Syntacto-mantic Analysis of Transliteration in Flora Nwapa’s Efuru and Okara’s The Voice

Two outstanding identification marks Nigeria as a country has are multitlingualism and multiculturalism.These features in turn pose serious challenges to Nigerian writers in their efforts to communicate with their reading audience/public in a metropolitan Standard English. The difficulty stems from the fact that Nigeria is a conglomeration of many ethnic nationalities with each practising as many cultures as possible. This makes a systematic study of language a prerequisite for a down to earth appreciation of literature since language is the expressive medium of literature. In their attempt to give their works a distinct African flavour, Nigerian authors such as Achebe, Soyinka, Nwampa and Okara, among others consider the employment of transliteration in their use of English. The usage of this linguistic element is seen as one of the stylistic efforts on the part of African writers and also adjudged as a deviation from the metropolitan norm and literary convention by linguists and critics. This study focuses on Nwapa’s Efuru and Okara’s The Voice whose review of related literature sorted out basic stylistic concepts.

Keywords: Outstanding Identification Marks Multitlingualism Multiculturalism Transliteration Metropolitan Standard English

Authors

• Edenowo P. Enang, PhD
  Department of English, Akwa Ibom State Univerisity
  Obio Akpa Campus, Nigeria
• Iniobong Utin, PhD
  Department of English, Akwa Ibom State Univerisity
  Obio Akpa Campus, Nigeria