Nigerian Pidgin is a dialect of English spoken as a kind of lingua franca across Nigeria that is referred to simply as "Pidgin", "Broken English" or "Brokan". It is not considered a creole language since there are no "native" speakers, although children do learn it early. Its superstrate is English with Hausa, Yorùbá and Igbo as the main substrate languages. Nigerian Pidgin is also spoken across West Africa, in countries such as Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Cameroon.

The most important differences to other types of English is that there are only some consonants, vowels (6) and diphtongs (3) used. This produces a lot of homophones (words sound the same with different meanings), like thin, thing and tin which are all three pronounced like /tin/. This circumstance gives a high importance to the context, the tone, the body speech and any other ways of communication for the distinction of the homophones.

Bibliography

• Shnukal, Anna and Lynell Marchese. 1983. "Creolization of Nigerian Pidgin English: a progress report." English World-wide 4: 17-26.

External links

• Ethnologue report for Nigerian Pidgin
• Pidgin English - English Dictionary for the Nigerian dialect referred to simply as "Pidgin" or as "Broken English" or "Brokan".
• The pidgin English Reference Page

Pidgins and creoles | English pidgin and creole languages