Nigerianism in Nigerian English: A Reflection of Ethnolinguistic Situation

The study discusses the structure of Nigerian English with a view to examining the influence of Nigerian indigenous languages on this variety of standard English. Data for the analysis were obtained from twelve respondents selected from each of the three major national languages, namely; Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. This study was carried out using a case study design. Oral test by reading three different texts, and observation were used as instrument to elicit data. The corpus revealed that interlanguage transfer is a major factor that influences the students in the pronunciation of English words. A number of grammatical issues borne out of mother tongue interference were equally discovered. The prominent roles ascribed to the English language led to the desperation by Nigerians to speak the language to the extent of inclusion of some linguistic forms from different indigenous languages. However, the paper affirms that Nigerianism should not be seen as evidence of weak proficiency in English. Rather, it should be viewed as possible signs of acculturation, and creative tendency that are associated with first language (L1) and/or mother tongue usage.