The Nigerianness of the English Language

The Nigerianness of the English Language
Ganiu Abisoye Bamgbose (GAB)

The title of this piece partly reflects the argument raised therein, with the extended nominalisation of Nigeria to generate Nigerianness; a word which is used in this piece, to mean that which is peculiar to Nigeria. English has incontrovertibly lent itself to developmental stages across the globe; thereby resulting in numerous world Englishes. In Nigeria, the English language has metamorphosed from being adopted to being adapted and finally to the stage of being nativised, indigenised or Nigerianised.

This is the reason terms such as “correctness” and “incorrectness” are rather avoided by linguists and preference is given to other subtler terms such as “standard” and “nonstandard”, “appropriate” and “inappropriate” forms of utterances. This is because as the English language tries to consolidate itself in Nigeria and other non-native societies as the prestigeous language of mediation in the face of linguistic heterogeneity, there will definitely be instances of misuses and interferences which would be borne out of the contact of the English language with the over 500 indigenous Nigerian languages. This short article sets out to discuss some areas where Nigerian languages seem to have unending effects on the spoken English of Nigerians with a view to conscientising Nigerian speakers of English on how to avoid such interferences, especially when they desire to operate within what can be tagged international English which is mutually intelligible to all speakers of the language across the globe.

The first of the three areas that this article will discuss is reduplication. Reduplication is the phenomenon of doubling linguistic elements in the same stretch of speech for the purposes of emphasis (Bamigboye and Allison 2017:91). Reduplication is of great semantic relevance in many Nigerian languages. It is used in Yoruba to lay emphasis. For instance, the word _gidi_ means real in Yoruba and its repetition _gidigidi_ means very real. Other Nigerian languages also deploy reduplication for different semantic and pragmatic functions. The Ibo have _kitakita_ which they use to mean _quickly_ and the Hausa have _kadankadan_ which is used to mean gently. Reduplication is not very productive in English. The English language has a very robust vocabulary and usually there are adverbs which are used to perform the functions that reduplication performs in most Nigerian languages. It has been noticed, however, that Nigerians across all educational levels reduplicate words to achieve different purposes in English. This results in expressions such as:
Little little drops of water (little drops of water)
Small small boys (small boys)
Fine fine girls (fine girls)
Once once (once)
Five five thousand naira (five thousand naira each)
Slow slow (gently).

Even the very educated Nigerians occasionally reduplicate words, especially in spoken English. It is however essential to minimise this interference tendency in the interest of standard international practice.

Another area which, though, has been effectively established in literature but, of course, is important in an essay such as this is the use of honorary pronouns or honourifics. The English language does not mark age difference in the use of pronouns as it is the case with Yoruba and some other Nigerian languages. It is then the case that Nigerians, especially the young ones, who have mastered the use of honourary pronouns in their languages use the plural forms of the personal pronouns for an individual as a marker of respect. It is not uncommon to hear a young Nigerian say “They are not around” when he refers to his father. This is because she or he will assume the use of the singular form “he” will mark disrespect. It is important to call people’s attention to this significant difference in the pronominal systems of English and Nigerian languages for the sake of global intelligibility.

The last aspect of Nigerianness discussed in this piece is in the area of what Bamgbose (1995) refers to as aspects of nativisation of English in Nigeria. He grouped them into three and the second and third aspects are of interest to this piece. The second aspect is called pragmatic use of English in a second language situation and this brings about the use of expressions such as: well done, sorry, thanks for yesterday and so on. The third aspect of nativisation is called creativity resulting in expressions such as: to take in (to become pregnant), been-to (one who has travelled abroad), sufferhead (a luckless person), arrangee (someone employed in illegal currency deals), four-one-nine (a fraudster). As much as these instances of nativisation have come to stay and depict the Nigerian socio-cultural realities, until a standard variety of Nigerian English authenticates their uses, one must use them with caution and avoid them in formal speeches and writings.

In conclusion, this piece submits that the English language in Nigeria has developed into a recognised variety of English called Nigerian English. Notwithstanding its recognition, cases of interferences such as reduplications, honourifics and nativisations have to be avoided in the main, especially in formal speeches and writings.

(c) 2019 Ganiu Abisoye Bamgbose (GAB)
Doctoral Candidate of English, University of Ibadan

References:
Bamgbose A. (1995). English in the Nigerian Environment. In Bamgbose A., Banjo, A. & Thomas A. (eds) New Englishes. A West African Perspectives. Ibadan: Mosuro pp 9-26.
Bamigboye & Allison (2017). The Influence of Yoruba Reduplication on the Use of English Language by Yoruba Bilinguals. EKSU Studies in Language and Literature Vol. 5, No 1 90-95