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Creating ‘Union Ibo’: Missionaries and the Igbo language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Dmitri van den Bersselaar
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Résumé

La littérature sur l'ethnicité en Afrique indique le rôle important quʼont eu les missionaires Chrétiens dans la création des langues en Afrique. Il a été soutenu que certains groupes ethniques africains doivent lew existence à l'invention de leur langue à des missionaries qui avaient créé un dialecte écrit—basé sur une ou plusieurs langues vernaculaires—dans laquelle ils avaient traduit la Bible. Cette langue avait été utilisé pour l'éducation dans les écoles de la mission et plus tard dans les écoles du gouvernement. Le dialecte de la Bible était en conséquent devenu la langue courante accepté du groupe ethnique et a acquis la fonction d'être un des marqueurs d'identité le plus prominent du groupe.

En ce qui concerne la langue Igbo, l'histoire des efforts des missionaries CMS pour créer une langue Igbo courante écrite montre que ce processus nʼavait pas toujours été très simple. Cet article décrit le processus problématique de créer une langue écrite. Les missionaries ont essayé continuellement en se basant sur plusieurs dialectes mais cela avait pris la moitié d'un siècle avant quʼils ne produisent la première traduction de la Bible. Ils avaient compliqué les choses en travaillant dans plusieurs dialectes, mais finalement ils avaient réussi à créer un dialecte de norme quʼils ont appelé Union Ibo, un mélange basé sur plusieurs dialectes Igbo.

Les missionaires avaient aussi été confronté avec de la résistance provenant d'au moins une partie de la population Igbo, qui avait contesté leur choix de dialecte. Cependant, il semble que la majorité des Igbo nʼétait tout simplement pas interessé. La population Igbo était beaucoup plus interessée par l'éducation en anglais, et bien que les missionaires CMS avaient forcé une certaine éducation vernaculaire, l'intêret y était resté limité. Il nʼest done pas surprenant que la langue de la Bible ne soit pas devenu la langue de norme acceptée par le groupe ethnique Igbo. La langue Igbo orale fonctionne cependant comme l'un des marqueurs d'identité les plus importants du groupe. Cet article maintient que l'importance de la langue Igbo pour l'identité Igbo est en partie le résultat des activités des missionaires.

Type
A language contrived, a concept dropped
Information
Africa , Volume 67 , Issue 2 , April 1997 , pp. 273 - 295
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1997

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