Wikipedia

Nigerian Pidgin

(Redirected from Nigerian Pidgin English)

Nigerian Pidgin or NPE,[2] also known simply as Pidgin or as Naijá in scholarship, is an English-based creole language spoken as a lingua franca or vehicular language across Nigeria. The language is sometimes referred to as Pijin or Vernacular, and it has over time become the speech form with the widest geographical coverage and largest amount of speakers in Nigeria besides English.[2] It is the largest of the various varieties/registers of West African/Guinea coast creoles.

Nigerian Pidgin
Naijá (languej)
Naija
Native toNigeria
Native speakers
L1: 4.7 million
L2: 116 million (2020)[1]
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3pcm
Glottolognige1257

Coming into existence during the 17th and 18th centuries as a result of contact between Britons and Africans involved in the Atlantic slave trade,[3] in the 2010s, a common orthography was developed for Pidgin which has been gaining significant popularity in giving the language a harmonized writing system.[4][5]

It can be spoken as a pidgin, a creole, a dialect, or a decreolised acrolect by different speakers, who may switch between these forms depending on the social setting.[6] Variations of what this article refers to as "Nigerian Pidgin" are also spoken across West and Central Africa, in countries such as Benin, Ghana, and Cameroon.[7]

Status

edit

Nigerian Pidgin is commonly used throughout the country and across ethnic groups, but it does not have official status.[8]

In 2011, Google launched a search interface in Pidgin.[9] In 2017, the BBC started BBC News Pidgin to provide services in Pidgin.[3]

Varieties

edit

Nigerian Pidgin varies by location which also determines the influencing substrate language affecting the superstrate English structure resulting in varied flavours. Dialects of Nigerian Pidgin include; The Sapele–Warri–Ughelli dialect spoken in the western Niger Delta area, which is also sometimes grouped together with the Benin City dialect that has influences from the Bini language due to their geographical closeness and common features; The Port Harcourt dialect that has a mix of influences and elements from the mixed ethnicities indigenous to Rivers State and the eastern Niger Delta; The Lagos or Western dialect which is highly influenced by Yoruba lexical borrowings/linguistic elements and calque translations;[2] and the Onitsha or Eastern variety that draws some influences from Igbo.[8]

According to Obiechina (1984), Nigerian Pidgin English can be subdivided into five dialectal areas or variants;[2]

  • South West Pidgin – (Lagos, Ibadan, Etc.)
  • South Central Pidgin – (Abraka, Warri, Sapele, Agbor, Etc.)
  • Cross River Pidgin – (Calabar, Uyo, Ikot Ekpene, Obolo, Etc.)
  • Eastern Pidgin – (Port Harcourt, Kalabari, Onitsha, Owerri, Aba, Etc.)
  • Northern Pidgin – (Kaduna, Kano, Maiduguri, Jos Etc.)

Omamor (1992) however identifies only 4 varieties, viz: Lagos Pidgin, Port Harcourt Pidgin, Warri-Sapele-Benin Pidgin, and Northern Nigeria Pidgin.[2]

Lexical items and linguistic sources

edit

Many of the 250 or more ethnic groups in Nigeria can converse in the language, though many speakers will infuse words from their native tongues. As such, there are numerous words of both Nigerian and other West African origins in Nigerian pidgin. There are also words of Non African origin. For example:

Word Source Language Variants Meaning
Shebi Yoruba — Ṣebi Shebi, Sebi A word often used at the start or end of an interrogative sentence or question, e.g. 'Ṣebi you dey come?' means; "You are coming, right?"
Abi Yoruba A close variation of Ṣebi, meaning; 'Isn't it', 'wouldn't it' and other interrogative or conjunctive negations. e.g 'E dey abi e no dey' means; "Is it available or not".
Una Igbo — Ụnụ Ona, Wuna A plural second-person pronoun equivalent to the English term "you people". For example, 'Una dey mad' means "You people are crazy."[10]
Biko Igbo Word meaning "please", For example, the sentence 'Free me biko' means; "Please leave me alone".
Ọga Yoruba Equivalent to the English term "boss, patron or mentor", has been adopted from the Yoruba word Ọ̀gá, e.g. 'My Oga dey come' means; "My boss is coming."
Oya Yoruba A Yoruba word that means 'Ready'. Used as a prompt or call to action, e.g Oya, make we commot abeg, means; "Okay, let's go please".
Ba Hausa Word used at the end of an interrogative sentence or question e.g. 'You no wan come, ba?' means; "You don't want to come, right?"
Sabi Portuguese — Sabe Means ‘to know’ or have a skill. For example, 'I no sabi am.' means; "I don't know it."[11]
Pikin Portuguese — Pequeno Means; "Small", "Small one". e.g, 'Wetin man pikin go do?' Means' "what will a man's child do?"[11]
Palava Portuguese — Palavra Palaba Originally meaning a tedious or long winded speech, it has taken on the new contextual meanings of problem, issue or trouble.[11][12]
Wetin English — What thing A word meaning ‘What?’ e.g; 'Wetin be that?’ Means; "What is that?"
Commot English — Come out Comot Come out, sometimes contextually taking the other meaning of; 'Leave' or 'Going'.
Jọ (Jor) Yoruba — Jọwọ, Jọ Joor Means please, but meaning depends on context; (dismissive, appealing, jovial etc). Often used as a final filler e.g 'Carry your wahala dey go joor' can mean: "Please leave with your troubles", dismissively or jovially.
Domot English — Door mouth Dommot A word that could mean; 'House/Abode' or 'Entrance' e.g 'Put am for her domot' means; "Put it in her house/at her door".
Japa Yoruba Jakpa, JP The act of escaping, fleeing, or disappearing quickly from a situation. Emigration (contextually).[13]
Sha Yoruba Sa, Shar An intensifier used to add emotional depth or emphasis e.g 'Your market too cost, but I go buy am sha.' Means; "your produce is too expensive, but I will buy it regardless."
Nkọ Yoruba Unko, Nkor A word which means 'How about?' e.g 'Those people dem nko?' means; "How about those people?"
Wahala Yoruba & Hausa Wahalla Word meaning 'Trouble' or 'Problem'. e.g 'Na which kain wahala be this', means; "What sort of trouble/problem is this?"[14][15] Its use and meaning in NPE comes directly from Yoruba,[16]: 61  but ultimately from Arabic — وهلة (Wahla) : Fear, Terror.
Boku French — Beaucoup Bokku Means when something is much, surplus, many Etc. e.g 'Fish boku for market today.' means; "There was a lot of fish at the market."[11]
Vamoose Portuguese — Vamos Vamus, Vamoos A word meaning to get out or leave abruptly. e.g 'Before I tear eye, she don vamoose.' Means; "She was gone before I paid close attention."
Yanga Mende — Nyanga, Yoruba — Yangàn,[16] Hausa — Yàngá[11][17] Nyanga Vanity or excessive pride, Ostentation. e.g 'That sisi too get yanga.' means; "That young lady is too prideful." Cognates have been found in several languages of West Africa.[11]
Bọbọ Vai Borbor A word used to describe a young boy or man whose name is unknown, a little boy. Can contextually mean a trendy young man, guy.[11]
Chook Fulfulde — Jukka Chuk To pierce or poke with a sharp object. e.g 'Na the boy wey dem chook for belle be that' means; "That is the boy that was stabbed in the stomach."[11]
Ọmọ Yoruba A Yoruba word that means 'Child', it has now become one of the most versatile words of Nigerian pidgin, filling a plethora of roles. Diverse uses, but mostly as an exclamation.
Lai Lai Yoruba Lailai A Yoruba word that means 'Never'. Takes on the same meaning and uses in pidgin e.g Lai lai, we no go gree.' Means "We will never agree"
Wayo Hausa Trickery, Stratagem, Cheating or Cunning. Similar to the Yoruba equivalent, Ojoro. e.g 'The man play me wayo' means; The man tricked me.[18]
Yẹyẹ Yoruba A Yoruba word that means 'Joke' or unserious situation. Takes on the same meaning and uses in pidgin e.g 'Na which kain yeye be this?' Means; "What sort of joke is this?"

Nigerian Pidgin is most widely spoken in the oil-rich Niger Delta region, especially in the western sections (Warri-Sapele axis) where a lot of the population now speak it as a first language due to the region's high linguistic diversity and the lack of an indigenous lingua franca.[19] There was heterogeneity all along Nigeria's coastal belt except for the western coast dominated by the Yoruba groups, which facilitated the spread of pidgin there as a communication utility tool.[20] There are accounts of pidgin being spoken first in colonial Nigeria before being adopted by other countries along the West African coast.[21]

While Pidgin is spoken by many, there are wide swathes of Nigeria where Pidgin is not spoken or understood, especially among those with neither secular education nor exposure in the far northern reaches of Nigeria.[citation needed]

Relationship to other languages and dialects

edit

Similarity to Caribbean Creoles

edit

Nigerian Pidgin, along with the various pidgin and creole languages of West Africa, share multiple similarities to the various English-based Creoles found in the Caribbean. Linguists[who?] posit that this is because most of the enslaved that were taken to the New World were of West African descent. The pronunciation and accents often differ a great deal, mainly due to the extremely heterogeneous mix of African languages present in the West Indies, but if written on paper or spoken slowly, the creole languages of the Caribbean are for the most part mutually intelligible with the creole languages of West Africa.[22]

The presence of repetitive phrases in Caribbean Creole such as su-su (gossip) and pyaa-pyaa (sickly) mirror the presence of such phrases in West African languages such as bam-bam, which means "complete" in the Yoruba language. Repetitious phrases are also very present in Nigerian Pidgin, such as koro-koro meaning "clear vision", yama-yama meaning "disgusting", and doti-doti meaning "garbage".

Words of West African origin in Surinamese Creole (Sranan Tongo) and Jamaican Patois, such as unu and Bajan dialect wunna or una – West African Pidgin (meaning "you people", a word that comes from the Igbo word unu or unuwa also meaning "you people"), display some of the interesting similarities between the English pidgins and creoles of West Africa and the English pidgins and creoles of the Caribbean, as does the presence of words and phrases that are identical in the languages on both sides of the Atlantic, such as Me a go tell dem (I'm going to tell them) and make we (let us).

A copula deh or dey is found in both Caribbean Creole and Nigerian Pidgin English. The phrase We dey foh London would be understood by both a speaker of Creole and a speaker of Nigerian Pidgin to mean "We are in London" (although the Jamaican is more likely to say Wi de a London and the Surinamese way is Wi de na London.) The word originates from the Igbo word di meaning the same thing and pronounced similarly[citation needed]: anu di na ofe (literally "meat is in soup") and anyi di na london (lit. "we are in London"). Other similarities, such as pikin (Nigerian Pidgin for "child") and pikney or pickney (used in islands like Jamaica, Saint Vincent, Antigua and St. Kitts, akin to the standard-English pejorative/epithet pickaninny) and chook (Nigerian Pidgin for "poke" or "stab") which corresponds with the Trinidadian creole word juk, and also corresponds to chook used in other West Indian islands.[23]

Connection to Portuguese language

edit

Being derived partly from the present day Edo/Delta and other south South area of Nigeria, there are still some words left over from the Portuguese language in pidgin English (Portuguese ships traded slaves from the Bight of Benin). For example, you sabi do am? means "do you know how to do it?". Sabi means "to know" or "to know how to", just as "to know" is saber in Portuguese.[24] (According to the monogenetic theory of pidgins, sabir was a basic word in Mediterranean Lingua Franca, brought to West Africa through Portuguese pidgin. An English related word is savvy.) Also, pikin or "pickaninny" comes from the Portuguese words pequeno and pequenino, which mean "small" and "small child" respectively.[25]

Nigerian English

edit

Similar to the Caribbean Creole situation, Nigerian Pidgin is mostly used in informal conversations. Nigerian Pidgin has no status as an official language. Nigerian English is used in politics, education, science, and media.[26] In Nigeria, English is acquired through formal education.[26] As English has been in contact with multiple different languages in Nigeria, Nigerian English has become much more prominent and is very similar to both American and British English, and it is often referred to as a group of different sub-varieties.[26] Although there is not a formal description of Nigerian English, scholars agree that Nigerian English is a recognizable and unique variety of English.[26]

Phonology

edit

Nigerian Pidgin, like many pidgins and creoles, has a simpler phonology than the superstrate language. It has 23 consonants, seven vowels, and two tones.[27]

Consonants

edit

Vowels

edit

Tones

edit

Nigerian Pidgin has been described as a tonal language, having a high tone and a low tone. The high tone can be written with an acute accent, and the low tone, though typically left unmarked, can be written with a grave accent.[28] Additionally, monosyllabic high-tone words shift into a high falling tone before a pause.[28]

Pidgin word
(tones fully marked)		Tone patternEnglish meaning
/bàbá/ LHfather
/bábà/ HLRoman Catholic priest
/fádá/ HHfather
/fàdá/ LHRoman Catholic 'father'
/sìsí/ LHyoung maid
/sísì/ HLsixpence (5 kobo)

However, this has been contested by subsequent linguists, due to variance in pitch intonation on lexemes, especially for questions.[29] One rival suggestion is that Nigerian Pidgin "is something of a pitch-accent language in which, given a word there may be only one high tone, or one sequence thereof in opposition to one low sequence";[29] downdrift is attested in the intonational system.[29]

Most written texts in Nigerian Pidgin do not show any tonal markings, and do not reflect any lexical pitch differences.[30]

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ↑ Nigerian Pidgin at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) Closed access icon
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Ayenbi 2024.
  3. 1 2 "BBC Pidgin service launched in Nigeria". 21 August 2017. Archived from the original on 22 September 2023. Retrieved 28 April 2019.
  4. ↑ Ofulue, Christine I.; Esizimetor, David O. "GUIDE TO STANDARD NAIJÁ ORTHOGRAPHY. An NLA Harmonized Writing System for Common Naijá Publications". IFRA-Nigeria – French Institute for Research in Africa. Archived from the original on 1 January 2023. Retrieved 6 February 2017.
  5. ↑ Esizimetor, D. O. (2009). What Orthography for Naijá? Paper delivered at the Conference on Naijá organised by the Institut Français de Recherche en Afrique (IFRA), 7–10 July 2009, University of Ibadan Conference Centre.
  6. ↑ Faraclas (1996), Introduction.
  7. ↑ Fitimi, Prince; Ojitobome, Afinotan. "The Effect of the Nigerian Pidgin English on the Academic Performance of University Students in Nigeria. Acase Study of National Open University of Nigeria Students in Benin Study Centre". Academia.edu. Archived from the original on 13 May 2022. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  8. 1 2 Goglia, Francesco (2010). "Nigerian Pidgin English". Language Contact Manchester. Archived from the original on 1 August 2018. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
  9. ↑ Gharib, Malaka (20 November 2018). "Why Prince Charles Said 'God Don Butta My Bread!' In Nigeria". NPR. Archived from the original on 27 February 2023. Retrieved 27 February 2023.
  10. ↑ "MANIAC | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary". back.carthousa.tk. Archived from the original on 21 May 2021. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Huber, Magnus (1 January 1999). Ghanaian Pidgin English in its West African Context: A sociohistorical and structural analysis. John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN 978-90-272-7296-6. Retrieved 13 June 2026.
  12. ↑ "Search 'palaver' on etymonline". etymonline. Retrieved 13 June 2026.
  13. ↑ Odinkalu, Chidi (2 January 2023). "Japa: The verb that became a noun". Vanguard. Lagos, Nigeria. Archived from the original on 25 August 2023. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  14. ↑ Crowther, Sammuel Adjai; Vidal, Owen Emeric (1852). A vocabulary of the Yoruba language. London : Seeleys. p. 278. Retrieved 11 June 2026.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
  15. ↑ "wahala, n. meanings, etymology and more | Oxford English Dictionary". www.oed.com. Retrieved 11 June 2026.
  16. 1 2 Ikenga (PDF). Institute of African Studies, University of Nigeria. 1980. p. 56. Retrieved 13 June 2026.
  17. ↑ Robinson, Charles H. (Charles Henry). Dictionary of the Hausa language. Cambridge University press. p. 409. Retrieved 13 June 2026.
  18. ↑ Robinson, Charles H. (Charles Henry). Dictionary of the Hausa language. Cambridge University press. p. 399. Retrieved 13 June 2026.
  19. ↑ Frances Ayenbi, Oti (1 June 2014). "Language regression in Nigeria". Éducation et sociétés plurilingues (36): 51–64. doi:10.4000/esp.136. ISSN 1127-266X. Archived from the original on 27 December 2021. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
  20. ↑ Elugbe, Ben Ohiọmamhẹ (1991). Nigerian Pidgin : (background and prospects). Ibadan : Heinemann Educational Books Nigeria PLC. p. 12. ISBN 978-978-129-173-9. Retrieved 13 June 2026.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
  21. ↑ Igboanusi, Herbert (February 2008). "Empowering Nigerian Pidgin: a challenge for status planning?". World Englishes. 27 (1): 68–82. doi:10.1111/j.1467-971X.2008.00536.x. ISSN 0883-2919. Retrieved 12 June 2022.
  22. ↑ Salikoko Sangol Mufwene, Creole languages at the Encyclopædia Britannica
  23. ↑ Emmaolu, Akinsanya. "THE EFFECT OF THE". Archived from the original on 13 May 2022. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
  24. ↑ "Pidgin english origin – english pidgins include nigerian pidgin". meisten-verliebt.com (in Finnish). Archived from the original on 21 May 2021. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
  25. ↑ Faraclas (1996), p. 3.
  26. 1 2 3 4 Florence Agbo, Ogechi; Plag, Ingo (11 December 2020). "The Relationship of Nigerian English and Nigerian Pidgin in Nigeria: Evidence from Copula Constructions in Ice-Nigeria". Journal of Language Contact. 13 (2): 351–388. doi:10.1163/19552629-bja10023. ISSN 1877-1491. S2CID 226299218. Archived from the original on 29 January 2021. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
  27. ↑ Faraclas (1996), pp. 248–249.
  28. 1 2 Mafeni 1971.
  29. 1 2 3 Elugbe, Ben (10 December 2008). "Nigerian Pidgin English: phonology". In Mesthrie, Rajend; Kortmann, Bernd; Schneider, Edgar W. (eds.). 4 Africa, South and Southeast Asia. Varieties of English. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 55–66. ISBN 978-3-11-020842-9. Retrieved 26 October 2023.
  30. ↑ Akande & Salami 2021, pp. 177–200, Mensah, Eyo, Ukaegbu, Eunice and Nyong, Benjamin. "Chapter 6: Towards a working orthography of Nigerian Pidgin".

Bibliography

edit

Bibliography

edit

Ayenbi, Oti Frances Okpeyeaghan (13 December 2024). "Endangered minority language : a case study of the itsekiri language in Nigeria". Université de Strasbourg. Université de Strasbourg: 47. Retrieved 23 October 2025.

edit
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nigerian_Pidgin&oldid=1359263991"