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Evolution of Naija - Nigerian Pidgin

Evolution of Naija - Nigerian Pidgin
Egbilika, Josiah Chijindu

Over the years there have been the claim and proud emphasis on British being the first contact to Nigerian Pidgin, thus the dominance in the language. This has made it seem as though Nigerian Pidgin is a bastardization of English with so many Nigerians calling it “Broken Bottle”.
This notion has caused a let-down on the language and outright rejection from most Nigerians. The fact that the language is not even an official language in the country gives it another blow to its jaw.

Is Naija-Nigerian Pidgin purely English Originated?
An x-ray on the historical path of the language as written by David Esizimetor and Francis Egbokhare reviews lot:
The Portuguese were the first group of Europeans to visit and explore coastal Nigeria, especially around the area now known geo-politically as the Niger Delta. They started trading with the people of the region from as early as 1469AD. They established strong diplomatic ties between some of the great kingdoms of the region and Portugal.

They established schools and churches where they taught Portuguese and the doctrines of Christianity in the region. And this brought their language close to languages of the Niger Delta for an extended period of time. This, of course became crucial to the evolution of Naijá, which started out as a Portuguese-based pidgin in the Niger Delta.

Since the Niger Delta region was made up of diverse communities of Annang, Edo, Efik, Ibibio, Igbo, Ijaw, Isoko, Itsekiri and Isoko speaking peoples with no known or well-established common language of communication, it was therefore easy for many Niger Deltans to learn the Portuguese-based pidgin of the Niger Delta at that time.

After the Portuguese left the region, the Dutch followed and traded at the eastern end of the region for about half a century. They were then followed by the French who visited the region intermittently till even after the English arrived in 1650 AD to take effective control of trade in the region.

The English were initially interested in trade. But between the 1700s and the 1800s, this initial interest metamorphosed from trade to religion, from religion to education, and to a colonial focus. These changing interests came to mean change for the language situation of the Niger Delta.

With the introduction of English into the Nigerian environment, the existing Portuguese-based pidgin of the Niger Delta started evolving in the new direction of the language of the new politically dominant group, the English. In time English, the language of the English, supplanted Portuguese as the major lexifier of Naijá. By the 1900s, the now stable English-based Naijá started spreading across the emerging Nigerian nation.

And by the time Nigeria gained her independence from Britain in 1960, the language had not only become popular among those who could not speak standard British English but became commonly spoken among the multilingual populations of the big cities. Today the language has more speakers than any other language in the country.

The language is used in virtually all aspect of life and environs. Still there is a neglect and let-down on the language. The reasons are not far fetch. This is due to some misconception about Naija - conceptions that are not the true picture of the language (This is discussed separately). Naija-Nigerian Pidgin is indeed a full blown “Language”.
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