Topic: See wetin Pidgin English don cause  (Read 5092 times)

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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.

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