West African Pidgin compared: Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon

“Pidgin English” in West Africa is not one language but a family. From the coast of Sierra Leone to Cameroon, English-based contact languages grew up in the same era and share a lot of words and grammar, then went their own ways. A Lagosian and a Douala market trader can often follow each other, but they will notice the differences quickly.

Linguists group these languages as West African Pidgin English, also called Guinea Coast Creole English. Its main members are Nigerian Pidgin, Ghanaian Pidgin English, Cameroonian Pidgin English, Sierra Leone’s Krio, Liberian Kolokwa and Pichi of Equatorial Guinea. Wikipedia puts the number of people using the family at about 75 million as of 2017; counts of everyone who speaks an English-based creole in the region as a first or second language run past 100 million. Numbers in this field vary widely, and we note where sources disagree.

Where it came from

The family took shape during the Atlantic slave trade, as a trade language between European traders and African communities on the coast. Portuguese traders came first and left words behind, such as sabi (know) and pikin (child), which you will hear in Nigeria, Cameroon and Sierra Leone alike. English supplied most of the vocabulary. After the slave trade ended, regional varieties drifted apart, each borrowing from the languages around it.

At a glance

Nigerian Pidgin

Nigerian Pidgin is the giant of the family, and by some descriptions the most widely spoken pidgin or creole in the world. It is used across ethnic groups and regions, and its home varieties differ: Lagos Pidgin borrows heavily from Yoruba, while the Warri–Sapele and Port Harcourt varieties carry Niger Delta influences. Its grammar uses dey for ongoing action, don for completed action and go for the future. BBC News Pidgin, launched in Lagos in 2017 with reporters in Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon, writes in a standardised form that researchers say leans towards the Nigerian variety. See 50 Nigerian Pidgin phrases.

Ghanaian Pidgin English

Ghanaian Pidgin is more limited in who uses it and where. It is concentrated in Accra and surrounding towns, and researchers describe two main kinds:

• Town Pidgin: the everyday, working-class variety used in casual talk.
• Student Pidgin: closer to standard Ghanaian English, learned in secondary boarding schools and universities. It began among male students in the 1960s and 1970s.

The biggest social difference from Nigeria is that Ghanaian Pidgin has been gendered. Women have historically been less likely to use it in public, because of the stigma it carries, though young women now use it too, mostly among friends of their own age and gender. Ghanaian Pidgin also has words of its own from local languages, such as biz (ask) and kai (remember), and it has borrowed Nigerian words like abi, dey and ein. Ghanaian and Nigerian Pidgin are generally mutually intelligible, helped by the popularity of Nollywood films in Ghana.

Cameroonian Pidgin English

Cameroonian Pidgin, or Kamtok (“Cameroon talk”), is strongest in the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest. A small share of Cameroonians speak it as a first language, about 5% by one estimate, but around half the country speaks it in some form, which makes it a bridge between the country’s many languages.

Its grammar will look familiar to a Nigerian, with small differences in spelling and sound. It uses di for ongoing action where Nigerians say dey, bin for the past, go for the future, fit for “can” and neva for “never” or “not yet”. To eat is tchop. A sample sentence from the grammar books: Ah no wan look dat kain ting, “I don’t want to watch that kind of thing.”

Do not confuse it with Camfranglais, a separate urban mix of French, English and Pidgin used mostly by young people in Cameroon’s cities, often as an in-group language.

And Krio

Sierra Leone’s Krio is the creole of the family: a full mother tongue. It grew from the same coastal pidgin, then became the native language of the descendants of freed slaves who settled in Freetown between 1787 and about 1855. About 860,000 people speak it as a first language and about 6.9 million as a second (2021), and most of Sierra Leone uses it. Words like wetin (what) and wahala (trouble) are shared with Nigeria.

Same family, different flavours

Treat these as broad patterns. Every variety has regional and generational differences, and spellings are not standardised.

Why it matters

For anyone in the diaspora, the family explains a lot: why a Ghanaian friend can follow much of your Nigerian group chat, and why the BBC can run one Pidgin service for the region. These languages are not “broken English”. They are languages with long histories, and the people who speak them have been shaping them for centuries.

AJ Cities and Lagos Pidgin

AJ Cities is a free open-world game set on the edge of Ajegunle, Lagos, so its Pidgin is the Lagos kind: an abeg, an abi, an oga, in otherwise plain English. Meet the people who speak it on the characters page, or start playing.

Are Nigerian and Ghanaian Pidgin the same?

They are related members of the West African Pidgin English family and are generally mutually intelligible, but Ghanaian Pidgin has its own words and is more restricted in who uses it.

What is Cameroonian Pidgin called?

Cameroonian Pidgin English, also called Kamtok (from “Cameroon talk”) or Wes Cos. It is different from Camfranglais, a French-English-Pidgin mix.

How many people speak West African Pidgin?

Estimates vary. Wikipedia gives about 75 million across Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana and Equatorial Guinea (2017); counts including all English-based creoles in the region exceed 100 million.

Is Krio a pidgin?

Krio is usually described as a creole: a full first language with fixed grammar, which grew from the same coastal pidgin.