{"id":9077,"date":"2012-09-26T07:52:28","date_gmt":"2012-09-26T11:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=9077"},"modified":"2012-09-26T07:52:28","modified_gmt":"2012-09-26T11:52:28","slug":"dead-poets-live-language-scatter-my-brain-yet-ginger-my-swagger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/dead-poets-live-language-scatter-my-brain-yet-ginger-my-swagger\/","title":{"rendered":"Dead Poets &#038; Live Language: scatter my brain yet ginger my swagger"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardiannews.com\/\">The Guardian<\/a>, as so often, has interesting material on dead poets & live languages. The\u00a0first\u00a0concerns Keats as opium addict (vide new biography by Nicholas Roe) & the second, Nigeria\u2019s strong, very alive & quickly evolving pidgin:<\/p>\n<div id=\"box\">\n<div id=\"article-header\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<div id=\"main-article-info\">\n<blockquote>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #000000;\">John Keats was an opium addict, claims a new biography of the poet<\/span><\/h3>\n<p id=\"stand-first\" data-component=\"comp : r2 : Article : standfirst_cta\">The author of Ode to a Nightingale wrote his greatest poems with the aid of opium, believes Prof Nicholas Roe<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"content\">\n<blockquote>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-component=\"comp: r2: Byline\">\n<li>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/profile\/ameliahill\" rel=\"author\">Amelia Hill<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div id=\"article-wrapper\">\n<blockquote>\n<div id=\"main-content-picture\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/static.guim.co.uk\/sys-images\/Guardian\/Pix\/pictures\/2012\/9\/21\/1348228941146\/John-Keats-008.jpg\" alt=\"John Keats\" width=\"460\" height=\"276\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 460px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 460\/276;\" \/><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>John Keats: Ode to a Nightingale arose from opium reveries, claims new biography. Photograph: Time Life Pictures\/Getty Images<\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body-blocks\">\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a title=\"More from guardian.co.uk on John Keats\" href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/books\/johnkeats\">John Keats<\/a>, the poet of \u201cbeauty\u201d, a devotee of aesthetic isolation who swooned at the thought of his so-called \u201cbright star\u201d Fanny Brawne and succumbed to TB when he was 25, was an opium addict.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The claim is made in a new biography, to be published on Monday, by Prof Nicholas Roe, chair of the\u00a0<a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/keatsfoundation.com\/\">Keats Foundation<\/a>\u00a0and a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Roe admits his finding will be contentious. \u201cThis has never been said before: Keats as an opium addict is new,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Roe, professor of English literature at the University of St Andrews, dismisses other experts who have previously concluded that Keats only briefly experimented with the drug. The former poet laureate Andrew Motion, winner of the Whitbread prize for biography and author of a biography of the poet, has, said Roe, made \u201cassumptions\u201d about Keats and his use of opiates that \u201csimply have no warrant\u201d.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">[ctd. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/books\/2012\/sep\/21\/john-keats-opium-addict\">here<\/a>]<\/p>\n<div id=\"main-article-info\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<h3>Nigeria\u2019s love of pidgin dey scatter my brain yet ginger my swagger<\/h3>\n<p id=\"stand-first\" data-component=\"comp : r2 : Article : standfirst_cta\">With hundreds of tribes and languages, slang English known as \u2018Naija\u2019 is becoming the glue of Africa\u2019s most populous nation<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div id=\"content\">\n<blockquote>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-component=\"comp: r2: Byline\">\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/profile\/monica-mark\" rel=\"author\">Monica Mark<\/a>\u00a0in Lagos<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div id=\"article-wrapper\">\n<blockquote>\n<div id=\"main-content-picture\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/static.guim.co.uk\/sys-images\/Guardian\/About\/General\/2012\/9\/24\/1348490280073\/Children-in-the-village-o-010.jpg\" alt=\"Children in the village of Oniparagba listen to Radio Wazobia, Nigeria's largest pidgin station. \" width=\"460\" height=\"276\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 460px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 460\/276;\" \/><\/p>\n<div>Children in the village of Oniparagba listen to Radio Wazobia, Nigeria\u2019s largest pidgin station. Photograph: Monica Mark for the Guardian<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div id=\"article-body-blocks\">\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In\u00a0<a title=\"More from guardian.co.uk on Nigeria\" href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/world\/nigeria\">Nigeria<\/a>\u2018s megacity of Lagos, where the country\u2019s 500 languages come together in a chaotic medley, the rapid-fire rhythm of pidgin is the symphony of the streets.\u00a0<a title=\"More from guardian.co.uk on Africa\" href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/world\/africa\">Africa<\/a>\u2018s largest country is a sometimes fractious mix of 160 million inhabitants divided into 250 ethnicities. But street hustlers and Harvard-educated politicians alike greet each other with: \u201cHow you dey?\u201d or \u201cHow body?\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The reply can range from a chirpy \u201cI dey fine\u201d to a downbeat \u201cBody dey inside cloth,\u201d (literally meaning \u201cI\u2019m still wearing clothes\u201d). Officially known as Naija, Nigerian pidgin is spoken by tens of millions across the country. Current affairs, English and local languages are brewed together to dish up playful imagery at breakneck speed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In Lagos, a Nigerian policeman demonstrated how his English-imported spaniel, Milly, \u201cdey hear pidgin well well\u201d as she obeyed a series of pidgin commands. It\u2019s used in slogans scrawled on crumbling walls and flashy billboards. As cars swerve through sweaty streets, it can also be heard blaring on\u00a0<a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.wazobiafm.com\/\">Radio Wazobia<\/a>, a pidgin-only station played in crammed buses, sleek air-conditioned jeeps and roadside food stalls.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Like its variants in Sierra Leone, Ghana and Liberia, pidgin began as a form of broken English that allowed the country\u2019s coastal inhabitants to barter slaves and later palm oil with European traders. Later, under colonialism, English became the language of prestige. \u201cThe common man wants to air their views but speaking in English they\u2019re scared \u2013 they don\u2019t want to do gbagam [hit something that makes a loud noise],\u201d said Radio Wazobia morning news presenter Steve Onu, aka DJ Yaw.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">[ctd. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/world\/2012\/sep\/24\/nigeria-pidgin-scatter-brain-swagger\">here<\/a>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Guardian, as so often, has interesting material on dead poets &#038; live languages. The\u00a0first\u00a0concerns Keats as opium addict (vide new biography by Nicholas Roe) &#038; the second, Nigeria\u2019s strong, very alive &#038; quickly&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,62,64],"tags":[438,1294,1295,1296],"class_list":["post-9077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journalism","category-language","category-literature","tag-john-keats","tag-nicholas-roe","tag-nigeria","tag-pidgin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9077"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9086,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9077\/revisions\/9086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}