emofine:

Prince na be joke before no be serious. . . yes I might like it, it would be nice if you could post a small sample here if you're so willing.

By the way what's your book about?

My book is what I call a legal romance thriller, capturing the experience and situations that many Africans who seek greener pastures in Western countries. It is fiction, and involves a lot of international laws and how they may sometime conflict with each other. Not to worry, it does not involve any complex international laws, and any laws discussed in the book will be broken down in comprehensible form for the lay reader.

My book is about a Nigerian guy who was married in Nigeria and won the green card lottery, paving the way for him to emigrate to the United States. Once he arrived in the United States, he struggled to fit in the American way of life. He lived a double life and eventually got married to another Nigerian lady in America who did not know of the wife in Nigeria. Likewise, the wife in Nigeria did not know of her husband's new wife in America. He lived a double life for ten years, during which time the wife in Nigeria was constantly pressuring him to file her paperwork that will enable her to come to the United States. He had children with both of his wives, neither of whom knew of the other.

Frustrated and understandably impatient, the wife in Nigeria, without getting a divorce, married another man, and she did not tell her new husband that she has not obtained a divorce in her previous marriage, nor did she tell her husband in America that she married another man back home in Nigeria. They were both deceiving each other. The husband in America now becomes exceedingly rich, owning multimillion dollar properties. He eventually dies, and the legal question was how his property would be distributed: whether the wife in America could inherit her share of the man's estate, or whether the wife in Nigeria could fight to have her husband’s marriage declared void on grounds of bigamy. If the marriage were declared void, the wife in America would get nothing. The wife in Nigeria gets a permit from the American embassy to come to America to fight in court. Questions of fairness also arise. They were also issues of whether one of the children born in Nigeria of the American husband was fathered by the new husband. As you might expect, the children also lay claim to the man’s estate. The court in America, seeing these problems, declares that paternity of the children have to be determined before they inherit from their father's estate. The cat is subsequently let out of the bag, as a DNA test reveals that the deceased is not the father of some of the children. The children take on their biological mother.

I can't give every detail for copyright reasons, but it is one legal thriller you don't want to miss.

I am not a linguist by trade, but I do love languages. I am actually a patent lawyer in America, but I am fascinated by languages. One of my biggest role model is Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther, who was a linguist and translated the English Bible to Yoruba. A book titled "Good out of Evil" tells a story of how he was captured as slave and shipped to Sierra Leone, where he converted to Christianity. He eventually received a PhD in divinity from Oxford University. Bibeli Mimo, the Yoruba Bible, has been read by millions of Yorubas who cannot read English. In that same spirit, many market traders are denied the benefit of reading stories simply because they can't read regular English.

My book is what I call a legal romance thriller, capturing the experience and situations that many Africans who seek greener pastures in Western countries face.
It is fiction, and involves a lot of international law and conflict of laws, although it is broken down in comprehensible form for the lay reader. My book is about a Nigerian guy who was married in Nigeria but won the green card lottery, paving the way for him to emigrate to the United States. Once he arrived in the United States, he struggled to fit in the American way of life. He lived a double life and eventually got married to another Nigerian lady in America who did not know of the wife in Nigeria. Likewise, the wife in Nigeria did not know of her husband's wife in America. He lived this double life for ten years, during which time the wife in Nigeria was constantly pressuring her husband to file her paperwork for her to come to the United States. He had children with both of his wives, who did not know of each other.
Frustrated and understandably impatient, the wife in Nigeria, without getting a divorce, married another man, and she did not tell her new husband that she has not obtained a divorce from her previous marriage, nor did she tell her legal husband that she married another man. The husband in America now becomes exceedingly rich, owning multimillion dollar properties. He eventually dies, and the legal question was how his property would be distributed: whether the wife in America could inherit it or whether the wife in Nigeria could fight to have her husband’s wedding judicially annulled on grounds of bigamy. Questions of fairness also arise. They were also issues of whether one of the Nigerian-born children of the American husband (now deceased) was fathered by the new husband. As you might expect, the children also lay claim to the man’s estate.

I can't give every detail for copyright reasons, but it is one legal thriller you don't want to miss.

That sounds like a very good story line and quite intriguing. It is good to be able to read a thriller from a Nigerian perspective since it relates to our ways of doing things. I am sure you have put much thought into it. If you happen to accomplish it, it would be nice to buy a copy and see how collected and suspensive it is.

Wish you the best.

Yes I will definitely buy a book written in pidgin english. I would like to add that some of the book I read growing up were written in pidgin english. Some of them were mentioned by some posts here. There is one or two I did not see. They were written by Adaora Lily Ulasi: "Many Thing You No Understand" and "Many Thing Begin for Change" Excellent book.

@ princek12, by all means feel free to write in Pidgin. You will reach a lot more people than if it were only in Yoruba (unless you intend to translate it at a later date).

I read a book about a year ago - ironically written by someone called Prince. It was the most painful read of 400 pages I have ever experienced in my life. The story itself was interesting, but the writer would have been better off sticking to Pidgin or Yoruba as standard English was not his strong point. Whoever proofread it should have been shot - I would have done a better job for free!

Don't worry about the variation in Pidgin styles. Most literate people will understand what you are saying, but you may want to put a glossary to explain some words. The important thing is that your story is a good solid one that keeps the attention of the reader.

@Princek12

On another note, since you love languages, you can see about standardizing pidgin English with the help of a Linguist. You never know, it might be a success the way Bishop Crowther did the Yoruba version of the Bible. I think language is a fundamental form of communication. No matter how it is structured or spoken, as long as it comes out natural and advances reading, learning and comprehension,people would embrace it more. After all, the Standardized Romance languages(French, Italian,Spanish) are continuation of Vulgar Latin.

@Princek12 it's only now that I saw someone had a similar question to mine in which you supplied the answer to but I missed that post earlier on, thanks for posting the synopsis again however.

Your story does indeed sound good, and I would like to read it once it's out. . .so now having a gist of the tale I'm now beginning to think of the role of pidgin in the story.

Were you thinking of capturing the whole narrative in pidgin or only allowing certain characters to speak in pidgin, or is pidgin spoken depending on the setting (Nigeria/ America). . .I was just wondering. . .

Good luck with your novel all the same

Imagine one of d charaters in d Novel saying:abeg make we dey go instead of pls,lets go.lol.its gona be interesting. reading a novel in pigin language is fine by me as long as it has a good storyline.[color=#000099][/color]

emofine:

@Princek12 it's only now that I saw someone had a similar question to mine in which you supplied the answer to but I missed that post earlier on, thanks for posting the synopsis again however.

Your story does indeed sound good, and I would like to read it once it's out. . .so now having a gist of the tale I'm now beginning to think of the role of pidgin in the story.

Were you thinking of capturing the whole narrative in pidgin or only allowing certain characters to speak in pidgin, or is pidgin spoken depending on the setting (Nigeria/ America). . .I was just wondering. . .

Good luck with your novel all the same

My goal is to write, to the extent practicable, the entire novel in Pidgin English. I am sure that some concepts would be difficult to translate in Pidgin, but the gist of the story should be easily translatable to Pidgin.

The audience that are not literate CANNOT read pidgin inglis. becos they cannot read and write. The fact that you can speak a language does not mean you can read and write in the language.

But I might consider buying if it has good reviews.

What is bugg bugg meat? Insects?

Anyway, Nigeria speaks pidgin english, but Salonians speak Krio, which is a creole.

The difference between pidgins and creoles, is that the pidgin is not usually a first language, and also it contains more words from the native language or can switch syntax between the native languages and the substrate language(english).

So, with that being said, a Nigerian's pidgin may not be understood by other west africans, and because pidgin is not standardized(which would eventually make it a creole) it would be hard to expect people to know how to spell the words they say, when they dont understand the alphabet to begin with.

@ PO

Jagua Nana is a must read for you. It was published about 1961 but you will like it for the pidgin English.

BlackLibya:

What is bugg bugg meat? Insects?

Anyway, Nigeria speaks pidgin english, but Salonians speak Krio, which is a creole.

The difference between pidgins and creoles, is that the pidgin is not usually a first language, and also it contains more words from the native language or can switch syntax between the native languages and the substrate language(english).

So, with that being said, a Nigerian's pidgin may not be understood by other west africans, and because pidgin is not standardized(which would eventually make it a creole) it would be hard to expect people to know how to spell the words they say, when they dont understand the alphabet to begin with.

I believe that you are right that Nigerian pidgin differs somewhat from Sierra Leonean Creola/Pidgin. Nigerian Pidgin, however, is similar to those of Ghana and Cameroon. I may not be able to capture all of the audience, but I am sure I can make a dent.

tlops:

The audience that are not literate CANNOT read pidgin inglis. becos they cannot read and write. The fact that you can speak a language does not mean you can read and write in the language.

But I might consider buying if it has good reviews.

I also think that English literacy is different from Pidgin English literacy. Put simply, I believe it is possible for Pidgin English speakers to easily read and comprehend Pidgin. Only time will tell.

I also think that English literacy is different from Pidgin English literacy. Put simply, I believe it is possible for Pidgin English speakers to easily read and comprehend Pidgin. Only time will tell.

I can see where your going with that. All Africans I have seen speaking a pidgin english seem to transcribe the words in ways that a native english speaker would not.

The spellings make it hard for us to pronounce words that we could otherwise sound out in order to understand. Jamaican Patois is a good example, because almost all Jamaicans speak English and are literate in it, it is much simpler to read and understand Jamaican Patois as opposed to Nigerian Pidgin, even though people from both countries can probably understand each other in speech.

Olodostein:

You make sense. Reading and comprehension is education of its own. Many people understand a language but they cannot read it.

@OP  

Write am, me I go read well well.  But pay attention to what [b]Some-girl [/b]said. She has a point.   We need more thinkers like you to revive our languages and make it language of instruction instead of all this big grammatology(Queen's English) many Naijans find hard to comprehend becos it does not come natural to them.

Are you a Linquist? What is the theme of your book about? If you don't mind giving us a clue.

Some-girl couldnt be more right. Most white people here cant even spell english words, just as i cant really read Igbo language but i speak it fluently.

Bros i go buy with this kind tori . . . .

Yes!

Why not, if anyone cant read and comprehend it they should assume they bought or came accross a book writtten in a foriegn language ie Dutch.

@ poster. The fact be say n body wey no fit read 4 English no go read 4 pidgin. An illeterate can not do it. Remember dis is not an oral work but a written one. They can't fit. They can speak quiet alright but cant fit read am. So the question here shud b " wud u guys buy a book written in pidgin english"

I would love to read books written pidgin english. Your concept is interesting as it is a satire (don't know if its the right word) to the Nigerian man.
Since Ajayi Crowther made a name for himself before he died by writing the bible in yoruba. You are going to be celebrated too (don't get me wrong because i don't mean in death o) in life as a person who opened the platform for books to be written completely in pidgin english. I wish you good luck and please keep us posted as to when the book in pidgin english is produced.

Pidgin in my opinion is a very amusing yet educative means of communication and have you ever wonder that it actually has no defined spelling pattern which ever way it is spelt does not matter as Long as your audience could read and interpret its meaning.So its not a bad choice,

i don't know about an entire novel written in pidgin, but i remember back then, those Papa Ajasco comic books were written in pure pidgin and people didn't seem to have a problem with them

ps: the sierra leoneans have the whole Bible in their local language which is Creole (aka pidgin), and dem dey flow like water if dem dey read am, so i guess a novel in pidgin could work

never

i go buy am live and direct!

I dp read comic written in Pidgin, I can also buy books written in Pidgin, but must be very funny

Imagine the Holy bible written in pidgin : ) As for your question bò, I will buy it if I have money.

It will be worth it, make your mark in Literature bro, I love Pidgin English down to Warri slang and PortHarcourt way.

Nice one, mee go like read am wella, ee go make sense oooo