Modern literature icons like Chimamanda Adichie took this to the international scene and have often canvassed to tell global stories in English with copious “Igbo” inserts. So, it is not surprising that local dialects are sometimes drafted into music, arts and literature. I have always felt that the English language does not sufficiently capture my emotions, unlike my local dialect. Nigerians can be intense and love to drive home their points. It felt more passionate and endearing to say, “I called your line ‘severally’ instead of ‘several times’. This was a way of asking if there was anything in the conversation that was newsworthy. For instance, you would hear Nigerians say: “Please, do have any ‘gist’ for me?”. Just imagine an English Dictionary with the new word, “gist” - a popular use for “gossip” or “news”. Other words are: "To rub minds," which means to consult and work together, and "barbing salon" - a place to get a haircut - also feature. while "next tomorrow," meaning the day after tomorrow, also made it into the dictionary. It is a commonly used word in the religious circle to signify a period of heightened activities. Also, "Ember months" - used to describe the last months of the year, usually from September to December. Some of the additions are: "Kannywood," the word describing the Nigerian Hausa-language film industry, based in the city of Kano. I am fascinated by Danica Salazar, the OED's World English Editor’s words: “Our job is to is to tell the story of English, and that story would not be complete without including the part Nigerians play in that.” From Nobel Prize Winner, Prof Wole Soyinka’s long windy sentences excused under “poetic justice” such as “There is only one home to the life of a river mussel there is only one home to the life of tortoise there is only one shell to the soul of man there is only one world to the spirit of our race” in the Poem - Death and the King’s Horsemen and Chinua Achebe’s rich use of proverbs in his novel, Arrow of God - “When we see an old woman stop in her dance to point again and again in the same direction we can be sure that somewhere there, something happened long ago which touched the roots of her life”, Nigerians have always pushed the boundaries of the English Language. At least, I would have felt justified even if I got a thorough beating for that.īut Nigeria, with about 190 million people, over 250 ethnic groups and about 520 local languages is one of the world’s most complex linguistic case study. I felt the latter was more passionate and descriptive. For instance, I found it rather too simplistic to refer to my older brother as a “glutton” when I can refer to him as “chop-chop”. I often wondered why I couldn’t just write the way I spoke. I recall, that English teachers failed me in essay writing for using “severally” instead of “several times” or for writing “matured” instead of “mature”. This was commonplace in “semi-urban” schools. The Nigerian English, unlike the Pidgin English which is believed to have developed during the slave trade era for easy communication between foreign merchants and local traders, is an improved attempt to pronounce or write words in English Language using indigenous connotations. I recall being corrected repeatedly by my schoolteachers for overuse of what they termed, “Nigerian English”. In 2019, 29 Nigerian words and phrases were added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) which sparked widespread jubilation on the streets of Nigeria and brought some satisfaction to Nigeria’s academia.įor me, as a young Nigerian professional, it triggered memories from my childhood in Festac Extension, a suburb in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial city. The English Language is no doubt an interesting global language, spoken in more than 50 countries as the official or primary language, including Nigeria, a country in Sub-Saharan Africa.
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