To start with, I followed some recent social media posts of Senator Shehu Sani, a human right activist cum a politician where I noted that he has since gained keen interest in the English phonetics and phonology of Nigerians.
By Nurudeen Dauda
It is important to note that virtually all Nigerians, including the “teachers” and “scholars” of English language, are into what scholars refer to as “alphabetical” pronunciation instead of “oral” pronunciation. Alphabetical pronunciation means pronouncing “words” by the “alphabets” written “not how the words are “supposed” to be “pronounced” orally. Virtually all Nigerians, including teachers and scholars do not master phonetics and phonology of English language. After all we are not native speakers!
As far as I know, among the four British West Africans which are : (1) Nigeria ,(2) Ghana, (3) Gambia, and (4) Sierra Leone, it is only Nigeria that engages in “alphabetical” pronunciation. Anyone with little knowledge of phonetics and phonology will agree with me that our fellow British West Africans have better pronunciations of English words than us in terms of oral English pronunciation.
Our alphabetical pronunciation makes us have what we call the Nigerian English “accent”, which is quite different from the British or what some scholars refer to as the Queen’s dialect. The Nigerian English broadcast media and the educational system are dominated by southerners, which make their accent a yardstick in the field of spoken English in Nigeria even though it is not the authentic English accent. It is apt to state that the Nigerian English accent is full of alphabetical pronunciation which is quite different from the actual English pronunciation.
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The English people often adopt words from the Greek, Latin, Spanish and French languages, etc., and apply it with their own English accent. It is important to note that the Hausa people too, in their attempts to domesticate English language for modern communication, often adopt the Nigerian English accent and apply it in their own version. This often avoids the use of conventional or complex and or technical Hausa words in modern communication. This often makes some Nigerians to erroneously think that the Hausa people cannot pronounce English words like the rest of Nigerians.
Unknown to most Nigerians, the Hausa version of the Nigerian English accent, when compared, is “closer” to the Queen’s accent and or dialect by far than the Nigerian English accent. It is worth noting that the following Hausa accent version are exactly pronounced as in the Queen’s dialect; such as: Doctor /dokta/, rector/rekta/, mentor/ menta/, motor/mota/, actor/akta/, sector/sekta/, lecture/ lekcha/ , nature/neicha/, and culture/kalcha/ etc.
More so, our alphabetical pronunciation often makes us pronounce the following words wrongly: Bomb /Bom/, debt/det/, thumb/tham/, plumber /plama/, dumb/dam/, lamb/lam/, limb/lim/, tomb/tu:m/, doubt/daut/, listen/lisn/, castle/ka:sal/, pestle/pesal/, nestle/nesal/, and muscle/masl/etc. Apart from our general problem of alphabetical pronunciation, virtually all ethnic groups in Nigeria have one alphabetical “letter (s)” pronunciations” difficulties or the other.
A typical Yoruba man pronounces letter “Z” as “S”, E as H, H as E, A as H, and V as F. Words like “Zoo” /zu:/ is pronounced as “Soo”, “Zip” /zip/ as “Sip” and “Zebra”/zebra/ as “Sebra”, “Health” as “Eight”, “House”/haus/ as “Aouse”, “End” /end/ as “Hen”, and “Value” /valjue:// as “Falue”. A typical Hausa man has issues with letters P, V, Q and X . He pronounces letter “P” as “F”. Words like “people “/pi:pal/are pronounced as “feofle”, and “pull”/pul/ as “full”, etc.
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A typical Igbo man pronounces Letter “G” as “Gwa”. He pronounces words like “government ” /gavanmant/ as “gwavanment” and Naira /neira/ as “Naara” etc. A typical Igala man pronounces “Ch”/ts/ as “Sh”. He pronounces words like “child” /tsaild/ as “shild”, “chop”/tsop/ as “shop”, and “check ” /tsek/ as “sheck”. A typical Idoma man pronounces letter “R” as “L” . He pronounces words like “wrong”/ron/ as “long”, and “room”/rum/ as”loom” etc.
In my thought, there are three most important aspects of every language: (1) Grammar, (2) Vocabulary, and (3) Phonetics and phonology, but the most important of all of these is the grammar. It is sad to note that most Nigerians often confuse the knowledge of “vocabulary” with “grammar”. If one speaks with many “unfamiliar words”, we often say he speaks too much grammar which is not. The “art” of speaking many “unfamiliar words” in their rightful places is the knowledge of “vocabulary” and not “grammar”.
For me, the problem of phonetics and phonology is not the main issue. The problem of grammar is what is highly unacceptable. Grammar, which many of us lack its knowledge, is the most important. Let’s us give more emphasis on grammar, which in my view is the most important.
May God bless Nigeria!
Dauda can be reached through nurudeendauda24@yahoo.com
