The Role of Government in Revitalizing Numeral System of Indigenous Languages: The Eggon Case

This paper sets out to investigate the endangerment of Eggon on numeral system and the role government to revitalize and expand it to meet the need of our modern society by implementing the National Policy on Education, especially, as it concerns language use. Eggon belongs to the niger-congo phylum of the Western Benue Congo Plateau group of African languages. The paper seeks answers to the question: To what extent is Eggon numeral system vibrant vis-a-vis modern language use. Previous works on Eggon numeral system, the intuitive knowledge of the language and training of the writers as linguists constitute the major sources of data. The descriptive method employed in this study shows that, among other things, unless the government puts concerted efforts, the Eggon numeral system will become more moribund and will eventually be extinct. Being abreast of the success of the concerted and sustainable efforts of language policy in some countries, the paper submits that the government is required to play a role in implementing the language policy on education and formulate more policies that will favour indigenous languages, to the advantage of remnant languages, especially Eggon, to revitalize its critically endangered numeral system. The findings show that this study can be applied to other remnant Nigerian and African languages which are victims of endangered numeral system.