11/30/2022 0 Comments Pidgin english words![]() ![]() A dandy is called “dan gaye” or “dan danyu” in Hausa.īut it seems like there is a circular sociolinguistic loop in the emergence of this expression from Hausa to Nigerian English. That expression owes provenance to the Hausa “gayu,” where it means the same thing. “Do guy.” To “do guy” in Nigerian English is to preen, to show off with elaborate sartorial care. “Fadama.” This Hausa word for a fertile wetland is now a widely used terminology in agriculture in Nigeria and beyond.ħ. Hausa people call aphrodisiacs “ maganin karfin maza” or “ gagi.”Ħ. I’m genuinely curious how “burantashi” came to be if it’s almost absent in the demotic repertoire of native Hausa speakers. In everyday conversational Hausa, at least among Hausa Muslims, “bura” is rarely used except in vulgar insults such as “bura uban ka/ki” (which is now rendered as “borobanka” in some varieties of Nigerian Pidgin English). Curiously, however, the word “buratashi” (which is probably how it would have been written in Hausa if it were a thing) is more used outside Hausa land than in Hausa land. “Bura” is the Hausa word for the male reproductive organ and “tashi” is the Hausa word for rising, waking up, etc. ![]() “Burantashi.” Most Nigerians know this word to be the Hausa word for an aphrodisiac, that is, the bitter herbal concoction that reputedly stimulates sexual desire in men. Since most roadside or dirt-cheap eateries in Nigeria used tents (many don’t these days), Nigerians neologized the word “bukateria” from “bukka” on the model of cafeteria, itself an American English word borrowed from Spanish.ĥ. It came from the Hausa word “bukka,” which means a temporary, tumble-down hut or tent. “Buka.” This word now means a cheap, casual, ramshackle eatery that sells already prepared food. The fact that most doorkeepers in Nigerian urban centers used to be-probably still are-Hausa or Hausa-speaking northerners helped to admit “megad” into the pantheon of unique Nigerian English expressions.Ĥ. “Megad.” This Nigerian English word for what native English speakers call a door guard, a gatekeeper, a uniformed doorman, or a hall porter came to us from a distortion of the Hausa “maigadi,” itself a blend of the Hausa “mai” and the English “guard.” It’s a slight distortion of “babbar riga,” its Hausa name.ģ. “Babban riga.” The resplendent, broad-sleeved, flowing gown that has now become the attire of choice of Nigerian politicians of all ethnicities is often called “babban riga” in Nigerian English. I once speculated that the Louisiana “lagniappe” culture may be traceable to enslaved Hausa people in the state hundreds of years ago.Ģ. ![]() No other part of the United States has a culture of merchants giving a small gift to their customers after a transaction. state of Louisiana, when I lived for almost two years before moving to Georgia, people use the term “lagniappe” (pronounced Lan-Yap) to signify what Hausa people call “gyara” and that Nigerian English speakers call “jaara.” The word’s corruption to “jaara” in Nigerian (Pidgin) English) is a consequence of the absence of the Hausa phoneme “gy” in most Nigerian languages. “Jaara.” Most speakers of Nigerian English recognize this word as an additional, often small, quantity that a merchant gives to a customer who purchases goods in the market as a show of appreciation for the customer’s business. As with every language that leaves its primordial shores, the Hausa words that make it to Nigerian English are often contorted from their original forms and meanings.ġ. ![]()
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