Well i noticed this,we Nigerian often speak pidgin english more than britsh english we called our official language
in some offices even in a banks,its what av really noticed,we often speak pidgin english to our coleagues, even in some african countries
they also speaks this language.
buy my question is that where this PIDGIN english originate from?

This is a good question. And, it might be helpful to people, like myself, who encounter Pidgin here, but are perplexed by its words and grammar.

my thoughts are when the english man came to us, we didn't exactly pronounce his language well and from there a "dirty" way of speaking it came to be. I believe it's also the same reason why haitians speak creole.

@lady
thanks for d reply
please nairalander i still need more responce

I think it originates from the colonial days.

African were trying to incoporate the English language with thier various dialects and so spoke 'english' by feelings and sound and also what it would mean if an english sentence were translated into thier language.

Pidgin English means broken english ---- this may mean language that is spoken with more nouns than anything else.

~Lady~:

my thoughts are when the english man came to us, we didn't exactly pronounce his language well and from there a "dirty" way of speaking it came to be. I believe it's also the same reason why haitians speak creole.

yeah, it makes sense.

there's really no "one" place that started speaking it. People in different parts of the world just give it a different name and add their local dialects to it . In Hawaii and Papua new Guinea, they speak Pidgin, spelled Pijin(i think) buts is not exactly the same as Nigerian Pidgin English.

~Lady~ has an interesting idea, but isn't there a difference between a "creole" and a "pidgin" language?

drrionelli:

~Lady~ has an interesting idea, but isn't there a difference between a "creole" and a "pidgin" language?

i think they are still the same. here's a link that gives more info about pidgin/creole, its not a lot but its something.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pidgin

so it originated from where?

i have been wondering that too. well more where do they get the words themselves. they arnt english words like in ebonics. they arn french words as in creole. they arent traditional words. it is like a jumbled mess of english words with new definitions and made up words

It originated from Ikot Abasi then spread to Aba, Zaki Biam and other parts of Nigeria.

.

seriously, the whole world cant originate from Nigeria nah

cut other places some slack.

back in those days, most of the slaves mixed and intermarried with each other after they'd been cut loose from their old tribes.

some were able to hold on to memories of their former lives but by the next generation, it couldnt be the same.

madlady:


Many of the Pidgin English words are very similar to the Patwa the Jamaicans speak (not the dirty words).
If they did DNA tests you would see that many JA people originate from Nigeria and not Ghana as most believe.

you do realize pidgin English is prevalent in west africa right.

just saying.

tipa.

Of course you are right,to a point, but so much research does show the the cradle of civilization began in that region.

madlady:

tipa.

Of course you are right,to a point, but so much research does show the the cradle of civilization began in that region.

My mother comes from Jamaica, the patwa she sometimes speaks is so similar to the Nigerian ladies at my work place that I can understand almost everything they say, and they can also understand all I say when I talk patwa. Oh well , it could just be wishfull thinking as we are all so loving and close around this end.

a lot of pidgin/creole also originated from the slave ships and holding pens (baracoons).

I believe it was the main lingua franca in those places.

tpia.


Now that really and truly makes a lot of sense, kind of like a secret language, so the slave masters could not understand what was being said.

madlady:

tpia.


Now that really and truly makes a lot of sense, kind of like a secret language, so the slave masters could not understand what was being said.

sorry hon

the slave masters, slave traders and sometimes slaves more or less communicated in pidgin. The slaves would have picked it up while being held for shipment maybe.

It was also a trade language

tpia

We live and learn, that's why so many of us over this way like/love this NL of a place (apart from the fights )

^^ hang around Nigerians long enough and you'll learn their style of fighting

comes with the territory

madlady:

tipa

I always thought us JA's had cornered the market on tis your mouth but wohhhhhhhhhhh, some of those guy's on NL could kill you with that mouth.

their mommas have the same mouth so dont worry about it.

and no, JAs still hold the trophy when it comes to mouth.

btw, I've had JAs cuss me out for no other reason than my being African so what are you saying again?

and tell the Nl guys you're referring to to go easy on the threats- lest they see wen.

tpia.:

seriously, the whole world cant originate from Nigeria nah

cut other places some slack.

ROFLMAO BUHAHAHAHAHA

it wasnt that funny

Which English Pidgin? English pidgin comes from  English/European powers whom colonized enslaved, dominated financially/political others. African American Vernacular is just short of a pidgin. It contains many grammatical, words, and linguistically features of African language systems. Haitians and Jamaicans speak actual pidgins like Nigerians.

I.E no nyami(to eat) pussy, Or the word Yam originated from West Africa slaves in America.

.

The edos call Yam- iyan. could possibly have come from there

The origin of Pidgin is right under ur noses. Pidgin originated frm portuguese. They were the first europeans to berth in nigeria, the edo- kingdom and started the trans-atlantic slave trade. Dont forget that they also had colonial influence in some american countries, brazil in particular. Words like "na", "sabi", "wetin", "de", "una", etc have portuguese origin. The british came later and the result was an admixture of both languages plus some native lingo. Hey, havent any of u noticed that the pidgin of the edo and warri ppl sound quite peculiar!? My two pence actually. Lol!

Where Pidgin English originated from?
Ah!!! From my grandfather's backyard

Caribbeans (mostly Jamaicans) brought pidgin to west Africa.

During slavery and even after it was abolished. Caribbean slaves (or former slaves) were given the green light to travel to Africa and aid missionaries in introducing Christianity. Not all of them returned back to the Caribbean and settled in Africa.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Pidgin

Similarity to Caribbean dialects:

Nigerian Pidgin, along with the various pidgin and creole languages of West Africa share similarities to the various dialects of English found in the Caribbean. Some of the returning descendants of slaves taken to the New World of West African origin brought back many words and phrases to West Africa from the Jamaican Creole (also known as Jamaican Patois or simply Patois) and the other creole languages of the West Indies which are components of Nigerian Pidgin.

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 "doti-doti", 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 "Wuna" - 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.

Bios of a FEW Jamaican missionaries:

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20030520/mind/mind3.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Merrick_(missionary)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameroon

Joseph Merrick was a Jamaican Baptist missionary who established a church among the Isubu of the coast.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20031007/mind/mind1.html

https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http://english.chass.ncsu.edu/obsidian/Issues/sni/Obsidian_volume_issue_8.2/Kwame_Dawes.pdf&pli=1


.......

So we got our Patois by mixing African languages from ALL OVER the continent including Nigeria however, the actual pidgin itself came from Caribbeans esp. Jamaicans.

Same thing with Sierra Leonean Creole:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krio_language

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zsp_2F6p-SA&feature=player_detailpage