I have observed in recent times, attempts by some language popes in the Nigerian media to outlaw the usage of certain English words on the grounds that they are incorrect. As a matter of fact, some columnists and radio presenters specialising in a crude brand of error analysis in media reportage seem to take great delight in castigating people for using certain words even though they are attested in English. They are like the language prudes who change “It is me” to “It is I”, whereas both forms are attested in the language. Or change send-off to send forth, whatever that means! In the Department of English, we do far much more than studying the parts of speech. We study speech/pragmatic acts, we do discourse analysis (talking of the verb do, yes, you can do a paper), we study variations in language use and such things. We also do World Englishes, looking at the ways the English language continues to evolve. This is because as Sam Babatunde notes in the introduction to the delightful Contemporary English Usage: An Introductory Survey (2003, although newer editions must be out by now), removed from its native soil, the English language must wear a new garb. With respect to Nigerian English, readers may also want to get copies of A Dictionary of Nigerian English by Wale Adegbite et al (2014). They might also want to look up Herbert Igboanusi’s Igbo English in the Nigerian Novel and David Jowitt’s Nigerian English Usage. New Englishes: A West Africa Perspective is almost canonical by now. You could do worse than get a copy!
I begin with the word flag bearer, which the prescriptivists insist must be standard bearer or nothing else. A party’s flag-bearer is actually its standard-bearer, although I find the word candidate to be the more widely used. One might say like Captain Absolute in Sheridan’s The Rivals: cease your impertinence. In native speaker, say British English, the words youth and the plural form youths are both attested. However, the plural form youths tends to be used in reference to males only. Where male and female referents are intended, youth tends to be used. You would observe that the Wikipedia page on #EndSARS speaks of Nigerian youth (not Nigerian youths) protesting in 2020, because the protesters included both males and females. This is also why it is usual to say the youth if male and female referents are intended. I am however open to the youths if it gains traction or if it is taken to be the Nigerian version. But there’s really no need to change the youth to the youths in this sense and castigate the reporter/writer.
It is perfectly okay to say either of the following: “The council notes that/Council notes that…/The Government believes/Government believes….” This is 2022. I have seen people changing expressway (e.g Lagos-Ibadan expressway) to highway in media writing because, as they assumed, highway is British and expressway American. Well, both words are American contributions to global English, unlike the British motorway. Besides, it is pretty odd to think that American English is sub-standard, or can be legislated out of media reports. The word kerosene is not British. So why are the legislators not using the British word paraffin? To eliminate American English from Nigerian media reports, you’d have to drop dead. As I have said elsewhere: the English spoken in Nigeria is a blend of British, American and local English forms. There is no reason to expect this to change in the foreseeable future.
I would not dismiss such forms as “coming/arriving late to work” by saying that “arriving late at work” is the correct form. The truth is that arrive late to work is widely attested in the language and is grammatical. If in doubt, see: https://ludwig.guru/s/I+arrived+late+to+work. No language lord would last for five minutes if they presented a paper at a Department of English. I have to say: much of this legislation is due to limited exposure to English. No one really familiar with how language, any living language, works would be given to prescriptivism. English, like other languages, is a living organism and it is precisely because of this fact that, as Babatunde (ibid) observes, describing it presents daunting challenges. If description is a challenge; if you cannot be correct without being current, just how can you specialize in grammar legislation? Just recently, a Yoruba artiste came up with a fricative not attested in Yoruba, “O ti zeh o.” Who knows if this “z” sound will become perfectly acceptable in Yoruba some day? Time was when “It is me” was thought to be ungrammatical (see Olu Tomori’s The morphology and syntax of present-day English). In any case, what’s grammatical is what users find acceptable in any language.
Having once been given a public tongue lashing over the use of the form office holder, which the speaker insisted was “a hyphenated word”, I would like to join Wole Soyinka in asking pretenders to the throne of Pontifex Maximus in literature (and language) matters to mind the thorns. The British government—and I am vaguely aware it does speak English—uses the form office holder in the following website (https://www.gov.uk/employment-status/office-holder) and I have read speeches by the Prime Minister using the same form attested in the Macmillan dictionary. Webster of course has officeholder because as Bolaji Aremo informs us in his epochal book, An Introduction to English Sentences, compounds may be written in hyphenated, solid or separate word forms depending on individual choice, although some compounds have acquired certain fixed forms due to prolonged usage. There are no hard and fast rules about this. To be pedantic in such matters is definitely not a good look.
I’ve never been a fan of prescription in language matters because it’s a slippery slope. Moreover, I haven’t been trained to be one. Sometimes it’s best to leave well enough alone.
- Awolaja, PhD, is Editorial Page Editor, Nigerian Tribune.
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