Many mis-spellings and mis-pronunciations are so popular that they have entered colloquial usage.įinally I must add that Pidgin English is a comical language and spoken with spirit, emotion and a lot of gesticulations. However direct translations of sentences from the local dialets into English without regards to tenses contributes to a lot of the confusing words in Pidgin English. In some ways, due to the diversity of tribes and. Many English words are used differently in Pidgin English and more research would be needed to find out why. Also called, ‘broken’, it is an English-based Creole that has been adopted as a pseudo-lingua franca or nationally spoken language in Nigeria. The three major Nigerian languages namely Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa feature prominently in Pidgin English in general, however with Lagos being historically a Yoruba city 'Lagos Pidgin' consists of a disproportionately high number of Yoruba words. In this compilation I have limited myself to what I would call 'Lagos Pidgin' as this is what I am familiar with. With Nigeria having about 250 tribes in all, one finds a lot of variation in the type of Pidgin English spoken by the different ethnic groups.

It is a language made up of elements of the Queen's English and the local dialects. Pidgin English is spoken widely across Nigeria. Next Page Babawilly's Dictionary of Pidgin English Words and Phrases.

Pidgin english language