Nigerian English

Nigerian English

English was introduced in Nigeria with the establishment of British trading contacts on the West African coast in the sixteenth century and began to be formally studied from the middle of the nineteenth century on. In the 1880s, the missionary stations were ordered to teach English in their schools to Africans who would serve British colonial and trade interests.

In Nigerian education today, English plays a key role. There is no uniform accent of English spoken throughout Nigeria. Nigerian English is usually divided into several sub-varieties, with a continuum of degrees of competence in English as a typical characteristic of a country where English functions as a second language.

The official language of Nigeria, English, was chosen to facilitate the cultural and linguistic unity of the country.

The choice of English as the official language was partially related to the fact that part of Nigerian population spoke English as result of British conolisation that ended in 1960.

English was the first language, however, remains an exclusive preserve to a small minority of the country’s urban elite, and it is not spoken at all in some rural areas.

Nigerian Pedgin English, often known simply as Pidgin or broken (broken english), is also popular lingua franca, though with varying regional influences on dialect and slang.

Stress in nigerian english appeared to be influenced by the tone syllable in many nigerian languages and for that reason many english words may be wrongly assigned stress irrespective of their class category.

The following english words may be stressed thus ‘madam’ [ma’dam], ‘’recognize’’ [rekog’niz], ‘’import’’[im’port] and ‘’record’’ [re’kord].

Bangladesh English

English in the People's Republic of Bangladesh is the principal language of the Bangladeshi upper judiciary, including the Bangladesh Supreme Court and the Dhaka High Court. Bengali is the sole official language, but English is often used secondarily for official purposes, especially in the judiciary.

English medium education, newspapers, business and nongovernmental organizations are prevalent across the country. An estimated 18 million Bangladeshis are capable of using English as a second language.

The territory of modern-day Bangladesh was the heartland of the Bengal Presidency in the British Empire. Historically, the Bengali bhadralok class were heavily influenced by the British accent. The efforts of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan played a key role in building an English-speaking Muslim intelligentsia and middle class in Bengal. Modern Bangladeshi English is noted for its neutral accent, in comparison to other forms of Asian English, and has been influenced by the American accent. Spellings continue to be adopted from British English. In 2012, the High Court banned the use of "Banglish", described as a slang mixture of Bengali and English, in radio and television programs, in order to the prevent the corruption of both languages.

English literature in Bangladesh includes the early works of Begum Rokeya, one of the world's earliest feminist science fiction writers, and Rabindranath Tagore, whose English translation of Gitanjali won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. English was an official language of East Pakistan. After independence, the Constitution of Bangladesh was written in both in English and Bengali in 1972. However, successive Bangladeshi governments have converted many original English-medium universities, schools and colleges to Bengali instruction in order to spread mass education.

In 1987, President Ershad replaced English with Bengali as the language of most of the lower courts, but this status was restored in 2001.The Government of Bangladesh extensively uses English as a working language. Bangladeshi laws are written in both English and Bengali.

As it was written below many people in Bangladesh speak English and Urdu. Bangla vocabulary shows many influences. These include a strong Islamic influence seen in the greetings of "Salaam aleykum" (Peace be unto you) and "Khoda hafez" (God Bless you) and nouns from the Arab world such as "dokan" (shop), "tarikh"(date), "kolom"(pen) and "bonduk" (gun). In West Bengal the Hindu influence is greater with the use of the Hindu greeting "Namashkar".

English has also had an influence on Bangla. During the days of the Raj many words of English origin such as "tebil" (table), "tiffin" (archaic in modern day English meaning snack box) entered Bangla. In more recent time the ever rising global nature of English has lead to words such as "television", "telephone", "video" and "radio" being adopted by Bangla. However, unlike India, there has never been the need for English as a lingua franca and thus Bangla is the state language of Bangladesh.

Handout 2

Task 1. Read the articles above and mark the information below:

T – if the statement is true;

F – if the statement is false;

NG – if the information is not given in the passage;

Statement	Answer
British trading contacts on the West African coast in the sixteenth century
In this days and age English does not play essential role in Nigeria
Nigerians use English because of British conolisation that ended in 1860.
However, no creole has gained enough status to be accepted as a national language. Nowadays, English and Spanish are the official languages.
However, English is the second language, it is not spoken at all in several rural areas
Contact between indigenous and colonizers led to borrowing items. English as the official language. There has been American English influence, and vocabulary has been affected
In 1987, President Ershad replaced English with Bengali as the language of most of the lower courts, but this status was restored in 2010.
A vital number of people in Bangladesh communicate in English and Urdu
Countries which needed new industrial knowledge could access it via the medium of English, something which made powerful again the language internationally.
In 2012, the High Court banned the use of "Banglish", described as a slang mixture of Bengali and English, in radio and television programs, in order to the prevent the corruption of both languages.