![]() This includes first and second language speakers. English is now spoken by about 1.75 billion people – a quarter of the It has demonstrated a capacity for growth by keeping its borders open, helping it to develop from a West Germanic dialect spoken in a small island into a world language. Perhaps this is one factor that clearly distinguishes English. One of the reasons previous world languages such as Egyptian and Ancient Greek ceased to exert dominance internationally was their inability to keep pace with developments around the world. It would also deny the flavour of what the speakers of these varieties contribute to the development of English. These include borrowings from local languages, new abbreviations, blends and compounds.įailure to capture such words would deny English an opportunity to grow. Like other English varieties, it is a living ‘being’ with its own unique vocabulary, encompassing all sorts of lexical innovations. These varieties also reflect the unique culture, history, and identity of the various communities that use English across the world. ![]() It believes that including words from varieties of English all over the world enables it to tell a more complete story of the language. Words are added because the Oxford English Dictionary recognises that English is a universal language. Instead, they are guided by use, which links in with the prevailing thought in lexicography and linguistics more generally: that the remit of dictionaries and linguistic research is not to prescribe how languages should be used but to describe how languages are being used. It’s clear therefore that the editors don’t simply select the words or senses that appeal to them. An example is ‘Kannywood’, the word describing the Nigerian Hausa-language film industry, based in the city of Kano. ![]() Others are not used frequently but are included because they are of specific cultural, historical, or linguistic significance to the community of their users. Some words – such as Brexit – are relatively young but were included quickly because of the huge social impact they had in a short space of time. But there’s no exact time-span and frequency threshold. Other factors that are considered include the time period over which words have been used, as well as their frequency and distribution. Once there is a list of candidates, a team of expert editors at the Oxford English Dictionary looks closely at the databases to ensure that there are several independent instances of the words being used. In the case of Nigerian English and other World English varieties, for instance, suggestions of new words and senses come from the corpus, reading books and magazines written in the English varieties in question as well as looking at previous studies, and the review of existing dictionaries, if any. This is an electronic database of different types of written and spoken texts specifically designed for linguistic research. The Oxford English Dictionary has a wide variety of resources to track the emergence of new words and new senses of already existing words. These include the rationale for adding them, and the enormous significance the inclusion holds for the English language. I think the English, indeed the English-speaking world, should be thankful to Nigeria for this historic gift.Īs the Nigerian consultant to the project which saw the inclusion of the words, I have insights into the process the team underwent in adding them. In other words, that Nigerian English is adding to the norms of English. This avers that the ‘outer-circle’ varieties of English (where Nigerian English belongs) is ‘norm-developing’. ![]() They also validate the concentric circle model developed by Professor Braj Kachru, the father of world Englishes research. These developments indicate that Nigerian English has indeed come of age. This has included four published dictionaries of Nigerian English. The inclusion of Nigerian English words in the Oxford English Dictionary is, in a sense, a recognition of the tremendous efforts by scholars of Nigerian English many of whom have produced discipline-shaping research.
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