YORUBA LANGUAGE IN CYBERSPACE: ISSUES AND VIABLE OPTIONS FOR VITALITY

Despite its widespread offline use and vast data repository, Yorùbá remains a low-resource language, and most digital platforms do not cater to the linguistic needs of its diverse speakers. The present study examined the determinants of the hegemonic use of the English language and the continuous displacement of the Yorùbá language in digital spaces. It employed a descriptive quantitative research design and a purposive sampling technique to elicit data from 500 randomly selected netizens across the Yorùbá-speaking states of Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, and Ekiti. The study is anchored on Kachru's (1985) Model of the three concentric circles of English. The findings indicate that while not thriving, the Yorùbá language is considered suitable to interpret technical and scientific thoughts (67.8%) but its usage is grossly deficient because social capital is associated with English, Nigeria’s most dominant foreign and participants’ professed language of upward mobility (93.4%). Overall, the study reinforces extant studies’ concerns regarding digital colonialism and shifts into a monolingual society where linguistic diversity and low-resourced languages are gravely excluded, particularly in the digitised landscape. The study concludes that sustained initiatives and user-made technological innovation, policy support, and digital engagement are crucial to dipping Yorùbá language displacement in particular and advancing the sustainability of indigenous languages in the digital age in general.

Despite its widespread offline use and vast data repository, Yorùbá remains a low-resource language, and most digital platforms do not cater to the linguistic needs of its diverse speakers. The present study examined the determinants of the hegemonic use of the English language and the continuous displacement of the Yorùbá language in digital spaces. It employed a descriptive quantitative research design and a purposive sampling technique to elicit data from 500 randomly selected netizens across the Yorùbá-speaking states of Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, and Ekiti. The study is anchored on Kachru's (1985) Model of the three concentric circles of English. The findings indicate that while not thriving, the Yorùbá language is considered suitable to interpret technical and scientific thoughts (67.8%) but its usage is grossly deficient because social capital is associated with English, Nigeria’s most dominant foreign and participants’ professed language of upward mobility (93.4%). Overall, the study reinforces extant studies’ concerns regarding digital colonialism and shifts into a monolingual society where linguistic diversity and low-resourced languages are gravely excluded, particularly in the digitised landscape. The study concludes that sustained initiatives and user-made technological innovation, policy support, and digital engagement are crucial to dipping Yorùbá language displacement in particular and advancing the sustainability of indigenous languages in the digital age in general.