I have read on this forum several times about how Nigerians "fake accent" and really, I am still trying to figure out what that means. I have had my reservations about this for so long, but I've decided to air my views on this today. Let me first state that I am not a fan of the "English Language"; left to me, the three major languages should be our official languages, and that's the only time we can be "original". As long as you speak English at all (no matter the accent), you're being "fake"! Now on to faking accent; it sounds really funny to me when people say for instance that Nigerians fake british accent when they speak English? It's just like Igbo people telling a fellow Igbo man that he is faking Lagos accent when speaking Yoruba! Is that not just stupid? It isn't his effing language in the first place, so there shouldn't be a special way he should speak the language rather than how it's spoken by the owners of the language. So it's only proper to try as much as he can to speak yoruba the same way Yoruba people speak it. Similarly, the English language belongs to Europe, right? So it's only proper to try as much as possible to speak it just as the Europeans!

However, just like an Igbo man speaking Yoruba, the probability of Nigerians speaking English exactly like Europeans is extremely low. This deficiency is what is called "accent"....Accent isn't something that was constructed to be lol. A grounded fact is this; evolution of Nigerian accent has always been there; the people of the sixties infact had a thicker accent! So Nigerian right now is also "faking an accent" when you compare how we speak English to how it was spoken decades ago in Nigeria. So you want to be original in speaking your English (which is being fake anyway)? speak it the way 'ya greatu grand parentu spoke it in theair daiiys!' The crux of the matter is; people who try to speak like British right now seems to me just like another evolution....ten years from now, most Nigerians would start speaking that way...it would become the new "Nigerian accent", cos no matter how much they try, it won't still be exactly british (atleast not yet).

And to many people who think our language is "Pidgin", and so proud of it...Well, Pidgin is not even a language! It's a derivative of another language (in our case, English). So speaking Pidgin English is just as being fake as speaking English. If you ask me anyway, I think Pidgin is a perfect example of the mediocrity that is Nigeria! You know; we can't speak proper english, so let's just 'chop and screw and make it work'. Voila! Pidgin was born! My Conclusion is: While I have never really given a fvck on which accent you concocted to speak your English, I still think whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well.....so i say, let's stick to our languages, or atleast try to copy properly and don't spoil other people's language, just because you want to be so "Nigerian" in your "fakeness"; please just proudly fake it 100% Thank you!

And if you're one of those who bash Naija actors for faking accents, but you like how Lupita speaks, you are the perfect Nigerian hypocrite! I know how that girl talked in Shuga, and just few years on, her accent has miraculously become American. How interesting!



cc: Sholay2011 prof800 VillageBoi

When you speak swenswenswen english.


I didn't ready your epistle, just attacking the topic



My accent isn't fake thou, but I stepped up.....................you garrit??

Motolank:
When you speak swenswenswen english.


I didn't ready your epistle, just attacking the topic



My accent isn't fake thou, but I stepped up.....................you garrit??

Just read the emboldened, it summarizes what the article is about.

When you sound like channels tv presenters, you are faking it big time. and when you want to sound like the British or the Americans , you are 'super-faking' it.

Someone should wish me HBD

just hit like

If you see a Fulani man like me trying to sound like a Brit instead of being proud of my natural desert accent, then something would be wrong.

There is a difference between "speaking" a particular accent legitimately because you can speak it and "faking it" when you don't have the tongue to speak it, thereby spoiling another person's language.

Inferiority will lead one to do some rather silly things like forming an accent in just the wrong place. It is incredibly silly.

Some people can actually speak certain foreign accents fluently but they know when and when not to speak it.
Take Eku Edewor for example. This lady can speak British accent fluently as well as Nigerian English fluently. When she is doing a show she speaks brit... when she is more relaxed with her pals or granting an interview with Tee-A, she speaks like a Nigerian. She is NOT faking anything.

Lupita you mentioned, is also a legitimate speaker of both African accent and American accent.
But when you have someone forcing himself to speak an accent he is not accustomed to, then that is poorly faking it. Which is rather silly.
Remember Forest Whitaker has also tried to speak African accent in his movies. Which he actually trained rigorously for. That is "acting".

Look at the Indian English accent for example... Would you not be surprised if an Indian was to try to speak Nigerian pidgin. Just imagine how that will sound to your ears. That is exactly how fake accent sounds.

Faking it is when you cannot speak it but forcing yourself to speak it for certain purposes like "forming".


But when you actually, are able to speak a particular accent and you speak it fluently, then that is NOT faking it - you are actually "speaking" it. Just like my Igbo friend will Speak Hausa fluently. No different from that.

Americans go to Australia and some of them accustom themselves to speaking Australian accents. Australians also sometimes ditch their own Accent for the American accent when they travel to USA..And so on and so forth. Is that faking accent? Of course not!


But what is silly has no other name than silly.

Once people can figure out your native accent in your spoken accent, it means you've done a poor job a.k.a 'faking'.

However, if you acquire a foreign accent through prolonged stay abroad, or learn the British or American accent and speak it well and fluently, no one would call yours fake. Most fake accents are accent malfunctions!

Remember we all have freedom to speak however we please. So long communication is achieved, your choice of accent should be a hindrance.

Acquiring a foreign accent is never a crime or a punishable offence, but feeling inferior to those that do is a bigger insecurity issue.

what is the point of the thread?

and where do you people keep meeting those who are faking accents?

why does it bother you so much even if they are?

Have you ever heard a chinese trying to speak like Nigerians? You knw one is faking when he tries hard to speak in a particular way he is not good at and thereby sounding awkward, funny and unnatural.

Whatever!!!!!!!


there are millions of chinese who speak english without an accent!


face your own life!

tpiadotcom:
Whatever!!!!!!!


there are millions of chinese who speak english without an accent!


face your own life!

Those are people of Chinese descent born and raised in those respective English speaking countries.

Fulaman198:

Those are people of Chinese descent born and raised in those respective English speaking countries.

the whining is annoying, thats all.

The way the flight attendants at Arik Airline speak English make me want to scream
all the time! The "superior slur" I call it....my poor African soul winces in pain any time they start
Lawd
I do not know how they do it....but they take "bad talk to a whole new level
SMH

prof800:
Look at the Indian English accent for example... Would you not be surprised if an Indian was to try to speak Nigerian pidgin. Just imagine how that will sound to your ears. That is exactly how fake accent sounds.

EXACTLY my point. If an Indian tries to speak Pidgin (a ridiculous 'language' in its own right), it would sound ridiculous....whether he "fakes" it or not. But atleast he should try to speak it perfectly the way he thinks Nigerians speak it, not settle for his own "Indian pidgin accent" and call it "original" way of speaking pidgin. That is plainly ludicrous. English has really suffered anyway....

AND! There's an "African" accent?!!!!!!!! I never knew . But I can imagine it sounds like "Dr" Will Smith's accent, that probably took six years to learn .

About American/Australian/British English et al, these are not just about accents....they have distinct sentence constructions, grammar, tenses and spellings. These countries consist indigenous speakers of English....can be compared to dialects. Same way we can have ibadan yoruba and ilorin yoruba....but how does it sound to have an Enugu yoruba? LOL

tpiadotcom:



the whining is annoying, thats all.

You gerrit! This thread wasn't to advocate for people to "fake" accent, but rather to weigh in on what the fuss is really about over what was never our own? Don't we have our own languages (that are at risk of being extinct)? But no, we want to claim that na we get English, and that we actually have a standard way of speaking it, and try to denigrate people who want to perfect their own European "copy". Our sense of ownership can be surprising.

Mind you, these are the same people that will wash someone who can't speak English fluently, but very good in his native language. SMH. What they don't realize is, that person they look down on is still the realest and the most original out of the "fake" and "original" english speakers. Shebi na this same nairaland we dey wey dem abuse mama peace "real" diaris God accent? Just because we've tried to speak it "more accurately"....but we want to bash other people who want to try to speak it even more accurately!

^ updated