being derived partly from the present day edo/delta area of nigeria, there are still some leftover words from the portuguese language in pidgin english (portuguese ships traded slaves from the bight of benin). for example, "you sabi do am?" means "do you know how to do it?". "sabi" means "to know" or "to know how to", just as "to know" is "saber" in portuguese. (according to the monogenetic theory of pidgins, "sabir" was a basic word in mediterranean lingua franca, brought to west africa through portuguese pidgin. an english cognate is "savvy".) also, "pikin" or "pickaninny" comes from the portuguese words "pequeno" and "pequeninho", which mean "small" and "small child" respectively.