The pronunciation game
The diversity of languages spoken across the continent has never ceased to amaze me. Even within a particular geographical location in Africa, there could be different variants of a dialect. Take for instance, among the Yorubas, there are the Ijesha, Ijebu, Oyo, Egba, Ekiti dialects and each is unique in its own way.
It didn’t come to me as a surprise, therefore, when I had a chatty but hearty discussion with some friends last weekend on languages— the similarities and differences in pronunciation among different cultures. Obviously, the English language was the starting point and the Ghanaians were the first to have a feel of our malicious tongue. Bob, a friend from Tell Magazine, and I were curious about the intonation and pronunciation of some English words by the Ghanaians.
“Walter, how do you pronounce this word, love?” asked Bob.
“Laav, you mean,” Walter answered innocently since he had not been baptised into the game of pronunciation yet. We all burst into laughter, and that included Sally, another Ghanaian who knew where we were headed with our joke.
“So, how do you pronounce it in Nigeria,” Walter quickly asked, attempting to turn the table on us.
“We call it Luuuf,” I replied, as I quietly nursed a mid-riff elbow Bob shoved into me, as he attempted to prevent me from responding.
“You see, your pronunciation is even more colloquial. Is that how you guys speak in Nigeria?” he queried.
“In fact, it might interest you to know that there are different accents in Nigeria, depending on the tribe. For instance, the Yorubas say ‘luf’ with a strong emphasis on ‘v’ which is pronounced as ‘f’. An Anambra man on his part, pronounces every ‘l’ as ‘r’. So, you can expect him to call love, ‘rove,’ you see,” I explained.
“Oh, I see. We don’t have that here in Ghana,” said Sally, who had been nodding to a song playing on one of the FM stations.
And as if the presenter talking on radio had a feel of our discussion, she announced that the next track was titled “I’m in love” by a local artiste whose name was drowned by the outburst from the studio’s speakers. “There was a slight variation in the pronunciation of the presenter and that of the artiste,” observed Bob. “The presenter pronounced it the typical Ghanaian way, ‘laav’ while the musician called it luf.”
“Yesss…” we all chorused. By now, we had fallen in love with the rhythm of the song playing and we were each lost in our world until Bob, the hilarious one, jolted us from our reverie again when he asked to know how the Ghanaians pronounce the word b-u-s. I guess he didn’t direct this to anyone in particular, but he was determined to get an answer to his question. Interestingly, Bob carefully spelt it out to avoid falling into the mockery trap.
“Bes,’ Sally answered before Walter could say a thing.
“We call it ‘bos’ in Nigeria,” I intoned.
What about the word, ‘h-e-r’?
“Ha” said Walter, pronouncing it the typical Nigerian way. We all laughed at his poor effort. “You are trying to turn the table on me this time,” I quickly observed.
“Yes, or is that not how you guys pronounce it?” he asked jokingly.
After a long silence, Bob came up with another word, ‘b-u-t’, which Walter called ‘bet’. This time, his pronunciation triggered a huge laughter from all of us.
No doubt, we had one long journey riddled with jibes and laughter, as we poked fun at one another, especially about our poor or is it varied accents?
I remember in my undergraduate days when I took a course in Nigerian English, the instructor had explained then that Nigerian English was just an aspect of the many “Englishes” in the world; after all, you have the American and British varieties. Nigerians, as it were, are just being creative with the use of the English language handed to them by the colonial masters. How true this is, I’m sure, you’ll want to know. Anyway, this is arguable and as such, a debatable topic any day among linguists. (After all, oyinbo no bi my language). So, when next the Ghanaian or Nigerian blasts the English language all of dem na the same, to quote Lagbaja’s popular song. The ultimate goal is to communicate, no be so? See you next week!
FUNKE OSAE-BROWN