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Nigerian Pidgin, also known simply as Pidgin or Broken (Broken English) or as Naijá in scholarship, is an English-based creole language spoken as a lingua franca across Nigeria. The language is sometimes referred to as Pijin or Vernacular .
Nigerian English, also known as Nigerian Standard English, is a variety of English spoken in Nigeria. [1] Based on British and American English, the dialect contains various loanwords and collocations from the native languages of Nigeria, due to the need to express concepts specific to the cultures of ethnic groups in the nation (e.g. senior wife).
Pidgin English is a non-specific name used to refer to any of the many pidgin languages derived from English. Pidgins that are spoken as first languages become creoles . English-based pidgins that became stable contact languages, and which have some documentation, include the following:
There are over 520 native languages spoken in Nigeria. [1] [2] [3] The official language is English, [4] [5] which was the language of Colonial Nigeria.The English-based creole Nigerian Pidgin – first used by the British and African slavers to facilitate the Atlantic slave trade in the late 17th century [6] – is the most common lingua franca, spoken by over 60 million people.
West African Pidgin English arose during the period of the transatlantic slave trade as a language of commerce between British and African slave traders. Portuguese merchants were the first Europeans to trade in West Africa beginning in the 15th century, and West African Pidgin English contains numerous words of Portuguese origin such as sabi ('to know'), a derivation of the Portuguese saber. [3]
Ghanaian Pidgin English (GhaPE) [2] is a Ghanaian English-lexifier pidgin also known as Pidgin, Broken English, and Kru English (kroo brofo in Akan). GhaPE is a regional variety of West African Pidgin English [ 3 ] spoken in Ghana , predominantly in the southern capital, Accra , and surrounding towns. [ 2 ]
Generally, the language of communication is English among literate people and Nigerian Pidgin among illiterates and semi-literates of Urhobo and neighbouring communities. This is the case in all spheres of activities, except in annual or periodical traditional religious rites or elders' and chiefs' meetings, especially in rural areas.
The Bible Society of Nigeria published a revised translation in 2014. Another translation called Sabon Rai Don Kowa was published in 2020. The same year, the first complete Bible in Hausa ajami script was published (Biblical texts had been published before, the first ones during the last years of the 19th century).