The Digital Continuum: Decreolization of Nigerian Pidgin English in Youtube Commentaries

Awolokun, T. A. (2026) The Digital Continuum: Decreolization of Nigerian Pidgin English in Youtube Commentaries Afrisophia: Journal of African Experiment, Thought and Experience, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 27-46.   doi.org   Abstract Nigerian Pidgin English (NPE) has gradually become a medium of communication of high prestige and social importance. Although the structure of the English language and its social linguistic roles have been a subject of academic study, little is understood about how digital communication is remaking its course in modern Nigeria. This paper presents the notion of the digital continuum, which characterizes the evolution of NPE in the context of platform-mediated space, specifically YouTube posts’ comments, where quick communication, multimodality, and algorithmic pressures create new types of language. It is based on the principle of complementary analysis; with the theory of decreolization and language ideology serving as the two analytical tools, which enable the authors to analyse a purposely selected corpus of YouTube comment threads, through the prism of modified content analysis and discourse-analytic analysis. The results suggest new hybrid forms characterized by the occurrence of English auxiliary and a decrease in Pidgin aspectual markers and platform-specific orthography developments. Meanwhile, NPE is strategically implemented by users to index authenticity, humour, solidarity, and national identity, which proves that digital decreolization is not only structural, but also ideologically mediated. The paper has added to the area of digital sociolinguistics by exposing the importance of everyday digital conversation as primary agents of language change in the Nigerian multilingual environment, and also suggests a revision to the decreolization theory to reflect networked, algorithmic, and ideologically stratified online ecologies. Keywords: Nigerian Pidgin English, Decreolization, Digital Sociolinguistics, YouTube Discourse, Post-Creole Continuum, Language Ideology