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History of Nigerian English: How English Came to Nigeria
E(caps)nglish did not come to Nigeria with colonialism; it came before it. Though the exact date was not recorded, historians believe that English was spoken in old Calabar as a result of about 400 years of cultural and trade contact with Europe. In his Christian Missions in Nigeria (1965), Ajayi says that English was the only European language spoken by Calabar traders and that Hope Waddel did find intelligent journals of the affairs of the region in English, as far back as 1767.
Nigeria’s earliest contact with Europe, particularly the Portuguese, was in the 15th century in places like Warri, Brass, and Calabar before the slave trade. Communication between the natives and the Portuguese merchants was initially very difficult. The result was an emergence of a Pidgin English which was a mixture of the indigenous language and the Portuguese dialect of the English language. The new pidgin soon became influential and eventually displaced Portuguese as the language of commerce. Further trade contacts with English traders and sea captains made the Pidgin English the chief coastal trade language of the earliest times.
The coming of professional interpreters to Nigeria is another fundamental factor that implanted English in Nigeria. The interpreters or clerks were freed slaves from Monrovia and Freetown. Since they could speak English due to their many years in England, USA, and the Caribbean, the abolition of the slave trade in the early 19th century meant a new life for them. Many of them came to Nigeria to work as clerks in government and interpreters between European traders and the indigenous people. Some Nigerian freed slaves in Freetown also came back to their original homes in Lagos, Badagry, and Abeokuta, and this meant a stronger influence of English in Nigeria.
The abolition of the slave trade in 1807-1808 in Britain and the United States forced European slave traders to seek an alternative source of trade in the interiors, taking the English language further into the rural areas. It was already on record that Mungo Park, in 1795, discovered that the River Niger flowed eastwards and that trade was possible between the eastern regions and the west.
Missionary activities also contributed to the establishing of English in Nigeria. The coming of Rev. Thomas Freeman to Badagry in 1842, Rev. Hope Waddel of the Church of Scotland to Calabar in 1846, and Rev. Samuel Edgerly and others to Duke Town, Calabar, in 1854 began the phase of formal acquisition of English in Nigeria. The missionaries established schools and taught their converts in Standard English. The Church Missionary Society (CMS) founded two schools in Badagry and a station in Abeokuta in 1846. The Methodist Church founded the Methodist Boys High School, Lagos, in 1876, while Hope Waddel Institute, Calabar was established in 1895. The first Christian mission was also opened in Zaria in 1902. The English Language was taught in these schools. Samuel Edgerly and Townsend opened the first printing press in Nigeria in 1852. Wherever the missionaries went, they taught their converts in English, thus English became the language of civilization and Christianity. Christian education is, therefore, an important medium through which Standard English gained access to the local population in the early 19th century.
British interest in Nigeria changed from mere commercial capitalism to outright colonization in 1861 when Lagos was invaded and annexed as a British colony. Subsequent consolidation of the British colonial administration in Nigeria in the years that followed empowered a more organized education and emphasis on the learning of English. In fact, government grants to schools then depended largely on the effective learning and teaching of the English Language. People who could write and speak English enjoyed special privileges with regards to jobs and social amenities by the colonial government. English Language became a passport to good living, and everyone was invariably forced to learn and spread the language.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 1
1. How did English come to Nigeria?
2. What roles did the colonial administration play in establishing English in Nigeria?
3. Discuss the contributions of Christianity to the planting of English in Nigeria.
3.2 English in Nigeria Today
The English language has become part of our social and cultural life. And being a language that easily accommodates new ways of expressing meaning, it has been pulled in different directions by the Nigerian user, who must express meanings that are peculiarly Nigerian. Many times English has had to assume what language scholars call “local flavour” in order to respond appropriately to the Nigerian social environment and multiculturalism, especially when there are no English equivalents for local thoughts. This has led to the development of the Nigerian variety of English, known as “Nigerian English” (NE) – the English spoken in Nigeria, by Nigerians, and often for Nigerians. Abiodun Adetugbo, a foremost Nigerian Linguist, says that NE is “the brand of English spoken by Nigerians, just as American English is that type of English spoken by Americans.” So Nigerian English is one of the new Englishes that has been truly integrated into our socio-cultural system and performs the function of an official language.
There have been series of arguments among Nigerian linguists about what really the features of NE are. But the argument that Nigerian English is a pidgin variety or a non-standard variety of the British English has been laid to rest, by simply identifying the varieties of English in Nigeria. This is discussed below.
One of the features of Nigerian English according to linguists is that it has restricted registers – you do not have many registers to choose from. Secondly, it is ‘bookish” in the sense that its lexical forms and grammar are the types you find in books – usually formal, like that of Indian English (See Module 4 unit 2). But we can agree that these forms are part of the influences of the 19th-century English novels and also the fact that most Nigerians acquire English from formal classroom situations. Certainly NE is not errors or non-standard English. What many people see as “non-standard” in spoken Nigerian English, for example, are simply the elements of transfer of some of the features of the mother tongue into English, which is characteristic of most primary school leavers and a few educated Nigerians. This brings us to the fact that there is standard Nigerian English and non-standard Nigerian English according to the levels of education and experiences of the speakers. Below are some of Adetugbo’s examples of Nigerian English expressions:
Differences between Nigerian English (NE) and British English (BrE)
NE:
1. I ride in a bus
2. I get down from a bus
3. I ask for a lift
4. Ask from the teacher
5. May I follow you home
6. I will escort you
7. My wife has taken in
8. He is not on seat
9. Don’t move with bad people
10. She reached here safely
11. These are my invitees
12. This is my junior brother
13. He has long leg
BrE:
1. I ride on a bus
2. I get off a bus
3. I hitch a ride
4. Ask the teacher
5. May I come home with you
6. I’ll see you off
7. My wife is pregnant
8. He is not immediately available
9. Don’t associate with bad people
10. She got here safely
11. These are my guests
12. This is my younger brother etc.
13. He is a man of great influence
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 2
1. What is Nigerian English?
2. What functions does the English language perform in Nigeria today?
3.4 Varieties of English in Nigeria
We are using “varieties” in the context of this study to mean “types”. As we already mentioned in the preceding subsection, varieties of a language are bound to develop as long as there are people of different classes, levels of education, cultures, social exposures, and experiences using the language. In Nigeria, there are over 400 languages spoken by people of different cultures who have had to learn and speak English. Many of these people speak their mother tongues at home and speak English at work, school, or places of business. These people belong to various social classes and use the brand of English available to them. Some of them are merely primary school leavers, some attended just the secondary school while some never attended any school at all. In the type of English spoken by these people, it is not uncommon to find some element of mother tongue transfers to English, either in the pronunciation of English words or in the choice of words the people use. Some of them simply ignore some rules of grammar. All these gave rise to the different varieties of English we have in Nigeria today. Some Nigerian linguists have identified some varieties of English and classified them in groups. We shall look at three (3) classifications by three linguists. The first one is by Brosnaham who identified four varieties of English in Nigeria.
(i) The variety spoken by people with no formal education, i.e., the pidgin English
(ii) The variety spoken by people with only primary education
(iii) The variety spoken by secondary school leavers, which is marked by some great deal of fluency.
(iv) The variety spoken by people with university or high education
The next one is by Ayo Banjo. He also identified four varieties namely:
(i) The variety spoken by semi-illiterate Nigerians and those with elementary school education
(ii) The variety characterized by fewer negative transfers from the mother tongue, intelligible to the great majority and is accepted locally but lacks international intelligibility.
(iii) The variety spoken by secondary school leavers. This is both nationally and internationally intelligible but has errors in pronunciations.
(iv) The variety close to the standard British accent. This variety carries higher international acceptance but is locally rejected as fake or foreign.
Last is the classification by Mobolaji Adekunle. He identified three varieties.
(i) The Near-Native variety – the variety by well-educated Nigerians, which is almost the same as the British Standard English
(ii) The Local Colour Variety - the “Nigerianised” variety of English that reflects the Nigerian environment - its local customs and cultures.
(iii) The Incipient Bilingual Variety – this is characterized by deviations from English grammatical structures, and is marked by translations of the native language. It is very close to Pidgin English.
All these linguists and many others we have not been able to mention, agree that varieties of English exist in Nigeria. If you look at the groups carefully, you will discover that you can easily identify some members of one group in another group, based on speakers’ backgrounds and education.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 3
1. Identify three varieties of English in Nigeria.
2. Compare Adekunle’s group of varieties with that of Banjo. Are there any similarities?
3. What variety do you think you speak?
4.0 CONCLUSION
We can conclude that the English language has come to stay in Nigeria. And as a neutral language of communication that bridges the communication gap between people of the Nigerian multi-lingual and multi-ethnic groups, it is likely to continue to play this role in generations to come. The different varieties we see of English today are expected because language is naturally sensitive to its environment and socio-cultural context.
5.0 SUMMARY
English came to Nigeria many years before the British colonial rule, through trade contacts between Europe and the West coast of Africa. Other factors include the abolition of the slave trade and the contributions of professional interpreters, missionary activities, and colonialism. As an official language of Nigeria ahead of French, and functions as the neutral language of communication, it has developed local colors that identify Nigerian English. It has also developed varieties that explain the nature of its new home, as well as the social and educational levels of the Nigerian users.
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