EKWE JONAL

When a language or a dialect is endangered, it affects the culture and posterity of the community, because abandonment of a language leads to displacement of culture values expressed by the language. A language and or dialect can go into extinction or attrition due to lack of use. This paper is a sociolinguistic study of language attrition of Owerri dialect of Igbo Language. It examines the concept attrition and what can lead a language or dialect into attrition as well as highlights the causes of endangerment of Owerri dialect of Igbo language. It adopts Kopke el al (2007) cognitive theory to frame the work because memory is important in language retention. The data was collected purposively using questionnaires from six villages in Owerri that speak Owerri. The findings revealed that Owerri dialect is actually endangered because of non-Owerri speakers living in Owerri. The paper recommends that Education policy makers should include Owerri dialect in their curriculum and teach it in school within the Owerri zone and also document for reading like most indigenous languages for posterity sake.

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