Abstract

The issue of age and language acquisition has preoccupied scholars since time immemorial. The present study seeks to shed light on the issue of first language acquisition and lexical borrowing among the 2-7 year old children acquiring Olutachoni. The study investigates and establishes the correlation between the age of the children and the degree of lexical borrowing. The study identifies lexical importation and lexical invention as the main strategies of lexical borrowing that the children employ during language acquisition. Data is collected from children in mixed and single language family set ups. The study adopts the ethnographic approach to collect and record utterances. A contrastive and comparative analysis of the cases of lexical borrowing in relation to age is done. The results are presented through frequency tables and diagrams followed with explanations. The findings reveal that the age of the children has an influence on the production of lexical borrowing during LI acquisition