₦airaland Forum

symbianDON:
OPis both correct and wrong at the same time. While there's a an American vehicle manufacturer named Jeep (manufacturers of Grand Cherokee, Wrangler etc), the word Jeep has become a global generic term for off-road vehicles. It is not a misnomer to refer to the Lexus SUV as a Lexus Jeep! However, it should be NOTED THAT THIS COLLOQUIAL ENGLISH and not standard English. Overall, FRSC ought to have known better and called it Lexus SUV since it was offering an official statement.

Sucolee:
Are they telling me there is nothing like Toyota jeep?

cr7lomo:
It's called Toyota SUV or off road...depending on the type ...jeep is a brand name like Mercedes or Honda

iLoveYouToo:
use your dictionary well

2RUTHHURTS:
They are correct , note that they used the small letter "j" (Lexus jeep) and not (Lexus Jeep)

jeep" (lowercase) and "Jeep" (uppercase) is capitalization, but in context, "Jeep" refers to the brand, while "jeep" often describes any similar off-road vehicle (a generic term for a 4x4), though Jeep is the company that popularized the term, offering various models like the Wrangler (rugged) vs. Grand Cherokee (luxury/family

LordIsaac:
I was told lexus SUVs lack balance.

jiggyman:
Jeep is a brand while jeep is a term used mostly or interchangeably for suvs

LordIsaac:
I was told lexus SUVs lack balance.

naptu2:
What are the origins of these words

(This was one of my favourite topics a long time ago, but so much time has passed that I might not remember all the words).

Preamble

I watched a report on the NTA News sometime around 1989 or 1990 and it annoyed me very much. A world famous British linguist was visiting Nigeria and an NTA reporter interviewed him. He was talking about the different words that were used to refer to the same thing in the different variants of the English Language and the NTA reporter kept asking him which word was correct and which word was wrong. He explained to her that none of the words were wrong, but she just couldn't understand it (she even told the presenter in the studio that a certain word was wrong, even though it wasn't). This annoyed me very much.

There are many Nigerians that behave like that NTA reporter.

English is a living language

English is a living language and the meaning of words change. This is because the people that use the language are alive and contexts change. It is very helpful to know the history of words, then you can understand where they came from.

Variations

As you will see when I start posting the examples, one of the reasons for these differences is because we have different variants of the English Language. We have American English, Australian English, British English, Indian English, Irish English, Nigerian English, etc.

What usually happens is that a word would be used tp describe something in British English and it would be adopted universally, then a new word would be used to describe that same thing and British English would move to the new word, but, for example, Irish English or Nigerian English might still continue using the old word.

That's usually how we get variations.

Now let's jump to the examples and begin with words that are currently being discussed on Nairaland.

In fact, I think I'll write out all the examples so that I don't forget them.


1) Jeep, GP and SUV

2) Soft drink, mineral and soda

3) Football, Assoc and soccer

4) Lip service, eye service

5) Trafficator, turn signal and blinker


1) Jeep, GP and SUV

When I was a kid the kind of vehicle that is often 4-wheel drive, used for rough terrain, etc was universally known as a jeep (small j). The term sports utility vehicle (SUV) came much later.

Years later some people tried to convince me that the term jeep (small j) was wrong because of the word Jeep (capital J). I laughed because I knew the origin of the word.

You might remember when I told you about the origin of the Super Tucano and other COIN aircraft. I told you about the US military specifications. Well the jeep came about in a similar way.

The US military issued specifications and began a contest for a general purpose vehicle. Many companies competed for the contract, but it was won by a small company called Willys.

However, Willys was too small to build the number of the vehicles that the military wanted, so the military made them share the contract with the Ford Motor Company. Therefore, both Ford and Willys built this vehicle for the US Army in World War 2.

The soldiers loved the vehicle because it was 4-wheel drive and rugged and it could also easily be fixed on the battlefield. Remember that I told you that the contract was for a general purpose vehicle? Well the soldiers shortened this to GP and from that the slang jeep was formed. The word jeep was a military slang for a general purpose vehicle.

Interestingly, General Motors also produced the vehicle at some point, but Willys was eventually taken over by Chrysler (this means that at various times the American big 3 automobile companies, Ford, General Motors and Chrysler produced the Willy's jeep). The Willys company took the soldiers' slang and turned it into a brand Jeep (capital J).

Therefore the word jeep is both a generic term for a general purpose vehicle and a brand name. It was first a generic term before it became a brand name. You capitalise the first letter when you are referring to a brand and you don't capitalise it when you are using the generic term.

I learnt this as far back as 1985/1986 and so it was funny to me when people were trying to tell me in 1999 that I was wrong.

The Willy's jeep was very successful and many countries tried to copy it. The original Land Rover Series was created in 1948 (after the Second World War) and it was referred to as a jeep, the Land Cruiser was created in 1951 and it was referred to as a jeep etc.

2) Soft drink, mineral, soda:

It annoys me when people keep asking which of these words is correct. They are all correct!

As I said, these words were used in British English at some point in time. Some variants of the language retained some words and others did not.

It's usually referred to as soft drink in British English, soda in American English, etc. I have a theory about why it's referred to as mineral in Nigerian English, but I'm not sure if I'm right.

It's also referred to as mineral in Irish English and a lot of the teachers at Catholic mission schools in Nigeria during the Colonial Era were Irish, so I suspect that they taught their students to refer to it as mineral.

Anyway, all those words are correct.


3) Football, Assoc, Soccer:

Football was a very popular sport in England and everybody called it football. However, today we know that there are different football codes. It was the creation of one of those codes that led to the word soccer.

They were playing football one day at Rugby school when a student called William Web Ellis picked up the ball, carried it and ran with it. That was the birth of rugby football.

Fans of normal football wanted a way to differentiate their sport from rugby, so they began calling it association football. So you had association football and rugby football. These were later shortened. Association football was called assoc and then soccer, while rugby was called rugger (rugby is still called rugger today). Over time the British (and most other people) stopped calling it soccer, but the Americans, South Africans and a few others continued calling it soccer.

4) Lip service and eye service:

Once upon a time someone was arguing and telling me that the term eye service was wrong, that it was only used by Nigerians and that it should be lip service. I told him to open his bible to Ephesians 6:6 and Colossians 3:22 and read those verses for me.

5) Trafficator, turn signal, blinker, etc:

People have also told me that there is no such thing as trafficator. Of course there is.

In the early days of the automobile there was a device that was attached to the vehicle. This device could be extended when you want to turn and it had a flashing orange light. That is a trafficator. The device is no longer used and the orange light is pernanently fixed to the body of the vehicle but Nigerians still use the word trafficator, because they all perform the same function.


Chinua Achebe and German Igbo:

There was a guy that seriously annoyed me. You see, Chinua Achebe said something that made perfect sense, but this guy wrote an article to argue with Professor Achebe, but he made no sense at all. I believe the problem is low self esteem.

Professor Achebe had explained that there was something called Nigerian English, but this guy wrote to dispute that claim.

He said that there was nothing like Nigerian English, there's only correct English and wrong English (doesn't that remind you of the NTA reporter at the beginning of this post?). He said that if there was Nigerian English, then how come there is no "German Igbo"? I couldn't believe that someone could fail to understand something so simple.

There is no German-Igbo because the Igbo language is not widely spoken in Germany. There would have been German Igbo if it was widely spoken.

Take the post that I created a few days ago. Many Nigerians were shocked to discover an account that is run by a Togolese girl. She speaks Yoruba in all her videos. I wasn't shocked. I attended a funeral in Togo years ago and they mainly spoke Yoruba at that funeral. But the Yoruba is slightly different. It is Togolese Yoruba.

There is Canadian-French, Brazilian-Yoruba, American-English, etc. Of course there is Nigerian-English!

2RUTHHURTS:
They are correct , note that they used the small letter "j" (Lexus jeep) and not (Lexus Jeep)

jeep" (lowercase) and "Jeep" (uppercase) is capitalization, but in context, "Jeep" refers to the brand, while "jeep" often describes any similar off-road vehicle (a generic term for a 4x4), though Jeep is the company that popularized the term, offering various models like the Wrangler (rugged) vs. Grand Cherokee (luxury/family

janfeeson:
FRSC Making a statement on the unfortunate accident involving Anthony Joshua mentioned a "Lexus Jeep". This is been mentioned verbatim in the international media. It is a Lexus SUV or SCV, not a Jeep. Jeep and Lexus are two different car manufacturers.

LordIsaac:
I was told lexus SUVs lack balance.

1Alex:
you are correct. You even hear them call all pick-up trucks "hilux".

Authoreety:
Na naija matters be that ...


If dem call am like that, Nigerians will understand it better

REALretep:
You just exposed your ignorance...both you and the mod that moved this to front page
You think you are brighter than the international media that broadcasted this.
A simple Google search or dictionary check would have helped you

LordIsaac:
I was told lexus SUVs lack balance.

2RUTHHURTS:
They are correct , note that they used the small letter "j" (Lexus jeep) and not (Lexus Jeep)

jeep" (lowercase) and "Jeep" (uppercase) is capitalization, but in context, "Jeep" refers to the brand, while "jeep" often describes any similar off-road vehicle (a generic term for a 4x4), though Jeep is the company that popularized the term, offering various models like the Wrangler (rugged) vs. Grand Cherokee (luxury/family

Authoreety:
Na naija matters be that ...


If dem call am like that, Nigerians will understand it better

janfeeson:
FRSC Making a statement on the unfortunate accident involving Anthony Joshua mentioned a "Lexus Jeep". This is been mentioned verbatim in the international media. It is a Lexus SUV or SCV, not a Jeep. Jeep and Lexus are two different car manufacturers.

LordIsaac:
I was told lexus SUVs lack balance.

janfeeson:
FRSC Making a statement on the unfortunate accident involving Anthony Joshua mentioned a "Lexus Jeep". This is been mentioned verbatim in the international media. It is a Lexus SUV or SCV, not a Jeep. Jeep and Lexus are two different car manufacturers.

GloriousGbola:
Oyinbos do the same thing

https://www.godaddy.com/resources/skills/brand-names-that-are-common-words

Some brand names have simply become lexicon

janfeeson:
FRSC Making a statement on the unfortunate accident involving Anthony Joshua mentioned a "Lexus Jeep". This is been mentioned verbatim in the international media. It is a Lexus SUV or SCV, not a Jeep. Jeep and Lexus are two different car manufacturers.

dominique:
I tire for Nigerians matter. All noodles are indomie, all toothpastes are Macleans, all SUVs are Jeep. Jeep is a brand name of an SUV. Even if ignorant Nigerians are making that mistake, government officials, people in the media shouldn't.

Any SUV that does not have the brand name jeep on it is NOT a jeep

This is a jeep👇🏽

Jonwesley:
Unlike the rugged Toyota brand. Very lightweight material

dominique:
I tire for Nigerians matter. All noodles are indomie, all toothpastes are Macleans, all SUVs are Jeep. Jeep is a brand name of an SUV. Even if ignorant Nigerians are making that mistake, government officials, people in the media shouldn't.

Any SUV that does not have the brand name jeep on it is NOT a jeep

This is a jeep👇🏽

2RUTHHURTS:
They are correct , note that they used the small letter "j" (Lexus jeep) and not (Lexus Jeep)

jeep" (lowercase) and "Jeep" (uppercase) is capitalization, but in context, "Jeep" refers to the brand, while "jeep" often describes any similar off-road vehicle (a generic term for a 4x4), though Jeep is the company that popularized the term, offering various models like the Wrangler (rugged) vs. Grand Cherokee (luxury/family