12/7/2022 0 Comments Nigerian pidgin english examplesThis lack of mutual intelligibility is also illustrated by Todd (1974:7) as follows: To a non-Nigerian speaker of English, the use of ‘troway’ and ‘salute’ cannot convey mutual intelligibility. ‘Ai troway salute’ (Nigerian English-based Pidgin).‘I give you my greeting’ (Non-Standard Nigerian English).‘I welcome you’ (Standard Nigerian English).For example, Ekpenyong (1992) uses sentence (1)-(3) to point out that Nigerian Pidgin differs from English both in syntax and in vocabulary. By far the most significant work on Nigerian Pidgin is Elugbe and Omamor’s (1991) Nigerian Pidgin.Ī careful survey has revealed that writers who mention Nigerian Pidgin as ‘obiter dictum’ have fallen into the temptation of labelling it as a variety of English while major research carried out on the subject present it as a full-fledged language. In a descriptive sketch, the author isolated lexical items, phonological features and grammatical descriptions that were exclusive to Nigerian Pidgin quite against popular belief that if Pidgin existed in Nigeria, it was a bastardised, marginal, uncivilised, and debased variety of English.įollowing Mafeni (1971), other researchers have come out with findings pointing to the existence of the English-based Pidgin in Nigeria. A pioneer work, Mafeni (1971:95-112) entitled “Nigerian Pidgin”, became an exciting incitement into the whole question of whether there existed something to be called Pidgin in Nigeria. It is based on this understanding that researchers in Nigeria have approached Nigerian Pidgin English. In most of these considerations, researchers have proved that Pidgin have separate lexicons, morphological systems, syntactic structures, and phonological elements. The great debate centred on the question: Are Pidgins languages in their own right or dialects of the base languages that contribute the bulk of their vocabulary?Īmong the criteria applied in leading the debate to an incontestable conclusion are the availability of Pidgin vocabulary, the need for translation and the existence of distinct phonological and syntactic systems. Initially, the research was directed at explicating the origin and evolution of these linguistic phenomena. In the past three decades, research in Pidgin and Creoles constituted a focal point of interest to linguists, sociologists and teachers of English in Nigeria. The conclusion is a call for the development of its orthography as a means of enhancing its development and wider application as a language of unity and commerce. The paper seeks to establish that the language justifiably exists more identifiably in the oral medium, than in writing due to dearth of a standard writing form for it. Oracy in Nigerian English-based Pidgin as a product of colonial encounterīassey Ekpenyong (Cross River University of Technology Calabar, Nigeria)Įmail: paper focuses attention on the Nigerian English-based Pidgin as a language with its phonological system arising from its emergence as a contact language. Anchimbe (University of Bayreuth, Germany) Re-writing linguistic history – (post)colonial reality on the fringes of linguistic theories Internet-Zeitschrift für Kulturwissenschaften Bassey Ekpenyong: Oracy in Nigerian English-based Pidgin as a product of colonial encounter
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