Half a billion speakers in 2100? Aspects & implications of the growth of the English creoles & pidgins of West Africa

Abstract

Based on population projections and the current rate of expansion, speaker numbers of the West African English-lexifier Creoles and Pidgins might exceed half a billion by 2100. The mutually intelligible varieties might become the most widely spoken African language continuum and figure among the top five clusters of the world next to languages like Chinese, English, Hindi-Urdu and Arabic. The attractiveness of the West African English-lexifier Creoles and Pidgins has many reasons: They facilitate communication across national, regional and ethnic boundaries; they share a lexical stock with the global prestige language English; there is tolerance for variation and codeswitching; they express in their dynamism and spatial distribution the African experience of the 21st century characterized by rapid socio-economic and cultural change, and accelerated urbanisation. Ideological factors however still play a significant role in fomenting negative attitudes vis-à-vis these languages. There is general a lack of awareness among decision-makers, educators, and other stake holders, of the numerous implications of this growth scenario for education, political participation, regional integration, economic development, cultural expression, and for linguistic diversity in West Africa.