: In recent years, a number of studies on the national varieties of West African Standard English have taken a comparative perspective, mostly dealing with phonetics (e.g. Simo Bobda, 1995, 2000a, b, 2003; Simo Bobda et al., 1999), but also with the lexicon (Wolf and Igboanusi, 2003). Similar efforts with respect to the national varieties of Pidgin English spoken in West Africa. i.e. Ghanaian Pidgin English, Nigerian Pidgin English, and Cameroon Pidgin English, have been lacking so far, if one disregards the listing of diagnostic features in Huber (1999) and some implicit comparisons in Njeuma (1995). Our paper is intended to be the first descriptive and systematic account of features that distinguish these varieties from one another. Considering differences on the phonetic, grammatical, and lexical level, we will draw from findings by other linguists who have investigated individual varieties of West African Pidgin English (e.g. Huber, 1999 on Ghanaian Pidgin English; Elugbe and Omamor, 1991 and Faraclas, 1996 on Nigerian Pidgin English; and Mbassi‐Manga, 1973 and de Féral, 1989 on Cameroon Pidgin English), but also on our own research, which is based on dozens of interviews with speakers of West African Pidgin English.
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