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Is Nigerian Pidgin English English?

Article in Dialectologia et Geolinguistica · November 2010

DOI: 10.1515/dig.2010.001

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DiG 18 (2010), 3–22 DOI 10.1515/DIG.2010.001.

Is Nigerian Pidgin English English?

Akinmade T. Akande

Abstract

The major aim of this paper is to demonstrate through the grammar of the verb
phrase in Standard English (StdE) and Nigerian Pidgin English (NPE) that NPE is
a distinct language. The paper draws on data collected from 30 Nigerian Univer-
sity Graduates from three ethnolinguistic regions. Although many scholars have
pointed out that NPE is a language (Agheyisi 1971; Elugbe and Omamor 1991),
not many of them have examined the verb phrase in NPE with a view to showing
that its grammar is distinctive. It has been shown in this paper that the NPE verb
phrase is sharply different from StdE verb phrase, and because the verb is at the
centre of the clause and can determine its argument, it can be argued that NPE
whose verbal grammar is radically different from that of English is a separate lan-
guage. The pattern of clustering of NPE verb phrases with other NPE verb phrases
or other crieterial features of NPE is also a demonstration that NPE is a distinct
language. Finally, the subjects made sharp switches from StdE to NPE, speaking
in blocks of first one code and then the other: this is like the behaviour of bilin-
guals moving from one language to another.

1.0 Introduction

This paper discusses the issue of language/dialect distinction with reference

to the relationship of Nigerian Pidgin English (NPE) to English. Most scho-
lars who have worked on NPE regarded it as a separate language from Eng-
lish (Agheyisi 1971, 1988; Deuber 2005; Elugbe and Omamor 1991; Oma-
mor 1982) although all of them, of course, recognise the close relationship
that NPE has with English. There are, however, some scholars who claim
that there is a continuum between Standard English (StdE) and NPE (e.g
Brosnahan 1958; Todd 1994). Those who have considered the relationship
between StdE and NPE as manifesting a continuum have actually extended
the theory of Creole Continuum propounded by DeCamp (1971) to English-
based Pidgins in West Africa. As cited in Deuber (2005: 22), Todd (1974)
opines that a continuum exists between English-based Creole and its lexifi-
er wherever both co-exist in the world. Two decades after this view, she
(Todd 1994: 3181) again reiterates this continuum phenomenon in Nigeria.
She uses the following example to illustrate the continuum between NPE
and English:

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4 Akinmade T. Akande

A bin kam, kariam go.

A kam, kariam go.
A kam, kariam awe
A kem an kari it awe.
I came and carried it away.

Bickerton (1975), citing Guyana and Nigeria as examples, notes that there
were no intermediate varieties between StdE and NPE before independence
but that after independence, a continuum which is apparent in the novels of
Achebe developed. Brosnahan (1958) classifies NPE as the lowest form of
English in Nigeria and this suggests that, contrary to Bickerton’s (1975)
view, a continuum had existed between NPE and StdE even before inde-
pendence. Peter and Wolf (2007: 5) also note that there is no strict barrier
between varieties of West African English and their pidgins and creoles.
Agheyisi is one of the scholars who have argued that NPE is a separate
language (Agheyisi 1971, 1984, 1988). Agheyisi (1984: 230) argues that we
can have educated speakers learner varieties of NPE with English interfer-
ence but states, as quoted in Deuber (2005: 23), that

the relationship that exists between these varieties and NSE [Nigerian
Standard English] cannot be described as that of a continuum, in the
same sense that creole-speaking communities in the Caribbean region
[…] have been shown to manifest this phenomenon. In other words,
the NPE variety which has been designated here as interlanguage PE
[Pidgin English] does not constitute a ‘mesolect’ in a possible conti-
nuum that might be said to have the Pidgin-proper variety as the ‘basi-
lect’ and NSE as the ‘acrolect’.

Elugbe and Omamor (1991: 61) explain that the sentences in NPE cannot
be accounted for in terms of the grammar of English and that the sound sys-
tem of NPE ‘clearly indicates that the system in NP is sufficiently different
from the one which operates in English.” Jowitt (1991: 54) points out that
both NPE and English ‘are fairly discontinuous.’ Deuber (2005: 51) says
that the greatest advantage of NPE over English and the other ancestral lan-
guages is that “it is the most neutral language in Nigeria: it has neither the
elitist connotations of English nor the ethnic connotations of the indigenous
languages.” It is clear from the above views that these scholars agree that
NPE is a language, mostly because its grammar is distinct from that of Eng-
lish or any other variety of English.
This paper argues that NPE is a distinct language. It focuses in the main
on the complex verb phrase in both StdE and NPE; and also examines the
patterns of switches as well as the clustering of NPE features in order to
demonstrate that NPE is an independent language. The paper concentrates on
the verb because the verb (phrase) is at the centre of the clause since it is usu-

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 Is Nigerian Pidgin English English? 5

ally the only obligatory element within a clause (except in verbless clauses,
such as in the first clause in (Although not very happy about it), he agreed to
go). Allerton (1982: 1) notes that the “centrality of the verb in the sentence is
that the kind of verb that is selected for a particular sentence determines the
basic structure of that sentence.” This in turn implies that it is the verb that
determines its argument(s). Allerton (1982) discusses this extensively and
explains the problems associated with valency especially in English.
When two codes do not share a common descent, identifying them as
two separate languages is unproblematic. However, when two codes are
historically-related and have the bulk of their lexis in common, as is the
case between English and NPE, the issue is problematic. Since Standard
English (StdE) is uncontroversially a dialect of English, I will not go into
any debate as to what StdE is or what it is not. Rather, I focus here on NPE,
whose status is somewhat controversial. The major question this paper ad-
dresses, therefore, is: Is it best to see NPE as a language separate from
English or as a dialect of English?
NPE is an English-lexifier contact variety which emerged due to contact
between Nigerians and the British (and other Europeans) probably as far
back as the seventeenth century. NPE is spoken by more than half of the
total population of Nigeria today (Faraclas 2004: 828; Ihemere 2006: 297).
NPE is also used in the media and many creative writers (e.g., Chinua
Achebe, Wole Soyinka; Ken Saro-Wiwa) have used it in their literary
works either to signal characters’ educational background or to express a
character’s ideological stance towards English.
An area which NPE has not permeated in any serious way is instruction in
schools. This domain is considered strictly formal. NPE also has no official
status in Nigeria and is not used in any governmental documentation. The
relationship between NPE and StdE can thus be described as a case of diglos-
sia (Ferguson 1959). Deuber’s (2005: 52) noted that English dominates in all
H domains and is formally acquired, while NPE is used in L domains and is
informally acquired. In this paper, I start with the assumption that NPE is a
dialect of English functioning as an L-variety (Ferguson 1959).

2.0 Diglossia criteriality model

Ferguson’s (1959: 325) definition entailed the co-existence of two varieties

of a language in society. For the varieties to have a diglossic relationship; it
must be the case that they are used in specified different domains and have
specified different functions. The H-variety is considered more prestigious
because of its mode of acquisition (formal). It is codified, it is the medium
of instruction in schools and it might be designated as an official language.

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6 Akinmade T. Akande

The L-variety is seldom or never used to carry out any of these functions.
English and NPE are two historically-related codes. While English is the H-
variety and functions not only as an official code but also as a medium of
instruction in schools, NPE, the L-variety, is used mainly as a lingua franca
and as a code for both intra and inter-ethnic communication in informal set-
tings especially. Also, English enjoys high prestige in Nigeria while NPE
has low prestige.
Gupta (1991; 1994) suggests that English in Singapore is in a diglossic re-
lationship. She describes Singapore Colloquial English (SCE, also known as
Singlish) as an L-form which is spoken in informal settings (such as home)
while Standard English is used as a medium of instruction in schools and in
other formal situations (p. 324). As in Singapore, when someone is able to use
the H-variety (StdE) as well as the L variety (NPE) in Nigeria, their choice
between these codes is often determined by social context that are similar to
the domains associated with H and L in Ferguson’s classic diglossia.
In this essay, I apply Gupta’s (1994: 9–13) notion of criteriality in relation
to the diglossic situation between StdE and NPE. The criteriality model is a
contrastive method to test if diglossia holds. This method consists in focusing
on the unique features of each of the varieties being compared. When there
are two closely related codes, salient features are established that define each
of the codes and mark each different from the other, and they are then quanti-
fied, allowing one text to be compared to another, and showing by their dis-
tribution, where switches from one code to another occur.
Being an English-lexifier contact variety, NPE’s lexicon is almost en-
tirely drawn from English. Since NPE does not make use of inflections,
there is no objective way of determining whether uninflected words are
English or NPE words as the following examples show:

1) I need money.
2) I chop it.
3) I show them.

All the words in these three examples are shared by both English and NPE.
The two codes are also structurally alike in many respects. In both codes:

a) the word order is SVO

b) adjectives precede nouns
c) all the pronouns in English are also present in NPE although there
are two additional pronouns which are unique to NPE (am and una).
d) auxiliary verbs precede lexical verbs.
e) the ordering of auxiliaries in relation to lexical verbs is systematic
and rule governed.

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 Is Nigerian Pidgin English English? 7

The major area where (Standard) English is grammatically different from

NPE is in the area of inflectional morphology. While the use of 3rd person
singular present tense, past tense and past participle requires verbal inflec-
tions in English, NPE verbs “do not take inflectional affixes to show tense,
aspect or modality” (Faraclas 2004: 829) as the following examples show:
4) He goes to school everyday. (Standard English)
5) Hin go school everyday. (NPE) – (He goes to school everyday)
6) He went to school yesterday. (Standard English)
7) Hin go school yesterday. (NPE) – (He went to school yesterday)
8) He has gone to school now. (Standard English)
9) Hin don go school now. (NPE) – (He has gone to school now)

One important criterial feature of NPE, which distinguishes it from Standard

English, is the presence of TMA auxiliaries. These TMA auxiliaries (e.g.
been, don, for, go, dey), which many scholars have described as preverbal
markers (Deuber 2005; Faraclas 1996; 2004), are not found in Standard Eng-
lish. On the one hand, when the lexical verb in a verb phrase is preceded by
any of the TMA auxiliaries, it is indisputably an NPE verb phrase and the
clause or the sentence in which it appears is unarguably an NPE clause or
sentence as in I don sell it where don sell is an NPE verb phrase. On the other
hand, a verb phrase that contains any of the primary auxiliaries (i.e. be, have,
do), modal auxiliaries (e.g. can, could, shall, may) or semi-modal auxiliaries
(e.g. ought to, want to, need to) is uncontroversially a Standard English verb
phrase and the sentence in which it occurs is a Standard English sentence
(Akande 2008). An example of this is I can go tomorrow.
Also, while inflectional suffixes are required on nouns to mark plurality
and genitive in Standard English, such noun inflections are optional in NPE
as in:
10) They bought two pencils. (Standard English)
11) Them buy two pencil. (NPE) – (They bought two pencils)
12) This is Akin’s book. (Standard English)
13) Na Akin book be that. (NPE) – (That is Akin’s book)

Similarly, certain relative pronouns (e.g. wey and wetin) are found in NPE
only as in:
14) Na me go see the man wey go bring money. (NPE) – (It is me
who will see the man who will bring the money)
15) I don do wetin you say make I do. (NPE) – (I have don what you
said I should do)

It is also only in NPE that certain pronouns (like am and una) can be found,
as in:

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8 Akinmade T. Akande

16) People don talk am plenty time. – (People have said it several
times)
17) Me I see una for town. – (I saw you in town)

Also criterial of NPE is the occurrence of the pronoun them in the subject
position. Them cannot occupy the subject position in Standard English whe-
reas, as example 8 indicates, it can occupy the subject position in NPE. As
examples 4 to 17 show, there are some features which are unique to Stan-
dard English while there are others which are unique to NPE. Such features
which distinguish one code from another are termed criterial features in
this work.

3.0 Language/dialect debates

It is well-known that it is often difficult to differentiate a dialect from a lan-

guage (Chambers and Trudgill 1980: 4; Hudson 1980:3 7; Melchers and
Shaw 2003: 11; Myers-Scotton 2006: 17). As Mesthrie (2000: 9) noted,
“linguists are unable to offer a definition of what constitutes ‘a language’ in
relation to overlapping entities like ‘dialects.’” Mutual intelligibility is one
of the major criteria invoked for grouping two or more varieties as dialects
of the same language (Chambers and Trudgill 1980: 3–4; Dixon 1980: 33;
Hudson 1980: 35; Skutnabb-Kangas 1981: 60).
Standard English is codified and standardised while NPE has not been
codified or standardised. Standard English has a strict spelling convention
with little choice and numerous grammar books. NPE, however, has multi-
ple spelling systems, as are reflected in the works of NPE scholars (Aghey-
isi 1971; Deuber 2005; Elugbe and Omamor 1991; Faraclas 1996; Mafeni
1971). Standard English is linked to education by virtue of its codification
and standardisation. It has social prestige whereas NPE does not enjoy this
kind of social prestige as it “has no official recognition and is without any
policy statement” (Igboanusi 2008: 69). The treatment it (NPE) receives
from both the government and Nigerian populace is due largely to ambiva-
lent attitudes towards it.
Another way of finding out whether a code is a dialect or a language is
by considering what people say about it. There is no agreement on the way
NPE is viewed by Nigerians generally. The lack of agreement is due to the
status of NPE to individuals. What people say about their code can be prob-
lematic. For instance, for political reason, some people consider Scots as a
distinct language from English while there are others who regard it as a va-
riety of English. The same applies to Xhosa and Zulu in South Africa.
Xhosa and Zulu are not only similar in structure, they are mutually intelli-
gible. Also, the cultures of Xhosa and Zulu speakers in South Africa are

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 Is Nigerian Pidgin English English? 9

similar and the two are historically related; yet they are generally consid-
ered and treated as two separate languages by their speakers and are recog-
nised as such by the government (Mesthrie 2000: 9).
The distinction between English and NPE as evident in the literature
(Deuber 2005; Elugbe and Omamor 1991; Faraclas 1996) is problematic as
it implies that there is no appreciable overlap in the way Nigerians speak
both codes. In reality, most of the sounds that are used by Nigerians while
speaking StdE are used even in NPE. For instance, many Nigerians neutral-
ise the distinctions between interdental fricatives (i.e. /θ, ð/) and alveolar
plosives (i.e. /t, d/) in StdE and realise them as alveolar plosives in both
StdE and NPE. The point being made here is that the status of NPE is not
clear in Nigeria.

4.0 Methodology

The data used in this study was drawn from my PhD research. The subjects
who constituted the source for the data consisted of 30 male Nigerian univer-
sity graduates (NUGs); 10 of whom were selected through a judgement sam-
pling technique (Chambers 2002) from Ife (representing the Southwest where
Yoruba is mainly spoken), Kano (representing the North where Hausa is
mainly spoken) and Nsukka (representing the East where Igbo is mainly spo-
ken). Sociolinguistic interview was conducted with them and each informant
was interviewed for an average of one hour. The data was therefore from re-
cordings of natural face-to-face interviews. The 30 NUGs whose responses
were used here were given 36 prompt sentences. They were asked to identify
the sentences and classify them into groups. While some of the sentences
were written in StdE and non-StdE, some were written in NPE and ‘incor-
rect’ NPE. These sentences served as a stimulus which enabled NUGs to talk
about language generally and about StdE and NPE specifically (see Appen-
dix I). This approach is similar to the one used in the Survey of Regional
English (Kerswill, Upton and Llamas 1999; Upton and Llamas 1999). The
use of prompt sentences was especially successful as the subjects were trig-
gered to use both StdE and NPE during the interview.
In the analysis of the spontaneous speech of NUGs, features criterial of
StdE were tagged differently from features criterial of NPE. The StdE com-
plex verb phrases are italicised while the NPE complex verb phrases, in
addition to being italicised, were also underlined. The tagging was done in
order to enable me to find out if StdE features clustered with other StdE
features and also if NPE features clustered with other NPE features. The
subjects from Ife were tagged F1 to F10, those from Kano were labelled K1
to K10 while Nsukka’s subjects were tagged N1 to N10. As an example, the

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10 Akinmade T. Akande

VPs in “I don buy<NPEVP> pen which I will use<StdEVP>” will be tagged

as illustrated; where NPEVP and StdEVP stand for Nigerian Pidgin English
verb phrase and Standard English verb phrase respectively.

5.0 Data analysis and discussion

5.1 NPE as a dialect

As far as the simple verbs are concerned, the data demonstrated that NPE’s
status is not yet clear. Many of the sentences containing simple verbs and
other uninflected words cannot be categorically classified as either StdE or
NPE. Here are examples to illustrate this.
18) I think uh nineteen eighty nine. (F2)
19) I understand Pidgin English. (F10)
20) We believe God. (K1)
21) I do my service last year. (K6)
22) We call them cleaner messenger. (N5)

There is no linguistic evidence to classify examples 18 to 22 as either StdE

or NPE. In fact, they can be classified as both. Apart from the fact that the
verbs think, understand and believe in these examples are shared by both
codes, all the other words in examples 18 to 22 are shared by both codes.
For example, the pronouns I and we in the sentences belong to both codes
just as the adverbial last year in 21 can be found in both StdE and NPE.
Examples 21 and 22 are a bit different. As I have pointed out earlier, NPE
does not make use of inflectional morphemes to mark tense or plurality.
The absence of a past tense inflection in do in examples 21 and the absence
of a noun inflection to mark plurality in messenger (example 22) are strong
reasons to consider the examples as NPE sentences. However, it might also
be the case that the sentences are attempts to use Standard English sen-
tences which have errors that render them non-standard. Like sentences 18
to 20, therefore, sentences 21 and 22 cannot be categorically regarded as
either StdE or NPE. Examples such as the ones in 18 to 22 abound in my
data.
The question here, however, is whether or not this evidence is enough to
regard NPE as a dialect of English; especially when we can argue that sen-
tences like 21 and 22 are either non-standard English or educated learners’
varieties of NPE.

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 Is Nigerian Pidgin English English? 11

5.2 NPE as a language

The judgements of NUGs about NPE prompt sentences, the clustering of

verb phrases in their responses and the constellation of features criterial of
either StdE or NPE suggest that NPE is best treated as a language.

5.2.1 Judgements about NPE prompt sentences

Out of the 30 NUGs, 23 grouped the prompt sentences given to them into
different classes. These 23 subjects unanimously agreed that sentences 25 to
30 (see Appendix I) are NPE sentences although some of them pointed out
that there were other ways of saying some of them. Such labels as good
Pidgin English (F1, F4, N1 and N9), correct Pidgin English (F6, K3, N7),
real Pidgin English (F7) were used to describe these NPE sentences. Simi-
larly, they also classified some of the sentences as bad, incorrect or wrong
Pidgin English. None of these 23 subjects classified sentences 1 to 24 as
NPE sentences although they said some of the sentences (i.e. sentences 1 to
24) are standard while some are ‘bad English’ or non-standard English
(Appendix I). An example of this sort of judgement is found in excerpt 1:

Excerpt 1
1A AK OK, what about other**
F9 OK. I saw this one. I waka go buy bread wey I go chop.
OK. This one is correct Pidgin.
B AK So, this one na**
K2 This one na the correct Pidgin English category.
Make you come now now. This na correct Pidgin English.
C AK OK.
N7 It’s a correct Pidgin English. This says uh Me I no get
money wey I go fit waste on you. These are all correct
Pidgin English.

The subjects were not only able to separate English sentences from NPE
ones, they were also able to distinguish between ‘correct’ and ‘incorrect’
NPE sentences. This is a pointer to the fact that NPE is seen as a separate
language by these subjects.

5.2.2 Clustering of NPE complex verb phrases

In order to show the extent to which there are blocks of StdE complex verb
phrases and blocks of NPE complex verb phrases, two steps were taken: (1)
the first complex NPE verb phrase used by each subject in the data was ex-
amined and (2) the probability of runs of NPE complex verb phrases or runs

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12 Akinmade T. Akande

of StdE complex verb phrases occurring by chance was tested with a simple
Runs Test, a non-parametric randomization test available on Minitab. The
verb is at the centre of the clause and its pattern of clustering especially
when two related codes are involved is crucial in arriving at how the codes
could be treated.
Presented in Table 1 is the pattern of the use of NPE and StdE complex
verb phrases by the informants. All the interviewees begin with Standard
English. Generally speaking, the first VP in NPE appears between the 6th
VP and the 116th VP. The subjects differ in terms of when the first NPE
verb phrase occurs in their responses (Table 1). While the first NPE verb
phrase used by K4 is the 11th VP, the first used by K6 is the 116th VP. Simi-
larly, the first NPE verb phrase used by F6 is the 24th VP while the first
NPE VP used by N10 is the 9th VP (Table 1).

SUBJECT NO IFE (F1-F10) KANO (K1-K10) NSUKKA (N1-N10)

1 67th 46th 50th
2 83rd 62nd 22nd
3 56th 47th 33rd
4 74th 11th 11th
5 81st 29th 55th
6 24th 116th 78th
7 52nd 55th 19th
8 55th 40th 6th
9 57th 11th 35th
10 26th 28th 9th
Average first NPE VP 24th (by F6) 11th (by K4, K9) 6th (by N8)
in the subjects re-
sponses and region

Table 1: Rank order of first NPE

A comparison of the three regions shows some variation in terms of when

the first NPE VP was used in each region (Table 1). The first 23 complex
verb phrases in the responses of all Ife subjects are StdE VPs. The first NPE
VP in this region is the 24th VP used by F6. In Kano the first 10 complex
VPs in the responses of all the subjects are StdE VPs while in Nsukka, the
first 5 complex verb phrases of all the subjects are StdE verb phrases. The
first NPE verb phrase in Nsukka is the 6th VP used by N8 (Tables 1). This
means that Nsukka subjects started using NPE earlier in the interview than
Ife and Kano subjects. This implies that Nsukka subjects are more comfort-
able and receptive towards the use of NPE.

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 Is Nigerian Pidgin English English? 13

The density of NPE demonstrated in the three regions also supports the
clustering of NPE complex verb phrases. In all three places, the informants
speak much more StdE in interviews than NPE (Table 2). However, more
NPE VPs were used in Nsukka while the lowest number of NPE VPs was
used in Kano. The rate of NPE verb phrases recorded in Nsukka was the
highest of all the three regions with the lowest coming from Kano. While
the rates of NPE verb phrases per thousand words in Ife and Kano are simi-
lar, the rate of use of NPE VPs in Nsukka is considerably higher, roughly
double the rate in the other two locations (Table 2).

CITY WORDS TOTAL STDE VPS NPE VPS % OF VPS

VPS THAT ARE
NPE
NO RATE/1000 NO RATE/1000
IFE 52,678 2442 2003 38 439 8 18%
KANO 39,119 1981 1756 45 225 6 11%
NSUKKA 42,678 2114 1603 38 511 12 24%
TOTAL 134,475 6537 5362 40 1175 9 18%

Table 2: Rate per 1000 words of StdE and NPE verb phrases

The explanation for this is almost certainly historical. NPE is generally be-
lieved to have started in the Eastern part of the country and from there it
spread to other parts of the country. Today, the majority of people who
speak NPE as a mother tongue appear to be from this region and the highest
proportion of literary works written in NPE come from this part of the
country.
I present below the results of the probability of runs of NPE complex
verb phrases or runs of StdE complex verb phrases calculated.
In the responses of 26 out of the 30 NUGs used, the probability of these
runs occurring by chance is as close as possible to 0.0 There is no doubt,
therefore, that these 26 speakers make sharp switches from StdE to NPE,
rather than mixing the two codes at random. The probabilities of runs were
not computed for the four informants (F2, K5, K8 and K10), who used al-
most no NPE during the interviews (Table 3).

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14 Akinmade T. Akande

NUMBER OF STDE NUMBER OF NPE OBSERVED EXPECTED P-VALUE

SUBJECTS

COMPLEX VERB COMPLEX VERB NO OF RUNS NO OF RUNS

PHRASES PHRASES

F1 224 35 45 62 0.0
*F2 249 1
F3 237 50 37 84 0.0
F4 184 82 23 114 0.0
F5 126 16 21 29 0.0
F6 194 36 16 62 0.0
F7 91 74 17 83 0.0
F8 250 30 29 55 0.0
F9 139 98 28 116 0.0
F10 309 17 21 33 0.0
K1 136 10 11 20 0.0
K2 184 21 19 37 0.0
K3 72 69 19 71 0.0
K4 105 27 11 44 0.0
*K5 185 2
K6 239 40 17 70 0.0
K7 226 15 23 29 0.0
*K8 222 9
K9 134 29 19 49 0.0
*K10 253 3
N1 105 39 13 58 0.0
N2 207 50 31 82 0.0
N3 171 78 27 108 0.0
N4 79 18 11 30 0.0
N5 226 23 19 43 0.0
N6 193 78 23 112 0.0
N7 211 49 37 81 0.0
N8 77 24 24 38 0.0
N9 178 81 35 112 0.0
N10 156 71 37 99 0.0

Table 3: Runs of complex verb phrases

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 Is Nigerian Pidgin English English? 15

StdE complex verb phrases cluster with other StdE complex verb phrases
while NPE complex verb phrases cluster with NPE complex verb phrases.
Here I present StdE extracts first and then NPE ones to illustrate this clus-
tering of complex verb phrases.

Excerpt 2
2A AK OK
F4 In Ife here, however, from em, you know, the – I don’t 1
know – Ife should be the cradle of Yorubas like has popu- 2
larly been said. It has turned to a cliché now, being the 3
cradle of Yoruba land. But nevertheless, over time you 4
discover that situations in Ife, the social life of Ife have 5
been characterised with violence, you understand? And in 6
An area where you have violence, protest here and there, 7
people not willing to agree, people not willing to really 8
dialogue, definitely you understand that progress, deve- 9
lopment will be slowed down if not in ebb completely. 10
And that’s why Ibadan has continued to move from 11
strength to strength. If you were in Ibadan about two 12
years ago, and you now go back to Ibadan today, 13
definitely it might take a lot of time to locate where your 14
father’s house is and things like that because of so many 15
developments that has taken place. That is just it. 16
B AK I foresee a situation whereby, in future, there could be
some degrees of uniformity in the way we speak Nigerian
Pidgin English because it looks like uh people are now
Writing- I mean they are now committing it to writing.
What can you say about that?
N5 In fact – In fact, I was going to argue, seriously, with you 1
there. The greatest problem we will have with the 2
Uniform Pidgin English, it is how do you write it? 3
How do you write it? You see, the way you string 4
your words, the grammar, the tenses, everything depends 5
On the speaker. There are no rules and you know, written 6
word, even Yoruba it has rules, Igbo has rules. There are 7
places where you dot the ‘i’ on top of the ‘o’, places 8
you dot the ‘i’ below the ‘o’. In Pidgin English, there are 9
No rules. You make them up as you go along. Now, how 10
can you communicate with that kind of stuff? How 11
can a lawyer go to court and make a statement in 12
Pidgin English that the judge will understand that it means 13
a particular thing? You know, the way he stresses the 14
word, even the way he strings his words can completely 15
Change the meaning. 16

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16 Akinmade T. Akande

There are 9 complex StdE verb phrases in 2A and 8 in 2B and nothing

marks these complex VPs as NPE. The pattern here is such that we have a
constellation of StdE complex verb phrases without a single occurrence of
NPE complex verb phrases. More importantly, in each of these excerpts
there are other features criterial of StdE with which StdE complex verb
phrases cluster. The first of these features is the use of inflectional markers
by the subjects to show plurality or tense. For instance, there is a plural in-
flectional suffix –s in the words situations and developments in 2A (Lines 5
and 16) and tenses and rules in 2B (Lines 5 and 7). Similarly, concord and
possession were marked with inflectional markers in the examples. The
marking of concord is another criterial feature of StdE which is common in
the extract above. For instance, in 2B we have it means (L.13), he stresses
(L.14) and he strings (L.15). Also, in 2A, we have he works. All these ex-
amples show that there is concord between the third person singular sub-
jects and the simple present form of the verb that follows them. The aux-
iliary BE is followed by the {en} form in the passive as in have been cha-
racterised in 2A (Lines 5–6). Lastly, the perfective auxiliary HAVE is fol-
lowed by the past participle form of the verb take in has taken (Line 16 of
2A). All these are features criterial of StdE and their occurrences in the ex-
cerpts used indicate that they are clearly StdE.
Just as there are responses which are completely in StdE, there are oth-
ers which are completely in NPE. I present below excerpts 3A and 3B in
which the verb phrases are clearly NPE ones.

Excerpt 3
3A AK OK. But uh as it is now, if government talk say them
wan adopt Pidgin as our official language, wetin go
happen?
F4 En, I – Well, you see Nigeria here, the fact is for 1
Nigeria, no government wey don come get one policy 2
Say na this one na hin go do, when he go, another go 3
change am. And that’s the problem wey we don have 4
here. So, if any government come tomorrow say hin 5
wan adopt Pidgin English say hin be official language, 6
another one go talk say no be from oyinbo, we take 7
independence? So, I go dey go – E no go stand, you 8
understand? So, if one government – if Obasanjo talk 9
Say today na Pidgin we go begin talk, e good o. But I dey 10
tell you, e no go stand. Another government go talk say 11
No be for oyinbo we take our independence? Go 12
Ghana, their English na superb o, go – You know that 13
kind of a thing. Na so e go be. If them come o, we 14
Go accept am. But I dey tell you say e no go stand. 15

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 Is Nigerian Pidgin English English? 17

B AK Wetin you think say be role of Pidgin English for

Nigeria?
K2 Pidgin English e get many role wey e dey serve for 1
people in Nigeria. Because hin dey make people to 2
communicate or talk wherever they meet themselves. 3
So if you meet people from Southern part of Nigeria, 4
When they come to the Northern part of Nigeria, where 5
people no dey speak English, they fit understand wetin 6
them go talk. 7

There are 16 complex NPE verb phrases in 3A while K2 used 5 NPE com-
plex verb phrases in 3B. In each of these two texts, there is no occurrence of
a single StdE complex verb phrases. This pattern is similar to the way my
subjects behaved in their responses (with the exception of F2, K1 and K10).
Although many words in the excerpts are shared by both StdE and NPE,
excerpts 3A and 3B demonstrate a clear use of NPE in that there are other
criterial NPE features present in them. There is, for instance, the use of the
pronoun am and the use of the particle na. Am as a third person singular
pronoun in 3A is criterial of NPE and can occupy only the object position
as it has no subject form in NPE. In NPE them can occupy either the subject
or object position as we see in them dey spend so much time argue over so
many thing (4C, L.6–7) where it functions as a subject. Thus, this clause is
perfectly formed in NPE. In addition to the use of the particles na and o,
such words as wetin, hin and wey which are criterial of NPE are common in
their responses. These excerpts demonstrate that the criterial features of
StdE tend to cluster with other StdE features, and the criterial features of
NPE tend to cluster with the NPE features whenever they appear and they
rarely mix up together. This clustering of grammatical features of NPE
makes it distinguishable from StdE whenever such a cluster occurs.

5.2.3 Focusing of code choice

The pattern of switches NUGs make between StdE and NPE is also crucial
and can provide insights on how NPE is treated by them. Here are three
excerpts that illustrate the pattern of switches across all three regions.

Excerpt 4
F6 So, it has played a major role. It allows you to communicate 1
anywhere you find yourself in Nigeria. In fact, there’s no place 2
in Nigeria where you will get to and you and you will not see 3
a single person who cannot understand English. So, I think it has 4
served a great role in bridging the gap in communication. An 5
Hausa man can come from Hausa and come to Yoruba place, 6

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18 Akinmade T. Akande

he cannot speak Yoruba and he cannot speak any other thing, 7

then nobody would understand him. But if he can speak Pidgin 8
English or just any little English, people will understand. I 9
don say that one before say this English wey we dey talk about 10
e don tey wey e come to Nigeria. When e come, many 11
people no go understand 12

Excerpt 5
K6 En, of course because I can’t really say that I am very fluent 1
in speaking the language but for example, I live with people, 2
I school with people that can speak the language. And I acquired 3
a little bit knowledge about how to speak it. Yeah. For example, 4
when somebody wants to go to markets. I dey waka…. Ha, my 5
friend where you na dey waka go now? I dey waka – I wan go 6
quick quick reach market. 7

N10 China no dey use English. Na their own language them dey 1
yan – Them dey yan their language and yet wetin them sabi, hat’s 2
we dey fit say we dey use our own this thing, our own em, 3
our own Pidgin English, no grammar, grammar per se, we 4
are not doing better than they. So, Germany too, they don’t use 5
this…that’s English language in teaching in their classes. They 6
don’t use it. Not only them, even the em- There is another, 7
country Japan, they don’t use it but these are world-class 8
countries. That’s when you are talking about world power, 9
they’ve gone far. So, they are able to pass this message to their 10
people using their own dialects, what they can comprehend. To 11
tell you the truth, if I were taught with Pidgin for my first 12
degree, I for come have first class because all those, big big 13
grammar wey them dey carry from US and uh London 14
come dey give us here, them for break am to the level wey 15
we oneself go comprehend. 16

Excerpts 4 to 6 show that the subjects made clear switches between codes.
The first 11 VPs in excerpt 4 are StdE complex verb phrases after which F6
switched to NPE and used 4 NPE complex verb phrases without any StdE
complex verb phrases between them. K6 also started with StdE in excerpt 5
and used 3 StdE complex verb phrases and these verb phrases were fol-
lowed by 4 NPE complex verb phrases. N10 in excerpt 6 used 5 NPE com-
plex verb phrases after which he used 9 StdE complex verb phrases. After
these 9 StdE complex verb phrases, N10 used 5 NPE complex verb phrases
successively.

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 Is Nigerian Pidgin English English? 19

Apart from this pattern of sequence of VPs in both codes, NPE complex
verb phrases appear with other features of NPE and StdE complex verb
phrases appear with other features of StdE in the these excerpts. For in-
stance, there is a verb inflection -s in allows (line 2, excerpt 4) and this
marks concord between the 3rd person singular pronoun it and the verb al-
lows in this excerpt. Similarly, them in line 2 of excerpt 6 is an NPE pro-
noun by virtue of occurring in the subject position in Them dey yan. Sharp
switching matters. This is because when there is sharp switching; criterial
features of a particular code tend to cluster and this clustering makes the
code distinguishable from the other code.

6.0 Conclusion

The purpose of this paper was to explore whether NPE is best seen as a di-
alect of English or a distinct language. The two codes are sharply distinct and
judgements favour NPE as a separate language. Also, their verbal grammars
are quite different. Thus, from structural and grammatical point of view,
NPE is a separate language different from English. Although there are some
sentences which can belong to both StdE and NPE in my data, many of such
sentences can be regarded as educated speakers’ learner varieties of NPE.
Two factors suggest that NPE is best seen as a separate language. Firstly, as
noted above, the grammar is sharply different as seen in the difference in
complex verb phrases. The complex VP is either a StdE complex verb phrase
or an NPE complex verb phrase and there cannot be a mismatch between the
two. Secondly, NPE complex verb phrases cluster not only with other NPE
complex verb phrases but also with other features criterial of NPE. Similarly,
StdE complex verb phrases cluster with other StdE complex verb phrases and
other criterial features of StdE, and this enables one to observe a constellation
of features of either StdE or NPE. In the responses of the subjects, either of
these codes appeared in blocks such that it is possible for one to say a block
is in NPE and another is in StdE; this is like the behaviour of bilinguals mov-
ing from one language to the other.

References
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20 Akinmade T. Akande

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Akinmade T. Akande • Department of English •

Obafemi Awolowo University • Ile-Ife • NIGERIA
akinmakande@yahoo.com

Appendix I
Prompt sentences

1 I have spoken with my friend and he has agreed to help you.

2 The doctor has come here to look for you.
3 Is he a nice teacher?
4 Will you marry him?
5 Go and talk to him now.
6 Shut up and listen to me.
7 He have plenty book.
8 I cannot be able to do it yesterday.
9 Did you went and bought a bottle of oil?
10 Was my brothers and sisters there?
11 Leaves my office and writes what I ask you to write.
12 Buys it and enjoyed it.
13 The informations about the equipments are many.
14 We love ourselves.
15 Our country comprises 36 states.
16 I congratulate you for your success.
17 The university discusses about his problem.

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 22 Akinmade T. Akande

18 Has she replied your letter?

19 The table sings the food.
20 Our country states comprises 36.
21 The idea arrested the tenants, the room tried them on
the playground and the table sent them to prison.
22 Mathematics difficult but interesting is.
23 Has the telephone eaten the mountain?
24 The furious bucket insulted the patient pen.
25 Make una come give me mai money if you no want
make katakata go burst for your head.
26 I don put am under table.
27 I waka go buy bread wey I dey chop.
28 Abi na hin be your oga?
29 Me I no get money wey I fit waste on you.
30 Make you come now now.
31 Bread don waka eat finish.
32 His problem go marry una book.
33 Wai you come us disappoint?
34 The pikin don born hin papa.
35 I no go sweet mother forget you.
36 I look mai pocket, no dey money.

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