There are wrong expressions that Nigerians use which cannot be counted as part of The Standard British English. Usage of these expressions is probably something that started innocently a long time ago and just caught on. According to Professor Farooq Kperogi, the four factors that have shaped Nigerian English include:
Linguistic improvisation, Archaic British Expressions, initial usage or errors fossilize over time and incorporated into the Nigerian linguistic repertoiry, and a mixture of both American and British English.
Non-native speakers of English in Nigeria have succeeded in bastardizing the standard British English so much that it it is difficult for learners to tell the difference between correct and wrong.
These are examples of the most famous mistakes Nigerians make when speaking English.
FICTIVE TERMINOLOGIES
Cousin brother/sister.
A lot of people are guilty of having said this at least once. I have noticed that someone could want to say something about a male/female cousin use the term cousin brotheúr/sister. This is wrong because it is not standard English. However, a simple explanation could be lexical improvisation. There is no lexical term for revealing the gender for the cousin in the context some of sentences. Therefore, you find out that some people, even the well educated ones tend to make this error when talking. The right word for “cousin” is “cousin”, then you’re a liberty to explain to the speaker whether the person is male or female.
ENGLISH SPOKEN BY NIGERIAN CHILDREN
Chook:
As with all the other errors made while speaking the English language, the origin of this term one too is unknown. Nigerian children and adults are guilty of using this expression. The American and British equivalents of the word chook is “poke” or “jab”. So, an American kid might say the “Martin poked me in the eye with his key”, a Nigerian speaker substitutes that “poke” for “chook”. Martin ” chook” my eye with his key which is obviously not Standard English.
TAUTOLOGY.
Tautologies are semantic redundancies. A tautology occurs when you say or write the exact thing twice using two different words. E.g True facts, ascend up. Every fact is true, if it wasn’t true, then i t wouldn’t be a fact.
These are pointless repetitions because a everybody knows that only place you can ascend is up. Therefore, the ” up” there is redundant
Another example is “Number plate”, they are a official set of numbers and letters shown on the front and back of a road vehicle. In U.SA. it is referred to as Number plate while in the U.K, it is called License plate.
But in Nigeria, there is a splice between both “englishes” an some of us “License plate number”. Other notable tautologies include; “fellow colleague”, “short Knicker”, “extreme end”.
Although, these are not mishmashes between the two types of English. They are just two words who have no business being side by side with each other.
This subject is going to have weekly updates, so dont forget to check back to see more ways the Nigerian English has been growing and influencing Standard British English spoken by Nigerians.