Lexical Attrition in Uhàmi

This study investigates the extent of lexical attrition in Uhami, a West Benue-Congo language spoken in Southwestern Nigeria, addressing the challenge speakers face in optimizing the use of lexical items from the traditional lexicon. The primary aim is to assess the intergenerational linguistic gap caused by this gradual vocabulary loss. To achieve this, data consisting of 101 basic lexical items sourced from the Swadesh wordlist were compiled through direct elicitation from 14 speakers across eight age groups. The findings reveal a stark disparity, demonstrating poor performance among speakers aged 30 and below, with correct responses increasing progressively across older demographics (10% for ages 10 and under, 50% for 11-20, 40% for 21-30, 70% for 31-40, 77% for 41-50, 86% for 51-60, 85% for 61-70, and 91% for 71-80), while the inclusion of synonyms and descriptive phrases yielded no significant overall improvement. Ultimately, the study concludes that Uhami is undergoing gradual lexical attrition driven by a lack of intergenerational transmission, shifting speaker attitudes, and language contact, rather than neurological decline.