Nigerian English is the product of the adaptation of the English language to the Nigerian environment. In the book Nigerian English, David Jowitt describes the distinctive forms of the variety. Jowitt’s seven-chapter book is the first full-length volume on Nigerian English (NigE), and he gives express recognition to it as a New English. Although the variety has been under discussion since the 1960s, scholars have been divided about giving recognition to its existence, and about its standardization in terms of codification and acceptability (Bamgbose Reference Bamgbose1998). Jowitt claims that NigE is spoken in ‘one of the biggest “English-speaking” countries in the world today’ (1), if the definition of ‘English-speaking’ is extended to include countries in which ‘outer circle’ varieties (Kachru Reference Kachru, Quirk and Widdowson1985) are spoken. From an initial status as a ‘foreign’ language, English became entrenched in Nigeria in the period of British colonial rule. It is currently used almost exclusively as the language of officialdom and as the principal language of education, the mass media, creative writing (literature), Christian worship in the cities, and inter-ethnic communication among the educated.
The book concerns itself with the narrow sense of NigE – ‘the phonological, grammatical, and lexical properties that distinguish the English used in Nigeria from varieties of English elsewhere’ – while not ignoring its broader meaning of ‘English as used by Nigerians’ (1), its history, status and function. The fact that NigE has hitherto been understudied in comparison with other West African varieties of English underscores the significance of the book.
The 36-page Introduction teases out many issues essential to understanding the rest of the book. These are geographical, demographic and historical facts, significant among which is the introduction, in the nineteenth century, of Christianity, Western education and the English language by Christian missionaries. It also includes the different ways the North and the South of Nigeria have experienced the English language and the status of English as an ‘unofficially official language’ (11) among a multiplicity of languages, including over 500 indigenous languages, and Nigerian Pidgin. The author suggests that English can no longer be called ‘elitist’ in Nigeria because of its widespread usage that can be described on a lectal continuum.
Moreover, the Introduction details the domains of usage of English vis-à-vis the indigenous languages and Nigerian Pidgin, the use of English in education, the media and literature, and concerns about deterioration in the quality of spoken and written English by Nigerians, which follow ‘a complaint tradition (that) has long existed and remains alive in ESL [English as a Second Language] countries’ (24). On the issue of perceptions and attitudes about NigE as a variety, the author identifies two contending positions of an outright rejection vs. acceptance of NigE as a variety with distinct characteristics, and which belongs to the ‘outer circle’ varieties of English. The author’s recognition of ‘Popular Nigerian English’ (Jowitt Reference Jowitt1991), and the important distinction he makes between ‘Standard’ – ‘a level of quality, a model to follow’ and ‘standard’ – ‘that which is average, or normal because generally used, and so common’ (25) – is one which is often unclear in Nigerian English research, but which is crucial to understanding NigE.
The identification of sub-varieties of NigE, a matter of concern to scholars, is also discussed in the Introduction. The author critiques the various parameters employed in the literature and proposes a continuum which recognizes acrolectal and non-acrolectal varieties on the basis of phonology, morphosyntax and lexis.
Chapter Two takes up the distinctive phonological forms of NigE. The author notes that whereas British Received Pronunciation (RP) has lost prestige in Britain itself as the prestige accent, it remains the norm in standard NigE, as ‘no suitable and agreed substitute for the RP model has been found’ (39). He deviates from the practice of comparing the phonologies of RP and Nigerian languages and setting out their differences in terms of segmental sounds and suprasegmental features. Instead, in line with current practice in research on New Englishes and his earlier recognition of a ‘Nigerian Received Pronunciation’ (Jowitt Reference Jowitt, Opeibi, Schmied, Omoniyi and Adedeji2015), he proposes and describes a Nigerian English Accent (NEA) in the narrow sense of ‘Nigerian forms that differ from RP forms’ (43). He incorporates phonological forms from the three main indigenous Nigerian languages – Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba – into NEA, and describes NEA in terms of the phonological forms that distinguish it from RP as they relate to segmental sounds (vowels, consonants, consonant clusters), and suprasegmentals, namely stress (in simple words, compounds, phrases and sentences), rhythm, and intonation. He attributes the distinctive phonological forms of NEA mainly to spelling pronunciation and mother-tongue influence (arising from differences in the number of vowels in the contrasting systems, and the use of tone vs. stress). All the factors mentioned result in the conflation of members of pairs of English diphthongs, and other distinctively Nigerian realizations of English vowels. For example, the RP diphthong [ɛə] in square is pronounced as [ia] and conflated with the RP [ɪə] in near in pairs like cheer–chair, fear–fair, steer–stair. The author recognizes variations in NEA phonological forms, and indeed in other linguistic items, and attributes them to ‘standardizing forces’ that pull in the directions of an evolving endonormative Nigerian standard and an exonormative Standard, such as RP.
The distinctive morphosyntactic forms of NigE form the subject matter of Chapter Three. The author claims that the morphosyntax of NigE is an area characterized by a dearth of scholarly research, in comparison with phonology and lexis. His approach is not only to describe the range and variety of NigE morphosyntax, but also to relate the observed variation to indigenous language forms and relevant lectal levels of usage. The first set of data described in the chapter are taken from several sources, including the Electronic World Atlas of Varieties of English (e-WAVE) (although the author occasionally disagrees with the rating given by the e-WAVE informant on specific morphosyntactic features). He groups these data of non-Standard NigE forms, which are used at various lectal levels, under the headings of nouns (e.g. sheeps, cattles, cutleries, jewelries, specie, grassroot, pant, trouser), adjectives (e.g. the faithfuls, matured, welcomed), determiners and pronouns, verbs, and punctuation and spelling. Many of the non-Standard forms are ‘also found in other varieties of English in Africa and beyond’ (78). He also discusses Nigerian English texts written during the period English has been in use in Nigeria and classifies them in a spectrum ranging from those with no non-Standard forms to those with several of them. He makes an important distinction between NigE, Nigerian Pidgin (NP) and non-standard Nigerian English to counter the erroneous perception of NigE as NP or NP as a sub-standard variety of NigE. He also notes that in NigE ‘the actual operative Standard remains the British Standard’ (33), while American English exerts little but growing impact, mainly via the media and education.
Like other New Englishes, NigE adapts the English language ‘to serve domestic communicative needs’ (106). The author claims that such adaptation is most evident in the aspect of lexis and discourse, which he takes up in Chapter Four. He reviews categories of distinctively Nigerian expressions already identified in earlier publications, and adds several to them. He recognizes major categories of NigE lexis such as coinages (e.g. corper ‘a member of the National Youth Service Corps’, deanage ‘office of the dean’ (of a faculty), off head ‘off hand’, scale through ‘succeed’), extensions (e.g. axis ‘location’, light ‘light or power supplied by electricity’, bouncing baby ‘strong and healthy baby), and transfer (e.g. climb ‘to enter or get seated in a commercial vehicle’, be statisfied ‘to have had enough to eat’, sorry ‘an expression of sympathy’). The minor categories he recognizes include ellipsis, redundancy, acronymization, reduplication, clipping, backformation, and archaisms, and several of these categories overlap. Further aspects of NigE lexis recognized in the book are idioms, proverbs and clichés, slang, and occupational usage. In several instances, the author identifies expressions that are associated with specific lectal levels of usage (such as the non-acrolectal back-formation barb ‘cut and dress the hair of someone’, and the acrolectal coinage insultive ‘insulting’), although majority of the expressions are generally used. Also covered in the chapter are aspects of NigE discourse (found in linguistic items that are longer than the sentence) used as interjections and discourse particles, kinship terms, modes of address and greetings, politeness forms, terms associated with formal and informal usage, and religious terms. The author notes that some of the items are peculiar to NigE lexis and discourse, while others are similar to those in other varieties. The chapter ends with a segment on the Nigerian linguistic landscape, in which the author identifies English as its principal language, although often sub-Standard and elliptical, and mixed with Pidgin and indigenous languages.
Chapter Five takes a turn away from the linguistic features of NigE to issues related to the history of the English language in Nigeria and the development of NigE from the pre-colonial through the colonial to the post-colonial era. The author notes that the history of the English language in Nigeria is similar to those of other ESL countries, although it has not been told in extensive detail hitherto. This history includes the arrival of the Portuguese and contact with indigenous Nigerian people ahead of the British, who eventually dominated slave and other trades. There are also details of the international Christian missionary enterprise, the priority of missionary bodies to establish schools, the teaching of English as a school subject to converts and the establishment of its importance in Western-type education. These were followed by the establishment of English-medium grammar schools in the pre-colonial era and later government-assisted schools. These developments and the steady strengthening of the position of English, beginning with an educated Westernized elite that included lawyers and journalists, have contributed to ‘a thorough domestication of the (English) language that seems set to endure’ (181). The chapter connects with, expands, and provides a valuable background to, issues skirted in the Introduction. This suggests that it may have been better served along with the Introduction in a section of the book.
The last two chapters of the book contain bibliographical material which provides evidence for the claims and classifications made about NigE in the preceding chapters. Chapter Six is a survey and annotated bibliography of previous studies on NigE, which began in universities in the south-west and have spread to other universities around the country. The author notes that there is still relatively little research on ‘distinctively Nigerian’ aspects of NigE (182) as well as comparisons of NigE with other varieties. He classifies works on English in Nigeria into categories which match the titles and the sequence of chapters in the book, namely general works, phonetics and phonology, morphosyntax, lexis and discourse, and history. Chapter Seven provides 44 annotated samples of texts written in English by Nigerians, which the author categorizes into dairies and memoirs, letters, journalism, academic writing, public addresses, religious writing, formal resolutions, literature, and miscellaneous material. They serve to illustrate the range of the forms in NigE morphosyntax, and have been referred to previously in Chapter Three.
Jowitt’s book is a huge contribution to the study of New Englishes in general, and to the sociolinguistics of non-native varieties of English in particular. Its major merit lies in the use of electronic tools and digital databases (such as the Nigerian component of the International Corpora of English (ICE-Nigeria), and e-WAVE, in line with worldwide trends. This has enabled the author to provide adequate evidence for all the issues covered in the book. There are few typos, omissions (of a few commas), and errors of detail (such as incorrect expression of the full forms of a couple of acronyms, or when sections in Chapters Four and Five are referred to in Chapter Three as previous sections). However, these do not diminish the importance of the book. Indeed, the book will be of great interest and value to a wide range of readers, including linguists, researchers, language-in-education policy makers, language educators, and graduate students. It will also be a valuable reference material for those interested in the historical, geographical and demographic facts that relate to the English language, and language use generally, in Nigeria.
