Nigerianenglish: Borrowings’ peculiaritiesfrompidginenglish

Abstract

A specific feature of Africa is seen in its linguistic and cultural diversity. Nigeria, as one of the
largest multilingual countries in West Africa, presents a mixture of more than 450 local languages, each
with its own linguistic and cultural heritage. This diversity of the language structure is of great interest to
many researchers, which determines the relevance of the study. In the course of the work, the author identifies the most important factors that influence the formation and development of Nigerian English,
which has an official status in the country and serves as a link between local languages. The author stresses
the signs of linguistic minorities’ extinction process and the reasons for the language majority’s dominance.
Special attention is paid to the role of education in the process of teaching English to schoolchildren. The
key languages of interethnic communication (Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo) are described and the analysis of
language features of one of the means of interethnic and intraethnic communication, the Nigerian Pidgin, is
carried out. The specific features of Nigerian English borrowings from local languages are formulated, the
main thematic groups of borrowings from the Nigerian Pidgin are identified. These subdivisions include
borrowings of thematic groups “Traditions and Customs”, “Food and Beverages”, “Clothes”, “Means of
expressing emotions”. The frequency of examples for each group is revealed and the reasons for using
borrowings from the Nigerian Pidgin are analyzed, depending on the belonging to the thematic group.