Good afternoon great people. It's my pleasure to have you here in this space.
Today, I had a great day while in school with my colleagues. We had a lecture on the course Introduction to Sociolinguistics.
I enjoyed everything about the course. When I left the house for school, my mother told me that I should try as much as possible to like all my courses, as well as my lecturers.
She said if I don't like their courses, I won't understand whatever they're going to teach me. What she told me, really helped me in my academics.
There are some courses they would teach, and it would look as if I wouldn't understand it, but anytime I recalled what I was told, I tried my best to understand what I was being taught.
I'm a student in the Department of Linguistics And Nigerian Languages, here in Nigeria. In this Department, we deal with both African and Nigerian languages as well as foreign languages like French.
Aside from that, we also study other branches of linguistics like phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, sociolinguistics, Applied linguistics, and others.
All the branches of linguistics I've mentioned here, are very interesting. They're interwoven.
Sociolinguistics, in particular, has so many things it teaches those who offered it as a course in college.
What is Sociolinguistics?
According to what my lecturer taught me, Sociolinguistics examines the interaction between the use of language and social organizational behaviors.
It focuses on the entire gamut of topics related to the social organization of language behavior, which includes language attitude.
From this definition sociolinguistics deals mainly with the relationship between language and culture. As a linguist, I've been made to understand that it's necessary to know if it was language that first existed before culture or if it was culture that first existed before language.
So while she was still teaching, he asked us a question concerning the existence of language and culture. Surprisingly, everyone said that culture existed before language.
She laughed at us. She told us that culture can never and will never exist before language. That rather, language first existed before culture.
Everyone asked her why she said so, then she responded by saying that it's through language, that one will know the culture of a certain group of people.
We were all amazed when she gave us the answer to our question. She went ahead to tell us that culture, is embedded in language, and without language, the beauty of cultural diversity can never be achieved.
I had a question that was bordering me, so I stood up and asked her the question. I asked her if aside from the relationship between language and culture, what else does Sociolinguistics deal with?
She told me that it could also help me as a linguist to know the languages that exist in different places as well as their varieties.
Here in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria . Different languages like the Ibibio language, Annang language, Oro language, and other languages vary from each other. It is the same language, but the way it is spoken in a particular community is not the same way it is spoken in another community.
She thanked me for asking her that question.
It was an interesting class indeed, and I never regret attaining it. It has widened my knowledge and also exposed me to the beauty of language.
I took a photo after the class, with my friend.
[Image by me].
Language is a beautiful thing; if you can speak your language and other people's languages, you will attest to it that language is sweet. I've never been tired of learning about other people's languages and their culture, because that's my field of discipline.
Thank you for reading till the end.
I remain your favorite girl @joyben.