Presentation Outline

Presentation Outline
group 8
A STUDY ON NIGERIAN ENGLISH
I. Introduction to Nigerian Standard English (NSE)
Nigerian English (also known as Nigerian Standard English), is a dialect of English spoken
in Nigeria, a country in the West African region. It is a form of English that was nativized by the
Nigerians. Similar to South African English, the development of NSE began approximately within the
period of British colonization of Nigeria and afterwards.
Based on British English, the dialect contains various loanwords and collocations from the native
languages of Nigeria, due to the need to express concepts specific to the culture of the nation.
There are three main dialects of Nigerian English: Hausa English (spoken by the Hausa), Igbo English
(spoken by the Igbo) and Yoruba English (spoken by the Yoruba).
According to Tom McArthur (The Oxford Guide to World English. Oxford Univ. Press, 2002) “The
spectrum of English in Nigeria ranges from Standard English through a more general English whose
structures are influenced by the mother tongues, by the Indian English of many traders and teachers,
and by WAPE [West African Pidgin English]”
Nigerian English must be distinguished from Nigerian Pidgin:
 Nigerian Pidgin is an English-based pidgin language that developed as a result of trade relations
between Nigerians and Europeans.
 Nigerian English dominates official contexts as the preferred language, it competes with Nigerian
Pidgin as the lingua franca for interpersonal or interethnic communication, particularly among the
less educated.
II. Sociohistorical backgrounds

Nigeria is a multilingual country comprises of different races, which occupied geographically, a
complicated landscape from its historic-cultural, political, economic and educational developments.
 It is a country made up of three nations, and each of these ethnic group nations is struggling
for their survival.
 Hausa in the northern region, Yoruba in the western region and Igbo in the Eastern region
within the country has already craved an age for English language as the only unifying
solution to the newly merges country.
 The multiplicity of languages in Nigeria is so obvious and egregious that languages of people
living there are massively different and incomprehensible to one another.
 English as the lingua franca
Nigerian Pidgin English:
 combination of indigenous languages and English, also is a common language throughout

western and southern Nigeria.
 uses English words mixed into Yoruba, Benin or Igbo grammar structures. And the Pidgin
English originally evolved from the need for the missionaries, later British sailors to
communicate with local merchants.
 today it is often used in ethnically mixed urban areas like Lagos as a common form of
communication among people who have not had both formal educations in English and those
who do not.
Socially, the social linguistic situation in Nigeria has often seen the social network and other activities
be conducted in English. English is widely practiced and occupies a prominent function both at the
workplace, in the media and as a medium of instruction in schools along with the three crucial
indigenous languages as well
Politically, most government press, publications, reviews of the National Assembly are released in
English also this is another language shift. However, it is not compulsory for civil servants speak
English while in their various offices, In most cases, public servants choose to speak in their native
language with co-workers during administrative functions, especially if there are from the same
regions.
III. Linguistic features
A. Phonological features
As Nigeria is a country in West Africa, the phonological aspect of its language is similar to a lot of
other West African languages.
Words associated with West Africa are given British and American pronunciations alongside the
West African pronunciation(s). Where a word is associated with an additional part of the English-
speaking world, further pronunciations in the appropriate global variety of English are also given.
 /ʃ/, /dʒ/ or /z/ are sometimes heard where /ʒ/ may be expected (e.g. occasion).
 /ŋ/ is a variant of /n/ which only ever occurs before /k/ or /ɡ/, as in monkey /ˈmɔŋki/. Not all such
environments will have /ŋ/; some will retain /n/.
 /ɡb/ is often treated as a single sound, a simultaneous ‘double articulation’ of the two stop sounds.
 Word-final consonant clusters are often simplified, either by dropping a consonant or by adding a
vowel.
 Unlike many other varieties, consonants cannot take on the function of a vowel in word-final
unstressed syllables (i.e. ‘syllabic consonants’ at the ends of words do not occur); they will always
have a preceding vowel, e.g. able /ˈebul/.
 After a vowel, West African English only has /r/ when it is also followed by a vowel, e.g. pour /pɔ/
but pouring /ˈpɔrin/.
B. Lexical features
Nigerian English vocabulary emanated from the need to characterize phenomena and nuances in
the users’ realities that are not adequately captured by the existing vocabulary of English.
 many Nigerian English words come from the country’s flora and fauna, local cuisine, dressing
culture, traditional festivals and customs, means of transportation, political culture, etc.
While some Nigerian English words are semantic extensions of existing English words
(e.g., severally in Nigerian English means ‘on several occasions; repeatedly’ and send-forth is a
noun meaning ‘a celebration or event to mark a person’s departure; a send-off’), many of them are
borrowings from the indigenous languages (e.g. tokunbo which denotes ‘an imported second-hand
product, esp. a car’).
C. Grammatical features
Nigerian English grammar is considerably influenced by the grammars of Nigerian indigenous languages,
especially those of Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba, which are regarded as the major languages. For instance, these
indigenous languages rarely distinguish between count and non-count nouns grammatically. Nigerian
English, therefore, non-count nouns are used as count nouns.
Example: The teacher gave us some advices.
Other features of the grammar of Nigerian English include:
Use of double subjects
 The man he is happy.
Use of zero article where it should definitely be applied
 Ø Majority of Ø students were late to class.
Double determiners
 This our country is great.
Use of object pronouns in subject positions
 Me and my friend were asked to leave the room.
 We discussed about the crisis in the meeting
The Tendency to omit prepositions
 Nigerian English often say: 'I hereby apply for a loan to enable me to buy a car,'
 British or American English speakers would write or say 'I hereby apply for a loan to enable
me TO buy a car.'
IV. Implications and conclusions
From this extensive study of Nigerian Standard English, our group has come to realize the vast
diversity of languages in the world, and how fascinating they are. Contrary to our initial belief that
Nigerian English shouldn’t be too different British English, our group has recognized that NSE has
evolved into a distinct cultural identity for Nigerians.
Many features of NSE are entirely unique and only belong to Nigerian cultures. As language learners,
we have come to appriciate these special features and the variety that they bring to the English
language. Additionally, NSE has also piqued our interest in other forms of English
As English learners from Vietnam, we have become used to learning the “standard” form of English
which are American and British English. However, through our research, we have understood that
binding ourselves to only limited number of English varieties is detrimental in the long run. Knowing
and comprehensing the underlying reason as to why NSE has developed into the state it is in now
helped us understand the English language better, as well as give us the opportunity to self-reflect on
our English-learning journey.

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II. Sociohistorical backgrounds

 combination of indigenous languages and English, also is a common language throughout

IV. Implications and conclusions

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