Nigerians are speaking an English all their own

[Harold Schiffman]

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  [image: Fish seller Sekinat Bolaji walks past a sign written in Nigerian
English, which melds with Victorian-era vocabulary for results that can be
ornate, oddly understated or remarkably
apt.]<http://www.philly.com/inquirer/world_us/16208022.html?imageId=6956452>
SUNDAY ALAMBA / Associated Press

Fish seller Sekinat Bolaji walks past a sign written in Nigerian English,
which melds with Victorian-era vocabulary for results that can be ornate,
oddly understated or remarkably apt.



Posted on Tue, Mar. 4, 2008


A mix of colonial past and a varied present. Nigerians are speaking an
English all their own

By Edward Harris

Associated Press
LAGOS, Nigeria - In Nigeria, people felicitate the successful, police open
cans of worms on cutlass-brandishing miscreants, and criminal rascals meet
their Waterloo. *Touts, urchins,* and *heaps of calumny* are other commonly
used terms in Nigeria, where Nigerian English melds Victorian-era vocabulary
inherited from long-gone British colonialists with the grammatical
structures and syntax that underpin indigenous languages in Africa's most
populous nation. The results can be ornate, oddly understated or remarkably
apt. But in a rapidly globalizing world, some worry that Nigerians will be
handicapped by an English that differs from the language of boardrooms and
Internet bulletin boards.

For Adeyemi Daramola, an English professor at the University of Lagos, it's
a quandary. As an academic, he finds Nigerian usage fascinating and
indicative of rich and varied influences. But he worries that it is
undermining local languages, leaving younger generations unable to speak
their parents' native tongue and conversant only in an argot not easily
understood outside of Nigeria.  "As a teacher, we want to see these
differences," Daramola said. "We're pleased with our geographical
difference, and our semantic differences. But we're at a crossroads now
where some people don't understand standard English, and also not their
indigenous tongue. And that's a tragedy, because then you don't belong
anywhere."

As a colony, Nigeria was very lightly settled by Europeans. A few hundred
administrators came, along with Christian missionaries who taught English so
converts could read the Bible. When Nigeria became independent in 1960, it
adopted English as the language of instruction and administration. Within
borders drawn in colonial times, Nigeria's 140 million people speak hundreds
of languages. Daramola says "English is the language of national unity," but
others disagree, saying English is a colonial import and its widespread
usage excludes the rural and less educated. In Nigeria, English has
developed a twist over the years. For example, a TV isn't switched on or off
- it's *on-ed* or *off-ed*.

A Nigerian congratulating someone on a success or victory likely will *
felicitate* him rather than offer felicitations. Similarly, people are
invited to *jubilate*, or celebrate, a triumph. Sentence structure often
reflects local languages, Daramola said. In the Yoruba language, adjectives
can be altered by repeating them, so a very small boy would be a "small,
small boy." "The influence of native languages have combined to make
performance a little peculiar," reads the introduction to *Nigerian English*
,** a textbook published in 2004. "The Nigerian variant of English seems to
have emerged since there are so many influences impinging on its acquisition
and use in its new home." Many words are simply holdovers from the colonial
era. Eateries are called **"Chop Houses**," once popular but now all but
vanished from Britain.

Upset stomach? Take **"gripe water." Tire puncture? Take the tire to
the "**vulcanizer."
Street children are "urchins," and police often brand criminals as "touts,"
"rascals," or "miscreants" who carry "cutlasses" - machetes. In reporting
crime, Nigerian newspapers say police "open a can of worms" when raiding
criminal hideouts. A dead or jailed robber is often said to "meet his
Waterloo." Politicians "heap calumny" on those they accuse of corruption. In
another influence of Nigerian languages, no letter is missed when speaking
English. Fuel is "foo-el." A receipt is a "re-seeped." In many areas of
southern Nigeria, where the Yoruba predominate, an "o" is added to the end
of a word to add emphasis, a practice in the Yoruba language. Most
noticeable is a shout of "Sorry-o!" to someone who trips or suffers another
misfortune.

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