Barikanchi pidgin, Barikanci, or Bastard Hausa is a

pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified form of contact language 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 f ...

of the

Hausa language Hausa (; / ; Hausa Ajami, Ajami: ) is a Chadic language spoken primarily by the Hausa people in the northern parts of Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Benin and Togo, and the southern parts of Niger, and Chad, with significant minorities in Ivory Coas ...

spoken in

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

. Barikanci is used by the

Nigerian Armed Forces The Nigerian Armed Forces (NAF) are the Military, military forces of Nigeria. The forces consist of three service branches: the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Navy, and Nigerian Air Force. The President of Nigeria functions as the commander-in-chief of ...

to ensure clear communication between the linguistically diverse members of the military. In the Nigerian military, the majority of members are from the northern part of the country. This led to the

being the lingua franca, paving the way for pidgin Hausa, also known as ''hausan bariki''. The language developed in the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

barracks of northern Nigeria in the first part of the 20th century, and was used as a

lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...

among Nigerians of diverse linguistic backgrounds. Being a military language, Barikanci is principally spoken in military barracks—"Barikanci" is derived from the word ''bariki'', which means barracks.

References

Hausa language Military of Nigeria African-based pidgins and creoles Military pidgins Languages attested from the 20th century Languages of Nigeria {{pidgincreole-lang-stub

See also

References