Culture BBC adds "Pidgin English" to its roster of foreign-language editions - It can't be April Fool's Day again already, can it?!

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-40975399

A new language service for digital platforms in English-based Pidgin for West and Central Africa has been launched by the BBC World Service.

Pidgin is one of the most widely-spoken languages across the region, even though it is not officially recognised.

The launch is part of the World Service's biggest expansion since the 1940s, following a government funding boost announced in 2016.

Pidgin will soon be joined by 10 more new services in Africa and Asia.

The WS also plans to offer more mobile and video content and a greater social media presence.

It will also enhance its television services across Africa, including more than 30 new TV programmes for partner broadcasters in sub-Saharan Africa.

Arabic and Russian programming will also be boosted in the 2020 project.

What is Pidgin?
  • A mix of English and local languages enabling people who do not share a common language to communicate
  • West African Pidgin English was a language of commerce spoken along the coast during the Atlantic slave trade in the late 17th and 18th Centuries.
  • Widely used in Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea
  • Primarily an oral language, without a standard agreed written form.
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On the one hand, I think I can see where they're coming from with this decision, but on the other hand...

Why dem dey call Hurricane human being name

Di biggest storm wey United States of America never see for 13 years don land for Texas.

Dis Hurricane Harvey don scatter plenty houses and tori say e even don kill five people.

Hurricane Matthew wey bin happen for 2016 kill plenty people and scatter house join wen e happen.

Harvey and Mattew na human being name, so how hurricane dey take get dia name sef? In short, why dem dey give hurricane name at all?
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...what in the actual living fuck.
 
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What's next? The spergs over on r/polandball writing news in their specialty engrish?
 
Here's the Pidgen Bible btw

Da Boss Above, he take care me,
Jalike da sheep farma take care his sheeps.
He goin give me everyting I need.

He let me lie down wea da sweet an soft grass stay.
He lead me by da water wea I can rest.

He give me new kine life.
He lead me in da road dat stay right,
Cuz I his guy.
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Da time wen eryting had start, God wen make da sky an da world. Da world come so no mo notting inside, no mo shape notting. On top da wild ocean dat cova eryting, neva had light notting. Ony had God Spirit dea, moving aroun ova da watta. Day Numba One Den God say, 'I like light fo shine!' an da light start fo shine. God see how good da light. Den he put da light on one side, an da dark on da odda side. Da light time, he give um da name 'Day time.' Da dark time, he give um da name 'Nite time.' So, had da nite time an da day time, az day numba one.
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Tennis Monkey said:
Believe me, there are plenty of white English people who speak a language that looks pretty silly when written down.

And if you don't agree, i'll bash ye fookin ead in, I sware on me mum.
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Just read Trainspotting, a book that's widely considered a great novel.
 
Tennis Monkey said:
Believe me, there are plenty of white English people who speak a language that looks pretty silly when written down.

And if you don't agree, i'll bash ye fookin ead in, I sware on me mum.
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The difference is, outside of fiction or something we don't tend to transcribe accents.

If we did, every young adult novel that takes place in the quirky Midwest would be fucking unreadable.
 
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Tennis Monkey said:
Believe me, there are plenty of white English people who speak a language that looks pretty silly when written down.

And if you don't agree, i'll bash ye fookin ead in, I sware on me mum.
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Oy mate ya betta wash ya fooken lanwich ya cunt, sware on me mum I'll kik ya so farrup yer arse ya'll cuff up shoe laces
 
HOMO INSPECTUS said:
sold

i wey no wooty gooty beet boot e Mrs Macron any of her waka-waka neither.

in seriousness i've encountered "pidgin" before, but never as a proper noun - my understanding, and those of my conversation partners, has been that "pidgin" is whatever bits and pieces you manage to use to convey ideas back and forth between you and your foreigner pal(s), drawn from any languages you've got in common. in fact, in at least one old detective novel (A Catskill Eagle, part of a neat old "buddy cop"-type series) uses the word in exactly that context, too.

i wouldn't be surprised if this might be a fundamental misunderstanding of negro stuff on the part of upper-crust BBC execs looking to score social justice points by being inclusive of some po'-ass african communities. or, journos misunderstanding this move as being such a PR tactic, and reporting on it for some residual points. i'd ask if there are any haitian creole kiwis here that could confirm whether or not this is intelligible/accurate but i strongly, strongly suspect that's not a demographic we, uh, appeal to
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No, this is a legitimate language.

As you've described, that's indeed how pidgin languages usually develop. They may or may not last long enough to develop into a distinct language, depending on political and cultural factors.

When a pidgin language has long enough longevity (and poor enough mutual comprehensibility with existing languages) it gets labeled its own language. That's what has happened with West African Pidgin.

In West Africa, you've got a bunch of different local tribes with their own languages, a lingua franca of English, but poor education. They learned just enough English to get by and a pidgin english dialect sprang up. It's been in use long enough that it doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

It sounds funny as fuck because African languages sound funny. It's the same thing with Yiddish. You think jewish comedians are making up the words and accents they use? No, that's legitimately how a lot of jews talk, because of yiddish. Messhugah, bubbe, shmaltz, etc are all real yiddish words.
 
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Okay, maybe I jumped the gun a little insisting Pidgin isn't an actual language.

The thing is, though, from what I understand, Pidgin and "traditional" English share a large amount of common words. It should be simple enough to just use the words that already exist, but BBC insists on translating literally every quirk of the accent.

It just winds up looking ridiculous and incoherent when it could be so much less so if they'd just focus on coherency a little more than being "faithful" to a language's accent when it's mostly just a dialect of English in the first place.
 
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Computery Guy said:
Okay, maybe I jumped the gun a little insisting Pidgin isn't an actual language.

The thing is, though, from what I understand, Pidgin and "traditional" English share a large amount of common words. It should be simple enough to just use the words that already exist, but BBC insists on translating literally every quirk of the accent.

It just winds up looking ridiculous and incoherent when it could be so much less so if they'd just focus on coherency a little more than being "faithful" to a language's accent when it's mostly just a dialect of English in the first place.
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Southerners saying "y'all" is an dialect. This is literal "ooga booga" shit.
 
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Computery Guy said:
The thing is, though, from what I understand, Pidgin and "traditional" English share a large amount of common words. It should be simple enough to just use the words that already exist, but BBC insists on translating literally every quirk of the accent.

It just winds up looking ridiculous and incoherent when it could be so much less so if they'd just focus on coherency a little more than being "faithful" to a language's accent when it's mostly just a dialect of English in the first place.
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Like, to bring up Yiddish again, Yiddish started out as basically as a dialect of Medieval German. German has changed a lot since then, but structurally there's a lot in common.

You could probably force a lot of Modern German orthography onto Yiddish and Germans might understand it better, but that'd be a pain in the ass for Yiddish speakers to read.

They genuinely are different languages, even if they superficially seem a lot alike.

Because these pidgin languages sound funny, people downplay their legitimacy. It's be like characterizing Chinese as "lol ching chong ching chong" (which is pretty funny tbh).

I think this is probably a smart, if goofy sounding, move on the part of the BBC. It might improve their readership in West Africa, without the expense of translating to all the little native languages, or just targeting Standard English alone, and risking limiting their readership to more educated Africans.

Edit: And of course, it should be understood that from now on, all BBC articles on KF need to be accompanied by their pidgin english translations.
 
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