A New Spoken and Emerging English That You Never Knew (Part 3)
How L1 influences English Language
In my previous articles:
I tried fervently to bring out the kind of English spoken in Nigeria which in the academic circle is called “Nigerian English”. Quite frankly, the discussion around Nigerian English is broad and cannot be exhausted easily.
According to Kachru, Nigerian English is indeed a vital component of world English. English is a second language to most Nigerians, as they have acquired indigenous languages as their mother tongue (L1). This came about through trade, wars, colonization, or simply a desire for adventure and communication across linguistic borders.
The resultant contact leads to what Dadzie calls "linguistic ferment" (2004: 85), which leads to linguistic forms or a shift from the contact language. A sort of interlanguage is created, which has some admixture of the features of the L1 and L2. Dadzie states that in "this process, a new language may be born reflecting the characteristics of both languages" (2004: 85). The admixture of these features, according to Adetugbo, is prominent at the phonological level (1993: 124), though they are also present in other linguistic levels such as morphology, syntax, and semantics.
Dadzie confirms Adetubgo’s claim when he states that "these changes may also be reflected in the sound patterns of a language, its grammar, and its meaning mechanism, all of which are the matrices within which a language may be described" (2004:86).
However, These differences are attributed to both linguistic and sociolinguistic factors. The differences, according to Jowitt, are the use of certain linguistic features that are different in certain respects from the standard item (2000:58).
In Nigerian English, these differences can be found in the sound segments and the suprasegments.
Sound segments in Nigerian English consist of consonants and vowels, which differ from those in Nigerian indigenous languages. This is evident in the pronunciation of words like "thin" and "this" in British English (BE) and Nigerian English (NE). In BE, "thin" is pronounced [θɪ n] and "this" is pronounced [ðɪ z], while in NE, "thin" is pronounced [tɪ n] and "this" is pronounced [dɪ z]. This substitution is due to the absence of dental fricatives in most Nigerian languages, and the closest sounds in their native languages are used instead.
Certain consonantal sounds exist in British English (BEV) but not in Nigerian English (NEV), which includes Northern Nigerian English Variety (NNEV), Southern Nigerian English Variety (SNEV) and Western Nigerian English Variety (WNEV). One example of this is the voiceless bilabial plosives /P/. In BEV, the word "parlour" is pronounced [pa: l∂], while in NNEV it is pronounced [фalכ:], and in SNEV it is pronounced [palכ:] and in WNEV it is pronounced [Kpalכ:]. The SNEV has /p/ in its inventory and produces the same variant as that of native speakers (BEV).
However, this voiceless plosive does not exist in the Hausa consonant sound inventory. Scholars disagree on whether this sound exists in Hausa or not. Jibril's version of the Hausa consonant chart shows the existence of /p/, while Sani's version does not. Some scholars argue that the Hausa voiceless bilabial fricative [ф] is an intermediate sound between the English [p] and [f]. This unique feature of the Hausa language appears to confuse the phonemic status of the English [p] with that of the English [f]. This variation in consonantal sounds makes the English language used in Nigeria unique.
At the syntactic level, Faulty structuring of words is a visible feature in Nigerian English. This can occur when the wrong form of verb, noun, or other parts of speech are used. This can lead to grammatically incorrect sentences. Examples of this can be seen in various forms of written communication such as national newspapers. For example, in the sentence "The police action 'tantamount' to declaring a war on OPC", the word 'tantamount' is an adjective and should not be used as a verb. A separate verb should be used instead, such as "The police action is tantamount to declaring a war on OPC". Another example is the sentence "The man is an 'illiterate’", where the word 'illiterate' is used as a noun and should be preceded by the indefinite article 'an' or rephrased as "He is illiterate".
Additionally, in the sentence "Nigerians are advised to rest assured that fuel prices won’t be increased", the use of 'be' is not necessary and the phrase 'rest assured' or 'rest easy' can be used to convey the same meaning without the need for the verb 'be’. It should be rephrased as 'Nigerians are advised to rest assured/easy’.
More so, When referring to the position of a person or object about another location, the prepositions "under," "in," or "on" are typically used. However, when referring to a surface, "on" is the best option. For example, "An attempt was made on the life of Senator Adesanya on Lagos Island." "The proliferation of secret cults on our campuses" and "The angry residents lay siege at the NEPA district office in the area." However, "under siege" is used to refer to a person, group, institution, or place being under attack. In the sentence "Present at the occasion were local members of the party," the correct preposition is "on" and not "at." It should be "Present on the occasion were local members of the party." Also, "congratulate" commonly collocates with "on," whereas "for" is often used by speakers of Nigerian English.
Additionally, Nigerian English speakers often use correlative conjunctions incorrectly. They should be used in pairs to join two clauses, with one serving as the subordinate and the other emphasizing the logical relationship between the clauses. Examples of incorrect use include: 'Hardly had the retired cops reached Lagos than they discovered...' and 'No sooner had he reported the coup when he was arrested.' The correct phrasing is 'Hardly had the retired cops reached Lagos when...' and 'No sooner had he reported the coup than...' In addition, there are other instances of incorrect phrasings, such as 'Please, I am asking of Mrs Tabitha Brownson' which should be 'Please, I am asking for/after Mrs Tabitha Brownson'.
It is also worthy of note that Nigerian English speakers often omit the definite article 'the' and use it unnecessarily. Examples of this include: "What does privatization mean to masses?" (should be "What does the privatization mean to the masses?"), "We would play for you kinds of music that were popular in 1960s" (should be "We would play for you the kinds of music that were popular in the 1960s"), "I don’t think he has experience for this kind of job" (should be "I don’t think he has the experience for this kind of job"). They also often use incorrect pronoun forms, such as "Due to me being a newcomer, I did not know what to do" (should be "Due to my being a newcomer, I did not know what to do").
Importantly, Nigerian English speakers often deviate from Standard English in their use of plurals, using non-count nouns as plurals and using inappropriate words. For example, "If you fail to take necessary precautions, you are only doing yourself" should be "If you fail to take necessary precautions, you are doing so at your own risk." They also often use "less" with count nouns, when "fewer" is appropriate, such as in the sentence "The ill-fated commuter bus carried not less than forty-five passengers."
Additionally, they often use non-count nouns as though they are count nouns, such as "furniture" and "information." They also deviate from Standard English in the use of idioms, often deleting, substituting, and rephrasing idioms in ways that do not conform to the norm. Examples include "M.K.O.’s generosity was well known to all and sundries," "If the team wants to qualify, they should gather their acts together," and "Many unscrupulous Nigerians joined the bandwagon of Abacha’s cronies."
Lexically, in Nigeria, speakers of English deviate from the norms in their use of idioms. These expressions are often used incorrectly, both grammatically and semantically. Idioms must be learned as single lexical items with specific meanings, and their syntactic constraints must also be understood.
However, many Nigerian speakers disregard these norms, altering idioms at will without considering if they conform to the norm. Additionally, loan words from Nigerian languages are frequently used in English in Nigeria, such as "agbada," "babanriga," "akara," and "akamu." These words are often used in their original form and meaning, rather than being translated into English. Also, Nigerian English has its own set of unique words or lexical items that have specific meanings only understood in the Nigerian context. These words are borrowed or coined to fit the Nigerian environment, making them easily recognizable as characteristics of Nigerian English. In addition, everyday English words are often extended or adapted to cover local phenomena and situations. Examples include: "backyard" which can refer to firewood or, in vulgarism, buttocks; "been-to" which refers to a person who has returned to Nigeria after a long stay overseas; "chewing stick" which is a piece of wood used for teeth cleaning; "cover-cloth" which is a long piece of cloth wrapped around the body while sleeping; "Ghana-must-go" which is a jute bag that became a symbol of bribe after Ghanaian residents were ordered to leave Nigeria in 1982; and "half-current voltage" which refers to electricity that is not fully generated.
Semantically, In Nigerian English, some words have undergone semantic shifts or extensions in their meanings. For example, "trek" is used to mean "walk a short distance" and "machine" is a general term for a motorcycle. "Station" refers to the place where one works and "settle" is used to mean offering gratification to win favour or bribe. "Long legs" refers to corruption involving nepotism, and "big/senior boys" refers to men who are rich and influential. Additionally, kinship terms such as "father," "mother/mummy," "sister," "brother," and "uncle" are often extended to cover someone with no biological relationship to the person. Despite these variations, Nigerian English is still closely related to Standard British English and often adheres to formal and pedagogical usage. It is important to note that while Nigerian English has been heavily influenced by local cultural elements, it is still a borrowed language and not indigenous to Nigeria.
In conclusion, Nigerian English has been adapted for home use and made applicable to our numerous conveniences, experiences, nuances and sensibilities; we can no longer talk about British or Queens English in Nigeria, but rather nativization of English language in Nigeria, which is the use of English language in Nigeria to portray our world's views, social life, culture and religious life. English in Nigeria is not a global phenomenon, because it has been homegrown, turned around and made different to suit the Nigerian environment.
