![]() ![]() ![]() With more than 250 ethnic groups speaking over 500 languages and dialects, English is the country’s official business language, whether you’re actually on business or just on safari.įor citizens without easy access to higher education and white collar jobs, picking up a few words of English and mixing it with elements of their native tongues has been the default way of communicating across tribal cultures. Pidgin English remains the “great” equalizer - a way of communicating on a base level that cuts through bullshit. Pidgin languages facilitate communication where speakers of mutually unintelligible languages need to overcome the linguistic barriers that divide them. Pidgin English is extremely popular in most parts of Africa, particularly West Africa, and has been accepted as the de-facto language of blue collar trade and merchants. The pidgin definition, according to Merriam-Webster, is: a simplified speech used for communication between people with different languages. pidgin ( countable and uncountable, plural pidgins ) ( linguistics) An amalgamation of two disparate languages, used by two populations having no common language as a lingua franca to communicate with each other, lacking formalized grammar and having a small, utilitarian vocabulary and no native speakers. But pidgins are usually narrow, simplified, have a limited vocabulary, and no native speakers. There’s a certain intimacy that this form of broken English emits a down-to-earth, survivalist approach to everyday living and hustling in Africa’s most populous nation. Pidgin is the term for any language that naturally develops between people who use different languages. Speaking Nigerian Pidgin transforms them from visiting foreigner into one of the hundreds of well-integrated expatriates in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital. If they open up with Pidgin English instead, I instantly perk up. ![]()
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