# Nigerian Pidgin English

> Nigerian Pidgin, known in scholarship as Naijá, is an English-lexifier contact language spoken as a nationwide lingua franca and, in parts of the Niger Delta, as a first language. Estimates of first-language speakers range from about 3 to 5 million, with total speakers cited from roughly 75 million to over 120 million. It has no official status despite BBC and academic recognition.

**Category:** Languages · **Updated:** 2026-07-23 00:55:07 · **Canonical:** https://nigeriastuff.org/a/nigerian-pidgin

## Key facts
- **Classification:** English-lexifier pidgin/expanded creole; Niger-Congo (Benue-Kwa) substrate
- **Native (L1) speakers:** c. 3 to 5 million, mainly in the Niger Delta
- **Total speakers:** estimates range from c. 75 million to over 120 million
- **Core native areas:** Warri, Sapele, Port Harcourt, Asaba (Niger Delta)
- **Standard orthography effort:** Standard Naijá Orthography, proposed by the Naija Langwej Akademi, 2009
- **Official status:** None; used by BBC News Pidgin (launched 2017) and in wide informal use

## Sources
- Survey chapter: Nigerian Pidgin — APiCS Online (Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures) (https://apics-online.info/surveys/17)
- Guide to Standard Naijá Orthography: An NLA Harmonized Writing System for Common Naijá Publications — IFRA-Nigeria (Institut Français de Recherche en Afrique) (https://ifra-nigeria.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=89:guide-to-standard-naija-orthography-an-nla-harmonized-writing-system-for-common-naija-publications&catid=67:naija-languej-akedemi)
- A corpus-driven description of o in Naijá (Nigerian Pidgin) — Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages (John Benjamins), Stefano Manfredi and Slavomír Čéplö, 2023 (https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/jpcl.22016.man)
- Calls to use Nigerian languages at school are going unheard — The Conversation (https://theconversation.com/calls-to-use-nigerian-languages-at-school-are-going-unheard-126785)

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