CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background to the Study

With respect to the emergence of loanwords, Platt et al. (1984) observe that linguistic

contacts between languages result in the incorporation of some words coming from other

tongues. Thus, the process of adopting foreign words is not strange or unusual. It happens in

all languages and dialects in varying degrees and ways because speech communities do not

function in isolation. The intermingling of people of different cultures and languages brings

about borrowing, and through it, languages accommodate foreign elements, words and ideas

geared towards expanding their vocabularies. Again, languages come into contact through

bilingual speakers. Banjo (1983), Madaki (1983) and Pariola (1983) in Olaoye (1991) posit

that when languages come into contact, a variety of phenomena such as bilingualism,

borrowing, relexification, code-switching, code-mixing and perhaps language death take place.

However, Scotton (1988) opines that the use of a borrowed item in a language is code-

switching until enough speakers use it and the item is accepted by native speakers into their

dictionary.

Lexical borrowings are by far the most commonly attested language contact

phenomenon, and it is therefore not an aberration in the world of languages as languages come

in contact at different points. Nigerian Pidgin is a product of such contact and it relies on other

languages for survival. Just like human bein