Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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).
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 widely spoken lingua franca and spoken by over 60 million people.
[9] Unu has also found its way to Jamaican patois and Sranantongo (Surinamese Creole) with the same meaning as in Nigerian Pidgin. Igbo biko, meaning "please." For example, the sentence Biko free me means "Please leave me alone". Yoruba oga equivalent to the English term "my boss or my mentor", has been adopted from the Yoruba word oga.
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]
This meaning has been included in the Oxford dictionary, acknowledging its widespread use in the Nigerian context. [2] [3] This contrasts with the ordinary meaning of the word in English, referring to the main idea or substance of something, or the most essential part of a complex matter.
The word Oga is a Nigerian Pidgin gotten from the Yoruba word Oga which means "senior or boss." There Other meaning with same spelling just like the other yoruba words with same spelling and different meaning which the pronunciation will only be affected by the signs on each alphabet Oga=Boss or someone in authority, Oga= high and Oga = Chameleon
English is the official language in Nigeria and is utilized in government administration, educational institutions, and commerce. Aside from its role in numerous facets of daily life in Nigeria, globalization exerts pressure to utilize English as a universal standard language in support of economic and technological advancement. [38]
In literature, broken English is often used to depict the foreignness of a character, or that character's lack of intelligence or education.However, poets have also intentionally used broken English to create a desired artistic impression, or as a creative experiment writing somewhere between standard English and a local language or dialect.