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There are over 520 native languages spoken in Nigeria. [1] [2] [3] The official language is English, [4] [5] which was the language of Colonial Nigeria.The English-based creole Nigerian Pidgin – first used by the British and African slavers to facilitate the Atlantic slave trade in the late 17th century [6] – is the most common lingua franca, spoken by over 60 million people.
Nigeria has one official language which is English, as a result of the British colonial rule over the nation. Nevertheless, it is not spoken as a first language in the entire country because other languages have been around for over a thousand years making them the major languages in terms of numbers of native speakers.
Nigerian Pidgin, also known simply as Pidgin or Broken (Broken English) or as Naijá in scholarship, is an English-based creole language spoken as a lingua franca across Nigeria. The language is sometimes referred to as Pijin or Vernacular. First used by British colonists and slave traders to facilitate the Atlantic slave trade in the late 17th ...
Nigerian English, also known as Nigerian Standard English, is a variety of English spoken in Nigeria. [1] Based on British and American English, the dialect contains various loanwords and collocations from the native languages of Nigeria, due to the need to express concepts specific to the cultures of ethnic groups in the nation (e.g. senior wife).
The major languages spoken in Nigeria represent three major families of languages of Africa: the majority are Niger-Congo languages, such as Igbo, Yoruba, Ibibio, Ijaw, Fulfulde, Ogoni, and Edo. Kanuri , spoken in the northeast, primarily in Borno and Yobe State , is part of the Nilo-Saharan family, and Hausa is an Afroasiatic language.
Several studies have shown the Edo language is the major African component that constitutes the foundation of the creoles of the Gulf of Guinea.
There are two main religions in Nigeria, which are Christianity and Islam, they have both made significant impact on the making of African societies, and played significant roles in such a multi-religious country like Nigeria. [31] There are also other religions practised in Nigeria. [32] Muslim 53.2% [32] Christian 46.8% [32] Other 0.6% [32]
Nigeria is famous for its English language literature. Things Fall Apart, [58] by Chinua Achebe, is an important book in African literature. [59] With over eight million copies sold worldwide, it has been translated into 50 languages, making Achebe the most translated African writer of all time. [60] [61]