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BBC Pidgin

Last posted Sep 13, 2021 at 10:28AM EDT. Added Sep 09, 2021 at 12:53AM EDT
5 posts from 4 users

So it's just occurred to me that since most of our user base lives on the other side of the pond, none of you may actually know that the BBC translates it's articles into Pidgin English and they are an absolute joy to read.

Just so you understand what you're getting into and to show you this is an actual, official thing the BBC does, I've screenshot two images from the same story and linked them back to their original articles.

Pidgin:



Standard English:



And in case any of you are wondering, no, there isn't really any reason for them to do this.

In the countries this is aimed at (Kenya, Nigeria, Barbados, etc.) they speak standard English like we do, but they use pidgin in there day to day talk like how Jamaicans speak Patois and the Scottish speak Scots.

Basically imagine if CNN or Fox News translated their articles into Gansta slang and this is the kind of silliness we are dealing with here.

The whole point is to legitimize it as a speech variety, even if those translations are not really necessary. Of course, Scots and Jamaican Patois deserve more respect. Scots has a rich literary history, while Jamaican Patois is a creole with its own grammar. Jamaican Patois has an interesting pronominal system, with unnu (borrowed from Igbo) used for the second-person plural and im (from him) used as the universal third-person singular.

Just as a note, African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is the term used by linguists. Here is a basic overview of the grammar.

Last edited Sep 11, 2021 at 02:33AM EDT

The modern BBC are really, really obsessed with mulitculturalism.

That they are simultaniously out of touch with pretty much everything outside of the london bubble means they end up spending a lot of effort on hilarity like this.

Last edited Sep 11, 2021 at 11:03AM EDT

Greyblades wrote:

The modern BBC are really, really obsessed with mulitculturalism.

That they are simultaniously out of touch with pretty much everything outside of the london bubble means they end up spending a lot of effort on hilarity like this.

To be fair, The BBC broadcasts in many different countries. The BBC even has a partnership with National Public Radio (NPR) here in the US where it has a regular segment.

Skeletor-sm

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