Equatorial Guinean Pidgin

Print

A language of Equatorial Guinea

ISO 639-3
fpe
Alternate Names
Criollo, Fernandino, Fernando Po Creole English, Fernando Po Krio, Pichi, Pichinglis, Pidgin de Guinea Ecuatorial, Pidginglis
Population

6,000 (2011 S. Smith), increasing. Very few monolinguals. Ethnic population: 6,000.

Location

North central Bioko Island, Fernando Po, Malabo area; Musola, Las Palmas, Sampaca, Basupu, Fiston, and Balveri de Cristo Rey.

Language Maps
Language Status

3 (Wider communication).

Classification
Creole, English based, Atlantic, Krio
Dialects

Offshoot of Krio [kri] of Sierra Leone; intelligible with Cameroon Pidgin [wes], Nigerian Pidgin [pcm], but it has 20% of its lexical inventory as loanwords from Spanish [spa].

Typology

English-based Atlantic creole with Spanish loan words

Language Use

Used by 70,000 or 18%, especially on Bioko Island. All domains except government. All ages. Very positive attitudes, especially among youth. Language of instruction in school is Spanish [spa]. English [eng] and some Bube [bvb] are also used.

Language Development
Literacy rate in L1: Virtually none. Literacy rate in L2: 75% in Spanish. Poetry. Grammar. Bible portions.
Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Equatorial Guinean Pidgin
Writing
Latin script, used since 2006.
Other Comments

Christian.