Abstract
This paper examines multilingualism in relation to hip-hop lyrics in Nigeria. It focuses on the sociolinguistics of English and its contact with other Nigerian languages in hip-hop music. The paper argues that, because Nigerian Pidgin English (NPE) has the highest number of speakers as compared to other indigenous languages in the country (Faraclas 2004), its speakers are found across the country and its usage given prominence in Nigerian hip-hop, it ought to be treated as a super central language. This means that in an extension of de Swaan's framework of World Language Systems, we can say that, in addition to being one hyper central language (English), there are two sets of super central languages in Nigeria; namely, the three national languages (Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba) and Nigerian Pidgin English. The paper also reports that Nigerian rappers can be classified into four major categories, based on their language use.
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