World Englishes: Lesson 7

Hi everyone, 

In today's lesson, we learned about another outer circle English, Nigerian English. 

Language Diversity:
Like India, Nigeria was a former British colony, so British English has influence the development of Nigerian English. English is used here to help serve as a bridge among the different ethnic groups. There are 521 languages (9 extinct) spoken in Nigeria with Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba as some of the major languages. English is the official language so that no other local language is given preference in the government and in education. 

Pronunciation:
We listened to a short audio of the standard Nigerian English dialect, and then analysed some of the key features, which include:

1. non-rhotic language
2. stress differentiation; falling near the end or in the middle rather than at the beginning as in RP.
3. under-differentiation of vowel sounds
4. sound substitution for these RP sounds; ð [this]; ʧ [cheese]; ʒ [television]; /v/ and /z/

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Grammar:
These are the key features of Nigerian English syntax:

1. Lack of class differentiation; other parts of speech used as verb
2. Omission of articles
3. Use of progressive tense for “verbs of perception.”
4. Invariable tag questions
5. No differentiation between countable and non-countable nouns

Vocabulary:
​One of the main characteristics of Nigerian English is the use of ellipses, which is he act of leaving out a word or words from a sentence deliberately, when the meaning can be understood without them.

Also, there is often a direct translation of expressions from the local languages (e.g. wrapper, enstooled, enskinned, etc.)

Homework:
1. Lecture preparation #8

• chapter 9 notes on Southeast Asia Englishes (download the worksheet for questions in the Lecture Preparation section)

2. Listening Task #5: Nigerian English

• watch the video and complete the worksheet (see the Listening Homework section for video, etc.)