A DICTIONARY OF NIGERIAN ENGLISH
[DRAFT CIRCULATED FOR COMMENT]

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/roger_blench/RBOP.htm
Cambridge, Sunday, 07 August 2005

Roger Blench Mallam Dendo 8, Guest Road Cambridge CB1 2AL United Kingdom Voice/Answerphone/Fax. 0044-(0)1223-560687 E-mail R.Blench@odi.org.uk

TABLE OF CONTENTS Abbreviations...................................................................................................................................................ii Preface ..............................................................................................................................................................ii Introduction .....................................................................................................................................................1 Sources..............................................................................................................................................................1 Spelling .............................................................................................................................................................1 Nigerian English/West African English.........................................................................................................1 Pidgin versus Nigerian English ......................................................................................................................1 Auxiliaries ........................................................................................................................................................2 Student slang....................................................................................................................................................2 Pronunciation spellings ...................................................................................................................................2 Re-interpretation of pidgin .............................................................................................................................3 Style versus substance .....................................................................................................................................3 From NE to SE.................................................................................................................................................4 Spelling pronunciation ....................................................................................................................................4 Missionary English ..........................................................................................................................................4 Scientific names, and trade names .................................................................................................................4 Regional variation ...........................................................................................................................................4 Phonology .........................................................................................................................................................5 Parts of Speech.................................................................................................................................................5 References ........................................................................................................................................................6 B. .......................................................................................................................................................................2 C. .......................................................................................................................................................................5 D. .......................................................................................................................................................................7 E. .......................................................................................................................................................................9 F.........................................................................................................................................................................9 G. .....................................................................................................................................................................10 H. .....................................................................................................................................................................12 I. ......................................................................................................................................................................13 J. ......................................................................................................................................................................14 K. .....................................................................................................................................................................14 L. .....................................................................................................................................................................15 M. ....................................................................................................................................................................16 N. .....................................................................................................................................................................18 O. .....................................................................................................................................................................18 P.......................................................................................................................................................................19 Q. .....................................................................................................................................................................22 R. .....................................................................................................................................................................22 S.......................................................................................................................................................................23 T. .....................................................................................................................................................................25 U. .....................................................................................................................................................................27 V. .....................................................................................................................................................................27 W. ....................................................................................................................................................................27 X. .....................................................................................................................................................................28 Y. .....................................................................................................................................................................28 Z. .....................................................................................................................................................................28 Numbers .........................................................................................................................................................29

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Abbreviations AE Amer. arch. dial. et. euph. fig. hum. id. ideo. ins. joc. lit. NE NNE SE SNE sc. sl. st. sl. TE Preface This dictionary of Nigerian English was stimulated by some enquiries from the Oxford English Dictionary on words of putative West African origin. The OED faces an increasingly uphill struggle in its attempts to capture World English; almost every Anglophone country has now developed a set of distinctive uses, some more divergent than others. It is surprising, however, that Nigerian English has never been the subject of a published dictionary; rumours abound of mighty manuscripts, but these have yet to see the light of day. A recent publication by Igboanusi goes some way towards remedying this deficiency but the inclusion here of many words not in his dictionary indicates how much work is still to be done. The present manuscript is a draft of a document that will eventually, I hope, become a collective product. I doubt that one individual could produce anything very comprehensive; Nigeria is too diverse and regionalised. But it seems sensible to lay down an initial marker; then additions can be made. I am circulating this to individuals I know have an interest; but please send any further information, comments, emendations etc. to the email or address given on the title page. Roger Blench Cambridge Sunday, 07 August 2005 African English American (for Americanisms) archaic dialect etymologically euphemism figurative humorous idiom ideophone insulting jocular literally Nigerian English Northern Nigerian English Standard English Southern Nigerian English schoolboy slang student slang Tropical English

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Dictionary of Nigerian English Introduction

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Roger Blench

These notes are intended to raise some issues on sources, interpretation and the definition of Nigerian English. Sources1 One of the most difficult issues in lexicography is documenting usages in a semi-written language. If dictionaries of indigenous African languages are prepared they usually depend entirely on oral sources and thus no specific justification is given for entries. However, Nigerian English is sometimes written, especially in newspapers and magazines, and thus has some sort of orthographic tradition. Nonetheless, many of the most picturesque expressions are strictly oral and must still be captured in the present document. Although previous studies in this direction have tended to cite novels or literary works (notably Jowitt 1991) these are sometimes unrepresentative of the spoken language. I have therefore used newspaper, notices and overheard speech as sources. Example sentences not specifically sourced should be treated as based on the author’s or his correspondents’ experiences. Spelling Nigerian English is printed regularly in the newspapers and since much of it consists of using SE in extended senses spelling is generally not a problem. Some forms of pidgin origin such as ‘done’ have conventional representations, e.g. ‘don’. However, others, such as ‘rubber’ are pronounced in a variety of forms, such as rçba, rUba etc. depending on sociolinguistic considerations. To capture this, I have written phonologised pronunciations in square brackets after head entry. Thus; leather [lεda] Nigerian /Ghanaian/ West African English One of the more surprising things about Nigerian English is the extent to which it has a common lexicon and grammar with other West African Englishes, notably Ghanaian. A guide to Ghanaian English (Kirby 1998) provides an interesting comparison with the present document and parallel forms are noted2. I have less information about Cameroun, Sierra Leone and Gambia and would welcome further insights. However, the puzzle is the history of some of these forms. Do they go back to the early days of colonial presence on the coast or are they more recent products of the massive migration of Ghanaians to Nigeria during the oil-boom era of the 1970s and 1980s? Probably both, but only a detailed scanning of earlier sources will provide answers. Pidgin versus Nigerian English Nigerian English is regarded as distinct from Pidgin English, although the exact location of the boundary between them differs from speaker to speaker. Some expressions are regarded as strictly Pidgin, for example pickin for 'child' and sabi for 'to know'. I have thought it best to be quite inclusive, but no doubt some of the entries will be questioned.

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Thanks to Philip and Vicky Ostien and especially to Kay Williamson for many useful suggestions. Prof. Mary Esther Kropp-Dakubu of Legon University has kindly gone through the draft text and marked all those entries which also have parallels in Ghanaian English.

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Dictionary of Nigerian English Auxiliaries

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Roger Blench

Often the distinctiveness of Nigerian verbs in use consists of unusual auxiliaries applied to conventional verbs. Some of these are as follows; done he done go got the thing got spoiled the water got finished has he has go use to he use to come here Student slang Schools and universities are good but extremely localised sources of slang; Ibadan University in particular seems to have been an important source of unusual expressions. Indeed a small book was published of these expressions when Ibadan was the only university (Opara & Oleghe 1956). Asomugha (1981) began life as a compendium of student slang but was enlarged to take in some more mainstream Nigerian English expressions. Such expressions are often highly localised in time and place; few expressions mentioned in this book appear to be still in use. Where a term seems to be student slang I have noted it; this is a rich and distinct field. Kay Williamson (p.c.) has supplied a number of expressions currently (2002) in use in the University of Port Harcourt, but it is difficult to know how widespread these are. Tropical English There are numerous terms which may be termed ‘Tropical English’; unknown to most speakers of SE, they are nonetheless not specific to Nigeria, but are nonetheless widely used across the Anglophone tropics. This is very common in pan-tropical plants, for example ‘oil-palm’ or ‘yam-mound’. I have marked these in the text as TE. Pronunciation spellings These are spellings which arise because two English words are pronounced alike by Nigerians and the two spellings, which reflect different pronunciations for SE speakers, get confused or treated as equivalent. Most are nonce-forms, but the following examples are typical. he comes here regularly [back formation from used to] he went [just imperfect learning, not standard] he went [Pidgin!]

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Dictionary of Nigerian English Circulation Draft She feels her life to be sleeping away from her finger.

Roger Blench SE [slIpIN] and [sli:pIN] merge as NE [slipiN] He is well vast in the Igbo proverbs. SE [v‰:st] and [va:st] merge as NE [vast] …to deep his hand in the bag SE [dIp] and [di:p] merge as NE [dip] …capable of performing impossible fits SE [fIt] and [fi:t] merge as NE [fit] She turned out to develop cold fit for the husband when the SE [fIt] and [fi:t] merge as NE [fit] going became bad. Nigerians from all works of life … SE [w‰k] and [wO:k] merge as NE [wOk] Pack your car here. SE [pœk] and [pA:k] merge as NE [pak] reflects the common Nigerian laddle pronunciation [ladEl] Source: Kay Williamson Portmanteau words The portmanteau word, first introduced by Lewis Carroll as a humorous excursus of Humpty-Dumpty, is a lexical reality in Nigeria. Two sound-alikes are combined into a single form as the following examples show; impressionario is a common written form of impressario, presumably a portmanteau form ‘impressario’ + ‘impression’ virgina common spelling of vagina presumably by re-interpretation from virgin Re-interpretation of Pidgin An interesting process is the movement from Pidgin back into Nigerian English through relexicalisation. For example; Pidgin NE de ting no gree boil the kettle did not agree to boil the liquid will not boil the kettle won’t boil

The pidgin expression is primary and it has been re-expressed by a speaker who sees the second formulation as more prestigious. Style versus substance The most comprehensive sources for Nigerian English prior to this are Jowitt (1991) and Igboanusi (2002). When native English speakers try to characterise Nigerian English it is clear that their personal perceptions play an important role in determining which lexical items or usages are distinctive. For example, Nigerian newspapers often use the stereotyped expression ‘men of the underworld’ to refer to criminals. This would be unlikely to occur in a current British newspaper, and has an archaic or jocular feel to it. Still, it is perfectly comprehensible to a speaker of standard English and the component words show no significant lexical deviation from their normal meanings. Contrast this with ‘area-boys’, also referring to criminals, which would have no meaning to a speaker of Standard English. Thus, although I have carefully been through the previous sources, I have excluded many entries that seem to be matters of style rather than true lexical difference.

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Dictionary of Nigerian English From NE to SE

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Roger Blench

A similar process occurs where NE is being relexicalised to SE by certain speakers. Generally speaking, the newspapers, formerly a great source of NE expressions, have become closer to SE since the 1980s, almost certainly due to greater exposure to SE forms through the dissemination of news magazines such as Time and Newsweek. For example; ‘hotel’ is commonly applied to bars and drinking places that serve food but may have no lodging and ‘hotel’ in the SE sense is ‘guest hotel’. But modern usage is gradually replacing this so that NE is coming to conform to SE. Spelling pronunciation Nigerian English has one or two distinctive spelling-pronunciations, the most characteristic of which is to always pronounce written ‘ch’ as /tS/ even when Standard English has /S/. Two common examples are the personal name Charlotte, where /tSarlçt/ is heard in place of /Sarlçt/ and ‘chalet’, pronounced /tSalEt/ rather than /Sale/. The second syllable of ‘chalet’ case illustrates another example of spelling pronunciation, but this is in turn a loanword into English. Missionary English I have marked some entries ME, ‘Missionary English’. Missionaries seem to have been responsible for some particular usages that were propagated via church materials. These include pejorative terms for traditional religion such as ‘idol’, ‘fetish’ and ‘juju’, but also a series of terms for animals, assimilating indigenous West African animals to those found in Europe and north America. These include ‘fox’ for genet and ‘rabbit’ for giant rat. [Many of the early missionaries were of Sierra Leonean rather than European origin; possibly some of these are due to their interpretations of English words.] Scientific names, and trade names In the early colonial era, when many new species were coming to scientific attention and the uses of those known botanically were also being explored, many West African vernacular names were developed, notably for timbers and for economic grasses. These were used in colonial literature but with a few exceptions never really entered West African speech and are rarely heard today. For example, the African olive, Canarium schweinfurthii, is called the ‘bush-candle’ in older literature. Charming and evocative as this name is, I have never heard it in current speech and perhaps it was only ever used by forestry officers in the colonial era. I have entered such forms sparingly, pending further evidence of their context of use. Nonetheless, there are a great many names for the timbers of Nigerian trees that are used, although in the specialised context of the timber trade. Some of these are Nigerian, used in the West African region and some have become international trade names. I have adopted the entries from FMI (1964) sometimes updated with reference to Burkill (1985 ff.). Regional variation There is considerable regional variation in NE, most notably between north and south, but also east and west. The lexicon presented in Igboanusi (2002) for example, is rich in Yoruba and Igbo terms, but omits many terms from the North, the Delta and Calabar. The presence of large communities of migrants, especially in urban areas somewhat blurs these distinctions but nonetheless it is possible to assign some terms to specific areas of the country. I have marked these where known, but considerable further work is required. There also seem to be quite a large number of terms local to the Niger Delta, often reflecting its specialised environment and history.

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Dictionary of Nigerian English Phonology

Circulation Draft

Roger Blench

It is not yet clear whether it would be reasonable to say NE has a phonology. Borrowings from indigenous languages in different regions import phonemes that are alien to English. For example, the labial-velars, /kp/ and /gb/ are found in SNE in loans but are generally absent from NNE, as are the items they denote. An interesting further issue is the presence of tone. Some exclamations clearly have contrastive tone, typically High-Low; òóò tag placed at the beginning of sentences, following the assertion of a previous speaker indicating negative consequences but lexical tone appears to have little functional role in other parts of the vocabulary. Parts of Speech The following table shows the abbreviations used in Column 2 of the dictionary. Some of these assignations should be regarded as highly provisional. Abbrev iation a. a.p. adv. adv.p. cond. conj. dem. excl. int. n. n.p. num. part. p.n. p.u.t. prep. pron. sal. s.t. v. v.aux. v.c. v.i. v.n. v.p. v.t. Full form Adjective Adjectival phrase Adverb Adverbial phrase Conditional Conjunction Demonstrative Exclamation Interrogative Noun Noun phrase Numeral Particle Proper Name Pre-utterance tag Preposition Pronoun Salutation Sentence tag Verb Verbal auxiliary Verbal complement Intransitive Verb Verbal Noun Verb phrase Transitive verb Explanation Describes a noun Describes a noun Qualifies a verb Qualifies a verb Expresses the relation between two events A word used to join two or more nouns, verbs or clauses Words used to point out something. 'this', 'that' etc. Greetings or expressions that do not form part of an ordinary sentence Question words Refers to things, objects etc. Phrase where a head-noun is joined to other words to form an expression Number Short words added to complete the sentence A name of a person or object; always capitalised A tag or exclamation used prior to an utterance to indicate the underlying sense of the utterance A word positioning nouns or verbs in time or space A word that stands for a noun A word or phrase that stands alone as a greeting or introduces a dialogue A word or clause standing at the end of a sentence, that intensifies the meaning in some way but is unnecessary to the syntax. Expresses action An inflected verb that co-occurs with an uninflected main verb Additional word or words found in phrasal verbs [???] A verb with no object A noun formed directly from a verb to express a state of being [only one type; what of agentives?] A phrase where a head-noun is joined to other words to form an expression [head-noun or verb?] A verb with an object 5

Dictionary of Nigerian English References

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Roger Blench

Asomugha, C.N.C. ?. A pocket dictionary of selected Nigerian student slangs. ?? [referred to in the following entry but not seen] Asomugha, C.N.C. 1981. Nigerian slangs. Onitsha: ABIC Publishers. Bamgbose, Ayo et al. (ed) New Englishes: a West African perspective. Africa World Press Burkill, H.M. 1985. The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa, Families A-D, Kew, Royal Botanic Gardens. Burkill, H.M. 1994. The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa, Families E-I, Kew, Royal Botanic Gardens. Burkill, H.M. 1995. The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa, Families J-L, Kew, Royal Botanic Gardens. Burkill, H.M. 1997. The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa, Families M-R, Kew, Royal Botanic Gardens. Burkill, H.M. 2000. The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa, Families S-Z, Kew, Royal Botanic Gardens. FMI 1964 [2nd ed.]. Some Nigerian woods. Lagos: Federal Ministry of Information. Igboanusi, H. 2002. A dictionary of Nigerian English usage. Ibadan: Enicrownfit Publishers. Jowitt, David 1991. Nigerian English usage: an introduction. Longman: Nigeria Kirby, J.P. 1998. A North American’s guide to Ghanaian English. Takoradi: TICCS. Kirk-Greene, A.H.M. 1965 The vocabulary and determinants of schoolboy slang in Northern Nigeria. Occasional Paper no. 6. Zaria: ABU. Kropp Dakubu, M.E. ed. English in Ghana. Accra: Ghana English Studies Association. Odumuh, A. E. 1987. Nigerian English. Zaria: ABU Press. Opara, R. & P. Oleghe n.d. but 1956. Contemporary student vocabulary. Ibadan: no publisher. Sey, K.A. 1973. Ghanaian English. Ikeja: Macmillan Education Spencer, John (ed.) 1971. The English language in West Africa. London: Longman. Ukpabio, Mercy U. 1985 Students’ Language on Campus. Calabar: Dept of Languages and Linguistics, University of Calabar undergraduate long essay.

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Circulation Draft Roger Blench but simply intensifies the expression. I have no money again similarly. Jowitt (1991:154) compares to p.u.t.s in Hausa kuma, Igbo ozo and Abi? s.t. Sentence tag meaning ‘Don’t you Yoruba mo. agree?’, Isn't that right? agbada n. man’s long robe < Yoruba Corresponds to Hausa Ko? agree v.i. to want to, but also applied to about prep. just, about to I’m about leaving. inanimate objects the kettle did not agree to I’m just leaving boil abroad n. as in SE, but also refers to being agric a. any crop or livestock variety away from home area We love ourselves introduced by the agricultural services. abroad We have good relations with other people Sometimes also applied to implements. from our home area when away from it [quoted These agric beans do not taste well or He in Trager, 2001, Yoruba Hometowns] bought an agric plough abuna n. lit. Hausa ‘thing’ but often used akamu n. porridge type with chewy lumps in jocularly for penis it served in the morning in the North < abura n. timber tree Mitragyna Hausa Yoruba? stipulosa akara n. fried bean-cake