I remember a story that someone once told me about a student they knew. This student had managed to inflict some injury on himself (I can't remember how now), and as you might expect, he cried out in pain. But the cry was very strange: it went "Yeee... I mean, Ouuuuuch!"

Remembering this story makes me thing about how we vocalise our pain. Certainly in our student's case, it's doubtful that he was in that much agony if he could stop himself from expressing his pain in the traditional...

Nyamanyama. Katakata. Kpatakpata.

I'm sure that you notice the common pattern in these pidgin words. But I still have to ask, why? Wouldn't 'nyama' sufficiently let you know that the speaker was talking about dirt? I'm sure 'kata' by itself is enough to tell you that there is disorder afoot. And 'kpata' seems all that is needed to convey the concept of totality and finality.

I don't know... perhaps as some people have said, doubling up a word helps to emphasise the...

There are many things that identify a group of people as separate from other groups. These could be things like the clothes that the members of the group wear, or the food that they eat. But by far, the feature that most strongly marks a group as distinct is the ideas expressed in the group, and the language used to express these ideas.

As it happens, the members of the Nigerian Village Square constitute a group, and so it is no surprise that certain words and phrases have emerged...