Brimming with life, playful and illustrative, Nigerian Pidgin English lends itself well to creativity, evolving quickly and readily borrowing from current events.

A World Cup blunder by Nigerian player Sani Kaita briefly spawned the word "Kaitalistic" to mean catastrophic and the frequent acts of kidnapping in Nigeria has popularized the term "Colombia people" to describe the perpetrators on Nigeria's first pidgin station Wazobia 95.1 FM.

"American Presido say time don reach to comot im troop for Iraq," announced the newscaster on a recent lunchtime bulletin, after U.S. President Barack Obama announced a formal end to the U.S. military's combat mission in Iraq last month.

Nigerian Afrobeat music pioneer Fela Kuti was a major proponent of Pidgin, further popularizing its use with albums like "Why Black Man Dey Suffer" and "I Go Shout Plenty".

"Good English (could) not convey the message of African music," he was quoted as saying in one of his biographies.

Despite the popularity of Pidgin, the Akademi faces an uphill struggle convincing all Nigerians, many of whom see it as a by-product of the country's falling education standards.

"Pidgin looks like a bastardization of the English language," said Reuben Abati, chairman of the editorial board for Nigeria's Guardian newspapers and a respected columnist.

"The West African elite, who see it as the language of commoners, like to dissociate themselves from Pidgin. They want their children to sound like Upper Class Britons. That attitude is wrong because it has to do with identity. As second users of the language, we must promote varieties of English."

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68J2OG20100920?pageNumber=2



Well its about time this happened. Pidgin English has been Nigeria’s lingua franca for decades, but it appears that plans are afoot to turn it into an official language – not just slang.

Nigerian academics have created a “Naija Languej Akademi” to create a Pidgin reference guide including a Pidgin alphabet, dictionary, a standard guide for orthography, and a history of the language.

Pidgin evolved from a contact language developed in the 1400s to trade with the Portuguese and the British in the southern Niger Delta. Pidgin uses borrow words from indigenous Nigerian languages such as Edo, Itsekiri and Yoruba.

I look forward to the day when I see Professors of Pidgin, and students getting Masters Degrees in Pidgin!
http://maxsiollun./2010/09/22/pidgin-english-to-become-a-formal-language/

Finally.

LOL, you seem very pleased about this.

About time

maxsiollun:

LOL, you seem very pleased about this.

Of course. I see this as a welcomed development. I was even wondering how long it would take for such a decision to finally be made.

oyibo don tire me, abegi!

finally.

I'm very excited about this. Now can somebody please translate Facebook into Pidgin? After all they have English Pirate.

It's long overdue. . .dem suppose don do am tey tey sef.

I'm sure Sagaman will burst a vein because of this
.

which of the dialect's will be made standard;

1 waffi
2 aboki
3 yoruba
4 calabar
to mention a few.

una do well

yes o!

usbcable:

which of the dialect's will be made standard;

1 waffi
2 aboki
3 yoruba
4 calabar
to mention a few.

Common Pidgin. Even, I think it [common pidgin] is relatively the same for West Africa, in general. Feel free to correct me, if I'm wrong.

The National Assembly should declare every wednesday as pidgin language days in their seatings. That way dem go dey yearn wetin we go quick dey understand. Allakwa, with pidgin english corruption will disappear from Naija.

Instead of saying 'the Governor of AZ state who swore an oath of allegiance to the constitution has been accused of embezzlement, looting or corruption' (which means nothing in this country), we should rather say 'the Govanor of AZ state dip hand inside our state money come thief 500 million Naira if him say na lie make e come swear to Otumokpo wey one konk juju man from Ijebu Ijesha don arrange.
I tell you corruption will disappear.

Guyman02:

The National Assembly should declare every wednesday as pidgin language days in their seatings. That way dem go dey yearn wetin we go quick dey understand. Allakwa, with pidgin english corruption will disappear from Naija.

Instead of saying 'the Governor of AZ state who swore an oath of allegiance to the constitution has been accused of embezzlement, looting or corruption' (which means nothing in this country), we should rather say 'the Govanor of AZ state dip hand inside our state money come thief 500 million Naira if him say na lie make e come swear to Otumokpo wey one konk juju man from Ijebu Ijesha don arrange.
I tell you corruption will disappear.

I don happy die.

Even Jesus sef dey speak pidgin

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1581084054999&ref=mf

atleast

Ok nau !!!

I asume this as a bright step .

Guyman02:

The National Assembly should declare every wednesday as pidgin language days in their seatings. That way dem go dey yearn wetin we go quick dey understand. Allakwa, with pidgin english corruption will disappear from Naija.

Instead of saying 'the Governor of AZ state who swore an oath of allegiance to the constitution has been accused of embezzlement, looting or corruption' (which means nothing in this country), we should rather say 'the Govanor of AZ state dip hand inside our state money come thief 500 million Naira if him say na lie make e come swear to Otumokpo wey one konk juju man from Ijebu Ijesha don arrange.
I tell you corruption will disappear.

That na the correctest talk way man don hear for eye since I join this obonge Nairaground.

Guyman02:

The National Assembly should declare every wednesday as pidgin language days in their seatings. That way dem go dey yearn wetin we go quick dey understand. Allakwa, with pidgin english corruption will disappear from Naija.

Instead of saying 'the Governor of AZ state who swore an oath of allegiance to the constitution has been accused of embezzlement, looting or corruption' (which means nothing in this country), we should rather say 'the Govanor of AZ state dip hand inside our state money come thief 500 million Naira if him say na lie make e come swear to Otumokpo wey one konk juju man from Ijebu Ijesha don arrange.
I tell you corruption will disappear.

ROTFLMAO

@topic
na him be say schools wey dey this our obodo naija  go start to dey teach pidgin nglishi
E go better welu welu, make we dey know when them politicians go dey thief our money with big big grama, even barristers them dey use big nglishi commit person wey dey innocent, after big grama with the question (GUILTY OR NOT GUILTY) the innocent poor man go come use the fear of the nglishi carry "GUILTY" for weting  him no do, LOL

I don speak pidgin so much these past few years so tey I nor sabi speak English anymore.

Anyway, ground go level with this pidgin. Nobody go dey form tushness, "chick" or "g-man" for me although I know se some people go still talk the pidgin with JD or yankee "oyinbo" accent

Kai! My pidgin skills are weak. . .I too speak Queen's English when I bin dey small.

Lol. This ain't gonna happen.

"The West African elite, who see it as the language of commoners, like to dissociate themselves from Pidgin. They want their children to sound like Upper Class Britons. That attitude is wrong because it has to do with identity. As second users of the language, we must promote varieties of English."

This logic is laughable. So because we're second users we need varieties of English, abi?
We chose English as a national language because we needed a common language to communicate. We couldn't use Hausa or Yoruba or Igbo. That would never have worked. Now after taking that step someone is saying we need even more diversity and variety!

No.

ChinenyeN:

Finally.

you are very funny. it sounds like you have been expecting this for long

This Means youths go dey Pass WAEC and NECO well well.
Imagine where your pikin go blast A1 For pigin English. Omo na goat you go kill

texazzpete:

Lol. This ain't gonna happen.
This logic is laughable. So because we're second users we need varieties of English, abi?
We chose English as a national language because we needed a common language to communicate. We couldn't use Hausa or Yoruba or Igbo. That would never have worked. Now after taking that step someone is saying we need even more diversity and variety!

No.

WE Chose Who is WE?? LOL

Why not the Hausa Language?

Formal language at home,street,chruch abi school  

, , guys make una tink am! if dem make pidgin english we official language,we pikin dem go fit to dey know book and understand wetin dey happen for we land, imagine ur lecturer for ur class dey teach una wit pidgin,imagine pastor for church dey preach wit pidgin, imagine d posibilities wey fit happen for we land, , but we fit try am oo, at least e go dey history sey we blaze trail for something abi una don hear say naija don blaze trail for somthing before?, lets go!!!!

Imagine professor Soyinka speakin pidgin english sayin: Madam i want buy groundnut, shey u get guguru?