NEWER ENGLISHES IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

English language is Nigeria’s official language whose emergence into the Nigerian language scene could be dated back as early as the 16^th century. The language has developed varieties according to different educational parameters occupied by thousands, if not millions, of its speakers across Nigeria. In the1990s a conference was held to mark the 50 years of the existence of the British Council in Nigeria. This conference equally introduced or highlighted the existence of “New Englishes,” or summarily “varieties of English language in Nigeria as not only the medium of instruction in Nigerian schools: primary, post primary and tertiary institutions but as the language of governance, trade and industry. Today, a newer version of English language is being coined and spoken alongside the already existent “New Englishes”. We have tagged this emerging newer version “Newer Englishes”, and it is having a swell time in the tertiary institutions in Nigeria. It has within its system, new coinages which are English based but which are used outside the syntactical structure of standard English which would meet international acceptability and intelligibility.