Nigerian English words have recently been added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), but there is still a debate in the country about what constitutes proper English, as the BBC's Nduka Orjinmo writes from Lagos.

"Come to an all-night prayer vigil to welcome the ember months," read a text from my mother.

It was an August ritual she had reminded me about severally.

"I have something to do next tomorrow," I texted back from the barbing salon.

"You sef," came her instant reply, half-irritated, half-rebuking.

What I considered to be a conversation in perfect English between my mother and me would have been regarded as wrong by the self-appointed language police here.

But now I have something with which I can defend myself, thanks to the OED, which calls itself "the definitive record of the English language".

The Oxford lexicographers have updated the dictionary with 29 Nigerian words, recognising the "unique and distinctive contribution to English as a global language" of Africa's most populous country.

The OED's move has divided opinion in the former British colony of 200 million people, who between them speak more than 250 languages.

English is the official language in this polyglot nation and the one used in schools.

There are those who think the idea that an expert sitting in Oxford can define how it is spoken is outmoded.

"I don't care what the Brits think of Nigerian English," one writer curtly replied when I asked his opinion. He declined to be interviewed, as did two other writers.


This "has put Nigeria on the map of the English-speaking world. [But] Oxford is not validating Nigerian English, only recognising previous efforts made by researchers," says Kingsley Ugwuanyi, the Nigerian consultant who worked with the OED on the 29 words, trying to correct the impression that the OED is telling people how to speak.

It is about time the rest of the English-speaking world had the actual names for things I have heard called "bean cake" and "bean puddle", neither of which sounded right to me.

And as for my mother and her ember months' all-night prayer vigil, I never did make it.

We rubbed minds over Sunday dinner where, as the wine and gist flowed, I failed to convince her that parte after parte was the ultimate all-nighter for millennials.


From BBC

ok

Hmm

Cool.

but ember months make sense die, some will be angry they never thought of it

Parte after parte, ah yeah
Parte after parte, ah yeah
Parte after parte
After parte
After parte, ah yeah

wait till u find Waka, Rosco, Olosho, shubi, ewoh (exclamation) patapata, nko, bakassi....

I love this

Nice one!
Lemme goan finish my village people with English

There are many more that needs to be added


Nigerian's needs to start respecting there own form of English so it can get the recognition it deserves..... American English started this way.... And now its a force on its own..


But I trust Nigerians and it inferiority complex.... We prefer copying others we don't like inventing

Akära.. Yoruba word








okada ...youba word ..


we never sabi wetin dey do us.. yeye nigerian English

k

Parte after Parte is Ugandan

biGDhAp:
Akära.. Yoruba word









okada ...youba word ..



we never sabi wetin dey do us.. yeye nigerian English

How is okada a Yoruba word?

CSTR2:

How is okada a Yoruba word?

.. lol.. what tribe are you from before I start arguing with you

biGDhAp:
.. lol.. what tribe are you from before I start arguing with you

Which tribe am I from?

Is that the sum total of your intelligence?

CSTR2:

Which tribe am I from?


Is that the sum total of your intelligence?

.. I'm definitely not doing this now .. if you cant tell me where you are from, with this one you're claiming okada isn't a Yoruba.. then I have nothing to say to you


muchos gracias for your time


now Vamos

Thanks for the information @Op Front-page deserved!

Continue going down

































































































This land is not for sale.
Beware of my son Suberu

biGDhAp:
.. I'm definitely not doing this now .. if you cant tell me where you are from, with this one you're claiming okada isn't a Yoruba.. then I have nothing to say to you


muchos gracias for your time


now Vamos

Do you know there is a location in edo state called okada where Benson idahosa university is located.?

Don't behave like an average lautech student na.

Haba.

CSTR2:

Do you know there is a location in edo state called okada where Benson idahosa university is located.?

Don't behave like an average lautech student na.

Haba.

so because there is a location named okada doesn't mean it's not a Yoruba word .. what are you even talking about .. I'm pretty sure you're familiar with sabo and you can find it mostly around south west and the nothern part .. so a Hausa man comes nw and tell me sabo is afilliated with the Hausa tribe and I'm like.. no oo.. there's a location named sabo in ogbomosho, Ibadan and even Lagos. so therefore the hausas doesn't own it..



now who's the dumb one btw me and you .

The purpose of language is to allow a society perpetually enlarge their thought horizon without an elastic limit. Therefore, when a foreigner has given us a language called English and is the one to validate its rightful use, it means that our intellectual capabilities is under a ceiling.

You're a slave (and 99.99999999 % of us are) if you ever thought those words coined here in Nigeria were wrong but now right. Those words have always been right as long as Nigerians agree on its use and meaning, whether or not you find them in the English dictionary.

Words aren't right because they're found in a dictionary but because a society agrees on its use and meaning. As a matter of fact, ''booking'' words before they become meaningful is a way to make a society very shortsighted. Indeed, this has generally made white people very shortsighted but this's a different story, and if you wish to know why I said so, it because things aren't more factual or truer because they're written in a book, though the white man's simplistic linear way of thinking has convinced us that's the case.

When you put something in a book, it actually diminishes the mind's power of perception about that thing.

See, words are creators and when I tell you what is a ''car'' and you can identify it when you see it, you no longer have to worry about what is a car. But if I tell you something called ''ogbunigwe'' which is an Igbo word but which I won't tell you the meaning, I'll put your mind to work to imagine anything imaginable for the meaning of that word, unless you already know the meaning. In that case, I'll give you another word ''janshe''.

When you put something is a book, it actually counter-productively surrenders everything to that book. It makes the book the authority and not the mind!!. This's one of the major reason people are hooked to religion, because they can't perceive God/Allah outside of the junk book called bible/koran. Again, this's a story for another day.

If we're ever going to be completely free as a people, the first thing to change is LANGUAGE, then EDUCATION, and finally RELIGION. These 3 have us under a lock.

If anything, those words should be appearing in our own dictionary here in Nigeria, not in the English dictionary. But the purpose of the British establishment has always been to maintain our lock down, that's why they quickly claimed those words, put it their book of authority called dictionary, which is nothing but a bible of words, thereby, giving themselves power to define it and set the context for its meaning.

We have been locked down with the most powerful natural tool- LANGUAGE!.

biGDhAp:



so because there is a location named okada doesn't mean it's not a Yoruba word .. what are you even talking about .. I'm pretty sure you're familiar with sabo and you can find it mostly around south west and the nothern part .. so a Hausa man comes nw and tell me sabo is afilliated with the Hausa tribe and I'm like.. no oo.. there's a location named sabo in ogbomosho, Ibadan and even Lagos. so therefore the hausas doesn't own it..



now who's the dumb one btw me and you .

There is nothing that proves that okada is a Yoruba word.
It is not a original word with an established Yoruba origin.
You only assume that it is Yoruba because you live in the south west and they call motor cycle ,okada.

Well guess what, they call it okada in other parts of the country too.

Okada is a location in edo state. It's far more likely to be an edo word than a Yoruba word, just like Eko is an edo name given to Lagos by the oba of Benin which I am sure you think it's Yoruba.

You are still in school and know nothing, and yet you are arrogant like a peacock.

CSTR2:

There is nothing that proves that okada is a Yoruba word.
It is not a original word with an established Yoruba origin.
You only assume that it is Yoruba because you live in the south west and they call motor cycle ,okada.

Well guess what, they call it okada in other parts of the country too.

Okada is a location in edo state. It's far more likely to be an edo word than a Yoruba word, just like Eko is an edo name given to Lagos by the oba of Benin which I am sure you think it's Yoruba.

You are still in school and know nothing, and yet you are arrogant like a peacock.

.. words like "sha" "nko" "shebi" and so many more .. are they not Yoruba words used in all corners in Nigeria..esp when speaking English .. let's say it's an edo word. it alteast suppose to have another meaning in edo .. so what does it mean??

.. if you cant answer this please don't bother replying..

ABCthings:
Yoruba is quite popular because it's a tonic language. But this shouldn't limit you. I use any word I like regardless of its ethnicity. Life is simple.

.. yeah exactly.

One word that should be in that dictionary is tokunbo

Can those words be accepted in exams

This is interesting

Okada is a proper Bini word...a town in Edo State and one of the first private airline in Nigeria (Okada Air)...when we were young it was a slang for bikes because it was a means of transportation just like airplanes...