Yorùbá Linguistic Identity of Jẹ́nífà in Fúnkẹ́ Akíndélé’s Jẹ́nífà’s Diary

One of the several ways writers of comedy films amuse the audience by inducing laughter is the use of language. It is against this background that Fúnkẹ́ Akíndélé created a linguistic identity for Jẹ́nífà, the protagonist in Jẹ́nífà's Diary, a popular Nigerian television series created in 2015 still active and ongoing. The most apparent thing that caught the audience’s attention is the grammatical errors in Jẹ́nífà’s English. Little is known about the use of Yorùbá in her speech acts. This paper, therefore, examines the use of Yoruba language in Jenifa’s verbal acts in the English television series. The paper posits that the use of Yorùbá in Jẹ́nífà’s speech is used among their things, to (a) create humour; (b) hurl insults on people; (c) correct the negative language attitude of some educated parents that have forbidden the use of Yorùbá language in their homes and (d) adult language habits die hard.