Sometime ago, my daughter who was in the kindergarten class came to me on my return from work and excitedly started reciting what she learnt at school that day. “A” for Happle! “B” for Ball!” spontaneously I interrupted her; “did you say “A” for what?” I asked: the answer came loud and clear Happle; I spent ample time teaching her the right pronunciation: A for ‘Apple’ /aepl/.
Sometime ago, my daughter who was in the kindergarten class came to me on my return from work and excitedly started reciting what she learnt at school that day. “A” for Happle! “B” for Ball!” spontaneously I interrupted her; “did you say “A” for what?” I asked: the answer came loud and clear Happle; I spent ample time teaching her the right pronunciation: A for ‘Apple’ /aepl/.
That experience aroused the ‘H’ consciousness in me. So, as other cases came, up, like, mispronouncing ‘House’ /haus/ as aus’. Help as elp, Egg as ‘Hegg’ etc. I took time to teach her the right pronounciations until she mastered them. Worried by this development, I went to the school to lodge a complaint. The school authority appreciated my approach but there was no improvement subsequently because, they could not teach old dogs new tricks – their teachers are used to such pronounciation errors.
Moving her to another school was not an option, because, this is a pronounciation challenge peculiar to the Yoruba’s in the southwestern part of Nigeria. The letter ‘H’ is made silent when pronouncing any word that starts with ‘H’. Curiously, any word that starts with a vowel is pronounced as if it started with the letter ‘H’. Obviously, there has been a generational transfer of this pronounciation defect to the extent that even graduates are at home with it. The nurse mispronounces First Aid /eid/ as First Head. The accountant mispronounces ‘Hundred’ /hundred/ as undred. The most worrisome is the case of media practitioners. One gets goose pimples hearing Newscasters and reporters mispronounce Head as (Aid) of service, Heartland /Ha:t/, /Laend/ as Artland Football club of Owerri, Airport /eape:t/ as Hairport etc.
Now, it is no news that English Language is not indigenous to Nigerians. Though it is the official language in Nigeria, it is a second language. As such, Nigerians grapple with the challenges of speaking this foreign language without the muddling or corruption by the diverse mothers’ tongue.
There has been relative progress in this regard, but so much needs to be done.
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Among the Igbos in the southeast, it is common to hear people mispronounce ‘London’ as “Rondon”, ‘Rice’ as “Lice” Premier League as “Plemier Rig” etc.
In the North (East and West) some Hausas mispronounce ‘five’ as ‘pipe’, ‘politics’ as folitics’ ‘vice principal’ as ‘bice frincifal’ etc.
The multi – ethnic South - South and North central geopolitical zones are not different.
So, there is pronounciation challenge across board. But Lagos being the microcosm of the country is deserving of special mention, as whatever becomes a norm in Lagos state definitely rubs off on the other states through their indigenes resident in Lagos. Many indigenes of other states that school in Lagos state already have this problem.
Also, taking cognizance of the fact that there has been a wide slip from professionalism such that we now have journalist in the electronic media, who, rather than pronounce words with near indigenous accuracy, are entrenching this bastardization of our official language, there is no gainsaying that this error has come to stay.
We have reached that point where a measure of mental work is required in order to make sense out of something said by some teachers, Public speakers or journalists, as is the case in the following instances:
“The Super ‘Heagles’ defeated the ‘Arambee’ (sounds like ‘R n B’) stars of Kenya.” Instead of The Super Eagles defeated the Harambee stars of Kenya.
“Hi hadmit that Oodlums av ijacked the protest.” Instead of;
I admit that hoodlums have hijacked the protest.
“It is un- elthy (unhealthy) to heat (eat) your food ought (hot).” Imagine a Pastor quoting from the letter to the Ibrus (Hebrews).
There is indeed, the pressing need for the Federal and States Ministries of Education, the Nigerian University Commission, The Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Nigerian Broadcasting Commission and other relevant bodies, to rise up to tackle this insidious problem. It may be expedient to pay as much attention to Oral English Examination as is being paid to written English.
If this unhealthy trend is not checked, it will not be long before other Anglophone countries refer to ours as “Nigerian English” which would be an eupheminism for a corrupted version of English Language.
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