Structure dataset 17: Nigerian Pidgin

This language is described more fully in survey chapter 17.

With over 75 million speakers, Nigerian Pidgin has become by far the most widely spoken and fastest growing language in Nigeria today. Nigerian Pidgin is the first language, or one of the first languages, learned by tens of millions of people across southern Nigeria and in urban areas throughout the entire country. For those who do not learn Nigerian Pidgin as one of their first languages, it is learned informally as a second language in one or a number of venues for interethnic contact, including marketplaces, workplaces, schools, universities, military and police barracks, etc. Many of those who learn Nigerian Pidgin as one of their first languages, as well as a considerable number of those who learn Nigerian Pidgin as a second language, eventually end up using it as their main language of day-to-day communication. Proficiency in Nigerian Pidgin ranges from the ‘deep’ varieties spoken by those who have learned it as their mother tongue for generations in Warri and Sapele, to varieties heavily influenced by other ancestral Nigerian languages spoken by those who have learned Nigerian Pidgin as a second language and who use it only for trading in the marketplace, to varieties heavily influenced by Standard English spoken by those who have learned Nigerian Pidgin as a second language and who use it only with classmates at university, etc. Unless otherwise specified, the lect of Nigerian Pidgin utilized for the descriptions and examples of features, lexical items, and constructions provided in this work (default lect) is that used by the millions of people who have learned Nigerian Pidgin as a first language and who use it as one of their main languages of daily communication in the metropolitan area of the city of Port Harcourt at the mouth of the delta of the Niger River in the southeast of Nigeria.

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No. Feature Value Details Source
No. Feature Value Details Source

Consonants

Pulmonic Consonants
Place → Labial Coronal Dorsal Laryngeal
↓ Manner Bilabial Labio­dental Linguo­labial Dental Alveolar Palato-
alveolar
Retroflex Alveolo-
palatal
Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal
/ Epiglottal
Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Stop p b mb t d k   g ʔ
Sibilant affricate t͡ʃ t͡ʃʰ d͡ʒ
Non-sibilant affricate
Sibilant fricative s z ʃ
Non-sibilant fricative f v ɣ h
Approximant l j
Flap or tap ɾ
Trill
Lateral affricate
Lateral fricative
Lateral approximant
Lateral flap
Implosive

Vowels

Front Near-front Central Near-back Back Close Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open ihigh front unrounded vowel long high front unrounded vowel nasalized high front unrounded vowel uhigh back rounded vowel long high back rounded vowel nasalized high back rounded vowel ɪlowered high front unrounded vowel ʊlowered high back rounded vowel ehigher mid front unrounded vowel long higher mid front unrounded vowel nasalized higher mid front unrounded vowel ohigher mid back rounded vowel long higher mid back rounded vowel nasalized higher mid back rounded vowel ɛlower mid front unrounded vowel ɛːlong lower mid front unrounded vowel ɛ̃nasalized lower mid front unrounded vowel ɔlower mid back rounded vowel ɔːlong lower mid back rounded vowel ɔ̃nasalized lower mid back rounded vowel alow central unrounded vowel long low central unrounded vowel nasalized low central unrounded vowel
Vowels

Special segments

Other segments
 w  voiced labial-velar glide
 k͡p  voiceless labial-velar plosive
 g͡b  voiced labial-velar plosive

Legend

       Exists (as a major allophone)
       Exists only as a minor allophone
       Exists only in loanwords
No. Feature Value Details Source