Nigerian Pidgin English is a version of English with Nigerian elements (words, gestures, and connotations) added in. It is spoken chiefly in Nigeria (which is considered the standard for the language) and its neighbouring countries who in most cases have been influenced by the Nigerian version. As one traverses the other countries that speak the language more words and slangs are added into the language especially in neighbouring francophone countries such as Cameroun and Benin. Every one of the 250+ tribes in Nigeria can converse in this language and usually have their own words that they have added to the language that everyone uses. For example, the Yorubas added the words 'Şe' and 'Abi' to the language. These words are often used at the start or end of an intonated sentence or question. For example, "You are coming, right?" becomes "Şe you dey come?" or "You dey come abi?" The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
Pidgins are often viewed as “broken” or inferior languages but they are in fact creative adaptations of natural languages, and have a grammatical structure and rules of their own.
Some pidgins, known as expanded pidgins, may become so useful that they develop a formal role in communication and are sometimes given official status by a community as a lingua franca, as in the case of Hiri Motu, a Motu-based pidgin that is an official language in Papua New Guinea.
If a pidgin is used frequently enough and develops more roles in a community it can be passed on by parents to children and so becomes a mother tongue; it is then called a creole, and its vocabulary, grammar, and other linguistic features undergo an expansion as the functions of the language expand.
While English became an official language during the era of nineteenth century colonialism in Nigeria and the ESWA, the British had been trading in the region as early as the fifteenth century, during the pre-colonial period, primarily for slaves, ivory, and gold (McArthur 700).
English instruction in Nigeria began in the former half of the nineteenth century, as British missionaries began teaching in the region.
Borrowings from Pidgin and local languages: “She thought of that night long ago, when she had seen Ogbu-agali-odu, one of those evil essences loosed upon the world by the potent ‘medicines’ which the tribe had made in the distant past against its enemies but now had forgotten how to control” (from Things Fall Apart, 104).
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