“We just don’t even know”

This study investigates the usage of the pragmatic focus particles even and still in Nigerian English (NigE). A comparison of ICE-Nigeria and ICE-GB showed diverging frequencies of both particles across different registers between the two varieties of English and a significantly higher overall usage of even in NigE. Qualitative analyses revealed that even has acquired a wide range of new pragmatic meanings in NigE, such as emphatic, affirmative, particularising and epistemic meanings, and that still can be used to express promises and predictions. It is shown that these usages mirror meanings of the equivalents of even and still in the Nigerian languages Yorùbá and Igbo; their spread across a wide range of speakers in Nigeria attests to the status of even and still as nativised structures rather than learner errors.