BBC News has a Pidgin version... who knew?

[d000hg]

Stumbled on totally by accident https://www.bbc.com/pidgin. Quite fun but I had no idea whatsoever this existed.

[vetran]

Diversity innit?

Should help with in 1 in 5 being illiterate

https://www.teacherboards.co.uk/comm...%20and%20write.

According to the National Literacy Trust a major 16% of adults are considered to be ‘functionally illiterate’ in the United Kingdom. Literacy levels are falling among the younger generations and it is stated that 1 in 5 adults struggle to read and write. With this in mind, it is important to consider the crucial elements that go into combating this modern issue.

[d000hg]

I assumed this is for their worldwide audience, but not sure where this particular pidgin applies. It does remind me a bit of txtspk.

[mattster]

Nice find! I do enjoy a bit of Pidgin, just something about the turns of phrase that make me laugh - I spent some time reading a Pidgin bible once. Linguistically it is quite interesting how Pidgin languages have evolved around the world.

[hobnob]

I assumed this is for their worldwide audience, but not sure where this particular pidgin applies.

"BBC News Pidgin is an online news service in West African Pidgin English that was launched by the BBC World Service in 2017. It is based in Lagos, Nigeria.

Pidgin, first used by British and African slavers to facilitate the Atlantic slave trade in the late 17th century, has become one of the most widely spoken languages in West Africa, with up to 75 million speakers in Nigeria alone. However, it does not have a standard written form."

BBC News Pidgin - Wikipedia

[d000hg]

I thought we were supposed to be removing anything with slavery links

[WTFH]

I thought we were supposed to be removing anything with slavery links

That's what the Wail want you to believe.

Should the BBC world wide site refuse to cater to a particular language group because the people who speak that language are from an area that a lot of people were enslaved from?
By your same logic, we should not study anything to do with Africa.

[OwlHoot]

Isn't it a bit patronising and racist of the BBC to assume that some Africans know only pidgin English and are too stupid and/or ignorant to manage normal English?

[xoggoth]

Is there a sweary version of BBC. I'd like that. Today's *** boring news. Some *** politican has....

[d000hg]

That's what the Wail want you to believe.

Should the BBC world wide site refuse to cater to a particular language group because the people who speak that language are from an area that a lot of people were enslaved from?
By your same logic, we should not study anything to do with Africa.

It's not my logic.

Isn't it a bit patronising and racist of the BBC to assume that some Africans know only pidgin English and are too stupid and/or ignorant to manage normal English?

I would imagine it's based on knowing that they are ignorant (in the literal rather than insulting sense) of proper English.