The Usage and Deployment of Nigerian English in Prose Fiction: A Study of Chinua Achebe’s No Longer at Ease and Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood

Abstract

Language change is an inevitable consequence of language contact. The English language having made contact with Nigerian indigenous languages is no exception. It has been modified to suit the Nigerian environment reflecting the culture of which the indigenous languages are a part. This is the reason why Nigerian authors in their prose fiction use a form of English that is distinctly Nigerian in order to portray the Nigerian cultural context in their stories. This study was aimed at identifying the usage and deployment of Nigerian English in prose writing using Chinua Achebe’s No Longer at Ease and Buchi Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood. The qualitative research design was adopted and using the purposive sampling technique, the researcher identified samples of Nigerian English used by the two authors and analyzed them. Findings reveal that a variety of English that can be called Nigerian now exists. It has come to stay and is deployed even by the elite in prose fiction. The researcher concluded that Nigerian English is a reality. It should not and cannot therefore be regarded as a misnomer especially as most of its expressions are now being included in English dictionaries. It should rather be considered as a distinct variety reflecting the peculiar Nigerian environment with which it has made contact just like British English, American English, Australian English, Indian English and other emerging new Englishes.