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Check Out Your Pronunciation Errors Here!You May Be Found Wanting by U09ce: 11:07am On Mar 31, 2013 |
(For part one of the series, click here For part two, click here For part three, click here) I have way more words on my list of common words Nigerians mispronounce than I am inclined to write here. Maybe I should consider writing a layman’s Dictionary of Nigerian English Pronunciation since I am not a trained phonologist. In today’s edition, I conclude with bonus words and suggestions from my readers. The suggestions readers sent to me were many. I cannot capture all of them here. 1. Annihilate. This word is popularly pronounced “ani-hi-leyt” in Nigerian English. Native speakers pronounce it “anai-ileyt.” Note that the “h” is silent. 2. Adjacent: Almost everyone I know in Nigeria pronounces this word like “aja-sent.” Native speakers pronounce it “ajey-sent.” 3. Bouquet. This French loanword is pronounced either like “bow-kei” or “biu-kei,” but many Nigerians pronounce it “bu-kwet.” 4. Excited. The mispronunciation of this word as “eg-zai-ted” isn’t a national trend. It appears to be restricted to southwestern Nigeria, but I have heard several people outside the region say “eg-zai-ted” instead of “ik-sai- tid.” 5. February. A reader asked me to include this word, but I initially hesitated because the word has different acceptable native-speaker pronunciations. Then it occurred to me that a broad swath of Nigerians pronounce it in ways that are different from the various variants in native-speaker pronunciations. Nigerians tend to pronounce this word as “fe-bwa-ri.” There are two dominant native-speaker pronunciations of this word. One is “fe-bru-ari,” which appears to be the most socially favored in Britain and northern United States. In the American south I hear people say “fe-biu-ari.” They, too, kind of "swallow" the "r." 6. Fork. Nigerians used to pronounce this word like native British English speakers do, that is, they used to pronounce it “fo:k”— with a long “o” sound. But I hear that teachers in primary and secondary schools in Nigeria now teach students to pronounce it “fe:k.” Well, no one pronounces “fork” that way anywhere in the world. Pronouncing fork “fek” makes you sound like a retarded idiot with speech impediments. 6. Garage. Nigerians universally pronounce this word as “ga-reyj,” but it is pronounced “ga- raaj” or ga-raazh” by native speakers. 7. Itinerary. Many Nigerians “swallow” the middle consonants in the word to produce something like “ai-ti-nari.” Native speakers articulate all the consonants in the word to have something like “ai-ti-nu-rari.” 8. Nigeria. It is perhaps the biggest irony of our “nationhood” that almost no Nigerian pronounces the name of our country “correctly.” Last year, I’d planned to write an article on the imperative to change Nigeria’s name to something other than Nigeria, and part of the argument I wanted to advance was that the name “Nigeria” is so foreign to us that almost no Nigerian pronounces it correctly. One of my readers brought this to my attention again three weeks ago. He pointed out that even President Goodluck Jonathan doesn't pronounce Nigeria correctly. Well, there are regional and ethnic variations in the way "Nigeria" is pronounced in Nigeria. While Hausa people pronounce Nigeria “naa-je-riya,” the rest of the country pronounces it like “nan-ji-ria.” Many language groups in southern and central Nigeria that don’t have the “j” sound in their languages either pronounce it “nan-ye-ria” or “nan-ge-ria.” The British people who imposed the name on us pronounce it “nai-jee-ree-a.” So do Americans and other native English speakers. 9. Pariah. This word, which came to the English language by way of India, entered the active idiolect of Nigerians during the late General Sani Abacha’s regime after the print media ceaselessly described Nigeria as a “pariah nation.” But it seems like nobody bothered to find out how the word is “properly” pronounced. So most of us pronounced it like “pa-riya.” But native speakers pronounce it something like “pa-rai- a.” 10. Pizza. I never ate pizza when I grew up in Nigeria. I had no idea what it was and I had no clue how it was pronounced. Nor did I care. But gastronomic globalization (as I’ve chosen to call the internationalization of otherwise provincial foods) is causing pizza to become a culinary alternative in Nigeria. The problem is, many Nigerians—at least those I related with in my recent trip to Nigeria—pronounce this (Americanized) Italian dish in ways that make it sound almost unrecognizable to the people who eat it. Nigerians pronounce it “pi-za.” I heard a young girl at a high-end Abuja restaurant pronounce it “pisa.” It almost sounded like “pisser,” that is, a person who urinates! Well, the people to whom the food is original pronounce it “peet- sa.” 11. Rendezvous. Many readers asked me to highlight this word. I personally don’t think Nigerians mispronounce it in any particularly egregious manner. I hear Nigerians pronounce it like “ren-dey-voo,” and native-speakers pronounce it “ron-dey-voo” or “ron-di-voo.” That’s not a big difference. I included the word in spite of my dubiety about its being a victim of mispronunciation in Nigeria because more than 10 people asked me to. Perhaps some people sound out every letter in the word—like “ren-dez-vus.” 12. Sotto voce. This Latin loanword for “in a low voice” is properly pronounced “so-tow-vow- chee.” But I’ve heard Nigerians pronounce it like “soto-vos.” Other words that readers suggested are chef (which is properly pronounced “shef”), cognac (which is properly pronounced “kown-yak”), yacht (which is properly pronounced “yot”), chalet, (which is correctly pronounced “sha- ley”), jeopardy (which is correctly pronounced “jepa(r)di”), leopard (which is correctly pronounced “le-pa(r)d”), subtle (which is correctly pronounced “sot(u)l”), and sachet (correctly pronounced “sa-shey”). I will update this blog with more words as they occur to me--or as my readers suggest. My advice for people who want to learn the correct pronunciation of words is that they should make it a habit to check the phonetic spellings of words in good dictionaries. Most people aren’t aware that dictionaries, in addition to telling us the meaning and usage of words, also teach us how to pronounce words. Culled from www.farooqkperogi.com/2013/03/more-words-nigerians-commonly_31.html?m=1 |
Re: Check Out Your Pronunciation Errors Here!You May Be Found Wanting by NessaFresh(f): 11:27am On Mar 31, 2013 |
WOW I've been pronouncing most of these words the wrong way. Great post @ Op! |
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