Nigerian Pidgin English

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Nigerian Pidgin English is a restructured form of English with Nigerian elements (words, turns of speech, and connotations) added in. It is spoken chiefly in Nigeria and neighbouring countries.

The version of the language that is spoken in Nigeria is considered to be the standard for the language, and its use in neighbouring countries has, in most cases, been influenced by the Nigerian version. As one traverses the other countries that speak the language, more variant words and slang are added into the language, especially in neighbouring francophone countries such as Cameroon ,Ghana and Benin.

Each of the 250, or more, ethnic groups in Nigeria can converse in this language, they usually have their own additional words. For example, the Yorùbás added the words 'Şe' and 'Abi' to the language. These are often used at the start or end of an intonated sentence or question. For example, "You are coming, right?" becomes "Şe you dey come?" or "You dey come abi?" Another example the Igbos added the word, "Nna" also used at the beginning of some sentences to add effect to the meaning of their sentence. For example, "that test was hard" becomes "Nna men, that test hard no be small".

Nigerian Pidgin English also varies from place to place. Dialects of Nigerian Pidgin English may include the Lagos, Onitsha, Benin City, and Ibadan dialects. Sometimes the language may vary even in different parts of the same city.

Nigerian Pidgin English, along with the various pidgin and creole languages of West Africa, displays a remarkable similarity to the various dialects of English found in the Caribbean. Linguists hypothesize that this stems from the fact that the majority of slaves taken to the New World were of West African origin, and many words and phrases in Nigerian Pidgin English can be found in Jamaican Creole (also known as Jamaican Patois or simply Patois) and the other creole languages of the West Indies. 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 West Africa are for the most part mutually intelligible with the creole languages of the Caribbean. The presence of repetitious phrases in Jamaican 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 present in Nigerian Pidgin English, such as, "koro-koro", meaning "clear vision", "mede-mede", meaning "salad", and "dorti-dorti", meaning "garbage". Furthermore, the use of the words of West African origin in Jamaican Patois, such as "boasie" (meaning proud, a word that comes from the Yoruba word "bosi" also meaning "proud") display some of the interesting similarities between the English pidgins and creoles of West Africa and the English pidgins and creoles of the West Indies, 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). Use of the word "deh" or "dey" is found in both Jamaican Patois and Nigerian Pidgin English, and is used in place of the English word "is" or "are". The phrase "We dey in London" would be understood by both a speaker of Patois and a speaker of Nigerian Pidgin to mean "We are in London". Other similarities, such as "pikin" (Nigerian Pidgin English for "child") and "pikney" (or "pikiny"--Jamaican Patois for "child") further demonstrate the linguistic relationship.

Chinua Achebe relies on extensive use of Pidgin in A Man of the People, Anthills of the Savannah, and other works to intensify the Africanness and local color of these works.

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Also the words 'unu a' or 'una' could be understood by patois speakers of the West Indies and speakers of Nigerian Pidgin. Sentences like 'Unu a wan' come' 'Do you want to come?' or 'Unu hear dat?' 'You hear that?' is a good example. The word 'unu' means 'you' in the plural sense, and is the same as 'unu'- 'You' in the plural sense in Igbo language, still used till today. This could be because most of the slaves sent to the West Indies were mainly taken from the Ibos or Igbos of Eastern Nigeria in the areas known then as Bight of Biafra or ancient Biafar/ Biafara.