Nigerian Pidgin or NPE, also known simply as Pidgin, Broken or as Naijá in scholarship, is an English-based creole language spoken as a lingua franca or vehicular language across Nigeria coming into existence during the 17th and 18th centuries as a result of contact between colonizing Britons and African slavers involved in the Atlantic slave trade. 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.
It is the largest of the various varieties/registers of West African/Guinea coast creoles and can be spoken as a dialect or a decreolised acrolect by different speakers, who may switch between these forms depending on the social setting. 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.
In the 2010s, a common orthography was developed for Pidgin which has been gaining significant popularity in giving the language a harmonized writing system.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.
Status Nigerian Pidgin is commonly used throughout the country and across ethnic groups, but it does not have official status.
In 2011, Google launched a search interface in Pidgin. In 2017, the BBC started BBC News Pidgin to provide services in Pidgin.
Varieties 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; and the Onitsha or Eastern variety that draws some influences from Igbo.
According to Obiechina (1984), Nigerian Pidgin English can be subdivided into five dialectal areas or variants; 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.
Lexical items and linguistic sources 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 Variant(s) Meaning Yoruba — Ṣebi Shebi, Sebi A word often used at the start or end of an interrogative sentence or question, e.g. 'Shebi you dey come?' means; "You are coming, right?" Yoruba A close variation of , 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". Igbo — Ona, Wuna A plural second-person pronoun equivalent to the English term "you people". For example, 'Una dey mad' means "You people are crazy." Igbo Word meaning "please", For example, the sentence 'Free me biko' means; "Please leave me alone". 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." 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". 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 — Means ‘to know’ or have a skill. For example, 'I no sabi am.' means; "I don't know it." Pikin Portuguese — Means; "Small", "Small one". e.g., 'Wetin man pikin go do?' Means' "what will a man's child do?" Palava Portuguese — Palaba Originally meaning a tedious or long winded speech, it has taken on the new contextual meanings of problem, issue or trouble. Wetin English — A word meaning ‘What?’ e.g; 'Wetin be that?’ Means; "What is that?" Commot English — Comot Come out, sometimes contextually taking the other meaning of; 'Leave', 'Get out' or 'Going'. e.g Abeg commot for road' means; "Get out of the way/Make way." 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. Another close and interchangeable Yoruba variant is 'Jare' Domot English — 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". YorubaJakpa, JP The act of escaping, fleeing, or disappearing quickly from a situation. Emigration (contextually). 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." Yoruba Unko, Nkor A word which means 'How about?' e.g 'Those people dem nko?' means; "How about those people?" Yoruba & Hausa Wahalla Word meaning 'Trouble' or 'Problem'. e.g 'Na which kain wahala be this', means; "What sort of trouble/problem is this?" Its use and meaning in NPE comes directly from Yoruba, but ultimately from Arabic — وهلة (Wahla) : Fear, Terror. Boku French — 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." Vamoose Portuguese — 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, Hausa — Yàngá 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. Comparable to the urban Yoruba Shakara. 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. 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." 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" Hausa Trickery, Stratagem, Cheating or Cunning. Similar to the Yoruba equivalent, Ojoro. e.g 'The man play me wayo' means; The man tricked me. Aza Edo Bank account number or financial details. e.g 'Send your Aza make I press you moola' Means; "Send your account details so I can send you money" 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. 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. There are accounts of pidgin being spoken first in colonial Nigeria before being adopted by other countries along the West African coast.
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.
Relationship to other languages and dialects Similarity to Caribbean Creoles 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 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.
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: 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.
Connection to Portuguese language