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Introducing the Historical Corpus of English in Nigeria (HiCE–Nig)

A database for investigating diachronic linguistic changes in Nigerian English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2022

Foluke Olayinka Unuabonah Open the ORCID record for Foluke Olayinka Unuabonah [Opens in a new window] ,
Adebola Adebileje ,
Rotimi Olanrele Oladipupo ,
Bernard Fyanka ,
Mba Odim  and
Oluwateniola Kupolati
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Nigerian English (NigE) is a second language (L2) variety of English that has been domesticated, acculturated and indigenised within the Nigerian socio-cultural and linguistic contexts (Adegbija, 2004). Based on Schneider's (2007) Dynamic Model of the Development of New Englishes, scholars have shown that NigE is currently at the late stage of nativisation (stage 3) and is on the verge of entering the stage of endornormative stabilisation (stage 4) (see Gut, 2012; Collins, 2020). Nativisation, which typically begins with the declaration of independence, is a very active and important stage in which there are large-scale linguistic changes, especially during a time when English is usually the only official language (see Schneider, 2007). Although previous studies have investigated the historical development of English in Nigeria (see Taiwo, 2009), there are limited studies on the particular linguistic features that have changed over time, especially from the time Nigeria gained independence. It is very likely that the rapid increase in the number of universities and other educational institutions managed by Nigerians from independence, as opposed to previous management by Britons, would have affected the variety of English spoken in Nigeria and culminated in the development of NigE today.

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English Today , Volume 38 , Issue 3 , September 2022 , pp. 178 - 184
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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