A Sociolinguistic Study Of Nigerian Pidgin In Zaria

Much of what is currently known about NigerianPidgin (NP) has been provided by researches intoNP in southern Nigeria as it exists especially inEdo, Delta and Rivers States. There is even ageneral assumption that MP is a phenomenon ofsouthern Nigeria alone, and the use of NP in thenorthern part of Nigeria is often denied by many,probably because of the presence, in the north, ofthe strong lingua franca, Hausa.The need for documented material on theexistence and use of NP in the northern part ofNigeria is the motivation for this research. Atypical northern Nigeria town, Zaria, was usedfor the research, with the assumption on the partof the researcher that whatever insight is gainedinto NP in Zaria will be by and large applicablein other northern Nigeria towns.In a brief background to the study which isgiven in Chapter One, the relationship of NP toWest African Pidgin, and the relationship of thelatter to the English language in West Africa arediscussed. A short overview of the earlier spreadof MP is also given in this section.Chapter two is a review of literature onpidgins (and Creoles) with particular focus on NP itsstatus in Nigeria, its lexicon, syntax andphonology. A second part of this chapter reviewsvarious frameworks for the study of language andends with a proposed framework for this study.Chapter three presents the method used for thisresearch as the Rapid Rural Appraisal (R.R.A.)technique, which is a combination of . datacollection methods through the primary and secondarysources. Questionnaires were administered, andthree recordings made of samples of NP in Zaria.The data gathered are analysed in Chapter Four,and the same chapter discusses the findings. Thisanalysis provided answers to the questions theresearcher started out with,namely who uses NP, withwhom, where ard for what purpose. Deviations fromNP in the recorded samples are highlighted, and"echoes' of NP are also pointed out.Chapter five corcludes that NP is spoken inZaria by various people in various walks of lifeand in every section of the town even if rotevery single person uses it. It also concludesthat the NP used in Zaria is a variety of the NPin Warri/Sapele which we have used as norm.The implication of the existence ard use ofMP in the north is of great importance forNigeria, as far as a unifying national larguageis concerned. The researcher recommends that thegovernment of Nigeria give official status toNP, approve an orthography and possibly adopt anew name for it, in order to liberate it from thestigma of low status that is often attached to it.

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