DIGLOSSIA AND LANGUAGE CONTACT: NIGERIAN PIDGIN & NIGERIAN CREOLE IN PERSPECTIVE

There has been an ongoing revolution in the areas of Nigerian Pidgin (NP) and Nigerian Creole (NC).Researches are pivoting their searchlight on diverse topics ranging from identity and attitude, to grammaticality and acceptability, creative writing etc., all on the NP and NC. To attune to this quest, this article examined the diglossic situation that exist in the NP and NC which explicates the linguistic division of labour inherent when languages are created and recreated as they come in contact. To achieve this, Uriel Weinreich`s theoretical postulations of Prestige and Counter-Prestige were used as lens with which to anchor this intellectual reading. The finding revealed that diglossic situations exist in the NC lectal levels as well as the NP against its lexifier. However, it is of the view that this less valued variety status accorded the NP is a function of the social class/identity and not of contextual usage.