To ask what has happened to BBC reporting? Mariah Carey

Ok. Perhaps my comment should have read ‘I am baffled by the fact that so many posters have such a narrow view of the world that they don’t have even the slightest bit of context for things (such as languages) so that when reading this article their immediate thought was ‘the standard of uk journalism is poor, I must post an outrage thread about it on mumsnet immediately!’ rather than ‘bit weird, wonder if my settings have accidentally changed - I will use my brain and investigate further’.’

Like I said in my OG comment: this thread properly sums up the stereotypical mumsnetter, and that is funny. sorry if you are one of them.

😂

I don’t find Pidgin English funny as a language and I’m baffled that so many posters haven’t heard of it.

I think many of us - me included - were familiar with the concept of pidgins as a form of communication, but hadn't realised that some had now evolved to this extent - this African Pidgin is now a widely spoken language (or group of related languages) rather than a 'pidgin' .

I wondered re that rather snotty comment

Pidgin isn't a written language. I don't believe anyone can read pidgin that can't read proper English.

whether during the evolution of 'proper English', successive colonisers might have said 'English isn't a written language. I don't believe anyone can read English that can't read proper Latin/(some Germanic thing)/Norman French'.

I'm curious to know if there would have been stages when 'English' or its precursors would have linguistically been a pidgin and then creole? (I probably need a book recommendation...I don't know much about linguistic development but find it very interesting)

I don’t find Pidgin English funny as a language and I’m baffled that so many posters haven’t heard of it.

I DO find the idea of the stereotypical mumsnetter (white, middle class, husband on six figures with hobby ‘think cycling’, kids in private school, obsessed with Russell group universities and massive salads etc) reading that article and being outraged at the standard of British journalism and posting a thread about it funny though. That IS funny. It absolutely sums up all of the (sometimes unfair) criticisms of this website.

I thought your reply was great, @Berga - civil, accurate and informative.

😁 I am indeed autistic and I grew up around a West African community in London.

@OhMaria2 the description of me as chatgpt when I have just had enough of it is absolutely my tired and going full autism persona - your description made my DP laugh.

I similarly have good friends in Shetland and when I used to do Facebook I loved that they wrote as they spoke, so wrote the dialect version of English.

I find it fascinating and have lived this thread thankyou.

😂😂😂

I'm a black woman and think some posters need to give over with the "I'm offended" card. Just too serious and nitpicky with everything unnecessarily. I don't see anything offensive in this thread's humour as many are now learning about something new - which we don't all know, as much as some of us like to think we do - in a fun and light-hearted spirit. Some of the posts are funny, yet not in a 'making fun of the language' way. I've never checked out BBC Pigdin but some posts have made me want to go read the news in Pidgin too. Most posters are obviously wanting to learn it now.

If it seems like a 'Look how these African/Black people talk haha' to you, then it may just be something you have to work through from within and not project as others' intention.

Pidgin is one of my languages by the way and I still find news read (on podcasts or youtube) in Pidgin humorous because it's not something I'm used to. I also laugh when some people I know try to speak Pidgin. We laugh about their 'Pidgin'. I'm obviously not laughing at the language, it's just one of those things you laugh about with no ill intent and it puts you in a good mood. Let's fight actual racism when it happens, not grabbing at straws to feel offended.

I can remember me and my brother laughing at some German words as they were very literal. I seem to recall pillow translating as “kiss the head” or similar.

There are some very funny literal ones in German. But "Kopfkissen" (pillow) is not one of them - it translates as "head cushion".

But these are my faves:

Feuerzeug / Cigarette lighter = fire thing
Flugzeug / Aeroplane = flight thing
Handschuhe / Gloves = hand shoes
Büstenhalter / Bra = bust holder

Yes exactly pidgin are a type of language (developed to enable communication between peoples who speak two different languages) and there are many pidgin languages (and not all are half english). The BBC is using 'Pidgin' to refer to a west African pidgin - which seems to be a combination of at least two different creolized pidgin languages- Nigerian being one. Papua New Guinea also has a creolized pidgin language (one of their 3 official languages).

I find this hilarity pretty offensive towards the way some black people speak. Not nice at all. Am quite shocked really - it's a genuine type of language, not something designed to make people laugh.

I think it’s an AI generated response!

At least I hope no-one actually writes like that.

Aah I don’t know. It’s quite funny but not because of “oh those Africans talk funny”.

I think it’s because foreign languages are usually wildly different and not really discernible to non-speakers.

In this case it was published on a BBC site and accidentally assumed to be English. The fact that OP didn’t notice is absolutely hilarious.

Pidgin English is fascinating because of the similarities with English. It’s fascinating to see the differences in sentence structure and some of the words. I think when you take a language that has some very similar sounds and words to English, it’s not racist to find it entertaining or humorous seeing how different it is in parts. And as far as I’ve seen on this thread, there are lots of posters who are seeing it for the first time and finding it rather lovely!

Welsh speakers often joke about how amusing some of the Welsh words are in English. This isn’t a thing that’s exclusive to Pidgin English.

I don’t think people are mocking it, or looking down on it. Not at all.

I’ve heard it spoken but never seen it written - I love language so I’m riveted by it.

Also, it has a much gentler tone/sound/structure than the very stiff upper lip of the usual BBC tone so it’s humorous to see something which is usually so formal in a completely different way.

My DD once read a Japanese graphic novel. She was only 9. She read it the western way without realising that it needed to be read from what we would consider to be the back cover. She didn’t even realise, just thought it was a weird story 😂😂🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ That was also hilarious. But again, I’m not laughing at the Japanese, just my dippy daughter.

I can remember me and my brother laughing at some German words as they were very literal. I seem to recall pillow translating as “kiss the head” or similar. Language IS funny and that’s ok. As long as no one is insinuating that another language is inferior, and they’re not being derisory, I think it’s fine.

Me don change dem settings. Any good? 🤣

This is brilliant OP! I can't believe 75 million people speak a language that I've never heard of.

My mum speaks her own special version of Pidgin English when talking to non-native English speakers 🙄

Thank you OP, I never knew this existed. What a find, accidental or not.

This has given me such a giggle.

Di oldest living man for di world say im no get any "special secrets" to tell pipo about im long life as e celebrate im 112 birthday.
John Tinniswood, wey dem born for Liverpool on 26 August 1912, tell Guinness World Records say im "no get any idea" why im don live for so long.

I'd LOVE to see the video of this :)

The BBC is English and it popped up on the OP's UK version of the site.

Of course it is odd for it to suddenly appear on the OP's laptop.

However if posters were in Portugal and a Portuguese version of the site came up, it wouldn't be funny .

I didn't realise it was an official language. My mind is blown from learning it is an official language. I always thought the phrase was pigeon English and it meant people who had a very small amount of English - usually just a few words said together without any grammar etc

Worth every penny. I'm going to read all my news in this language from now on.

Seems it is now - though perhaps it's a bit questionable whether it should be the BBC who should be developing a standardized written form.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WestAfricannPidginEnglish