![]() Therefore, Nigerian Pidgin English is a part of language contact zone which represents one linguistic area in multilingual region of West Africa. The similarities between languages, (at the level of phonology, lexicon and structural properties of various kinds) are not due to their common descent, but to intensive language contact. The comparison of Nigerian Pidgin English structures with similar patterns of the main languages of the area indicates that all these languages contribute to each other in the process of their individual development. It is a contact language which shares numerous structural similarities with the languages of the area which make its substratum. The analysis indicates that Nigerian Pidgin English should not be perceived only as a result of simplification of the source language which is given a status of ‘broken English’. The questions of grammaticalization resulting in the change of lexical units to grammatical units was subject of a particular interest. However, the work was not oriented at establishing the systemic properties of the language but rather aimed to distinguish features influenced by the African languages which function as its linguistic substrate. The language is in the process of ongoing development and structural properties are manifested differently in texts representing the language from different zones of Nigeria and created in different times. It deals with the phonological representation, the patterns of expressing grammatical categories and the rules of word formation leading to creating new units. The dissertation presents the analysis of Nigeria Pidgin English at various levels of the language structure. Owing to the significance of the nature, use and status of NP in our country ![]() Suggestions have been made by some prominent scholars such as Ben Eluigbe, Nick Faraclas, and Niyi Akinnaso for its adoption as our official national language because of its ethnic neutrality and non-affiliation as well as its currency and wide spread. This is why it 2 0 1 F is often referred to as Nigeria s unofficial national lingua franca. Similarly, in most institutions of higher learning, it is widely used among students, at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, in their informal communication. In recent times, NP has been used extensively in the broadcast media for news casting, jingles, and all sorts of adverts in other to reach the masses of Nigeria for whom it is either a first, a second, or a third language. ![]() Thus it is prevalent in the metropolitan cities such as Lagos, Kano, and Port-Harcourt, especially in the military, police and air-force barracks, strangercommunities, and slum areas like Ajegunle and Mushin. From east to west, from north to south, it is the language of choice. Nigerian Pidgin (NP) can be described as the widest spoken indigenous language in Nigeria today. Recommendations include a review of the National communication policy, creation of language policy, declaration that Nigerian Pidgin be officially added to the list of languages for National Communication, in the interest of National Unity. It concludes that Nigeria's multi-ethnic reality and antecedents' challenges be resolved by the pragmatic positivist approach of language unification. This proposition further explored Spolsky's National Language Policy Theory. Nigerian Pidgin speaking is currently more popular compared to the 3 regional languages, Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, and English language. The paper, using discourse analysis argues that the Nigeria Pidgin English Language has a unifying potential for Nigeria. As panacea, this paper leans on Kwasi Wiredu's proposition of Language, a Cultural Universal, as essential for intercultural and national communication. Some argue, this phenomenon is related to the impact of prior Western dominance, globalisation and neo-colonialism. Recurrent ethnic conflicts and political strife are threats to national unity and pride.
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