 Your new post is loading...
What do popular English colloquialisms like “long time no see”, “lose face”, and “no can do” have in common? Far from neologisms, these simple, staccato utterances all originated centuries ago as a means of facilitating trade between the English and Chinese. Beginning in the 17th century, as English merchants crossed the Indian Ocean and sailed upwards through the South China Sea, they met with their Asian counterparts and, out of necessity, developed a means of communication that melded English words with Chinese sentence structure. The result was a pidgin language that would be the mercantile lingua franca for over two centuries. Pidgin languages – originally a business vernacular – are characterized by a limited vocabulary, simplified grammar and syntax, and an unfussy disregard for subject-verb agreement. Allegedly, the name comes from the mispronunciation of the word “business” by those selfsame Mandarin speakers that introduced so many colorful phrases into everyday English. While a rudimentary sort of communication was necessary, Chinese merchants of the 17th and 18th centuries held the English language in low esteem and did not feel compelled to learn it fully. The 19th century, however, saw an upswell in English-language education as pidgin came to be viewed as degrading. Pidgin languages are nobody’s native tongues. They arise out of necessity and survive so long as they are needed. Examples of pidgin languages exist in several African
ANU to Offer New Melanesian Pidgin Course Related articles:
Helen Proud of Her Aussie Wheels
Carr Inspects Patrol Boats
PM Lilo Pays Respect to Late Dunning
PM Gillard Welcomes PM Lilo
Lilo Begins Bilaterals in Australia
Carr Inspects Australian Funded Roads
show all
In the same category:
Lilo Provides Support to Constituency
Government Pursues UN Offer
Keithie Barred by Government House
Confirmed HIV Cases Jumps to 17
Murder Escapees on the Run
Pacific Break Spotlight on Solomon Islands
show all
The Australian National University (ANU) has announced it will offer a revamped Melanesian pidgin and Creoles language course.
The one-semester course, which is part of the university's Pacific Studies degree, will cover Tok Pisin (PNG), Pijin (Solomon Islands) and Bislama (Vanuatu). Bethwyn Evans, from ANU's College of Asia and the Pacific, told Radio Australia each of the three pidgin languages were distinct. "Each of them has developed within their own culture and nation states. Solomon Pijin is certainly the closest to English and the easiest for an English speaker to understand," she said. "Tok Pisin can sound a very long way from English to an English speaker despite the number of words that have come from English, and of course in Bislama you have some words that have come from French as well as from English." Tok Pisin, Pijin and Bislama developed out of regional dialects of the languages of the local inhabitants and English, brought into the country when English speakers arrived. There were four phases in the development of Tok Pisin;
STAKEHOLDERS CALLS FOR PUBLICATION OF WORKS IN PIDGIN ENGLISH
Thursday, 06 September 2012 06:09 ................. In furtherance of the resolve to promote literature, arts and creativity in Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Education/NMEC, National Institute for Nigerian Languages, United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO, and other stakeholders in the development of multilingualism in delivering effective teaching and learning in Nigeria, have called for submission of unpublished plays written in Nigerian Pidgin for subsequent translation into ‘Naija langwej’.
According to information made available on the Association of Nigeria Authors, Abuja chapter’s facebook page, interested writers are to submit manuscripts of their plays of (3) Acts, adding that such work should be forwarded on or before31st November, 2012 to: denjabb@yahoo.com or edbabor@gmail.com.
Naija langwej, also popularly addressed as Nigerian pidgin is unarguably the most widely spoken language in Nigeria. It is serving as the natural bridge between the multi-ethnic groups that make up the country. The government and multi-national corporations use it to reach out to millions of people via the media, arts, entertainment, amongst others, the association stated.
It recalled that “After IFRA-Nigeria’s conference on Nigerian Pidgin (2009) and the creation of a working autography for the language, Something for Everybody Ventures, Abuja called for the submission of poems in Nigerian Pidgin. Selected poems were translated into Naija langwej and published in an anthology of poems titled If Yu Hie Se A De Prizin (2012) edited by Eriata Oribhabor”.
Furthermore, ten selected plays will be published in an anthology of plays and three of the plays will be produced/directed by Naija Ple Haus, Abuja and presented live on stage next year. Also, Authors of the best three plays will be given cash awards in this order (1st Prize $400, 2nd Prize-$250 and 3rd Prize – $150).
Pidgin language is nobody's native language; it may arise when two speakers of different languages with no common language try to hold a conversation, i.e., a pidgin is a language developed by people whose mother tongues are different in order to facilitate communication between them. Lexicon usually comes from one language, structure often from the other. It has a very simple structure and doesn’t last for a long period of time. Its complexity varies according to the communicative demands placed on it. The more there are functional demands, the more powerful and complex the pidgin is. It is used as a second language and within a very limited domain (trade).
Pidgins and Creoles are distributed mainly in places with direct or easy access to the oceans. Thus, they are found mainly in the Caribbean and around the north and east coasts of South America and those of Africa as well. Their distribution is related to long-standing patterns of trade, including trade in slaves. There are around 127 pidgins and creoles. Thirty-five of these are English-based such as Hawaiian Creole, Jamaican Creole, Krio and Chinese Pidgin English. Examples of French-based ones are Louisiana Creole, Haitian Creole, and Mauritian Creole. The majority of Pidgins and Creoles are based on European languages. Yet, several ones like Chinook Jargon and Sango show little or no contact with a European language. This lack of contact is an important factor in the origins of pidgins and creoles and their shared characteristics.
I was born and raised in Hawaii and grew up speaking Pidgin. My parents are from Washington and California so at home I spoke [what I thought was] Standard English. I moved to the mainland when I was 18, in 1996, and have come to speak English with almost no detection of my Pidgin roots (except when I say words like "Hawai'i", "Samoan", "ukulele"). I can speak it with very little effort, but there is still some effort, I catch myself analyzing my words milliseconds before I say them. It feels like a second language that I have learned to speak natively. I have been out of practice with my Pidgin so I can't just jump in and sound local at any moment, but if I talk to my siblings on the phone or go back to Hawaii to visit, it only takes a few minutes before I slide back into partial Pidgin and a couple days before I am back to my old self. When I am speaking Pidgin, I feel like it just comes out of me without any effort, like that is the way I think in my head. When my brothers and our families are together we can "Code Switch" effortlessly between ourselves and the rest of our family without any problems, but will always go back to Pidgin with our siblings.
One thing that gives a nation identity is language. Nigeria doesn’t have its own home grown language. It has been nursing borrowed language (English) since inception. The United Nations international mother language Day, which was celebrated on Feb. 12 2012, presented another opportunity for nations to promote their local languages. What is the situation in Nigeria, which has several languages? First, let’s see what obtains in South Africa. African is one of the recognized languages of South Africa and Namibia. There are about 6 million native speakers in South Africa. It is also spoken in some other southern African countries mainly by emigrant communities. The total number of speakers of Africans globally is between 15 and 23 million. But guess how many people speak Nigerian Pidgin English? Over 80 million. That equals the population of Egypt, which is the second most populous country in Africa, or population of Germany which is 2nd most populous European country after Russia. In fact, there are more people who speak Nigerian Pidgin English than combined population of the Netherlands, Portugal, Greece, Sweden, and Switzerland.
The need for the domestication of pidgin language as an official language of communication was again brought to the fore yesterday in Abuja. The event was the presentation and launch of the book If U Hie Se A De Prizin, Antoloji of Puem-Dem For Naija Langwej, held at Reiz Continental Hotel, Abuja. The book is a collection of poems, all written in Nigerian pidgin by 32 poets and edited by Nigerian pidgin language promoter, Edwin Oribhabor. Speaking in an interview, Oribhabor noted that the essence of the work was to promote the writing and speaking of the language, and to bring it out in literary form. “What we want to achieve by this is to bring literary attention to pidgin. Pidgin should be used as a form of communication in the literary sense, not just speaking and finally, to standardise its way of spelling,” he said.
What is your take on the continuous usage of pidgin language by some comedians to crack jokes, what does this portend for the industry? It is an insult. The continuous usage of Pidgin language insults the craft. It should be an interjection. Because it is part of our language. It should not be your medium. It means that the craft will never be better. But some people appreciate it when jokes are cracked in pidgin language, especially the audience... I don’t belong to that class of persons. By my learning, culture, age and experience I don’t believe jokes should be said that way. If you say people like it that way, then lawyers should be allowed to speak pidgin in court. When NTA reads news at night with good English, do poor people don’t understand? Why does President Jonathan speak English when he wants to address the citizens? Don’t let us fool ourselves; let us do things the right way. How many people speak Pidgin English in Zimbabwe and Uganda? The whole of Africa speaks good English. I have told you, the craft will not stand in Ghana, it won’t go beyond Nigeria. For me, as an educated artist, I must begin to use my medium to preach, correct and address positive issues. We are far from reaching that point that is universally acceptable when it comes to the correct usage of language, either in comedy or entertainment in the country. I will judge the industry collectively not from the point of an individual. The industry is stagnant as far as am concerned. Don’t you watch Ghanaian movies; it is not because they have done something spectacular. All they have done is to move forward in terms of communication, language, diction and vision. They have insisted on doing things right. We are falling short of the things we need to do because we don’t care about doing things the way they should be done.
|
Scoop.it!
