Language Health

By Eylem Altuntas Babies are like little detectives, constantly piecing together clues about the world around them. If you've ever noticed your baby staring at you while you talk, it's because they're picking up on more than just sounds – they're learning how those sounds are made. Our recent study, published in Developmental Science, shows this amazing process starts as early as four months old, shaking up the old belief that babies learn these patterns only after tuning in to their native language between 6 and 12 months of age. It also gives us an earlier window to help children who might be at risk of speech or language delays. Sorting through a buffet of sounds By their first birthday, babies are already fine-tuning their ears to the sounds of their native language in a process called perceptual attunement. Think of it like their brain sorting through a buffet of sounds to focus on the ones that matter most. But in their first six months, babies can tell apart soun...

by: Josiah Egbilika  Just like in 2020 when 29 Nigerian words, such as danfo, okada, next tomorrow, and mama put were included in the Oxford Dictionary, another milestone has been achieved in 2025 as The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has added a more collection of Nigerian words to its latest update. In this latest update, 20 new words were included into the dictionary with majority of them from being lexicons from Nigerian Pidgin.  The words added to the dictionary include: 1. 419 2. abi 3. adire 4. agbero 5. area boy 6. cross-carpet 7. cross-carpeting 8. eba 9. Edo 10. gele 11. jand (noun, verb) 12. janded (adjective) 13. Japa (noun, verb) 14. Kanuri 15. Kobo 16. Naija 17. suya 18. Yahoo 19. Yahoo boy, and 20. Yarn Dust These additions showcase Nigeria’s cultural diversity, daily life, and street culture while highlighting the rising influence of Nigerian Pidgin across Africa and beyond. The 20 included words are in addition to at least 57 Nigerian words already in the dic...

...celebrates Awajis Josiah-Chijindu, others for their contributions in journalism Martha Okere It is commendable that media practitioners are increasingly being appointed as Chief Press Secretaries and Special Advisers on Media to the new CTC chairmen in #RiversState. This development will improve the quality and professionalism of press communications, ensuring clarity and effectiveness. My congratulations go out to my colleagues, among them Ofonime Okon and others who choose to remain anonymous. I hold you all in high regard and have full confidence in your ability to excel in these roles. However, it is concerning to observe the marginalization of women journalists from such appointments. Women have consistently proven to be exceptional media managers, as shown by the tenure of a former female Commissioner for Information in our state. Ibim Semenitari’s communication strategies played a crucial role in ensuring that  the achievements of the administration she worked for are wel...

OPINION By: Josiah Egbilika The World Day Against Child Labor is celebrated every June 12 of the year. It is a day set aside to raise awareness and solicit for prompt actions to stopping child labour in all of its forms. The International Labour Organziation (ILO) launched the Day in 2002. Since then, the day has focused attention on the prevalence of child labour throughout the world, and the actions needed to eliminating it. According to the The International Labour Organziation, Child Labour refers to any work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; that deprives them the opportunity to attend school or that cause any form of harm to children. The World Day Against Child Labour since its inception in 2002, has sought for ways to eliminate child labour in the world. According to the Global Estimates of Child Labour Results and Trends report of 2012-2016 released in 2017 by International Labour Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, there are...

OPINION By: Josiah Egbilika The media has widely been acknowledged as a fourth tie of government. Besides it’s informative role, it has been credited as a watchdog. Beyond this role, the media has become an advocacy tool for social development. Remarkable achievements have been accoladed to journalists, On-Air-Personnel and even media houses in actualizing social developmental objectives of communities. In Rivers State, the media held the police accountable for the unjust torture of the Ikoku-5; unmasked the unjust gruesome murder of four University of Port Harcourt (Uniport( Students, now referred as the Aluu-4. These and many more including transparency and accountability of public officers as well as calls for completion of abandoned projects. One of such calls is that made by Awajibokoiton Josiah-Chijindu (fondly known as Awajis) for the completion of the Andoni section of the Ogoni-Andoni-Opobo/Nkoro unity road. The Ogoni-Andoni-Opobo unity road was awarded by a former governor of...

Commemorating Children's day, a Port Harcourt based Linguist and Indigenous Language Advocate, Mr. Josiah Egbilika has tasked parents all over the world to take the transfer of their indigenous languages to their children seriously. He made the charge while speaking in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, Nigeria. According to him, most parents communicate to their children in foreign languages at home, they don't speak their indigenous languages to their children and wonder why their children can't speak the language. How can the children speak the language when you don't speak it or use it to communicate with them. You prefer using other foreign languages other than your indigenous languages , he lamented. The indigenous language Advocate stressed that the form of transferring language to the child is by speaking the language in the home. He emphasized that parents should make it a priority to use their indigenous languages in their day-to-day activities at hom...