Top 25 Words Nigerians Commonly Mispronounce (SHARE

By Farooq Kperogi

In this series, I contrast Nigerian
pronunciation with both Received
Pronunciation and General American. The
phonetic transcription I use here is not
necessarily standard; it is intended to help
my readers understand how to pronounce
the words I’veisolated for discussion.
1. Amoeba. Nigerians pronounce this word
just the way it is written, that is, “amo-
iba.” But in both Received Pronunciation
and General American, it is pronounced
“ameeba.” It rhymes with “Habeeba” except
that the terminal “a” sound in “ameeba”
isn’t as strong as it is in “Habeeba.” There is
a good chance that you would never be
understood in America or Britain if you
said “amo-iba.”
2. Apostle. Nigerians pronounce this word
as “apostul,” but the “t” in the word is silent
in both British and American English
pronunciation. It sounds like “aposl” in
British English and “apaasl” in American
English. But note that the “t” is pronounced
in “apostolic” (i.e., apos-tolik”).
3. Arch/Archbishop . Many Nigerians I know
pronounce the “ch” in these words as “k,”
so that “arch” becomes “ak” ( andthose with
pretensions to American accent would say
“ark”). Both American and British English
speakers pronounce the “ch” in the words
like the “ch” in “chair” or “chance.” This is
also true of “overarching.” Nevertheless, the
“ch” in “archetype” and “archetypal” are
pronounced as “k,” thus “a(r)kitaip” or “a
(r)kitaipl.” The same pattern applies to
“archangel.” It is pronounced “a(r)k-einjl.”
I enclose the “r” in parenthesis because
while Americans roll their “r” wherever it
appears in a word, most Britons (and
Nigerians) don’t articulate it unless it
begins a word.
4. Architect. Contrary to the way many
Nigerians pronounce this word, both
American and British English speakers
sound the “ch” as “k.” So it is “a(r )kitekt.”
5. Attorney. It was one of my American
friends who first called my attention to the
way Nigerians pronounce this word. She
told me every Nigerian she has met (and she
has met quite a lot) pronounces “attorney”
as “antoni,” especially if it appears in the
term “attorney general.” I am guilty of this,
too, especially in my unguarded moments. I
don’t know what is responsible for the
intrusive “n” sound in the general Nigerian
pronunciation of the word. It’s probably
because of the false attraction of the name
“Anthony” and because we prefer “lawyer”
to “attorney” in our everyday speech and
therefore hardly have a reason to observe
the absence of “n” in the word.
6. Ballet . The last “t” in the word is silent.
It’s pronounced “balei,” sort of like the
“bale” in “Balewa.” It’s a kind of dance.
When I visited Nigeria last year, an upper
middle-class family in Abuja told me their
daughter was enrolled in a “ballet class”
and I was scared for a moment because I
thought they said their daughter was in a
“bullet class.” It didn’t make any sense to
me that they would send their 6-year-old
daughter to go learn how to shoot bullets. It
later dawned to me that they meant “ballet
class.” If I, with a thick Nigerian accent,
couldn’t understand them at first, I wonder
how speakers of other varieties of English
would. Ballet came to English by way of
French, and the last letters of many French
words are never pronounced.
7. Bomb/Bomber/bombing. The second “b”
is these words is silent in all native
varieties of English. It is pronounced “bom”/
boma/bomin. Nigerian First Lady Patience
Jonathan is famous for saying “the
bomBers, who born them?” When I was
growing up in Kwara State, we used to call
our state’s football team “Kwara BomBers.”
It wasn’t until I got to the university that I
learned that the “b” in bomb–and the
word’s other inflections–is never
pronounced.

To be continued