Philip, Imoh MandaAbraham, David A.2023-12-122023-12-122011-01-12Abubakre, R.D. (2002). “Survival ofArabic in Difficult Terrains”. The Fifty-Eight Inaugural Lecture, University of Ilorin, I Iorin: Library and Publications Committee. Bangbose, A.C. (1982). “Language in Contact: Yoruba and English in Nigeria” Education Development Journal Vol. 2 No. 1 Crysta!,(1994). An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Language and Languages. Oxford: Blackwell. Crystal, D. (2008). A Dictionary ofLinguistics and Phonetics. Oxford: Blackwell. Garba, C.Y. (1979). Application to Language Theory. Selected Papers A.B.U. Gumperz, J.J. (1984). Discourse Strategies: Studies in International Sociolinguistics. London: Cambridge University Press. Finegan, E.(2004). Language, its Use and Structure. U.S. A.:Thomas Corporation. Imoh, P.M. (2007). Aspects of Bassa Morphology. Unpublished M.A Dissertation, University of Ilorin.https://keffi.nsuk.edu.ng/handle/20.500.14448/3651Language development involves such deliberate systematic activities as a conscious attempt e.g. by a government or a community to promote one language or one form of a language over another. This is done through codification or the planning of specific vocabulary. It also involves designing a standard orthography, dictionary, primers written texts and a meta language etc. Factors responsible for this activity in most African languages are inadequacy of languages with current use, domination of foreign languages. The evidence of contact made by two or more languages is borrowing. When people from different linguistic backgrounds come in contact, they tend to exchange cultures and languages, they tend to make use of words from each other's languages in order to refer things, activities or processes, ways of behaviour, organization etc which do not exist in their native vocabularies. Some of the foreign words employed get intergraded into languages' vocabularies, but are altered in pronunciation in order to adapt to the phonological patterns of the language acquiring them. This process has help language to develop their inadequate vocabularies. This work focuses on the role of borrowing English words for the development of Bassa language.enLEXICAL BORROWING: A CASE STUDY OF BASSA LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENTArticle