West AfricaGeographical designation

1. It refers to a culturally, historically, and linguistically diverse region north of the Equator on the western coast of Africa.

2. Most of the countries in the region were colonized by Britain and France.

3. A third of these nations, Cameroon, Gambia, Ghana Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone are ESWA states ( English-speaking West Africa)

The Spread of English in ESWA

1.The development of English-based pidgins and Creoles during the pre-colonial period.2. The introduction of Western education by missionaries in the 1880s.3.The post-independence generalisations of education and adoption of English as an official language(Spencer 1971).

Languages used in West Africa

1. Local language

2. National languages

3. Pidgin English

4. English

Characteristics of WAVE

Pronunciation

Lexicon and Semantics

Syntax

Pronunciation

Vowels

/ ʌ ， ɔ ， ɔɪ / →/ ɔ /

/U , u/→/ U /

Consonants

1. Difficulties in the following consonants:

/θ, ð , g / 2. The distinction from /l/ fr

om /r/. 3. The tendency to simplify

word-final consonant clusters; thus, next as nest; needs as knees.

Lexicon and Semantics

Lexicon

Ignorance of the “count”

vs. “non-count”.

For example,

Furniture→Furnitures

Noise→ Noises

Semantics

1. Semantic extension

2. Semantic shift

3. Semantic transfer

Syntax

1.Omission and misuse →articles and prepositions2. Occurrence of resumptive pronounsExamples:The quests whom I invited them have arrived.3. Grammatical agreement4. Comparative constructionExample: It is the youths who are skilful in performing tasks

than the adults.

The Pronoun System and prepositional usage in Nigerian

Background knowledge 1.Nigerian Pidgin (NP) is spoken as a second

language in all part of Nigeria and as a first language by a growing number of people in the southern part of country.

2. A conservative estimate of the number of speakers of NP at present would somewhere between 30 and 35 million.

3. Over 50 percent of the national population are speakers of NP.

Socially Conditioned Variation

Socially conditioned variation can be broken down into three sets of social dialects:

1. Basilectal varieties of NP

2. Acrolectal varieties of NP

3. Mesolectal varieties of NP

☆ Many speakers command a full range of social dialects and very them according to the social context, using basilectal in the market, mesolectal at home, acrolectal in government offices,etc.

The Pronoun System in Nigerian Pidgin

Prepositional usage in NP

Mother-tongue-like forms: Without prepositions which correspond to the English ones. Therefore, the Hausa( mother-tongue of Nigeria) particle da (‘with’) translates into several English Prepositions

Analogy: Many deviations from standard British English in Nigerian English are due to analogy with other forms in English.

Plural Marketing in Liberian English

Background

Liberian English, the range of English from pidgin to standard spoken in Liberian, is characterized by cast variation in the marking of semantically plural nouns.

Phonological Factor and Plural Marking

Liberian English displays an extremely strong push towards the canonical CV syllable structure.

Markings of the plural by suffix ~z or free morpheme dɛn, e.g.,doz bɔz dɛn ‘those boys’.