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Broken English is a name for a non-standard, non-traditionally spoken or alternatively-written version of the English language. These forms of English are sometimes considered as a pidgin if they have derived in a context where more than one language is used. Under the most commonly accepted definition of the term, broken English consists of English vocabulary grafted onto the syntax of a non-English speaker's native language, including word order, other aspects of sentence structure, and the presence or absence of articles in the speaker's native language. Typically, the non-English speaker also strips English phrases of linguistic markings that are definite articles or certain verb tenses.
In some communities,[clarification needed] young people may intentionally adopt versions of the English language that older people consider to be broken English. This has been documented, for example, among the Māori of New Zealand, where the younger generation was more proficient in English than the previous generation, but intentionally made modifications to the language to assert their own sense of cultural identity.[1]
Nigeria is one of the major countries in Africa known for an international version of pidgin or broken English widely accepted and spoken across West Africa and other continents, especially the whole of Southern and some part of Western Nigeria have a large number of people who have over time adopted it as a sense of common language and unified second cultural identity.
- ^ Raymond Hickey, Standards of English: Codified Varieties Around the World (2012), p. 347.