics on a page, but depends more on phonaesthetics, or the aesthetics of sound.

History[edit]

Spoken word has existed for many years; long before writing, through a cycle of practicing, listening and memorizing, each language drew on its resources of sound structure for aural patterns that made spoken poetry very different from ordinary discourse and easier to commit to memory.^[2] «There were poets long before there were printing presses, poetry is primarily oral utterance, to be said aloud, to be heard.»^[3]

Poetry, like music, appeals to the ear, an effect known as euphony or onomatopoeia, a device to represent a thing or action by a word that imitates sound.^[4] «Speak again, Speak like rain» was how Kikuyu, an East African people, described her verse to author Isak Dinesen,^[5] confirming a comment by T. S. Eliot that «poetry remains one person talking to another».^[6]

The oral tradition is one that is conveyed primarily by speech as opposed to writing,^[7] in predominantly oral cultures proverbs (also known as maxims) are convenient vehicles for conveying simple beliefs and cultural attitudes.^[8] «The hearing knowledge we bring to a line of poetry is a knowledge of a pattern of speech we have known since we were infants».^[9]

Performance poetry, which is kindred to performance art, is explicitly written to be performed aloud^[10] and consciously shuns the written form.^[11] «Form», as Donald Hall records «was never more than an extension of content.»^[12]
Performance poetry in Africa dates to prehistorical times with the creation of hunting poetry, while elegiac and panegyric court poetry were developed extensively throughout the history of the empires of the Nile, Niger and Volta river valleys.^[13] One of the best known griot epic poems was created for the founder of the Mali Empire, the Epic of Sundiata. In African culture, performance poetry is a part of theatrics, which was present in all aspects of pre-colonial African life^[14] and whose theatrical ceremonies had many different functions: political, educative, spiritual and entertainment. Poetics were an element of theatrical performances of local oral artists, linguists and historians, accompanied by local instruments of the people such as the kora, the xalam, the mbira and the djembe drum. Drumming for accompaniment is not to be confused with performances of the «talking drum», which is a literature of its own, since it is a distinct method of communication that depends on conveying meaning through non-musical grammatical, tonal and rhythmic rules imitating speech.^[15][16] Although, they could be included in performances of the griots.

In ancient Greece, the spoken word was the most trusted repository for the best of their thought, and inducements would be offered to men (such as the rhapsodes) who set themselves the task of developing minds capable of retaining and voices capable of communicating the treasures of their culture.^[17] The Ancient Greeks included Greek lyric, which is similar to spoken-word poetry, in their Olympic Games.^[18]

Development in the United States[edit]

Vachel Lindsay helped maintain the tradition of poetry as spoken art in the early twentieth century.^[19] Robert Frost also spoke well, his meter accommodating his natural sentences.^[20] Poet laureate Robert Pinsky said, «Poetry’s proper culmination is to be read aloud by someone’s voice, whoever reads a poem aloud becomes the proper medium for the poem.»^[21] «Every speaker intuitively courses through manipulation of sounds, it is almost as though ‘we sing to one another all day’.»^[9] «Sound once imagined through the eye gradually gave body to poems through performance, and late in the 1950s reading aloud erupted in the United States.»^[20]

Some American spoken-word poetry originated from the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance,^[22] blues, and the Beat Generation of the 1960s.^[23] Spoken word in African-American culture drew on a rich literary and musical heritage. Langston Hughes and writers of the Harlem Renaissance were inspired by the feelings of the blues and spirituals, hip-hop, and slam poetry artists were inspired by poets such as Hughes in their word stylings.^[24]

The Civil Rights Movement also influenced spoken word. Notable speeches such as Martin Luther King Jr.’s «I Have a Dream», Sojourner Truth’s «Ain’t I a Woman?», and Booker T. Washington’s «Cast Down Your Buckets» incorporated elements of oration that influenced the spoken word movement within the African-American community.^[24] The Last Poets was a poetry and political music group formed during the 1960s that was born out of the Civil Rights Movement and helped increase the popularity of spoken word within African-American culture.^[25] Spoken word poetry entered into wider American culture following the release of Gil Scott-Heron’s spoken-word poem «The Revolution Will Not Be Televised» on the album Small Talk at 125th and Lenox in 1970.^[26]

The Nuyorican Poets Café on New York’s Lower Eastside was founded in 1973, and is one of the oldest American venues for presenting spoken-word poetry.^[27]

In the 1980s, spoken-word poetry competitions, often with elimination rounds, emerged and were labelled «poetry slams». American poet Marc Smith is credited with starting the poetry slam in November 1984.^[18] In 1990, the first National Poetry Slam took place in Fort Mason, San Francisco.^[28] The poetry slam movement reached a wider audience following Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry, which was aired on HBO between 2002 and 2007. The poets associated with the Buffalo Readings were active early in the 21st century.

International development[edit]

Outside of the United States, artists such as French singer-songwriters Léo Ferré and Serge Gainsbourg made personal use of spoken word over rock or symphonic music from the beginning of the 1970s in such albums as Amour Anarchie (1970), Histoire de Melody Nelson (1971), and Il n’y a plus rien (1973), and contributed to the popularization of spoken word within French culture.

In the UK, musicians who have performed spoken word lyrics include Blur,^[29] The Streets and Kae Tempest.

In 2003, the movement reached its peak in France with Fabien Marsaud aka Grand Corps Malade being a forerunner of the genre.^[30][31]

In Zimbabwe spoken word has been mostly active on stage through the House of Hunger Poetry slam in Harare, Mlomo Wakho Poetry Slam in Bulawayo as well as the Charles Austin Theatre in Masvingo. Festivals such as Harare International Festival of the Arts, Intwa Arts Festival KoBulawayo and Shoko Festival have supported the genre for a number of years.^[32]

In Nigeria, there are poetry events such as Wordup by i2x Media, The Rendezvous by FOS (Figures Of Speech movement), GrrrAttitude by Graciano Enwerem, SWPC which happens frequently, Rhapsodist, a conference by J19 Poetry and More Life Concert (an annual poetry concert in Port Harcourt) by More Life Poetry. Poets Amakason, ChidinmaR, oddFelix, Kormbat, Moje, Godzboi, Ifeanyi Agwazia, Chinwendu Nwangwa, Worden Enya, Resame, EfePaul, Dike Chukwumerije, Graciano Enwerem, Oruz Kennedy, Agbeye Oburumu, Fragile MC, Lyrical Pontiff, Irra, Neofloetry, Toby Abiodun, Paul Word, Donna, Kemistree and PoeThick Samurai are all based in Nigeria. Spoken word events in Nigeria^[33] continues to grow traction, with new, entertaining and popular spoken word events like The Gathering Africa, a new fusion of Poetry, Theatre, Philosophy and Art, organized 3 times a year by the multi-talented beauty Queen, Rei Obaigbo ^[34] and the founder ^[35] of Oreime.com.

In Trinidad and Tobago, this art form is widely used as a form of social commentary and is displayed all throughout the nation at all times of the year. The main poetry events in Trinidad and Tobago are overseen by an organization called the 2 Cent Movement. They host an annual event in partnership with the NGC Bocas Lit Fest and First Citizens Bank called «The First Citizens national Poetry Slam», formerly called «Verses». This organization also hosts poetry slams and workshops for primary and secondary schools. It is also involved in social work and issues.

In Ghana, the poetry group Ehalakasa led by Kojo Yibor Kojo AKA Sir Black, holds monthly TalkParty events (collaborative endeavour with Nubuke Foundation and/ National Theatre of Ghana) and special events such as the Ehalakasa Slam Festival and end-of-year events. This group has produced spoken-word poets including, Mutombo da Poet,^[36] Chief Moomen, Nana Asaase, Rhyme Sonny, Koo Kumi, Hondred Percent, Jewel King, Faiba Bernard, Akambo, Wordrite, Natty Ogli, and Philipa.
The spoken word movement in Ghana is rapidly growing that individual spoken word artists like MEGBORNA,^[37] are continuously carving a niche for themselves and stretching the borders of spoken word by combining spoken word with 3D animations and spoken word video game, based on his yet to be released poem, Alkebulan.

In Kumasi, the creative group CHASKELE holds an annual spoken word event on the campus of KNUST giving platform to poets and other creatives. Poets like Elidior The Poet, Slimo, T-Maine are key members of this group.

In Kenya, poetry performance grew significantly between the late 1990s and early 2000s. This was through organisers and creative hubs such as Kwani Open Mic, Slam Africa, Waamathai’s, Poetry at Discovery, Hisia Zangu Poetry, Poetry Slam Africa, Paza Sauti, Anika, Fatuma’s Voice, ESPA, Sauti dada, Wenyewe poetry among others. Soon the movement moved to other counties and to universities throughout the country. Spoken word in Kenya has been a means of communication where poets can speak about issues affecting young people in Africa. Some of the well known poets in Kenya are Dorphan, Kenner B, Namatsi Lukoye, Raya Wambui, Wanjiku Mwaura, Teardrops, Mufasa, Mumbi Macharia, Qui Qarre, Sitawa Namwalie, Sitawa Wafula, Anne Moraa, Ngwatilo Mawiyo, Stephen Derwent.^[38]

In Israel, in 2011 there was a monthly Spoken Word Line in a local club in Tel-Aviv by the name of: «Word Up!». The line was organized by Binyamin Inbal and was the beginning of a successful movement of spoken word lovers and performers all over the country.

Competitions[edit]

Spoken-word poetry is often performed in a competitive setting. In 1990, the first National Poetry Slam was held in San Francisco.^[18] It is the largest poetry slam competition event in the world, now held each year in different cities across the United States.^[39] The popularity of slam poetry has resulted in slam poetry competitions being held across the world, at venues ranging from coffeehouses to large stages.

Movement[edit]

Spoken-word poetry is typically more than a hobby or expression of talent. This art form is often used to convey important or controversial messages to society. Such messages often include raising awareness of topics such as: racial inequality, sexual assault and/or rape culture, anti-bullying messages, body-positive campaigns, and LGBT topics. Slam poetry competitions often feature loud and radical poems that display both intense content and sound. Spoken-word poetry is also abundant on college campuses, YouTube, and through forums such as Button Poetry.^[40] Some spoken-word poems go viral and can then appear in articles, on TED talks, and on social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• «5 Tips on Spoken Word». Power Poetry.org. 2015.

External links[edit]

• Poetry aloud – examples

Editor’s note: “The Spoken Word” is shared by Lloyd Newell each Sunday during the weekly Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square broadcast. This will be given Jan. 19, 2020.

How does a group of individuals, all with different backgrounds and different perspectives on life, become a united community? Well-known author and newspaper columnist David Brooks believes that the answer lies in how we see each other. “That’s what a community is,” he says, “a bunch of people looking after each other. A bunch of people seeing each other, and seeing each other deeply. Taking the time to really enter into relationships with each other and to depend upon one another. … That’s the glue that’s holding us together» (see “BYU Forum: The Lies of Meritocracy,” by Kaylee Esplin, Brigham Young University News, Oct. 22, 2019, news.byu.edu/intellect/byu-forum-the-lies-of-meritocracy ).

Can that really happen? Brooks believes it can and it does — when great teachers see deeply into their students, when loving spouses see deeply into each other. This kind of seeing goes beyond stereotypes and outward appearances, building bridges of understanding.

The aspen tree is an excellent metaphor for the unity and strength that can come from community. Above the ground, each aspen may appear solitary and strong in its beauty and majesty. Yet if we could see deeply, below the ground, we would find that each tree is connected with its neighbors through an enormous root system. An aspen gets its strength from its connection with the aspens that surround it. In a sense, the entire aspen forest is really one plant — one of the largest living organisms in the world. A single grove in central Utah, called Pando or “the trembling giant,” spans 106 acres, weighs an estimated 13 million pounds and consists of over 40,000 trees, all with the same genetic makeup (see «Pando (I Spread),” United States Department of Agriculture, fs.usda.gov).

If we open our eyes to see and our hearts to understand, wecan build a community in a similar way. After all, we all share, if not thesame DNA, then a common humanity. We all want happiness and peace; we all wantto make a difference. Because we’re more alike in important ways than we aredifferent, we already have it in us to see and know each other deeply, to lookafter each other, to build a strong community.

None of us is truly solitary, alone in this world. We are more like aspen trees. If we see and know each other deeply, we will come to understand that we all share common roots. We all need each other. That’s where we get our strength. That’s what a community is.

Tuning in …

The “Music and the Spoken Word” broadcast is available on KSL-TV, KSL Radio 1160AM/102.7FM, ksl.com, BYU-TV, BYU Radio, Dish and DirectTV, SiriusXM Radio (Ch. 143), the tabernaclechoir.org, youtube.com/TheTabernacleChoiratTempleSquare and Amazon Alexa (must enable skill). The program is aired live on Sundays at 9:30 a.m. on many of these outlets. Look up broadcast information by state and city at musicandthespokenword.org/schedules. 

For many of us, the process of re-integrating into a social scene which feels raw and more unsteady than before the pandemic is a bumpy road: joyful and yet in places precarious, triggering nascent anxieties and more overt ones even as we commune with loved ones. Although I am accustomed to managing emotional intensity in daily life, thanks to years of living with clinical depression and anxiety, there seems to be a different, new oddness of dynamics to navigate post “Freedom Day”. As the enthusiasm to rebuild dynamic social lives and in-person relationships clashes with the still-felt impact of isolation and residual screen addiction, poetry performance events offer spaces of solace, learning and compassion. Characterised by sharing expressions of personal truths in an atmosphere of openness and mutual respect, open mic evenings and participatory poetry workshops alike can present new ways of coping with the scars of the pandemic, facilitating connected identities to bloom from the mud of individualised struggle.

Having first explored poetry as a social space through student open mic nights at Durham University, I am convinced that it yields exciting possibilities for collective emotional healing in the midst of a harrowing and disillusioning social climate. One of the first spoken word artists I saw live was Jay Hulme, champion of the UK’s biggest youth poetry slam competition. His raw and sensitive poetic renditions, based on autobiographical events, offered a more humbling insight into the complexities and challenges of transgender issues than I encountered elsewhere as an undergrad. 

Five years later, the intimate energy of live poetry settings, where frequently internalised or stigmatised content is bared and shared, seems more powerful than ever for a population needing to recalibrate and reconnect on a deep level, still haunted by a societal mood of uncertainty. Inasmuch as poetry allows the individual to self-express, it is also an educational vehicle exposing us to others’ perspectives and illuminating nuanced elements of their lives which we would not otherwise see. This is especially prescient in relation to movements combating racism and other forms of structural violence and ingrained discrimination. 

Poetry, with its personal and reflective functions, can serve to bring out from the shadows some of the uglier and more internalised aspects of these issues and in doing so cultivate empathy between different groups – an empathy that becomes possible through opening emotional windows into each others’ experiences. We can come to understand in a demonstrable sense the notion of intersectionality: the connections between diverse protest movements. These become starkly apparent when a recognisable aspect of one’s personal experience is articulated in the poetry of another, who may be fighting an ostensibly separate battle. As well as being applicable to uniting strangers around activist causes, this feeling of mutual resonance and reciprocality also has therapeutic value for mental health, mitigating the feelings of overwhelming loneliness that accompany mental illness.

It may come as no surprise, then, that poetry is increasingly being linked with mental health awareness and included in solutions for what can feel like another, concurrent and equally sinister pandemic: that of depression, anxiety and insomnia, conditions which became prevalent during the stressful circumstances of lockdown. Yet even pre-Covid-19, some had begun to match up psychological wellbeing with poetry, whether through literary endeavours such as William Sieghart’s anthology The Poetry Pharmacy or through live events, like those arranged by the London-based organisation Mind Over Matter. 

Open mic nights and poetry writing workshops constitute an arena in which emotions, rather than being thrust down under the surface of routines, work and social norms, are openly shared and explored. Through inhabiting these spaces we can learn vulnerability and listening skills, using presence and compassion to find a strength in the collective. Brilliant poet Salena Godden proclaims in her dazzling performances of ‘Pessimism and Lightweights’, which can be watched on youtube: “this road is made of protest, and those not permitted to vote/ and those still fighting out to speak, with a boot stamping on their throat. […..] Pessimism is for lightweights/ this road was never easy or straight/ but living is all about living alive, and lively, and love will conquer hate”. 

Salena’s incredible work embodies how poetry gives an energy of uplift that is not the superficial plastering of consumer fixes over society’s wounds but a genuine togetherness founded on the recognition of what unites and binds us over our divisions. It is diving into the wreck – to allude to another iconic poetess, Adrienne Rich – of inner demons or messy, oppressive circumstances and daring to come up from it with the resilience to use our findings for good, moving forwards with a love that is honest as to the challenges we face.

In ‘Capitalist Realism’, Mark Fisher critiques the mainstream understanding of mental illnesses as personal, unrelated malfunctions requiring individualised treatments (for example, cognitive behavioural therapy and/ or antidepressant medication), positing that they are inextricably linked with the consequences of capitalist structures. Although my own challenges with depression and anxiety have shown me that therapy and pills can be helpful and even life-saving, recourse to these approaches alone neglects the role that social and political factors play in rising rates of mental ill-health. While broader political concerns (e.g. the climate crisis, high precariousness around employment and housing, ingrained racism and structural violence, and so on) are not sole sources of mental illnesses like depression, I suspect that many sufferers feel their distress compounded by the psychological effect of these real stressors, and that the already staggering numbers of adults taking antidepressants to cope will only augment insofar as they remain unresolved. The one-to-one settings of doctors’ and psychiatrists’ offices can offer no prescription for political anxieties other than mollification; on the other hand, poetry circles enable discussion of these concerns injected with the playfulness of wordplay, rhyme and lyricism, appealing to those who feel unable to let them lie. As under capitalism, most of the social spaces we have available to us encourage consumption, it feels refreshing to commune in an environment where the focus is not to acquire but to share, engaging in authentic exchanges of creativity and empathy.

People suffering from depression are often advised to partake in volunteering projects for the sense of wellbeing that comes from contributing to others’ lives, and the perspective that this provides beyond the immediacy of personal suffering. From my experience, engaging with spoken word performance can have similar benefits. Standing on a stage in the buzz of appreciative clicks and claps, witnessing others resonate with your words as you relate to and learn from theirs, generates a sense of oneness, anchoring the alienated individual to the broader narrative which houses their personal story. Not only is this profoundly impactful for wellbeing, but it gives voice and collective power to the concerns of the disaffected, transforming us from atomised individuals into emotionally and socially connected units – a critical step in the fight to build a mentally healthier society.

UK-based poetry events and organisations for your diary:

London is home to a wide spread of poetry collectives, with Mind Over Matter hosting monthly open mic nights in Camden and Brixton, and a weekly virtual open mic. BYOB (Bring Your Own Bars) Poetry hosts monthly events at the respective Boxparks of Wembley and Croydon. Also to watch: ATL’s Word On The Street (Peckham), Word Soul (Blackhorse Road), Babel Open Mic (Stoke Newington)…. The list goes on!

Upcoming events in Bristol include The People’s Poetry at Stokes Croft and Harbourside Sessions at ARNOLFINI art gallery.

If you’re Manchester-based, Word Central and Out Loud are both hosting events this Autumn, and Mind over Matter are launching there this October.

A Lovely Word at Liverpool’s Everyman Street Café is an Arts Council funded initiative encompassing poetry masterclasses and workshops, alongside monthly spoken word nights featuring nationally recognised headliners.

Newcastle’s weekly Friday Night Open Mic at the Printworks, open to all genres, treats performers to a free drink. 

Scotland-dwellers may be interested in this comprehensive guide to poetry events in Glasgow.

In Cardiff, Howl at the Moon offers a regular showcase of poetry and creative talent.

Apples and Snakes are an excellent resource for all things poetry, especially offering free or discounted workshops. Signing up to their emerging artist database can help keep you in the loop.