Language Visibility and Audibility: Discussing the Dominant Status of Yoruba on Social Media

Abstract

In recent times, there is evidence of the emergence of new linguistic dynamics in the social media communication engagements in the Nigerian social media culture which have consequently impacted the visibility of the Yoruba language. The use of Yoruba has become part of a lot of users’ everyday social communication practices thereby promoting the language to be more visible in the arena of social media platforms. This study is interested in evaluating the nature of and the extent to which the language is used on social media, understanding its presence to the development of social media repertoire, and how it has become the dominant local medium through which many Nigerian social media users negotiate and express their identities. The motivation for this practice, and how it is employed as a discoursal means of language promotion will also be investigated. The data contain Instagram comments that exhibit pure Yoruba and code mixing between Yoruba and English/Nigerian Pidgin English; and from the data, it is evident that Yoruba is gaining more popularity on social media networks amidst the dense multilingualism of Nigeria. The findings reveal that social media provide a discursive platform for the users to be able to reinforce dominant representation of the language. The paper concludes that Yoruba is emerging as a popular language of the Nigerian internet culture.