
How bodi? / How you dey? – How are you doing today?Ħ. (Listen to how pronounce the first 26 Pidgin English phrases listed below here and don’t forget to add “o” at the end of sentences in Pidgin for extra emphasis, like “Thank you o!”)ġ. Person wey dey cry dey see road, dont take anyone for granted 3. Here are 26 Nigerian Pidgin English phrases you need to know. Nigerian Pidgin Proverbs and Their Meanings 2. Image result for quote from Proverbs Wise Quotes, Quotable Quotes. Variations of Pidgin English can be found all over the world, from the Caribbean to China, and each comes with its own library of everyday words.Īs you travel across West Africa, the style of Pidgin spoken becomes more familiar, but still differs based on local language elements infused into it.Įven if you don’t find yourself traveling to Nigeria in the distant future, try one of these phrases on one of your Nigerian friends, and fully bask in their glowing response. Common sense quotes in Nigerian Pidgin English Common Sense Quotes, Food Quotes. With more than 250 ethnic groups speaking over 500 languages and dialects, English is the country’s official business language, whether you’re actually on business or just on safari.įor citizens without easy access to higher education and white collar jobs, picking up a few words of English and mixing it with elements of their native tongues has been the default way of communicating across tribal cultures. 2,Jollof rice wey dey bottom pot for fire, go dey on top of. Pidgin English remains the “great” equalizer - a way of communicating on a base level that cuts through bullshit. 35 Pidgin English Proverbs 1, Feel at home, feel at home, na so visitor take dey spoil television. Pidgin English is extremely popular in most parts of Africa, particularly West Africa, and has been accepted as the de-facto language of blue collar trade and merchants. It is a language that came into being in Cameroon during the Slave Trade years (1400-1800), and it was the only language in which Slave traders and the indigenes.

There’s a certain intimacy that this form of broken English emits a down-to-earth, survivalist approach to everyday living and hustling in Africa’s most populous nation. This paper is a linguistic analysis of proverbs in Cameroon Pidgin English (CPE), a variant of West African Pidgins spoken along the West Coast of Africa from Ghana down to Cameroon. Bring Suya, bring Suya, na cow body dey suffer am.

Lean on me, lean on me, no mean say make you suffocate me.
#NIGERIAN PROVERBS IN PIDGIN ENGLISH FULL#
Person wey belle full today, go hungry tomorrow. Feel at home, feel at home, na so visitor take dey spoil television. Speaking Nigerian Pidgin transforms them from visiting foreigner into one of the hundreds of well-integrated expatriates in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital. Nigerian Pidgin English Proverbs Chop this man money, chop that man money, na so ashawo dey start.

If they open up with Pidgin English instead, I instantly perk up.
