West African Pidgin English, also known as Guinea Coast Creole English, is a West African

pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn from s ...

language lexified by English and local African languages. It originated as a language of commerce between British and African slave traders during the period of the

transatlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...

. about 75 million people in Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana and Equatorial Guinea used the language. Because it is primarily a

spoken language A spoken language is a language produced by articulate sounds or (depending on one's definition) manual gestures, as opposed to a written language. An oral language or vocal language is a language produced with the vocal tract in contrast with a si ...

, there is no standardized written form, and many local varieties exist. These include Sierra Leone Krio, Nigerian Pidgin,

Ghanaian Pidgin English Ghanaian Pidgin English (GhaPE), is a Ghanaian English-lexifier pidgin also known as Pidgin, Broken English, and Kru English (''kroo brofo'' in Akan). GhaPE is a regional variety of West African Pidgin English spoken in Ghana, predominantly in ...

Cameroonian Pidgin English Cameroonian Pidgin English, or Cameroonian Creole ( wes, Wes Cos, from West Coast), is a language variety of Cameroon. It is also known as Kamtok (from 'Cameroon-talk'). It is primarily spoken in the North West and South West English speaking r ...

, Liberian Pidgin English, the Aku dialect of Krio, and Pichinglis.

History

West African Pidgin English arose during the period of the

as a language of commerce between British and African slave traders. Portuguese merchants were the first Europeans to trade in West Africa beginning in the 15th century, and West African Pidgin English contains numerous words of Portuguese origin such as "sabi" (to know), a derivation of the Portuguese "saber". Later, as British merchants arrived to engage in the slave trade, they developed this language in combination with local African slave traders in order to facilitate their commercial exchanges. The language quickly spread up the river systems into the West African interior because of its value as a trade language among Africans of different tribes. Later in the language's history, this useful trading language was adopted as a native language by new communities of Africans and mixed-race people living in coastal slave trading bases such as James Island, Bunce Island,

Elmina Castle Elmina Castle was erected by the Portuguese in 1482 as Castelo de São Jorge da Mina (''St. George of the Mine Castle''), also known as ''Castelo da Mina'' or simply ''Mina'' (or '' Feitoria da Mina''), in present-day Elmina, Ghana (formerly th ...

Cape Coast Castle Cape Coast Castle ( sv, Carolusborg) is one of about forty "slave castles", or large commercial forts, built on the Gold Coast of West Africa (now Ghana) by European traders. It was originally a Portuguese "feitoria" or trading post, establish ...

and

Anomabu Anomabu, also spelled Anomabo and formerly as Annamaboe, is a town on the coast of the Mfantsiman Municipal District of the Central Region of South Ghana. Anomabu has a settlement population of 14,389 people. Anomabu is located 12 km east ...

. At that point, it became a

creole language A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable natural language that develops from the simplifying and mixing of different languages into a new one within a fairly brief period of time: often, a pidgin evolved into a full-fledged language. ...

. Some scholars call this language "West African Pidgin English" to emphasize its role as a lingua franca

used for trading. Others call it "Guinea Coast Creole English" to emphasize its role as a creole

native language A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother to ...

spoken in and around the coastal slave castles and slave trading centers by people permanently based there. The existence of this influential language during the slave trade era is attested by the many descriptions of it recorded by early European travelers and slave traders. They called it the "Coast English" or the "Coast Jargon". A British slave trader in Sierra Leone, John Matthews, mentioned pidgin English in a letter he later published in a book titled ''A Voyage to the River Sierra-Leone on the Coast of Africa''. Matthews refers to West African Pidgin English as a "jargon", and he warns Europeans coming to Africa that they will fail to understand the Africans unless they recognize that there are significant differences between English and the coastal pidgin:

Those who visit Africa in a cursory manner ... are very liable to be mistaken in the meaning of the natives from want of knowledge in their language, or in the jargon of such of them as reside upon the sea-coast and speak a little English; the European affixing the same ideas to the words spoken by the African, as if they were pronounced by one of his own nation. hisis a specimen of the conversation which generally passes.

Matthews supplied an example of West African Pidgin English: : : : :

Modern Africa

West African Pidgin English remained in use in West Africa after the abolition of the slave trade by Western nations and the

decolonization of Africa The decolonisation of Africa was a process that took place in the mid-to-late 1950s to 1975 during the Cold War, with radical government changes on the continent as colonial governments made the transition to independent states. The process w ...

. Many distinct regional variants of the language emerged. Looked down upon during the colonial era as a bastardization of proper English – a stigma still attached to it by some – Pidgin nonetheless remains in widespread use. In 2016, there was an estimated five million individuals who use Pidgin as a primary language for everyday use in

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

. As of 2017, about 75 million people in Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana and Equatorial Guinea speak the language. During the rise of

African nationalism African nationalism is an umbrella term which refers to a group of political ideologies in sub-Saharan Africa, which are based on the idea of national self-determination and the creation of nation states. Over the last hundred years the amount of English-lexifer based creoles in

West African West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, ...

countries currently being used as primary and secondary language has increased greatly, with speakers currently exceeding one hundred million. Because West African Pidgin English is a primarily spoken language, there is no standardized written form, and many local varieties exist. In August 2017, the BBC launched a Pidgin news service, aimed at audiences in

West West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

and

Central Africa Central Africa is a subregion of the African continent comprising various countries according to different definitions. Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Co ...

, as part of its World Service branch. As part of that effort, the BBC developed a guide for a standardized written form of pidgin.

Structure

Like other pidgin and creole languages, West African Pidgin English took the majority of its vocabulary from the dominant colonial language in the environment where it developed (English), and much of its sound system, grammar, and

syntax In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituenc ...

from the local substrate languages (West African

Niger–Congo languages Niger–Congo is a hypothetical language family spoken over the majority of sub-Saharan Africa. It unites the Mande languages, the Atlantic-Congo languages (which share a characteristic noun class system), and possibly several smaller groups of ...

). The English dialect that served as the lexifier for West African Pidgin English was not the speech of Britain's educated classes, but the Nautical English spoken by British sailors who manned the slave ships that sailed to Africa as part of the

triangular trade Triangular trade or triangle trade is trade between three ports or regions. Triangular trade usually evolves when a region has export commodities that are not required in the region from which its major imports come. It has been used to offset ...

. Nautical speech contained words from British regional dialects as well as specialized ship vocabulary. Evidence of this early nautical speech can be found in the modern pidgin and creole languages derived from West African Pidgin English. In Sierra Leone Krio, for instance, words derived from English regional dialects include ''padi'' ("friend"), ''krabit'' ("stingy"), and ''berin'' ("funeral"). Words from specialized ship vocabulary include ''kohtlas'' rom "cutlass"("machete"), ''flog'' ("beat", "punish"), ''eys'' rom "hoist"("to lift"), and ''dek'' ("floor").

Historical impact

The various pidgin and creole languages still spoken in West Africa today – the Aku language in The Gambia, Sierra Leone Krio, Nigerian Pidgin English,

Fernando Po Creole English Pichinglis, commonly referred to by its speakers as ''Pichi'' and formally known as Fernando Po Creole English (''Fernandino''), is an Atlantic English-lexicon creole language spoken on the island of Bioko, Equatorial Guinea. It is an offshoot ...

, etc. – are all derived from the early West African Pidgin English. These contemporary English-based pidgin and creole languages are so similar that they are increasingly grouped together under the name "West African Pidgin English", although the term originally designated only the original trade language spoken on the West African coast two hundred years ago. Some scholars argue that African slaves took West African Pidgin English to the New World where it helped give rise to the English-based creoles that developed there, including the

Gullah language Gullah (also called Gullah-English, Sea Island Creole English, and Geechee) is a creole language spoken by the Gullah people (also called "Geechees" within the community), an African-American population living in coastal regions of South Car ...

in coastal

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

Bahamian Dialect Bahamianese, also described as the Bahamian dialect, is spoken by both Black and white Bahamians, although in slightly different forms. Bahamian dialect also tends to be more prevalent in certain areas of the Bahamas. Islands that were settl ...

, Jamaican Creole, Belizean Kriol,

Guyanese Creole Guyanese English Creole (''Creolese'' by its speakers or simply Guyanese) is an English-based creole language spoken by the Guyanese people. Linguistically, it is similar to other English dialects of the Caribbean region, based on 19th-century ...

Sranan Tongo Sranan Tongo (also Sranantongo "Surinamese tongue," Sranan, Surinaams, Surinamese, Surinamese Creole) is an English-based creole language that is spoken as a ''lingua franca'' by approximately 550,000 people in Suriname. Developed originally amo ...

in Suriname, etc. Since the slaves taken to the Americas spoke many different African languages, they would have found West African Pidgin English as useful as a lingua franca on the plantations as they had found it back home in West Africa as a trading language. Their enslaved children born in the Americas would have adopted different versions of West African Pidgin English as their "native" languages, thus creating a series of New World English-based creoles. The similarities among the many English-based pidgin and creole languages spoken today on both sides of the Atlantic are due, at least in part, to their common derivation from the early West African Pidgin English. Note the following examples, all of which mean "They are going there to eat rice": *Sierra Leone Krio: "''Dem dey go eat res''" *Ghanaian Pidgin English: "''Dem dey go chop rais"'' *Nigerian Pidgin English: "''Dem dey go chop rice"'' *Cameroonian Pidgin English: "''Dey di go for go chop rice"'' *Gullah: "''Dem duh gwine fuh eat rice"''

References

{{reflist

External links