Nigerian English

I. Overview Nigeria is a land of many languages, with over 500 spoken by its inhabitants. As a result, the country has a great need for a common form of communication across ethnic groups. English, introduced to Nigeria during the colonial era, was chosen as Nigeria's only official language with this goal in mind. It is widely learned as a second language by speakers of many different Nigerian languages, and frequently used in business and education. However, not all the English spoken in Nigeria is the "standard" English recognizable in most English-speaking countries. As is commonly the case when a language is heavily used between non-native speakers, a new way of speaking has developed, with its own unique grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary. This form of communication is Nigerian Pidgin English, often referred to simple as "Pidgin" by those who speak it. Nigerian Pidgin English Language Status There is debate among scholars and speakers as to how to formally classify Nigerian Pidgin English. Historically, some have looked down upon it as a type of "broken English", or dismissed as merely an uneducated dialect of the standard language. More recent understanding, however, recognizes it as a language in its own right, with sufficient differences in vocabulary and structure to distinguish it from standard English. Nonetheless, there is discussion as to whether it should still be considered a pidgin - as the name implies - or whether it has developed sufficiently to be considered a creole. In linguistic terms, a pidgin is a simplified language developed for communication between two or more groups of people who do not share common languages, and must thus speak to one another using a language in which none of them are fluent. In the process, they may dramatically change the language - greatly reducing the complexity of the grammar, adapting the pronunciation to eliminate difficult sounds, and adding words from their own languages as needed. Pidgins are thus created out of necessity, and do not have native speakers. They also rely heavily on context and non-verbal clues, although basic standards tend to emerge over time. A creole, in contrast, is what happens when children grow up speaking a pidgin as their primary language. At that point, it ceases to be merely a second language learned as needed and becomes the native language of a new generation. Creoles have a more stable form than pidgins, both in vocabulary and grammar. Not all pidgins evolve into creoles, however, and even when they do, the transition may be gradual, or may take place unevenly in different areas. Nigerian Pidgin English is a good example of a language on the border between a pidgin and a creole. It was formed during the colonial era early in the 1900s, when the region came under the rule of Great Britain and many native Nigerians who spoke mutually incomprehensible languages were required to communicate with each other in English. Even today, the vast majority of its speakers learn it as a secondary form of communication, not as a primary language. It is still used mostly between speakers from different ethic groups rather than speakers from the same group, and there are wide variations in how the language is spoken from place to place in Nigeria. Nonetheless, the language has become extremely widespread within the country, and communities of native speakers have

developed in certain areas. The number of natives may be small compared to the total number of speakers, but it is sizeable enough to have drawn increased attention to Nigerian Pidgin English in recent years. The Pidgin English Alphabet and Pidgin English Pronunciation Because it evolved from English, Nigerian Pidgin English is written with the Latin alphabet. However, not all of the letters are used, and the pronunciation has been influenced by various native African languages. In particular, sounds that do not occur in many of those languages and may be difficult for their speakers to pronounce are usually eliminated. Spelling, too, is greatly simplified and usually phonetic. The result is that many words look and sound quite different from the standard English terms from which they were derived. Pidgin English Vocabulary The meanings of words in Nigerian Pidgin English may also differ from their standard English counterparts. During the formation of a pidgin, words often take on expanded meanings so that a limited vocabulary can cover a wide range of situations. As the pidgin evolves, some of the new secondary meanings may eventually become more widespread than the initial meanings. For example, in Nigerian Pidgin English, "chop" can mean "food" and "yarn" can mean "talk". Nigerian Pidgin English also draws a considerable amount of vocabulary from the other African languages spoken around it, particularly from Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba. It is not unusual to find words from these languages mixed into Pidgin English sentences, and some have become regular parts of the language. These terms often vary from place to place in Nigeria, depending on the ethnic and linguistic background of the speakers involved. Pidgin English Grammar The grammar of Nigerian Pidgin English reflects the simplification process that is typical of pidgin formation. For example, tenses are usually indicated by context or timerelated words, rather than by changes within verbs. The grammar, like the vocabulary, also reflects the influence of the surrounding languages. Speakers with different native languages may use different grammar structures when they speak Nigerian Pidgin English, based on what is most familiar and comfortable to them. Furthermore, speakers who are regularly exposed to standard English will tend to use a more standard sentence structure than those who rarely hear it.

II. History

HISTORICAL CONSIDERATION OF ENGLISH IN NIGERIA AND SURROUNDING REGION

Pre-Colonial, Colonial, and Post-Colonial Statuses of English in Nigeria and the West African Region The spread of English in Nigeria and the English speaking West African region (ESWA), which consists of Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, is said to have occurred in three distinct phases: (1) the development of English-based pidgins, which occurring during the pre-colonial period; (2) the introduction of Western education by English missionaries in the 1880s; and (3) the post independence adoption of English as an official language (Bokamba 496). Primarily as a result of its historical implementation, West African (Vernacular) English (WAVE), described below, is the form of English linked to formal education, and it currently forms the accroletal part of a continuum of Englishes in West Africa. Pre-Colonial Period While English became an official language during the era of nineteenth century colonialism in Nigeria and the ESWA, the British had been trading in the region as early as the fifteenth century, during the pre-colonial period, primarily for slaves, ivory, and gold (McArthur 700). In fact, by the eighteenth century, British contact had been so firmly established within the Nigerian region that an Efik chief in Calabar (a city in north-eastern Nigeria) kept a diary in a form of Nigerian Pidgin English (NPE): I walk up to see Esim and Egbo Young so I see Jimmy Henshaw come to see wee and wee tell him to go to on bord (qtd. in McArthur 700-701). Both oral and written forms of English thus have a fairly long historical presence within Nigeria and the surrounding ESWA region, which, one might argue, gives weight to the assertion that English ought to be considered as an historical language, both orally and literarily, within Nigeria. Colonial Period English instruction in Nigeria began in the former half of the nineteenth century, as British missionaries began teaching in the region. It was not until 1861, however, when the Lagos settlement was first declared an official colony, when relations between Britain and Nigeria were officially cemented. It was during the 1885 Berlin Conference, in which the European colonial powers divided control of Africa between themselves, when Britains claim to the Oil Rivers Protectorate, created in 1882, was recognised. 1900 marked the inception of The Protectorate of Southern Nigeria, and the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria; both were created from territories formerly controlled by the Royal Niger Company. The Protectorates were amalgamated in 1914 into the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria. As a result of this colonial history, English became, and remains, the language of formal education in Nigeria, and forms of Nigerian Pidgin English are widely used as link languages in the country.

III. Characteristics It is indisputable that Nigerian English has since been unequivocally accepted as a legitimate variety of English worldwide. For this reason, in this essay, we will not delve into the controversial club to debate on the existence or non-existence of Nigerian English, but rather our scope in this essay is to highlight and explicate the grammatical features of the varieties of Nigerian English. The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English defines grammar as "the rules by which words change their forms and are combined into sentences." According to Okoro in Dadzie and Awonusi (2004:172), "many of these rules are well known and applied logically and consistently most of the time. But a few are subtle, illogical, and inconsistent in their application." Nigerian English, on the other hand, has been defined differently by different scholars but for the purpose of our essay, we will choose to define Nigerian English as a variety which, as Okoro in Awonusi and Babalola (2004:169) puts it, "contains standard and non-standard usages, these usages varying in their relative frequency of occurrence in the English of each Nigerian, according to his or her level of competence in the language." A close examination of the word classes would reveal peculiar features of the grammar of Nigerian English. For example, Nigerian English is characterized by what Jowitt (1991:111) termed "class shift." Jowitt describes this term thus: Here, a word which in SBE [Standard British English] belongs to one class in effect shifted to another class since it is given the syntactic characteristics of that class. The most common type of shift is reclassification of a noun or an adjective or an adverb as a verb.

IV. Unique Vocabulary and Expressions 1. Remains deposited at the mortuary. This is almost the standard expression in Nigerian media English to say that a dead body has been delivered at the mortuary. There are two problems with this expression. First, the word remains is too formal for a news story. Corpse and dead body are the more usual words. And deposit is a singularly quaint verb to associate with death, especially in popular usage. There are three principal senses of the word deposit in conversational English. The first and most popular is to put money or other valuables in a bank account. The second sense is to put, fix, force or implant something, as in deposit a bullet in the table. And the third sense is to situate something, that is, to put something somewhere firmly, as in deposit the suitcase on the bench. Its unclear how this expression sprang in Nigerian media English, but it makes me sick to my stomach. 2. Hear him, or in his words. These are not strictly grammatically incorrect expressions; they are just ugly, inappropriate and superfluous verbiages. The convention in journalistic writing globally is to quote a source and acknowledge attribution by writing (s)he said at the end of a sentence. Example: I hope Yaradua lives long enough to save us from a potentially destructive constitutional crisis, he said. Now, when Nigerian newspaper journalists write hear him, they are not only being superfluous; they are also being unfaithful to the medium in which they write. We dont literally hear people in print; we read them. And to write in his words while at the same time inserting quotation marks to those words is redundant. It is precisely because youre quoting your source in his words that the sentence is in quotation marks. Its, of course, appropriate to write in his words in broadcast scripts since they are meant to be read out.

3. As at the time of filing this report. Well, the correct expression, which is actually a fixed prepositional phrase, is AS OF, not as at. So, that sentence should read: As of the time of filing this report. This solecism has sadly percolated deep into the conventions of Nigerian English in general. 4. Men of the underworld. This expression has lost currency in other parts of the Englishspeaking world. But my gripe with it is that its a hackneyed, flyblown clich that evinces the intellectual laziness of Nigerian journalists. Why not simply write criminals? 5. Names withheld. This expression rankles me to no end. Its not only unprofessional and irresponsible journalism to habitually conceal the identity of the subjects you are writing about (as in, a south-south governor in an oil-rich state [names withheld] is involved in a corruption scandal); its also exasperatingly redundant to state that you have withheld the name of someone whose name you have not mentioned anyway! It is obvious to any reader that a name has been withheld if its not mentioned. But what is particularly irking about this practice is that it is used even in reporting stories of crucial public importance. If reporters and editors are not prepared to name names, even where it is legally and ethically safe to do so, why waste ink and space to opaquely hint at them? But the bad news for editors and reporters who practice this imbecilic and feeble-minded journalism is that, in media law, not directly mentioning the name of a person or an organization is not sufficient safeguard against legal liability. If a person or a company can prove that there is sufficient material basis for right-thinking members of the society to infer that they are the object of a libelous newspaper innuendo, the paper is in the soup. 6. Electioneering campaign. Electioneering and political campaign mean the same thing. So electioneering campaign is tautologous. Its either electioneering or campaign. 7. Our story is true in every material particular. The phrase in every material particular is an archaic legal jargon. It is not used in everyday English in any native variety of the English language. 8. Yesteryears. This old-fashioned word, which is sometimes used for literary effects, has no plural in both the British and American varieties of Standard English. It remains yesteryear whether its in the singular or plural form. Another word that Nigerian newspapersand by extension Nigerian speakers of the English languagepluralize against conventional practice is slang. The plural is often rendered as slangs in Nigeria. In Standard English, however, the plural form of slang does not take an s; it is often rendered as slang expressions. 9. A free-for-all fight. This tautologic expression is probably a consequence of the misrecognition of the part of speech of free-for-all. It is a noun, not an adjective, and cannot modify another noun. It means a brawl, a noisy fight in a crowd. So it is sufficient to simply write that there was a free-for-all without adding fight. 10. Not unconnected with. This expression is not grammatically wrong but is hopelessly hackneyed and pretentious. George Orwell once urged us to laugh the not un- formation out of existence by memorizing this sentence: A not unblack dog was chasing a not unsmall rabbit across a not ungreen field.

How Bodi? / How You Dey? How are you doing today? How Far? Hey, Hi Wetin? What? Photo by author. I no no I dont know I no sabi I dont understand I dey fine Im fine. Im doing well. Wetin dey happen? Whats going on? Whats happening? Wahala Problem/Trouble. Example Why you dey give me wahala? Which means why are you giving me so many problems? Comot! Get out of here! Comot for road Make way Dem send you? Have you been sent to torment me? Gi mi Give it to me. K-leg Questionable. Example Your story get k-leg! Which means your story or gist sounds suspect or exaggerated. I Wan Chop I want to eat Come chop Come and eat Abeg Please, but usually not a repentant plea. Example Abeg! No waste my time!; Which means Please! Dont waste my time! Vex Upset. Example Make you no vex me! ; Which means Dont upset me! I no gree I dont agree, I disagree Abi? Isnt it? Na so? Is that so? Area boys -Street-smart young men that loiter around neighborhoods. Go slow Traffic jam I go land you slap I will slap you! Listen well well Pay attention

V. Sources http://grammar.about.com/od/mo/g/Nigerian-English.htm http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/farooq-a-kperogi/broken-english-pidgin-englishand-nigerian-english.html http://www-oedt.kfunigraz.ac.at/ndv-conf/present/15-Hassan%20JiddaNigerian%20English.pdf http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/farooq-a-kperogi/10-most-annoying-nigerianmedia-english-expressions.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDn8Hm_jsIQ&feature=related http://www.salvationpress.net/essays/english/The-Grammatical-Features-of-NigerianEnglish.htm http://grammar.about.com/od/mo/g/Nigerian-English.htm http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/beginners-guide-to-nigerian-pidgin-english/ http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww-oedt.kfunigraz.ac.at%2Fndvconf%2Fpresent%2F15-Hassan%2520Jidda-Nigerian%2520English.pdf&h=NAQHOmIup http://www.transparent.com/learn-pidgin-english/overview.html