Paper short abstract:

The paper examines data of Nigerian English in Germany for parallel influences and for differences with the home variety. The study is conducted at the levels of lexis, structure and use. Issues of language transfer and the stability or fluidity of linguistic practices in the diaspora are discussed.

Paper long abstract:

This paper comparatively investigates features of Nigerian English as used in Nigeria and as used in the Nigerian Diaspora in Germany. Nigerian English in Germany is seen here as a sociolinguistic variety with triangular input factors – geographic, ethnographic/sociologic and linguistic – and whose effect may be examined at different levels of linguistic and sociological analysis. Scholars have often established the variety called “Nigerian English” at linguistic levels, whereby the variety is said to manifest creativity/ influence and interference from three sources: English, Nigerian Pidgin, and indigenous Nigerian languages. However, the adequacy of this model for the analysis of Nigerian English in the German diaspora is yet to be established, given the multilevel, multilingual and international context of contact in the latter environment. The paper examines data of Nigerian English in Germany (NEG) for parallel influences and for differences with the home variety (NEN). Drawing corpus from the existing International Corpus of English (ICE)-Nigerian corpus, and NEN mini-corpus (being collated in the study), this comparative examination is carried out at the levels of lexis, structure and the pragmatics of use, in order to be able to suggest an encompassing model of classification and analysis. The degree of similarities and differences would also lead to relevant statements regarding the nature of language transfer and the relative stability or fluidity of linguistic practices in this “inter-multi-lingual” diasporic environment.