Lexical Borrowing in Nigerian English

Abstract

The study looked at the extent to which English language is transformed in the Nigerian society. The paper has been restricted to lexical variation of such ‘Nigerianness’ with particular reference to loanwords and Loanshift and English words whose meaning has been restricted. The data for this work has been drawn from Nigerian newspapers, Nigerian written document which includes literary works, and spoken English of Nigerians have also been observed for the period of the research. The paper analysed in detail the occurrence of such loanwords, from loanwords proper to partial loanwords (those which are not fully accepted into Nigerian English vocabularies) and Loanshift. The paper upheld the view that Nigerian English lexis should be considered a variant as it reflects the cultural as well as the communicative need of the users of English in Nigeria.