The Theory of Reference Dialect in Yamba Orthography Development: Revitalisation or Endangerment?

Orthography development over decades has been at the onset of mother tongue literacy, language revitalization and preservation. This was informed by the fact that language in its oral form run the risk of getting extinct gradually. The development of writing systems (orthographies) therefore, became necessary in different minority languages in order to bridge the gap between orality and the written form of languages. Many languages are endowed with many variants or dialects and for this reason, a variant is chosen for standardization. Many linguists have responded to this need by laying down criteria on how a reference dialect should be chosen among many variants. Over the years, this has not gone without problems as the speakers of the dialect not chosen either gave up learning to read and write the reference or dialect demonstrated a silent rejection of the standard form. At the inception of standardization of the language, the Yamba people were already opposed to the choice of the reference dialect. It was observed by Bradley (1986b) that there is a major problem in the usage of materials produced in the language using the Mbem dialect as reference. Despite the publication of the orthography statement Bradley (1986a), the Yamba language has remained essentially oral, thereby promoting the gradual death of the language. The attempt to revitalize the language using a single dialect has turned to promote the endangerment of 16 of the 17 dialects. Reference dialect theory therefore, singles out a dialect for revitalization thereby indirectly endangering the language. Developing a multidialectal orthography would be a block building process of safeguarding a language.