I have come across yet another of the internet's little-known lexicographical resources, Babawilly's Dictionary of Pidgin English Words and Phrases:
Pidgin English is spoken widely across Nigeria. It is a language made up of elements of the Queen's English and the local dialects. With Nigeria having about 250 tribes in all, one finds a lot of variation in the type of Pidgin English spoken by the different ethnic groups. In this compilation I have limited myself to what I would call 'Lagos Pidgin' as this is what I am familiar with. The three major Nigerian languages namely Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa feature prominently in Pidgin English in general, however with Lagos being historically a Yoruba city 'Lagos Pidgin' consists of a disproportionately high number of Yoruba words.A couple of entries will suggest the flavor:
Dey: 1. Is e.g. wetin dey happun 2. Location e.g. where you dey 3. Stance in the matter e.g. which one you dey sef. 4. In existence 5. Spectacular e.g. dat car dey well-well.
Dey laik Dele: (Dele is a Yoruba name) 1. I am barely surviving e.g Man juss Dey laik Dele. 2. Being idle e.g You juss dey there laik Dele . Also - Standing like Standard Bank, Looking like Lucozade and Dey like you no dey.
I was led to this site by investigating a Lagos term used in teju cole, a temporary blog reporting on a visit home by a Nigerian long resident in the U.S.; it's full of beauty, sadness, and keen observations on life in Nigeria and in general, and I recommend it to your attention before it vanishes away at the end of the month.
Addendum (June 2008): Correspondent Adim alerts me to Naija Lingo, "a dictionary for people who want definitions to Nigerian words or slang, names and phrases and created by the people (you) who know them. Naija Lingo is an open dictionary where you the user are free to add and edit words as time changes, and as the meaning of words evolve and new words are formed."
Posted by languagehat at January 7, 2006 03:58 PMFor a minute there I thought you're talking about local variant of Portuguese in Lagos, Algarve - you know, the original Lagos...
(Please tell me you can see the picture from my c-path)
Posted by: Tatyana at January 7, 2006 04:14 PMBeautiful!
Posted by: language hat at January 7, 2006 04:52 PMI'm a bit confused by the multiple definitions of "dey," since in almost all of the examples given, it seems that the first definition works.
Posted by: Ran at January 8, 2006 02:22 AMWell, it's not exactly a professional dictionary, and it's often confusing, but it's fun, and usually helpful -- you just have to do a little work.
Posted by: language hat at January 8, 2006 07:53 AMThank you, Venerable Hat.
Posted by: Teju Cole at January 8, 2006 09:06 AMThanks for that link. I had a Nigerian neighbor when I lived in Benin who I used to chat with quite a bit. My favorite expression was 'Make I come go now'. I don't know why, but that always charmed me.
Can you guess what it means?
I have to leave now?
Posted by: Xboy at January 11, 2006 01:25 PMI checked Babawilly, who has:
Make I hear word: Shut up.
Make I see road: Get out of my face.
Which doesn't help at all. So... what does it mean?
Posted by: language hat at January 11, 2006 02:12 PMyou got it right Xboy. The meaning is effectively 'I'm going'. It's used in about the same way as 'see you later', or goodbye.
'go and come' is a translation of an expression used when saying goodbye. I wish I knew the Yoruba for it. The Fon (a language of Benin) is 'ma yi bo wa' or 'yi bo wa', and my understanding is there is a similar expression in Yoruba.
Posted by: t bell at January 11, 2006 05:15 PMPerhaps Teju will favor us with a return visit and answer your question.
Posted by: language hat at January 11, 2006 05:45 PMAh, I've just seen this now.
Well, I don't know Fon, but the pidgin is all very familiar to me. "Make I go come now"- even to my Lagosian ears, a charming expression- would indeed make sense to any speaker of Nigerian pidgin. I can translate it literally as "lemme take off, but I'll be back real soon." But the word "now" is generally used as a filler in Pidgin.
As for "go and come", we have an expression in Yoruba- "lo're bo're"- which means "go well, return well."
lo= go
bo= return
ire= good
Thanks, Teju!
Posted by: language hat at January 18, 2006 07:51 AMIf una won 'e go find pidgin pas plenty for nigerian Wole Soyinka, down des URL down der.
Posted by: Raphael Gadomski at January 22, 2006 06:22 AMI needed to know what "oleaki" (spelling?) means in Nigerian (not sure which language). It is the name of a pet that was given to me, could someone help?
Posted by: dale brooks at February 3, 2006 12:22 PMHow do you say beautiful in Yoruba?
Posted by: EP at February 21, 2006 11:44 AM
