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Episode details

World Service,29 Sep 1999,4 mins

The Rise of English in Nigeria

My Century

Available for over a year

Ayo Bamgbose grew up in Nigeria speaking Yoruba, one of the country's three major languages. But from the age of five he learnt English. It was a strange kind of English he says, taken straight from old-fashioned books and producing all sorts of idiosyncrasies. "It's a language of upward mobility. It's a language of opportunity."

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