I cut my song practice short and skipped a few other of my usual morning activities to finish my Saturday assignment for English in the World. I was finished and uploaded it at around 9:30:
Pidgin English and Social Media are a Match Made in Heaven
Pidgin English is a simplified form of English with added elements from the local languages of former British colonies. Using English as a common base, Pidgin English is a way of bridging the language gaps between peoples, such as the speakers of over five hundred local languages in Nigeria.
This article by Nigerian journalist Lawrence Enyoghasu explains how Nigerian social media creates and causes the trending of pidgin English phrases as popular comic expressions.
Some of these are intentionally funny from the beginning, such as, "E shock you!" which is a line that originated from Nigerian comedian Broda Shaggi. He often uses the pidgin English phrase gleefully after answering a challenging question, “E shock you! You no know say I go know am!” It basically means, “It shocked you! You didn't know that I knew!”
But many of the pidgin expressions that become dominant on social media rise from non-comic origins and are popularized after being parodied on platforms such as TickTock and YouTube. One example of this is a statement that was first captured in a video interview of Alhaji Asari Dokubo, founder of the powerful militant Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force, in which he criticized Biafran maverick entertainer and activist, Charly Boy. Charly Boy is a singer/songwriter, TV star, and Founder of “Our Mumu Don Do” (Roughly: We are done doing foolishness) social movement, which fights against political corruption. Charly Boy supports a united Nigeria and Dokubo advocates Biafran independence. Dokubo was responding in Pidgin English to Charly Boy's name-calling of supporters of the Biafran cause, and said, “You be mumu! You think say you dey wise?” This translates roughly as, "You are an idiot! Do you think people say you are wise?"
Nigerian social media have added to the widespread use of certain Pidgin English phrases that may have remained local otherwise. In doing so it also uses humour to soften the tensions caused by political conflicts within the nation.
Pidgin English and social media in Nigeria appear to be a marriage made in heaven. No doubt these internet platforms will continue to mine many more local phrases and generate them towards a united Nigerian lexicon.
https://www.sunnewsonline.com/how-trending-social-media-slangs-used-by-skit-makers-nigerians-emerged/
I weighed 83.8 kilos before breakfast. I didn't feel that light but I took it.
In the late morning, I went down to Freshco where I bought four bags of grapes and the few good apples I could find. The apples are in bad shape this year. Maybe they are shipping the quality ones outside the country. I also got a pack of strawberries, a pack of three chicken legs, Bolognese sauce, white corn and black bean salsa, and a container of skyr. I looked for Arm and Hammer toothpaste but they didn't have any. I'll have to squeeze the tube I have for all its worth each time I brush before I go to Freshco on Thursday.
I weighed 84.4 kilos before lunch.
In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. On Brock Avenue, I found two hard-cover books. One was Keith Richards' memoir Life, and the other was Neil Young's autobiography, Waging Heavy Peace. There were a lot of people out walking today. Maybe the cold weather last night made people feel they should get their walking in before winter sets in.
I weighed 84.5 kilos at 17:15. That's the lowest my weight has been at that time in three weeks.
I was caught up on my journal at 18:35.
I read a few more of the Exeter lyrics: "The Seafarer", "Deor", and "Wulf and Eadwacer". I also worked on trying to translate "The Wanderer" from Old English into a better version than the poem in the textbook.
I made pizza on naan with Basilica sauce and five-year-old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching episode 24 of Ben Casey.
A well-traveled and successful elderly author named Jason Fletcher is admitted to the hospital to undergo tests. He had a stroke five months before and now he is having fevers.
Meanwhile, a patient named Robert Stanton has just had successful surgery but he is in pain and also bitter over his wife having left him. They separated because he cheated on her but he is angry that she didn't forgive him. Melissa Stanton comes to see him but he tells her to go away. Stanton starts to develop a fever and Casey thinks it's meningitis. Stanton's body is rejecting all the antibiotics and so Casey orders a rare experimental drug.
Fletcher develops a fever and it is found that he also needs the same drug. The problem is that there is only enough for one patient and so Casey has to choose which patient lives. Fletcher has donated a fortune to charities that have financed the education of hundreds of doctors and so some are advising Casey to choose Fletcher.
Both patients need to sign a release to receive the drug, and Stanton has already done so. Fletcher has the form ready to sign but he wants to talk with Casey first. He learns that Casey ordered the drug three days before Fletcher needed it and he concludes astutely that the drug had been meant for someone else. Fletcher refuses to sign the form. The drug is given to Stanton and Fletcher dies after it saves Stanton's life.
Fletcher was played by Wilfrid Hyde-White, who began performing on stage at the age of 19 and by 22 he was a star of the London stage. He made his first film in 1934 and in 1960 he starred in Two Way Stretch. From 1962 to 1965 he starred in the BBC radio comedy, "The Men From the Ministry." He played Goodfellow in the second season of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. His most famous role was in 1964 when he played Colonel Pickering in "My Fair Lady."
I searched for bedbugs and for the fifth night in a row I didn't find any.
I finished reading the Exeter Lyrics.
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