Learn pidgin language free6/20/2023 ![]() It draws from indigenous languages such as Edo, Itsekiri and Yoruba, meaning many of the hundreds of ethnic groups in southern Nigeria can claim it as their own. “It’s not a contact language any more, it’s an independent, fully fledged language,” said Christine Ofulue, head of linguistics at the National Open University of Nigeria.Īccording to the Akademi’s research, Nigerian Pidgin English evolved from a contact language developed in the 1400s to trade with the Portuguese then the British in the southern Niger Delta, a shipping route for the slave trade, then for palm oil, and now the hub of Africa’s biggest crude oil industry. Now, for the first time, a group of academics is working to elevate the status of Nigerian Pidgin to more than just a practical means of communication in a country with several hundred indigenous languages and a huge educational divide.Ĭreated a year ago, the Naija Languej Akademi is the first to try to harness the unbridled growth of Pidgin by putting together a reference guide which would include an alphabet, the first comprehensive dictionary, a standard guide for orthography, and an authoritative history of the language. Spoken by an estimated 50 million people, variants are also used in Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Once considered the language of the uneducated, Pidgin is one of the world’s fastest evolving languages and Nigerians of every age and social class can now be found greeting each other in its clipped, concise tones. “I dey fine” is the correct response, or, if you’re in a less upbeat mood, “body dey inside cloth”, meaning “I’m coping/making do with the situation,” or literally “I’m still wearing clothes.” ![]() “How you dey?” comes the question, or “How body?” (both meaning “how are you?”) LAGOS (Reuters Life!) - It may share many of its words and basic grammar with English, but a perplexed look descends across the face of most newcomers to Nigeria the first time they are addressed in Pidgin.
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