COVID-19: ENGLISH VS NIGERIAN PHONICS

COVID-19: ENGLISH VS NIGERIAN PHONICS
                             By:
                      Nurudeen Dauda
                      March 23, 2020
nurudeendauda24@yahoo.com
nurudeendauda24@gmail.com
nurudeendauda.blogspot.com

It is sad to note that, some Nigerians"trivialise" the "calamity"called"Coronavirus"(COVID-19).A virus that brought "powerful nations" to their "knees", but for us in Nigeria, some supposed "intellectuals" instead of suggesting how "best" to "arrest" the "pandemic "are more interested in its word pronunciation. Our"comedians"have since turned it to a "script" for acting "comedies". Some of our religious clerics are at "war "with medical "experts" advice. There are many "national jokes" with same !

All ethnic groups in Nigeria have some alphabetical "pronunciations"difficulties. A lot of Nigerians mispronounced the following words: Bomb /Bom/,Debt/det/,Thumb/thum/,Plumber /plumer/, off/of/,Up/aap/,Of/ov/,often /ofn/, Open /oupan/, and Upon /apon/ etc. Should that be an issue? 

A typical Yoruba man pronounces letter "Z" as "S". Words like "Zoo" is pronounced as "Soo", "Zip" as "Sip" and "Zebra" as "Sebra". A typical Hausa man pronounces letter "P" as "F" .Words like "people " are pronounced as "feofle", "performance "as "ferformance", and "pull" as "full". A typical Igbo man pronounces Letter  "G" as "Gwa". Words like "government " is pronounced as "gwavament". A typical Igala man pronounces "Ch" as "Sh".Words like "child" is pronounced as "Shild", "chop" as "Shop", and "Check "as "Sheck". A typical Idoma man pronounces Letter "R" as "L" .Words like "wrong" is pronounced as "long", Direct"as Dilect", and 'Room" as"loom".

The most important thing in every language is its "grammar"not its "phonics ". In Nigeria, we often confused "vocabulary" with "grammar". If one speaks with too many "unfamiliar"words, we often say he speaks too much grammar. The "art" of speaking "unfamiliar" words is "vocabulary" and not "grammar".

Apart from difficulties in pronouncing some letters by Nigerians, among the four British West Africans which are : (1) Ghana, (2) Gambia, (3) Sierra Leone and Nigeria, if one listens carefully will realise that only Nigerians engage in alphabetical pronunciations. Ninety nine percent of us Nigerians including the highly educated ones are into what "scholars" described as "alphabetical"pronunciations.

Nigerians pronounce words by the alphabets they see not how it is supposed to be pronounced orally. If you bring 10 professors of English to pronounce the word "education" /ejukeisn/, I bet you, you are likely to hear them pronoun it differently. A lot of Nigerians mispronounced the following words: Rector /rekta/, Doctor /dokta/, Motor/ mota/,
Director /dairekta/, Lecture /lekcha/, Listen /Lisen/, Market/ma:kit/, Jacket /Dja:kit/,Pocket /pokit/, and Wallet /wa:lit/ etc.

Of the three important things in a language :(1) grammar, (2) vocabulary, and (3) phonics , the most important thing is grammar. For me , it will be only highly unacceptable if a public figure has a serious issue with his "grammar" and not "phonics". 

May God bless Nigeria!

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