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The Question of the Superstrate and Substrate in Nigerian Pidgin
Abstract
into the base language and the dependent language(s), or the
superstrate and substrate(s) respectively. This paper questions
what justifies this classification with reference to Nigerian
Pidgin. Considering vocabulary resources, Nigerian Pidgin is
likely a version of English even though English is not a sole
lexifier. The grammatical systems of Nigerian Pidgin demonstrate
very extensively the grammatical systems of Nigerian languages.
Based on the conviction that mainly grammatical operations
describe the structure of a language, the paper concludes by
proposing that either 1) the local languages be classified as the
grammatical superstrate and lexifier substrate (that is, if degree
of lexifying is considered) while English retains its status as the
lexifier superstrate and automatically the grammatical substrate;
or 2) a neutral reference to the languages forming the pidgin be
generated, which excludes colonial colouration or imperialism.
This paper prefers the latter and, in pursuance to this, it
recommends “Trace Languages (TLs)”, which it defines as the
languages whose grammatical and/or lexical traces are evident in
a pidgin. In other words, the trace languages of Nigerian Pidgin
are English and the Nigerian languages.
