Nigerian Pidgin English

Development and linguistic features of the pidgin

Author: Tesa G.
Length: 14 page(s)
Written: Aug 2010
Sales Rank: 12 XinXii Sales Rank

Views: 402

Category: Sciences & Research » Humanities | Work: Term Paper
Keywords: Linguistic features, social aspects and history of Nigerian Pidgin English, Nigerian Pidgin, Nigeria

This paper aims at presenting Nigerian Pidgin English

This paper deals with Nigerian Pidgin English (NigP), a dialect spoken in Nigeria (West-Africa) as well as in parts of Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and Ghana. The dialect of Afro-Caribbean English Lexifier Creole is the most widely spoken language in Nigeria which is due to the fact that well over half of the 140 million inhabitants of Nigeria are now (2008) fluent speakers of the language. “Given the rapid spread of NigP among younger Nigerians, this proportion should increase to over seventy or eighty percent by the time the present generation of children reaches adulthood. […] There is no Creole language worldwide with nearly as many speakers as NigP.”

Within the scope of this paper different aspects are going to be observed: How did this pidgin develop and what are the differences to Standard English? Reasons for the spreading, as well as social aspects will be presented in order to understand the emergence of NigP. Furthermore the language itself will be examined in detail concerning phonology, morphology and semantics.