Knowra West African Pidgin English West African Pidgin English West African Pidgin English encompasses related English-based contact-language varieties spoken across West Africa. Some varieties are pidgins, while others are creoles used as community languages.
Pidgin : A contact language that develops among groups without a shared language and initially has no native speakers. The label captures one type of variety included under this regional umbrella.
Language contact : The interaction of speakers and linguistic systems that leads to borrowing, convergence, or new languages. Sustained contact among English and West African languages shaped these varieties.
Atlantic slave trade : The forced movement of millions of Africans across the Atlantic from the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries. Atlantic-era contact and displacement contributed to the wider history of English-lexifier creoles.
Nollywood : Nigeria's film industry, known for producing large numbers of films in multiple languages. Nigerian Pidgin appears in films as dialogue, characterization, and a marker of social setting.
Creole language : A language that develops from contact languages and becomes a native language for a community. Some West African varieties have native speakers and are classified as creoles.
Lexifier : The language that supplies much of a contact language's vocabulary. English supplies much of the vocabulary, without determining every grammatical feature.
British colonialism in West Africa : British political and economic rule over territories in West Africa, established and expanded from the nineteenth century. Colonial administration, education, and commerce increased English contact across the region.
Afrobeats : A contemporary West African popular-music genre combining local styles with influences from other musical traditions. Pidgin expressions circulate widely through lyrics and music culture.
Nigerian Pidgin : An English-based contact language used widely in Nigeria, with both pidgin and creole characteristics. It is one of the largest and most widely documented varieties in the region.
Substrate language : A language that influences a contact language through the speech habits of its speakers. West African languages contributed patterns and resources during the varieties' formation.
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