I know Nigerians are highly intelligent people and this problem i'm about to talk about is not synonymous to just them (cus i know that'll be a lot of people's defence). But, is it just me or are Nigerians "murderers" when it comes to pronunciation and speaking the english language? From obviously professional people i.e my stepdad's friends, family friends etc to Nigerians i meet on a daily basis and Nollywood movies which my sisters watch diligently with their dad, it would appear that assaulting the english language is a past time.Has anyone noticed that more than few Nigerians do not even know how to pronounce the name of their country correctly? Most call it "NINEGERIA"!!!! Then what is the deal with ascribed a totally different meaning to a word?!?!! My stepdad, for years, described bogus as something that is big/huge (he usually referred to my pants as being "too bogus". Yeah, i know we americans do not speak the "proper" english; thats not the point, the point is,



Always love me a NIgerian gal

who are this peeps and where do u all jump out from. are u better at pronunciations, then pronounce this, G.E.T. L.O.S.T!

how da Bleep is this romantic----

@posakosa: i wanted to post this but didnt realize that i was on the romantic thread. just starting to get a hang of nairaland.
@smooth, i know i'm gonna ruffle wet feathers like urs with the truth. read wut i wrote properly, others have the same problem, no denying. u telling me to get lost? i bet u can write it but cant pronounce it properly. ok, pronounce this s.t.a.y o.f.f m.y c.a.s.e f.a.g.g.o.t!!!!

Do Nigerians Murder The English Language?  Yes we do so take us to the International Court of Justice and sue us!

Why would you as an ameriacan care if they can speak English corectly, can you speak theirs correctly? I an not American butCanadian, and the way I see it we all over here on this part of the world, we don't even speak it right. So who are we to chop up someone elses way of speaking when we don't even do it right with all of our slangs,( pardon me we are also not the same) just so people know American is not Canadian big difference there!

Some do, some don't. hate generalizations.

Do you know what an accent is?

They are Nigerians that speak good English.
Just like they are Americans that speak bad English, too.

blackspade, im not talking about the accent. they have an accent to me, i have an accent to them, thats not the issue. the issue is pronunciation. like sayin "muzzle" instead of "muscle"; "huzzle" instead of "hustle" "plah-tay-num" instead of "platinum". then, when speaking it, its a riot. it gets mangled. not by all of them of course, dont get me wrong. for example, i remember sometime last yr, yalll president was here, oh, geez, G.W almost had a fit, and he's not the best english speaker the united states ever had either,

Lord_Reed:

Do Nigerians Murder The English Language?  Yes we do[b] so take us to the International Court of Justice and sue us[/b]!

smooooooth:

who are this peeps and where do u all jump out from. are u better at pronunciations, t[b]hen pronounce this, G.E.T. L.O.S.T[/b]!

Lmao

We have an excuse for murdering the English language: It's not our mother tongue

~Sissy~:

Lmao

No mind am as if dem bring yinglish come from heaven.

i know sometimes i have a hard time understanding peeps here

this is bullshit!!
what a stupid topic.
almost every country or peoeple or person that doesnt have english as the first language will most likely "murder" the english language. who said it is limited to nigerians?

@the amaka, i know u aint blind, and u clearly can read. dummy, didnt u see where i said i know the problem is not synonymous to just nigerians. and im talking of the ones that got english as their first language. so there,

brooklyn99:

@the amaka, i know u aint blind, and u clearly can read. dummy, didnt u see where i said i know the problem is not synonymous to just nigerians. and im talking of the ones that got english as their first language. so there,

Chaaaaiiiii------ and how do u know that she's not blind--- have u seen her ?

There is American English and then there is English. The average American cannot tell a Nigerian English accent from a British English accent. I guess I kind of understand where you are coming from since I know that the most Americans only know accents from what they see on tv. There are a million words in English that only Americans pronounce that way. Compare your accent to a Boston accent for example and you will see that you pronounce your words differently because they had direct ties to England. Nigerians speak very conservative English not the more watered down version that Americans speak. For example, the word aluminum is pronounced the same way by both the British and Nigerians but Americans pronounce it differently. The word WRATH pronounced the same way by Nigerians and the British but most Americans pronounce it differently


http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?wrath001=wrath


versus



http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?wrath002=wrath


Then of course we factor in the fact that Nigerians have their own native accent. It does not make the American accent the correct one it just makes it a different accent with emphasis on different parts of a word. I have corrected quite a few of my American friends only to find out that that pronounciation is totally acceptable as far as American English is concerned anyway.
Where you failed totally is were you said "I know Nigerians are intelligent" as if speaking English is a factor in determining someone's intelligence. I know that is the general feeling in the United States but no where else in the world is English considered as a factor in determining if someone is intelligent or not.

Jesus!!!^^^^^ u write real good and ur explanation is cool IF I WAS TALKING ABOUT FREAKN ACCENTS!!!!ARRRGGGH!!! I'M TALKING PRONUCIATIONS. OK tell me, why do NIGERIANS pronounce their country "[i]NINE[/i]GERIA" or is that the accent too?!!!!

You keep saying you're not talking about accents but pronunciation but that also falls under accent.

One of the definitions of the word, accent from dictionary.com

Accent: a mode of pronunciation, as pitch or tone, emphasis pattern, or intonation, characteristic of or peculiar to the speech of a particular person, group, or locality: French accent; Southern accent.

So really, it's the same shit. I've NEVER heard a Nigerian pronounce the country as / N-I-N-E-G-E-R-I-A/ Don't know where you're hearing such.

Referring to someone else's post, Nigeria might have been colonized by the Britons and what not but the accents are still different. African accents are distinct from those of Europe and America so yeah, that's why most Nigerians in Nigeria pronounce the word, muscle as "muzzle" instead of "mussle" like Americans and Europeans would. It all has to do with the accents.

Not necessarily murdering the English language if you ask me. They're using the words in the right context/sentences just not pronouncing it the way you're used to.

brooklyn99:

Jesus!!!^^^^^ u write real good and your explanation is cool IF I WAS TALKING ABOUT FREAKN ACCENTS!!!!ARRRGGGH!!! I'M TALKING PRONUCIATIONS. OK tell me, why do NIGERIANS pronounce their country "[i]NINE[/i]GERIA" or is that the accent too?!!!!

if thats what you were trying to say thise whole time, whats up with the stupid title?
get away jo!

brooklyn99:

blackspade, im not talking about the accent. they have an accent to me, i have an accent to them, thats not the issue. the issue is pronunciation. like sayin "muzzle" instead of "muscle"; "huzzle" instead of "hustle" "plah-tay-num" instead of "platinum". then, when speaking it, its a riot. it gets mangled. not by all of them of course, dont get me wrong. for example, i remember sometime last yr, yalll president was here, oh, geez, G.W almost had a fit, and he's not the best english speaker the united states ever had either,

lol
this is so funny.
its because of the ACCENT that people PRONOUNCE the words this way.
i mean, dont you get it?
i can easily say "Do Americans Murder The English Language?" just because they pronounce a lot of things differently than the british.

@ chiogo
i agree. i have never heard anyone say "ninegeria" lolol
usually its more of a "nai-jeer-ee-ah" or pretty much the way its supposed to be said.

THE-AMAKA:

@ chiogo
i agree. i have never heard anyone say "ninegeria" lolol
usually its more of a "nai-jeer-ee-ah" or pretty much the way its supposed to be said.

Yea, nai-jeer-reeah, gets on my nerves when people say it that way. Like wtf? lol

lolol

@the amaka, ok now ure really getting on my freakn nerves.lol. why the hell u keep stalkn and harassing me? why, cus i dissed ur b/f , da rupture? lol
@chiogo: hey , they do pronounce it "ninegeria".lol. when next i catch it, maybe on youtube, i'll post it to u.
@the amaka: u sure u aint having fantasies involving me?

uhm, NOOOOOO.
what are you? colombian? black american? african american? next week youll be jamaican. lolol
or are you mad that you look stupid and wrote a dumb ass title?
oh no im not harassing you, im just SIMPLY PROVING YOU WRONG! 
its usually americans or whatever you are, that think if you dont pronounce everything like them, then its not proper english. lol
ive always had people ask me "does your mom speak proper english" im like "yeah" and theyre always like "you mean she doesnt have an accent or anything?" lolol
i was like "what does that have to do with speaking proper english" na wa oooo

Well, the English language has appeared to have already been 'murdered' in this very thread. kpele.

Secretz:

Well, the English language has appeared to have already been 'murdered' in this very thread. kpele.

Apparently so.

The first thing I did upon opening this thread with the 'fanciful title' was to check the content and writing of the original poster. And I was not shocked to find gross and over glaring murdering of English writing at its best. Not to the say there is no truth in the topic; but I expected a perfect touch of lucid English writing. Or is it Americans with their antiquated phraseology in English grammar?

@ poster.
u ve got this all wrong and mixed up. Glad few peeps on here ve tried putting u straight. When u say 'murder english' wat exactly do u mean? Good job folks on here re tryin to put u straight if only u ll listen n learn eh. I ll agree with u if u re making that point based on use of grammar rather than pronounciation. U ever heard the word mother tongue? Meanwhile how dare u talk about Nigerians murdering english! Americans definitely will be more culpable for that and the Brits can confirm that to u. Or are yanks more english than the brits? How come americans spell so many words different? ur problem is with the accent but looks like ur too shallow to even make the point u wanna make and if u keep arguing u ll confuse urself even further. How many words from a nigerian dialect can u pronounce anyway? get a grip and give nigerians some credit. very english person i ve met both in work and in social circles ve commended our grasp of the english as a language but i'm always quick to point out that tho english aint my mother tongue i come from a largely speaking enlish country. it cant be murder if the grammar is right maybe u struggle with the accent simple.

OP, what about americans/british that murder other languages?

Eg. Okocha - Orkcha

Iran pronounced e-ran, American pronounciation ai-ran, same Iraq, pronounced as e-raq american ai-rak

just a few examples

@gshine: ok, i guess ure probably right. i'm not shallow bro:trust me. well, i can come off the top of my head and give various examples of how words are mispronounced and misused but i wont for various reasons 1: i dont want this misconstrued as "NIGERIAN-ACCENT-BASHING" moment, as that is not my intention at all; 2: I would hate that the topic goes from being pseudo funny to tensions being raised and insults being thrown back and forth; I'd come out the loser cus anyone that then reads it would think i started this with the intention of insulting Nigerians. like i said, i got other examples i could use to substantiate my arguement, but the last thing i'd like to do is sound like im insulting or degrading a whole population. i hope noone takes offense at this, i stated this at the start of the post
@agitator: what can i say?lol

This issue is just a storm in a teacup. We will always murder English. That is a prove of our inherent and inalienable culture.But Nigerians should never murder our indigenous languages.