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Last week, we discussed some grammatical issues that your New Year resolution should address. I noted, among others, that has, have and had must be handled with care while also highlighting  proper nouns that should normally begin with capital letters – including ‘New Year’ in ‘Happy New Year.’ The topic, which we shall conclude today, generated a lot of interest and reactions. While many applauded the technical advice, some greeted it with the spirit of the rebellion that birthed ‘Who English ep?’ Some argued that we needed not be promoting English at the expense of our indigenous languages. Others yet think one does not need to be a grammar and vocabulary-radiating Wole Soyinka to make it in life. Hmm.
Such sentiments are not new. Apart from the fact that they are largely emotional outbursts, there are many gains in writing and speaking good, inspiring English. Because communication is key in personal and professional development, it is usually directly and indirectly tied to growth. In our country, English, which is spoken by more than 400 million people globally, is the language of education, business, politics and more. Based on Nigeria’s inability to choose any of its numerous languages as the national/official one, English fills the vacuum. Indeed, you will know how important the code is the day opportunity comes for a major political/office appointment and you cannot speak good English. At another level, you will know how important English is the day you face a job test or interview. Besides, if you need to ’ja pa’, and you have to do an English proficiency test, you will know ‘Who English help’.
By the way, I hope those who wage wars against good English are radical enough to advise their loved ones – like their children, brothers, sisters etc. – who will be sitting major exams such as the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) not to take the language seriously (take seriously, not ‘take ‘serious’). It is true that our mother tongues as well as pidgin are also very important and should be protected and promoted. However, English has become so fundamental in our society that one should always make use of any opportunity to boost one’s competence in it.
This 2024, I will be smarter when pronouncing certain words
Great. That is a good resolution. Such words should include postpone (POSTpone) – which is not PROSpone; EXPAtiate (expatiate), not exPANtiate; ask (aSK), not aKS; Wednesday, not WEDNESSday but WENZday; library (LaiBRAry), not LAIBry; and February, which is FeBRUary, not FeBUary. You should note that you are likely to get the spellings of these and other related words wrong if you continue to mispronounce them.
I will watch the pronunciation of the names of some banks
Such banks include Access Bank, First Bank and Zenith Bank. Are you among those who say ASSES Bank, FEST Bank and SENIT Bank? Then, this is a year to up the game. ‘Access’ should sound like aKSes, since the ‘cc’ in it makes the word different from the ‘assess’ in ‘assessment’. This principle should guide your articulation of excess, process, accept, except, respect, inspect, prospect etc. too. As we noted in some past lessons, such words should not be pronounced as ases (access), eses (excess), proses (process), asept (accept) and esept (except) since each harbours a ‘c’ that transcribes as /k/.
In the case of ‘first’, remember that the ‘ir’ is neither E nor OR in pronunciation. Rather, it is like ERR. So, it is more of fERRst Bank – neither FEST nor FOST/FORST bank. Getting this right will clean up your articulation of birth, third, worse, work, curve etc. For ‘Zenith’, remember that the Z is a voiced consonant, not the voiceless /S/. Also, the ’th’ should not come out as T, but TH: ZEniTH Bank, not SEniT Bank.
Other elements of the phonological New Year resolution you should make include:
–      I will learn to differentiate between short and long vowels (as in cat and cart).
–      I shall differentiate between voiced and voiceless consonants by not saying eFen when I mean even or Sambia instead of Zambia.
–      Lastly, I shall henceforth (not henceforth from now!) demonstrate in my speeches that ‘b’ is a silent sound in comb, bomb, plumber and womb; ‘t’ is silent in wrestling, whistle, listen and castle; just as ‘d’ is eternally silent in sandwich, handsome and handkerchief. Again, Happy better-English New Year!
 

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