Similarities Between African Pidgin English And Jamaican Patois (Online Excerpts)

Edited by Azizi Powell 

This pancocojams post presents some online excerpts about the similarities between African  Pidgin English and Jamaican Patois (Patwa).

The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, linguistic, and educational purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/09/west-african-pidgin-english-and-united_17.html for the closely related pancocojams post entitled "West African Pidgin English And United States Gullah Language (Online Excerpts)."

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ONLINE EXCERPTS
These excerpts are given in no particular order. Numbers are added for referencing purposes only.

EXCERPT #1
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_African_Pidgin_English
…"Historical impact

The various pidgin and creole languages still spoken in West Africa today – the Aku language in The Gambia, Sierra Leone Krio, Nigerian Pidgin English, Ghanaian Pidgin English, Cameroonian Pidgin English, Fernando Po Creole English, etc. – are all derived from the early West African Pidgin English.[citation needed] These contemporary English-based pidgin and creole languages are so similar that they are increasingly grouped together under the name "West African Pidgin English", although the term originally designated only the original trade language spoken on the West African coast two hundred years ago.

Some scholars also argue that African slaves took West African Pidgin English to the New World where it helped give rise to the English-based creoles that developed there, including the Gullah language in coastal South Carolina and Georgia, Bahamian Dialect, Jamaican Creole, Belizean Kriol, Guyanese Creole, Sranan Tongo in Suriname, etc. Since the slaves taken to the Americas spoke many different African languages, they would have found West African Pidgin English as useful as a lingua franca on the plantations as they had found it back home in West Africa as a trading language. Their enslaved children born in the Americas would have adopted different versions of West African Pidgin English as their "native" languages, thus creating a series of New World English-based creoles.

The similarities among the many English-based pidgin and creole languages spoken today on both sides of the Atlantic are due, at least in part, to their common derivation from the early West African Pidgin English. Note the following examples, all of which mean "They are going there to eat rice":

Sierra Leone Krio: "Dem dey go for go eat res"

Ghanaian Pidgin English: "Dem dey go chop rais"

Nigerian Pidgin English: "Dem dey go chop rice"

Cameroonian Pidgin English: "Dey di go for go chop rice"

Gullah: "Dem duh gwine fuh eat rice" "

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EXCERPT #2
From https://termcoord.eu/2018/04/nigerian-pidgin-english/#:~:text=Nigerian%20Pidgin%20English%20(NPE)%2C,diaspora%2C%20due%20to%20Nigerian%20migrants. NIGERIAN PIDGIN ENGLISH, by Linda Nkwocha Okeh 3/4/2018 
"During the European quest for new markets and raw materials in the 17th Century, many Portuguese missionaries and traders arrived on the shores of Jamaica and West and Central African  countries like: Sierra Leone, Cameroon and Nigeria were largely visited by the missionaries. For trade and religious purposes with no language in common they created a form of communication with bases from the European language, giving birth to most African languages: such as Creole, Pidgin, and Patois. These languages came to serve the linguistic need there, by giving birth to the Cameroon Camfranglais (mixture of French and English) spoken by the youth today.

Nigerian Pidgin English (NPE), originated as a lingua franca for trade purposes amongst the Nigerians and the Portuguese merchants during the 17th century.  It is broken English like Patois and Creole, spoken along the coast of West Africa and it has extended to the diaspora, due to Nigerian migrants.  After the departure of the missionaries, this lingua franca did not go with them but remained and is the most widely spoken language in Nigeria today compared to English.  There are still Portuguese words present in the NPE such as : “ Sabi (to know)  and Pikin  (child)” .

NPE is regarded as a bastardization of the English language used by the non-literates, though it is highly spoken in Nigeria by every individual starting from an early age. In the country, both the literates, such as the president, campaigning politicians, lawyers, doctors, and non-literates speak and understand pidgin, though it is mostly used in informal situations and English is used for official purposes and the medium of education. NPE is the most widely spoken language as it is not a native language of any tribe in Nigeria but the only language everyone understands and regards as the easiest form of interaction amongst the population.The Federal Republic of Nigeria has three major languages namely: Igbo in the (East), Yoruba in the (South) and Hausa in the (North )  having English as the official language alongside other 500 different spoken dialects. Indeed, NPE is considered as a bastardized language as it is yet to have a standard written form. University in Nigeria, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria both undergraduate and postgraduate levels , department of English and Drama are now offering it as a course  and many struggles are being put up for NPE to be considered Nigeria’s official language as it is highly used by the masses, high school students, postgraduates and undergraduates, politicians and business people.

NPE is not only spoken in Nigeria, it is widely used by the diasporic communities in America, England, and Canada. In addition, a large group of the Nigerian community in Luxembourg use Pidgin as a means of communication, these diasporic communities use pidgin among themselves as a means to feel at home.

[...]

NPE varies in written and spoken form depending on which part of the country the speaker is from, as the language is spoken differently in each state of the country. Each State tends to add words from their dialect into Pidgin making it more interesting for the ears and understood by everyone. Nigerian Pidgin English remains the only language that unifies the 186 million population. 

Written by  Linda Nkwocha Okeh – Communications’ Study Visitor at the Terminology Coordination Unit of the European Parliament (Luxembourg) and a student of the Master Program in Learning and Communication in Multilingual and Multicultural Contexts at the University of Luxembourg. Linda holds  a Bachelor’s  degree in Linguistics and Applied Foreign Languages French – English from University of  Dschang , Cameroon. She speaks English,  French, Igbo(Mother tongue), Nigerian pidgin English, Camfranglais and basic German.  Born in Cameroon but Nigerian by Nationality , before coming to Luxembourg she was a teacher of French. "

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EXCERPT #3
From https://www.amazon.com/Comparative-Analysis-Jamaican-Nigerian-English/dp/1478158905 A 
Comparative Analysis of Jamaican Creole and Nigerian Pidgin English Paperback
July 2, 2012 by Pamela Odimegwu (Author)
"Nigerian Pidgin English shows a large number of similarities to Jamaican Creole or Patois. Many phrases and words in Patois are also found in Nigerian Pidgin English. Linguists believe that this is due to the fact that the majority of slaves taken to the New World were from West Africa. Though many comparative studies have been made on Pidgins and Creoles, none or not many have been made specifically on Nigerian Pidgin English and Jamaican Creole. This book examines some of the similarities and differences which exist between Nigerian Pidgin English and Jamaican Creole. The book also investigates whether these two languages do, in fact have a common origin.”...

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EXCERPT #4
From https://www.nairaland.com/2139321/nigerian-pidgin-carribean-islands-pidgin Nigerian Pidgin And Carribean Islands Pidgin; Similarities And History by ItsAnderson: 12:03am On Feb 10, 2015
"Nigerian Pidgin is an English-based pidgin and creole language spoken as a lingua franca across Nigeria. The language is commonly referred to as "Pidgin" or "Brokin".

It is distinguished from other creole languages since most speakers are not true native speakers, although many children do learn it at an early age. It can be spoken as a pidgin, a creole, or a decreolised acrolect by different speakers, who may switch between these forms depending on the social setting.

Nigerian Pidgin, along with the various pidgin and creole languages of West Africa share similarities to the various dialects of English found in the Caribbean. Some of the returning descendants of slaves taken to the New World of West African origin brought back many words and phrases to West Africa from the Jamaican Creole (also known as Jamaican Patois or simply Patois) and the other creole languages of the West Indies which are components of Nigerian Pidgin. The pronunciation and accents often differ a great deal, mainly due to the extremely heterogeneous mix of African languages present in the West Indies, but if written on paper or spoken slowly, the creole languages of West Africa are for the most part mutually intelligible with the creole languages of the Caribbean.

The presence of repetitious phrases in Jamaican Creole such as "su-su" (gossip) and "pyaa-pyaa" (sickly) mirror the presence of such phrases in West African languages such as "bam-bam", which means "complete" in the Yoruba language.

Repetitious phrases are also present in Nigerian Pidgin, such as, "koro-koro", meaning "clear vision", "yama-yama", meaning "disgusting", and "doti-doti", meaning "garbage".

Furthermore, the use of the words of West African origin in Jamaican Patois, such as "boasie" (meaning proud, a word that comes from the Yoruba word "bosi" also meaning "proud" and "Unu" - Jamaican Patois or "Wuna" - West African Pidgin (meaning "you people", a word that comes from the Igbo word "una" also meaning "you people" display some of the interesting similarities between the English pidgins and creoles of West Africa and the English pidgins and creoles of the West Indies, as does the presence of words and phrases that are identical in the languages on both sides of the Atlantic, such as "Me a go tell dem" (I'm going to tell them) and "make we" (let us). Use of the word "deh" or "dey" is found in both Jamaican Patois and Nigerian Pidgin English, and is used in place of the English word "is" or "are".

The phrase "We dey foh London" would be understood by both a speaker of Patois and a speaker of Nigerian Pidgin to mean "We are in London". Other similarities, such as "pikin" (Nigerian Pidgin for "child" and "pikney" (or "pikiny", Jamaican Patois for "child", akin to the standard-English pejorative/epithet pickaninny) and "chook" (Nigerian Pidgin for "poke" or "stab" which corresponds with the Jamaican Patois word "jook", further demonstrate the linguistic relationship.

Source : Wikipedia"

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EXCERPT #5
From https://www.pulse.ng/lifestyle/food-travel/20-jamaican-words-that-originated-from-nigerian-languages/dw71pw9 20 Jamaican words that originated from Nigerian languages by ADAOBI ONYEAKAGBU, December 8, 2021
"Igbo culture and languages, as well as other cultures from Africa, were key in forming the Jamaican Patois language and culture during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.

The Jamaican Patois is a colourful mix of several languages passed down from our colonial past and Igbo, Efik and Yoruba ancestors.

[...] 

5. Buckra
This is an Efik term from mbakára, meaning “white man”

6. Chink, Chinch
This is from the Igbo chị́nchị̀, meaning “bedbug”

[...]

14. Obeah
from Igbo ọbiạ, meaning “doctoring”, “mysticism”

15. Okra
This is from the Igbo ọkwurụ, a vegetable

[...]

17. Red Ibo, Eboe
from Ị̀gbò, a person with a light skin colour or a mulatto of mixed parentage

[...]

20. Unu
from Igbo language únù, meaning “you (plural)”

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