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I have taken out the Arabic listing as one of the major languages of Nigeria. To the best of my knowledge, Arabic is spoken only indigenously by the Shuwa Arabs. It has always been a norm that the three major languages in Nigeria are the Hausa/ Fulani, Igbo and Yoruba. IF you examine the population data, you'll discover the Efik-Ibibio group are definitely more than the Arabs.
Arabic is hardly spoken conversationally in the Northern part of the country (if the person who made the edits decides to use that argument), and the very few people who say anything Arabic are mainly muslims who's knowledge of Arabic is restricted to the Quran, but that is another topic Azuka 06:31, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
I'm expanding the list of languages of Nigeria. Various sources indicate that there are in fact between 400 and 550 languages in Nigeria. Additionally some statements previously contained on this page, such as that only the elite part of Nigerian population speaks English, are just false. -- Mike Sorensen 18:45, 6 November 2006 (UTC)
Thanks for fixing some erroneous statements Mike. I have, however, removed the list because it is absolutely a bad idea for us to include an outright copy of Ethnologue's data on Nigerian languages. Besides, that's not our business — listing languages is something Ethnologue does, we do not need to duplicate its function. Rather, what we need here is a comprehensive article on the languages, language families, sociolinguistics, and language politics of Nigeria. Something more along the lines of Languages of Uganda for example. — mark ✎ 21:04, 6 November 2006 (UTC)
First, as I said, the verbatim copying of lists available elsewhere is not the 'core business' of Wikipedia; see What Wikipedia is not for more information. Secondly, you are wrong in assuming that the Ethnologue (a well-known site to language specialists both on and off Wikipedia) permits wholesale copying of their content. The footer notice says (on this page like on all of their pages) that the page may be cited, but that's something quite different from copying it. The terms of use of the Ethnologue state the following: You may make links to these documents (with proper attribution), but you may not mirror (i.e., place copies of) these documents, in part or whole, on your site without permission of SIL International (email International Administrator Copyright Permissions). Clear enough, I think.
Lastly, you ask 'what is the point of having an incomplete list as it is right now'? There is some merit to that question; if you ask me, I would be in favor of removing the list altogether and starting to write encyclopedic content. Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information. People come here because they expect to find quality encyclopedic content and not just a bunch of lists (see also Wikipedia is an encyclopedia). Therefore, I agree with you that this article shouldn't have an incomplete list; it shoud instead cover such issues as language politics, offical/recognized languages, sociolinguistics, languages, language families, dialectological issues, et cetera. Again, look at Languages of Uganda for a good approximation of a "Languages of X" article. — mark ✎ 09:52, 7 November 2006 (UTC)
In general, when I look at "Languages in ..." pages I think in terms of describing policies as well as the languages. This is already a pretty well worked on article with a lot of material that could expand well beyond its current size just on the descriptive material (due of course to the tremendous linguistic diversity - comparable to Languages of Indonesia in population and language number, though this article is better developed). So I thought I'd ask first what others' thoughts were on whether this topic should go on the Languages in Nigeria page or into a new article? There is a lot to say in that area too, esp. in light of possibilities opened by ICT as well as discussions of bilingual education approaches. -- A12n 00:20, 8 March 2007 (UTC)
This will allow for a full list of languages of Nigeria without disrupting this article.-- Mike Sorensen 08:35, 21 March 2007 (UTC)
It's not clear from the present state of the article which are the "two second languages without native speakers " mentioned in the intro. Could someone clarify, please? Man vyi ( talk) 17:09, 12 September 2008 (UTC)
what are the feature of Nigeria Language —Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.220.11.250 ( talk) 16:15, 6 November 2009 (UTC)
There's a language that has not been added to the list of Nigerian languages Nduyah also spelt as duya or nduya from kaduna state jaba local government area Woloko ( talk) 02:18, 16 October 2022 (UTC)
I have heard from good authority - as in Nigerian people! - that of the three main Nigerian languages ( Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba) - Hausa is the most spoken in Nigeria itself, but unlike Igbo and Yoruba, this languages has few speakers outside Nigeria, because the Hausas do not travel much.Perhaps this could be given a prominent place in the article - it would clarify the most spoken language in Nigeria. ACEOREVIVED ( talk) 21:25, 26 July 2011 (UTC)
Why does the article say 'Brail' is the official language of Nigeria? Isn't this English? I looked up Brail and I could not find anything to say this was a language or the Nigerian official language. Can it be changed to English? Uhmss ( talk) 17:02, 24 September 2021 (UTC)
I have not heard of Nigeria before 139.138.95.186 ( talk) 20:49, 3 May 2022 (UTC)
I know it's more of a Benin language, but Fon is nowadays categorized as Volta-Niger language and not Kwa language anymore as it currently appears on the map.
source : /info/en/?search=Fon_language
This is a recent change as described in Gbe languages page. /info/en/?search=Gbe_languages — Preceding unsigned comment added by ElricGalad ( talk • contribs) 19:58, 4 May 2022 (UTC)
Should the WASSCE results be updated? The current one states a 60% fail rate, while the recent ones have an almost 80% pass rate. Kerouacfanatik ( talk) 15:35, 5 April 2024 (UTC)