A SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDY OF NIGERIAN PIDGIN IN ZARIA

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A SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDY OF NIGERIAN PIDGIN IN ZARIA

Abstract:

Much of what is currently known about Nigerian Pidgin (NP) has been provided by researches into NP in southern Nigeria as it exists especially in Edo, Delta and Rivers States. There is even a general assumption that MP is a phenomenon of southern Nigeria alone, and the use of NP in the northern part of Nigeria is often denied by many, probably because of the presence, in the north, of the strong lingua franca, Hausa. The need for documented material on the existence and use of NP in the northern part of Nigeria is the motivation for this research. A typical northern Nigeria town, Zaria, was used for the research, with the assumption on the part of the researcher that whatever insight is gained into NP in Zaria will be by and large applicable in other northern Nigeria towns. In a brief background to the study which is given in Chapter One, the relationship of NP to West African Pidgin, and the relationship of the latter to the English language in West Africa are discussed. A short overview of the earlier spread of MP is also given in this section. Chapter two is a review of literature on pidgins (and Creoles) with particular focus on NP its status in Nigeria, its lexicon, syntax and phonology. A second part of this chapter reviews various frameworks for the study of language and ends with a proposed framework for this study. Chapter three presents the method used for this research as the Rapid Rural Appraisal (R.R.A.) technique, which is a combination of . data collection methods through the primary and secondary sources. Questionnaires were administered, and three recordings made of samples of NP in Zaria. The data gathered are analysed in Chapter Four, and the same chapter discusses the findings. This analysis provided answers to the questions the researcher started out with,namely who uses NP, with whom, where ard for what purpose. Deviations from NP in the recorded samples are highlighted, and “echoes” of NP are also pointed out. Chapter five corcludes that NP is spoken in Zaria by various people in various walks of life and in every section of the town even if rot every single person uses it. It also concludes that the NP used in Zaria is a variety of the NP in Warri/Sapele which we have used as norm. The implication of the existence ard use of MP in the north is of great importance for Nigeria, as far as a unifying national larguage is concerned. The researcher recommends that the government of Nigeria give official status to NP, approve an orthography and possibly adopt a new name for it, in order to liberate it from the stigma of low status that is often attached to it.

A SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDY OF NIGERIAN PIDGIN IN ZARIA

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