Nigerian Pidgin is an English-based pidgin or creole language spoken as a kind of lingua franca across Nigeria that is referred to simply as "Pidgin", "Broken English" or "Brokan". Nigerian Pidgin English was greatly influenced by the Saro or Krios who infused words like "na" into Nigerian Pidgin. It is often not considered a creole language since most speakers are not native speakers, although many children do learn it early. Nonetheless it can be spoken as a pidgin, a creole, or a decreolised acrolect by different speakers, who may switch between these forms depending on the social setting. Its superstrate is English with Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo as the main substrate languages. Ihemere (2006) reports that Nigerian Pidgin is the native language of approximately 3 to 5 million people and is a second language for at least another 75 million. Variations of Pidgin are also spoken across West Africa, in countries such as Ghana, and Cameroon.
Variations
Each of the 250 or more ethnic groups in Nigeria can converse in this language, though they usually have their own additional words. For example, the Yorùbás added the words 'Şe' and 'Abi' to the language. These 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?" Another example the Igbos added the word, "Nna" also used at the beginning of some sentences to add effect to the meaning of their sentence. For example, "that test was hard" becomes "Nna men, dat test hard no be small".
Nigerian Pidgin also varies from place to place. Dialects of Nigerian Pidgin may include the Lagos, Onitsha, Benin City, and Ibadan dialects. There is also the Warri dialect which includes a lot of slangs that are constantly being added and replaced. Sometimes the language may vary even in different parts of the same city.
Similarity to Caribbean dialects
Nigerian Pidgin, along with the various pidgin and creole languages of West Africa, displays a remarkable similarity to the various dialects of English found in the Caribbean. Linguists hypothesize that this stems from the fact that the majority of slaves taken to the New World were of West African origin, and many words and phrases in Nigerian Pidgin can be found in Jamaican Creole (also known as Jamaican Patois or simply Patois) and the other creole languages of the West Indies. The pronunciation and accents often differ a great deal, mainly due to the extremely heterogeneous mix of African languages present in the West Indies, but if written on paper or spoken slowly, the creole languages of West Africa are for the most part mutually intelligible with the creole languages of the Caribbean. The presence of repetitious phrases in Jamaican Creole such as "su-su" (gossip) and "pyaa-pyaa" (sickly) mirror the presence of such phrases in West African languages such as "bam-bam", which means "complete" in the Yoruba language. Repetitious phrases are also present in Nigerian Pidgin, such as, "koro-koro", meaning "clear vision", "yama-yama", meaning "disgusting", and "dorti-dorti", meaning "garbage". Furthermore, the use of the words of West African origin in Jamaican Patois, such as "boasie" (meaning proud, a word that comes from the Yoruba word "bosi" also meaning "proud") and "Unu" - Jamaican Patois or "Una" - West African Pidgin (meaning "you people", a word that comes from the Igbo word "unu" also meaning "you people") display some of the interesting similarities between the English pidgins and creoles of West Africa and the English pidgins and creoles of the West Indies, as does the presence of words and phrases that are identical in the languages on both sides of the Atlantic, such as "Me a go tell dem" (I'm going to tell them) and "make we" (let us). Use of the word "deh" or "dey" is found in both Jamaican Patois and Nigerian Pidgin English, and is used in place of the English word "is" or "are". The phrase "We dey foh London" would be understood by both a speaker of Patois and a speaker of Nigerian Pidgin to mean "We are in London". Other similarities, such as "pikin" (Nigerian Pidgin for "child") and "pikney" (or "pikiny"--Jamaican Patois for "child") and "chook" (Nigerian Pidgin for "poke" or "stab") which corresponds with the Jamaican Patois word "jook" further demonstrate the linguistic relationship.
Connection to Portuguese Language
Being derived partly from the present day Edo/Delta area of Nigeria, there are still some leftover words from the portuguese language in pidgin English (Portuguese trade ships traded slaves from the Bight of Benin). For example, "you sabi do am?" means "do you know how to do it?" "Sabi" means "to know" or "to know how to" just as "to know" is "saber" in Portuguese.
Homophones
The most important differences to other types of English is that there are only some consonants, vowels (6) and diphthongs (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.
Examples
Wetin dey happen - means What is happening?
I no no, I no know, Me no no or Me no know - means I don't know
Come chop - means Come & eat
How Far? - means whats up? or hi
babe - means fine girl or chick
show - means meet up with me
Yarn or Yarning - means to talk
I no know wetin u dey yarn - means I don't know what you are talking about
No dey yarn okpas for hia - means stop talking trash or nonsense in here
I don pay you - means I have paid you
No Wahala - means No Problem
this your stori get K-leg - means your story is suspicious
You no sabi wetin you dey yarn - means you don't know what you are talking about
Abeg make una check dis one out - means please come check this out
Hia - means here
you no sabi di tin wey we dey tok - means you cannot understand what we are talking about
The tin you just yarn don vex me finish - means what you just said has pissed me off
Man dey go sleep - means I am leaving or going to sleep
The babe dey do nyanga - means the girl is playing hard to get
Make we gist - means lets talk or gossip
Make i gist you wetin happen - means let me tell you what happened
That kain maths e get as e be - means that kind of math is hard to understand or explain
I go woze you finish - means, "I will slap you silly", or "I will hurt you"
I dey cut - means am going out
make una come - means you all should come
we dey hia - means we are here
Na nothing - means it's nothing
I no sabi - means I can't do it or I don't know
Lifted frm:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Pidgin
