Topic: See wetin Pidgin English don cause  (Read 4305 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

See wetin Pidgin English don cause
« on: September 10, 2012, 11:32:20 AM »
"Born a child." Nigerian children almost never conjugate the verb "bear" to reflect tense when they refer to the act of having babies. So expressions like "my mum born a child yesterday," "my auntie will born twins next month," etc. are very typical. But "born" (or borne) is the past participle of "bear," and the past tense of "bear" is "bore." That means the first sentence should have read "my mum bore a child yesterday" or, better still, "my mum gave birth to a child/had a baby yesterday."

The unconjugated "born" is clearly derived from Nigerian Pidgin English where the word is always uninflected for tense. Examples: "My mama born pikin yesterday" [my mom had a baby yesterday], "My sister go born pikin tomorrow" [my sister will have a baby tomorrow], "The woman dey born pikin now" [the woman is having a baby now], "The woman no fit born pikin" [the woman can't bear a child]. In the above examples, "born" remains unchanged even whether reference is made to the past, the present, or the future.

....

 

Related Topics

  Subject / Started by Replies Last post
0 Replies
2411 Views
Last post March 17, 2013, 10:01:49 AM
by clowntom
0 Replies
1277 Views
Last post June 14, 2013, 08:24:23 AM
by abayomi
0 Replies
1252 Views
Last post June 14, 2013, 10:08:04 AM
by dayod247
0 Replies
832 Views
Last post April 13, 2018, 01:07:44 PM
by betpredict
0 Replies
784 Views
Last post May 11, 2018, 01:02:35 PM
by betpredict
0 Replies
744 Views
Last post October 24, 2018, 07:02:15 AM
by betpredict
0 Replies
793 Views
Last post May 19, 2019, 07:02:54 PM
by flukky-2
0 Replies
1549 Views
Last post October 03, 2019, 01:00:35 AM
by flukky-1
0 Replies
587 Views
Last post October 17, 2020, 07:02:48 AM
by PulseNG
0 Replies
170 Views
Last post March 28, 2023, 01:06:31 AM
by thisday