West African Pidgin English
| West African Pidgin English | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Equatorial Guinea |
Native speakers | 75,000,000 (2017) |
English Creole
| |
| Latin script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | west2851 |
| IETF | cpe-011 |
West African Pidgin English, also known as Guinea Coast Creole English, is a West African pidgin language lexified by English and local African languages. It originated as a language of commerce between British and African slave traders during the period of the transatlantic slave trade. As of 2017, about 75 million people in Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana and Equatorial Guinea used the language.
Because it is primarily a spoken language, there is no standardized written form, and many local varieties exist. These include Sierra Leone Krio, Nigerian Pidgin, Ghanaian Pidgin English, Cameroonian Pidgin English, Liberian Kolokwa English, the Aku dialect of Krio, and Pichinglis.