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Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by Nobody: 10:15pm On Jun 29, 2013
Afam4eva:
You're not making sense. You said Nigerians have to pronounce English words like Americans when they travel to American. Why not vice-versa. Is English an American language?

Why would you speak Yoruba the way they do in Benin if you don't understand the way they speak it there. Why force yourself? Why not be yourself.

If English is not an American language please tell me what is? Oh don't tell me American English oo and dont even try to mention England because i believe we've all read the history books. Its plain simple, if somebody borrows your language, the onus is on them to get it right. My reference to Brazil is simple. They have traces of Yoruba descendants there that speak a different/modified version. Why would I try to speak yoruba like them if I go there when I know my way of speaking is the original dialect? On the other hand, if they come to Yorubaland, they better pronounce words the way we do

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Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by queenbinteo: 10:16pm On Jun 29, 2013
@ Afameva-whats Pan Nigeria accent,biko? Maybe I need to start imitating those americans via hollywood.you know wat am sayin,y'all!! Lol
Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by delors(m): 10:17pm On Jun 29, 2013
Afam4eva:
You're not making sense. You said Nigerians have to pronounce English words like Americans when they travel to American. Why not vice-versa. Is English an American language?

Why would you speak Yoruba the way they do in Benin if you don't understand the way they speak it there. Why force yourself? Why not be yourself.
American accent is about the most recognized in the world. Ever wondered why so many British actors learn American diction before becoming professionals?
Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by 2chains1(m): 10:17pm On Jun 29, 2013
M own is dat how can you spend 20-27yrs in nigeria and den go for masters and after 3months strt saying the environment had affected my way of pronouncing some words. Ogbeni u spent over 2decads in naija with ur deeply rooted naija accent how can 3months affect it?

1 Like

Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by Diasporan(m): 10:21pm On Jun 29, 2013
drake2005:

Pants vs Trousers vs underwear...haha. First thing you learn in the US; the second "Trousers" are virtually non-exitent or used. Once had a friend who visited from Nigeria and someone complimented him that the pants he wore looked great on him. He was like, how was he able to see my pant(underwear he thought)....we laughed. Obviously pants are used here as opposed to trousers.

Soda vs Mineral(soft drinks)
Cookies vs Biscuit
Trunk vs Booth
Na wa for America sef
Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by Nobody: 10:23pm On Jun 29, 2013
There is really no need to fake accent. words just need to be clear and coherent with correct pronunciation. With regards to british accent, My wife came to the UK and sat for the ielts general exams 3days after her arrival. I was surprised she scored 9 bands in all the categories. The speaking and listening part of the exam was the first time she had a proper conversation with a native British (the examiner). If she had faked her accent, I am sure the result would have been mega failure.

Someone mentioned what a Nigerian accent is? British born Nigerians are excellent at mimicking a naija accent.. lol....they would be in the best position to answer that question.
Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by Afam4eva(m): 10:24pm On Jun 29, 2013
delors:
American accent is about the most recognized in the world. Ever wondered why so many British actors learn American diction before becoming professionals?
What bearing has that got to do with my statement. Read the comment that i was responding to, to see why i wrote what i wrote. No one is disputing the fact that the American accent may be the most recognizable English accent the world over.
Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by Afam4eva(m): 10:25pm On Jun 29, 2013
queen binte o: @ Afameva-whats Pan Nigeria accent,biko? Maybe I need to start imitating those americans via hollywood.you know wat am sayin,y'all!! Lol
The accent you hear Genevieve. Wizzkid, Tiwa Savage, Omotola speak is the Pan-Nigerian accent. It's neither Igbo, Yoruba or Hausa accent.
Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by Diasporan(m): 10:27pm On Jun 29, 2013
queen binte o: @ Afameva-whats Pan Nigeria accent,biko? Maybe I need to start imitating those americans via hollywood.you know wat am sayin,y'all!! Lol
Please help me ask him.Did four years course in English and i never heard of it
Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by drake2005: 10:28pm On Jun 29, 2013
delors:
Yeah, but then, it is not applicable in all cases. One very important part of the pronunciation is 'stress and intonation'. Whether you stress the r or not, how u indent ur pronunciation matters a lot. You could pronounce water as water (even with the r being silent) and be understood if you use the right stress. In 'WATER', WA is high pitched and 'ter' is low. Then also, i think Nigerians dont really roll the 'r' in their words and we don't pronounce the combination of 'ur' (burn for instance), 'er', 'ere', 'air', 'ee' and 'ea' right. For instance, we say 'strit' instead of 'street', striking out one of the 'e's. Somany wrong things about pronunciation. Hopefully, a lot of Nigerians in the diaspora would benefit from this forum and become conscious of their pronunciations.
More so, some words that serve both as a noun and a verb are wrongly pronounced. 'Remix' as a noun, you stress RE and keep it low on 'mix' while as a verb, u stress MIX and keep it low on the 're'. Listen to American rappers. although some Nigerian artistes are becoming conscious of that one though...lolz

I agree with you 100% on pretty much every thing you said. On water, "WA" is the stressed syllable, but the "r" is still pronounced with the unstressed "ter" which creates the "flapped t", sounding like "d" sound. Might be unnoticeable because the stressed syllable in this case "WA" is preponderant. American English is perhaps the only language that isn't spoken necessarily as it is written.

1 Like

Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by queenbinteo: 10:29pm On Jun 29, 2013
Diasporan:
Soda vs Mineral(soft drinks)
Cookies vs Biscuit
Trunk vs Booth
Na wa for America sef
Route is pronounced raout
Street vs block
Ground floor vs first floor
And the spellings: labour vs labor,colour vs color.
Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by delors(m): 10:32pm On Jun 29, 2013
Bottom line is, a good number of Nigerians abroad speak better English than these guys but we have a very serious accent that hinders free flow of communication. Even Indians find it hard to understand us. they speak more clearly and pronounce better than we do. We don't blow grammar but we make them laugh by our accent...they find it amusing.
But regardless of how well we modify our accent, it will still be obvious you don't belong. On so many occasions I have been shocked by people who just guessed my background by my accent. (FYI, I dont have a bad one oooo...mine is refinely modified grin) .
Life story: was coming back from work yesterday and an old woman with her dog looking stranded approach me to get a direction. As soon as i said 'hi, its over there'..she asked, where are you from? i said Nigeria. She said aha, i knew it. And then she amazed me, asking: Are you Igbo?
Some years back, one lecturer once said to me in the washroom (becos I was on the fone speaking pidgin) 'oga, how na'? I looked around, like shocked shocked shocked shocked shocked what's going on. He said he was in Nigeria for a very long time, helped build Lagos business school, stayed in Maiduguri for a while etc. I was shokced beyond words. Somany like that, everyday, everywhere. So no matter how well refined the accent is, fowl yansh go still blow. I met a girl last week at a multicultural fest, she was alone in her stall so I thought I could spring up a convo. As soon as we started talking and she pronounced 'thought', I asked her straight, you a Nigerian? and she said yes. From Delta! Meanwhile she has a very refined accent with very Behind Canadian chic swag but fowl yansh blow eventually. So, it cannot be hidden...
Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by Christmasdon(m): 10:33pm On Jun 29, 2013
...this still confuse me till today. I have not seen a white man speaking Pidgin even in hollywood movies. Am still wondering where Nigerians got the so called pidgin from. Nigerians unu di egwu.
Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by queenbinteo: 10:35pm On Jun 29, 2013
Afam4eva:
The accent you hear Genevieve. Wizzkid, Tiwa Savage, Omotola speak is the Pan-Nigerian accent. It's neither Igbo, Yoruba or Hausa accent.
Biko, oga Afam,did u coin the word pan nigeria accent or wat? I stil don't get ur explanation of pan nigeria accent,break it down pls.
Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by Nobody: 10:38pm On Jun 29, 2013
Amerian English 101 training on this thread. US Colleges have accent reduction programs for immigrants. Its usually compulsory for those in ESL programs. Otherwise, if you take a Public Speaking class as part of your undergrad degree, it helps with words and pronounciation. Our people tend to reduce their voice and change their sound ahahahaa. Talk slowly and loudly thats all. Nobody is ashamed of being Nigerian. When you stay in France to learn french or learn in french, you pick up the accent as well.
Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by Afam4eva(m): 10:40pm On Jun 29, 2013
queen binte o:
Biko, oga Afam,did u coin the word pan nigeria accent or wat? I stil don't get ur explanation of pan nigeria accent,break it down pls.
I coined it actually but that's the best term to use to refer to the accent. Another phrase that can be used to describe it is "Nigerian elite accent."

1 Like

Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by delors(m): 10:41pm On Jun 29, 2013
Afam4eva:
What bearing has that got to do with my statement. Read the comment that i was responding to, to see why i wrote what i wrote. No one is disputing the fact that the American accent may be the most recognizable English accent the world over.
Afamefuna easy! I was just saying Americans have this cavalier arrogance that makes them think that everyone should sound American. So if you go there and you try to sound different, they look donw on one as if the person isnt learned meanwhile they dont even speak good English. Their grammars and verbs are sometimes mixed up. So, it is more or less in line with your comment, not really antagonizing nothing bro... smiley
Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by Afam4eva(m): 10:41pm On Jun 29, 2013
delors:
Afamefuna easy! I was just saying Americans have this cavalier arrogance that makes them think that everyone should sound American. So if you go there and you try to sound different, they look donw on one as if the person isnt learned meanwhile they dont even speak good English. Their grammars and verbs are sometimes mixed up. So, it is more or less in line with your comment, not really antagonizing nothing bro... smiley
Ok. Noted.
Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by Diasporan(m): 10:43pm On Jun 29, 2013
Christmasdon: ...this still confuse me till today. I have not seen a white man speaking Pidgin even in hollywood movies. Am still wondering where Nigerians got the so called pidgin from. Nigerians unu di egwu.
Point of correction.There is nothing like Pidgin English in the actual sense instead we have the Nigerian Pidgin and other types of pidgins.The word Pidgin English is a non specific name used to refer to any of the many Pidgin languages derived from the English.The Pidgin language is a language derived from the combination of two structural languages.One being the superstraight structure and the other substraight structure.There are various types of Pidgin i.e The Nigerian Pidgin,American Indian pidgin,chinese Pidgin,Hawaiian Pidgin.

1 Like

Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by drake2005: 10:45pm On Jun 29, 2013
queen binte o:
Route is pronounced raout
Street vs block
Ground floor vs first floor
And the spellings: labour vs labor,colour vs colour.

That's another debatable word. People in the East coast( New york, New Jersey, e.t.c.) would pronounce it as " rowt or raout as you wrote" but we, in the western(Wyoming, Arizona, California, Washington, Colorado,and others) and people in the Midwest states( Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, and others) pronounce it as it is written "root". Now, from an educational or professional speaking stand point, listening to professors and news presenters, they tend to use it within different contexts...give you an example. When referring to a specific road (like Route 66), most would pronounce it as "root" just as it is written, however while [r\aUt] is for a course of travel, i.e., paper route, or an example "I tried a new route today to get to the cabin."

1 Like

Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by maninmood(m): 10:47pm On Jun 29, 2013
Accent acquisition is clearly different from 'faking accent'. We Nigerians should just admit that our English pronunciation is not spot-on. I got to know this after using up a year in a UK university. Believe it or not, some contributors here might just pronounce accent(/aksent/) as /asent/ and excellent(eksələnt) as /ezelent/ just to mention but a few.

A student of Computer Network Technology
UCLAN

1 Like

Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by queenbinteo: 10:47pm On Jun 29, 2013
Afam4eva:
I coined it actually but that's the best term to use to refer to the accent. Another phrase that can be used to describe it is "Nigerian elite accent."
Got it!! 'Aje butter' accent ,right?

1 Like

Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by 50calibre(m): 10:48pm On Jun 29, 2013
The British accent is very hard to fake, you just can't keep up with constantly faking it, it will zap your energy. The British accent, originates from the throat, apart from Scottish or Newcastle.

My uncle has been in Britain before the biafran war, but he still talks like a man in the village.

American accent is easy to fake, just keep rolling your tongue.

1 Like

Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by Afam4eva(m): 10:49pm On Jun 29, 2013
queen binte o:
Got it!! 'Aje butter' accent ,right?
Yep! "Ajebutter accent" may even be the best term.
Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by Diasporan(m): 10:49pm On Jun 29, 2013
drake2005:

That's another debatable word. People in the East coast( New york, New Jersey, e.t.c.) would pronounce it as " rowt or raout as you wrote" but we in the western(Wyoming, Arizona, California, Washington, Colorado,and others) and people in the Midwest states( Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, and others) pronounce it as it is written "root". Now from an educational stand point, listening to professors and news presenters, they tend to use it within different contexts...give you an example. When referring to a specific road (like Route 66), most would use "root" as it is written, however while [r\aUt] is for a course of travel, i.e., paper route, or an example "I tried a new route today to get to the cabin."
Please can i get a clarification on why Americans make use of Antai instead Anti?My 18 years old cousin laughed at me in public when i said /G^gl/ instead of /Gu:gl/(Google).He was lucky the father was nearby.
Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by abdulkayus(m): 10:50pm On Jun 29, 2013
Hahahaha, me dey enjoy dis thread wallahi.
D one wey dey pain me na dis Radio OAP, dem dey always sound like say na for US dem born dem.
Cool fm, Rhythm Fm, and others are guilty of dis.

3 Likes

Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by Christmasdon(m): 10:50pm On Jun 29, 2013
queen binte o: @ Afameva-whats Pan Nigeria accent,biko? Maybe I need to start imitating those americans via hollywood.you know wat am sayin,y'all!! Lol
.. Yes! I think a pan nigerian accent is any one who is much educated. Like 10 o clock radio network news u see an hausa, igbo, yoruba man/woman presenting news. You hardly hear their accents. Check it out and see.
Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by queenbinteo: 10:53pm On Jun 29, 2013
drake2005:

That's another debatable word. People in the East coast( New york, New Jersey, e.t.c.) would pronounce it as " rowt or raout as you wrote" but we, in the western(Wyoming, Arizona, California, Washington, Colorado,and others) and people in the Midwest states( Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, and others) pronounce it as it is written "root". Now, from an educational or professional speaking stand point, listening to professors and news presenters, they tend to use it within different contexts...give you an example. When referring to a specific road (like Route 66), most would use "root" as it is written, however while [r\aUt] is for a course of travel, i.e., paper route, or an example "I tried a new route today to get to the cabin."
So more of different pronounciation for verb n noun or just context? Raout is what I do hear on hollywood movies. Americans sef. *phew
Nb-forgot to add anti,pronounced antai!! Wahala dey o

1 Like

Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by maninmood(m): 10:54pm On Jun 29, 2013
Diasporan:
Please can i get a clarification on why Americans make use of Antai instead Anti?My 18 years old cousin laughed at me in public when i said [b]/G^gl/ instead of /Gu:gl/(Google).He was lucky the father was nearby. [/b]

Lol I used to pronounce google as goggle. Changed that after being laughed at, in class.

1 Like

Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by Diasporan(m): 11:00pm On Jun 29, 2013
maninmood:

Lol I used to pronounce google as goggle. Changed that after being laughed at, in class.
I always have serious issues whenever i am flying locally here.The airline desk attendants in the airline i always fly all know me now cause i do give them real stress whenever i go to ask for info and i enjoy playing around with them in my funny accent.Funny enough when i speak to my friends in Naija on phone they will be like men you don turn to oyinbo finish...o.They don't know my accent can land me a delay or embarassment in some situations tongue

2 Likes

Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by Nobody: 11:00pm On Jun 29, 2013
maninmood:

Lol I used to pronounce google as goggle. Changed that after being laughed at, in class.


hahaha

1 Like

Re: Nigerians And Fake Accent by bharkarh(m): 11:02pm On Jun 29, 2013
Mamacita007:

hahahahahaa true comment
laff dan make blood dey gush from ma eyes...TRUE talk bro

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