Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Nigerian English dictionary

This is a very interesting (and somewhat amusing) document, written by Cambridge-based Roger Dench and Mallam Dendo. The duo has also written this paper, on language death in Nigeria.

6 comments:

Lost at The End 8:25 am  

It's like 1 fucking a.m and I can't stop reading this shit. I mean the NE dictionary. Crazy, man. It is so eye-opening.

It's like hearing your voice on the recorder and saying, "what! Does my voice sound like that?"

I say many of these stuff (like "where are you talking to me anyhow?") everyday, in my class when I teach, to my boyfriend, and everybody and never thought for a second that it was not standard English.

Of course it doesn't matter, and I don't give a fuck. But, it's exciting, almost, creepy to explore the anatomy of Nigerian English.

Cool stuff

Anonymous,  8:52 am  

Happy Aniversary!
One Year since you broke my heart.
i wasnt searching...but i found something that has changed my life.

Sandrine 3:36 pm  

Hi Jeremy,
Cool.I also like the naijalingo site.
Take care
Sandrine

Anonymous,  4:03 pm  

lmao, crispy should be cripsy!
i love it

Emmanuel 8:31 pm  

Hi,
Good post here. Just like others i have gone through.
I must say you really have something going on here.
Useful stuff really. Keep up the good work.
Guess I'm going to come around more frequently.
Keep the fire burning.

Incomesecrets

Kody 8:15 am  

Abajo! This explains why you have been 'blowing' Nigerian grammer for us in the past week.

My kids say something is 'paining' them all the time. They know the correct word to use, but they can never be bothered to use it no matter how often I correct them. All their friends say it in school, even expatriate kids.

I love this document. I am sure I will refer to it often. Thanks Jeremy.

One word that isn't in it that sticks out for me is 'Stood' instead of 'Stool' (for sitting on). I hear it all the time, especially at the hairdressers.

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