The Sociolinguistic Situation of Chadian Immigrants in Maiduguri

Chadian immigrants' presence in Maiduguri dates back to the city's foundation in 1907. Their migration from Chad was prompted by some "pull" and "push" factors.Many are fully integrated into the the local community through marriages. They were found to be highly multilingual. Hausa was found to be the most frequently used language in this community in most of the domains investigated.It is gradually replacing the ethnic language even in the core domain of Home settings.It has also superseded Chadian languages in two further domains:Traditional occasions and Association (language use of the second and third generations in particular), which are usually considered to be dominated by the Chadian lingua franca and the ethnic language respectively. And, the unexpected dominance of Hausa over Chadian Arabic as the intra-Chadian medium of communication would suggest that the latter might ultimately be less spoken by the settlers in the future. Since language remains an important symbol of ethnic identity, Chadian immigrants should strive to ensure its maintenance by always speaking the ethnic language both between the spouses (in endogamous families)and with the children at home.