Pidgin English

Hi,

Wikipedia describes Pidgin English as a simplified derivative of English, used as a means of communication between people. Well, that is the language that is spoken in Nigeria. It sounds like English, but has minimum grammar and some nuances (like all languages have) unique to the language.

When we came here, it used to sound very odd hearing this Pidgin dialect/language (whatever); I mean, we could understand it as English, but we used to go in auto correct mode! We still do, especially as my son started speaking English here and now along with correcting his pronounced Maharashtrian accent, we need to correct grammar also :) Though, most Indians who have stayed in Nigeria for many years, have effectively adopted this Pidgin English.

I will give you some examples, to help you understand this better.

1. Mine is called My Own....Yours is called Your Own and so....guess what Ours is called? (yes, Our Own) There is a beer brand called Star. It has huge hoardings saying "In Nigeria since 1850....OUR OWN"!!! So when my son fights for say a ball with his friend, he says "This is My Own ball, you go get Your Own"!!! :):):)

2. Traffic jam (though to think about it, that is also a wrong word) is called Go Slow. So there are 'Long Go Slows, there are 'Little Go Slows' and there are 'Always Go Slows'

3. The chief shopowner lady, vegetable lady etc are called Mamma. It does not mean she has adopted us, it just means she is the head and whatever price she decides is THE FINAL price. Oh, and the salesmen/women, others in shop etc are called 'My friend'!!! :):)

There is a small supermarket+medical shop near our house, that my son frequents. The guard of that shop always makes it a point to greet my son (even if he is sitting in the car) saying "How are you my friend" and my son, is not used to this still, replies very rudely "I am not your own friend......I am XYZ's friend" (very rude I know)

4. A lot of words are repeated to emphasize the point. Like "Now now now, rain is falling down down down"!! And most sentences end with 'O' like "The place is straight -o"; "You just wait'o"; "Right-o" or worst is "You go straight-o now now now" :):)

5. Park!: The word 'park' is used for food, dirt and parking cars. For food it means "Ma'am have you finished? Can I park the food in the fridge?"; for dirt it means "I will use the parker (that is actually the dustpan) to park the dirt in the dustbin" and parking cars is well same as normal! (everything is not different see). Oh, there is a famous supermarket here called Park N Shop! So what happens there...."I going to the Park N Shop, will park the parked food into my trolley" :):):)

6. Little versus some and No versus don't: Okay, now this is confusing. Like we say "Put some or some more salt", in Pidgin it is "Put Little more salt"!! And if you do not want something, say "No make it, No want it..." :):) A friend told her maid "You can make egg any day of the week, don't make it on Tuesday" The maid understood this as "Make it only on Tuesday"!!!!!

7. Names: well this does not seem related to the language per se. But somewhere it is. Many people here are named after days of the week (yes, same as those 7 brothers in Satte Pe Satta) like Monday...till Sunday. This is confusing, I will tell you why. One day, my maid told me "The person has asked me to meet Monday". Now, since grammar is slightly omitted here, I understood the sentence as "The person has asked me to meet on Monday"!!!! I created a fuss saying "Why Monday, he should call you today etc etc". My husband very calmly said "She means a person called Monday has asked her to meet him!!!" Imagine my situation!!!

One more funny incidence on this. A friend's son got a note from school about football practice and Sunday was written on it. Now, she thought football practice was on Sunday, so took him that day to school. Only to find it was not there. Of course she blew her top (earlier I had written about how Indians treat Nigerians right?). Later, she found out, that it was her driver Sunday' who had signed at the bottom, leading her to think football practice was on Sunday (the day of the week)!!!!!!

"Friday is on leave on Saturday, but can come on Sunday; else I can ask Monday to come"!! :):):)

8. Misc: Vaccuum cleaner is called Sweeping Machine; Drawing room/Living room is called Parlour (till now, I used to think only of beauty parlour as parlour); half hour is not understood, one needs to say 30 minutes.

These are just some things that I am sharing with you, there are many more. I cannot remember the rest right now, maybe, those have become ingrained in my language too, after my 9 month's stay here! :):)

Ciao