A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE IMPORTANCE OF PIDGIN ENGLISH IN BROADCASTING (A CASE STUDY OF THE ESBS ENUGU)

1.1  INTRODUCTION

Pidgin English came into existence as a result of the coming of the colonial masters to Africa, the highly respected philosophers – said and I quote, “No language is an Island meaning that language only came into existence through a pre – existed one.  Pidgin English came into existence through English Language.

The coming of the white men to Africa really changed a lot of cultures, languages, norm, ethnics and non – ethics values etc in African.  The language pidgin English started during the colonial era, then, it was very essential for them to understand the white man’s language in order to be able to fit into the happening in the society.

Those days, if a black man manages to understand the white man’s language, he is given a big post ahead his fellow black men for instance is the film titled “The battle of Musanga”, were the major character was “Mr. Johnson because he understands the white man’s language, he was kept ahead of his people as a mediator, intercessor and interpreter between the two recess, and with that, his financial income was somehow above that of his people only his extravagant way of spending made him broke always.

Pidgin English took a solid stand when slaves were freed in Sierraloen (Freetown), when they found themselves in Freetown and having no other language to speak than the English they know, and also considering the fact that most of them has lost their mother tongue as a result of slavery it was then, they started broking the white man’s language (English) into smaller segments in order to understand the message of one another, otherwise known as pidgin / broken English.