Hausa is a Chadic language that is spoken by the Hausa people in the northern parts of Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Benin and Togo, and the southern parts of Niger, and Chad, with significant minorities in Ivory Coast. A small number of speakers also exist in Sudan.
Igbo is the principal native language cluster of the Igbo people, an ethnicity in the Southeastern part of Nigeria.
Yoruba is a Niger-Congo language that is spoken in West Africa, primarily in Southwestern and Central Nigeria. It is spoken by the Yoruba people. Yoruba speakers number roughly 47 million, including about 2 million second-language speakers. As a pluricentric language, it is primarily spoken in a dialectal area spanning Nigeria, Benin, and Togo with smaller migrated communities in Côte d'Ivoire, Sierra Leone and The Gambia.
In linguistics, diglossia is where two dialects or languages are used by a single language community. In addition to the community's everyday or vernacular language variety, a second, highly codified lect is used in certain situations such as literature, formal education, or other specific settings, but not used normally for ordinary conversation. The H variety may have no native speakers within the community. In cases of three dialects, the term triglossia is used. When referring to two writing systems coexisting for a single language, the term digraphia is used.
Central Ibibio is the major dialect cluster of the Cross River branch of Benue–Congo. Efik proper has national status in Nigeria and was erroneously made the literary standard of the Ibibio language, though Ibibio proper has more native speakers.
Nigerian Pidgin, also known simply as Pidgin or Broken or as Naijá in scholarship, is an English-based creole language spoken as a lingua franca across Nigeria. The language is sometimes referred to as Pijin or Vernacular. First used by British colonists and slave traders to facilitate the Atlantic slave trade in the late 17th century, in the 2010s, a common orthography was developed for Pidgin which has been gaining significant popularity in giving the language a harmonized writing system.
The culture of Nigeria is shaped by Nigeria's multiple ethnic groups. The country has 527 languages, seven of which are extinct. Nigeria also has over 1,150 dialects and ethnic groups. The three largest ethnic groups are the Hausas that are predominantly in the north, the Yorubas who predominate in the southwest, and the Igbos in the southeast. There are many other ethnic groups with sizeable populations across the different parts of the country. The Kanuri people are located in the northeast part of Nigeria, the Tiv people are in the north central, and the Efik-Ibibio are in the south South. The Bini people are most frequent in the region between Yorubaland and Igboland.
Egusi, also spelled egushi, are the protein-rich seeds of certain cucurbitaceous plants, which, after being dried and ground, are used as a major ingredient in West African cuisine. Egusi is a Yoruba word, and the popular method of cooking it is deeply rooted in Yoruba culinary traditions.
In West Africa, garri is the flour of the fresh starchy cassava root.
Irú (Yoruba) or Dawadawa (Hausa) or Eware (Edo) or Sumbala (Bambara) or Narghi (Fula) is a type of fermented and processed locust beans used as a condiment in cooking. It is similar to ogiri and douchi. It is popular throughout West African cuisine. It is used in cooking traditional soups like egusi soup, okro soup (ILA), Ewedu soup, and ogbono soup.
There are over 525 native languages spoken in Nigeria. The official language is English, which was the language of Colonial Nigeria. The English-based creole Nigerian Pidgin – first used by British and African slavers to facilitate the Atlantic slave trade in the late 17th century – is the most widely spoken lingua franca and spoken by over 60 million people.
Ogbono Soup is a Nigerian dish made with ground dry ogbono seeds. Ogbono seeds are originated and were first grown in Southern Nigeria with considerable local variation. According to research by Chris Chinaka and J.C. Obiefuna, Ogbono is an indigenous forest tree associated with plants classified as 'non-timber forest products. It goes by various indigenous names among Nigerians. The Common use of the word “ogbono” in general Nigerian parlance stems from the Igbo name for the word. Among the Nupe, it is called 'pekpeara', 'ogwi' in Bini, 'uyo' in Efik, and 'oro' or ‘apon’ in Yoruba. Although ogbono and ugiri, the Igbo name for bush-mango, are very similar indeed and often regarded as equivalents, there is technically a distinction.
Nigerian cuisine consists of dishes or food items from the hundreds of Native African ethnic groups that comprises Nigeria. Like other West African cuisines, it uses spices and herbs with palm oil or groundnut oil to create deeply flavored sauces and soups.
Palm nut soup or banga is a soup made from palm fruit common in the Cameroonian, Ghanaian, Nigerian, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ivorian communities. The soup is made from a palm cream or palm nut base with stewed marinated meats, smoked dried fish, and aromatics. It is often eaten with starch, fufu, omotuo, banku, fonio, or rice. The use of the palm fruit in cooking is significant in Ivorian, Cameronian, Nigerian, Ghanaian, Liberian and other West and Central African cuisine.
Guosa is a constructed interlanguage originally created by Alex Igbineweka in 1965. It was designed to be a combination of the indigenous languages of Nigeria and to serve as a lingua franca to West Africa.
Pounded yam is a Nigerian swallow or Okele food. It is commonly prepared by pounding boiled yam with mortar and pestle Pounded yam is similar to mashed potatoes but heavier in consistency. It is a smooth delicacy eaten with the hands.
BBC Yoruba is the Yoruba language service of the BBC World Service meant primarily for the Yoruba-speaking communities in Nigeria, Benin Republic, Togo and Yoruba speakers in diaspora. It is part of the 12 new language services incorporated by the BBC World Service. The other languages are Afaan Oromo, Amharic, Gujarati, Igbo, Korean, Marathi, Pidgin, Punjabi, Telugu and Tigrinya.
BBC Igbo is the Igbo language service of BBC World Service meant primarily for the Igbo-speaking communities in the south-east, South-south of Nigeria and Igbo people in diaspora. It is part of the 12 new language services added to the BBC services and the other languages are Afaan Oromo, Amharic, Gujarati, Yoruba, Korean, Marathi, Pidgin, Punjabi, Telugu and Tigrinya.
Wazobia is a term that means "come" in three major Nigerian languages: Yoruba (wa), Hausa (zo), and Igbo (bia). It is often used as a symbol of unity, diversity, and inclusion in Nigeria, a country with over 250 ethnic groups and languages. The term is also used as a name for various media outlets, cultural events, and social movements in Nigeria.
