January 07, 2006

LAGOS PIDGIN.

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.

Posted by languagehat at January 7, 2006 03:58 PM
Comments

For 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 PM

Hold on, let me try this way.

Posted by: Tatyana at January 7, 2006 04:17 PM

Nope, sorry. May be this one will work.

Posted by: Tatyana at January 7, 2006 04:30 PM

Beautiful!

Posted by: language hat at January 7, 2006 04:52 PM

I'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 AM

Well, 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 AM

Thank you, Venerable Hat.

Posted by: Teju Cole at January 8, 2006 09:06 AM

Thanks 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?

Posted by: t bell at January 11, 2006 01:14 PM

I have to leave now?

Posted by: Xboy at January 11, 2006 01:25 PM

I 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 PM

you 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 PM

Perhaps Teju will favor us with a return visit and answer your question.

Posted by: language hat at January 11, 2006 05:45 PM

Ah, 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

Posted by: Teju Cole at January 17, 2006 10:35 PM

Thanks, Teju!

Posted by: language hat at January 18, 2006 07:51 AM

If 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 AM

I 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 PM

How do you say beautiful in Yoruba?

Posted by: EP at February 21, 2006 11:44 AM