World Non-Standard Englishes Chapter 2

2.2 Rethinking region - language and space in nomadic pre-history: "The anthropologist and linguist Alan Rumsey suggests that, in Australia, a language is linked to a tract of land, and a person is associated with a place, and hence to the language of that place." (Dixon 2011: 246f.) - mapping of traditional rural dialects in the 19th century European tradition of dialectology: - present-day élite and non-hegemonic diasporas, circular migrations, return migrations, etc.: "The increasing population mobility brought about by European colonization and associated especially with today's patterns of economic globalization and war refugeeism have also produced non-hegemonic diasporas, in which languages of the politically and/or economically under-privileged have spread (far) beyond their homelands, making traditional, static geolinguistics clearly out of date." (Mufwene, in Blommaert 2010: xi-xii) - the media and "global linguistic flows […] and the politics of language" (Alim, Ibrahim & Pennycook, eds. 2009) • [11208] Toluwalomo Nigerians are something else when it comes to adopting accents. I have no problems, if you naturally pick up a UK or US accent via schooling or upbringing in these areas. But when an adult whose speech patterns are well formed goes to the US/UK for 3 months to a year and comes back with an accent, haba na wah o! [excl. + "how awful"] People who have not even gone anywhere, end up having these exasperating accents. Since they are fake, geographically you cannot even pinpoint who they are mimicking. I have heard half American half British accents as if that is possible! All these phoney fanatics include some so-called broadcasters who are supposed to set the pace and diffrenciate between fluent english and phoney english. African China born and bred in Ajegunle went to the UK and came back not only with a rape charge but funny accent. Eedris the rapper may not be able to string a grammatical sentence together but what really makes it hard is the accent he picked up. There is this woman on STV with a CNN accent and Barong Eta at Channels Television who switches on accents like a bulb. British, Canadian, American whatever side of the bed I get up from, I think it is a sorry state of our English. We don't need to talk through our noses or drawl before we make sense. Other parts of African take pride in their accents. And even though accents in Nigeria are often subjects of mediocrity and rasness [rashness?]. We can still afford to tow [toe] that fluent english line. Like Olu Jacobs, Joke Silva and Wole Soyinka. Why are Nigerians obssessed with foreign accents? • • • • • • • • • • • • […] [5411] Dis Guy 90% of those AIT presenters are like that, really horrible! [5463] chiogo Lol, nice topic.I see this in most naija movies, esp. the females. can't even begin to mention their names 'cause it seems almost all of them do it. It gets me so mad. That's d reason i don't watch naija movies like that. How can You sit down to watch naija movies when i have lots of american movies waitin' for me, just 'cause i love my country and instead of watchin' smthin' real, all You see is total BS. it's so aggravatin'. […] [8333] tEsLim sup porster? ain't reelly diggin whatcha callin' fake ass accent fakin'. Ya'll know I watch ameriken movies most of the time and ain't gorra be lookin at dose borin nigg'z imposin Genevieve on me. Did I fake it well enough [5461] Zandra1 Now this is damn hilarious. . [6945] dafman Half British Half American accent - Nigerians have many talents • [13203] AckeeEater • Not just Naijans, Jamaicans too! The ones I especially love are the less educated sole speaker of Patois (similar to Naijan Patois) who emigrate to America, assimilate by emulating the inner-city black accent, and return to show off. Comedy Central! Then there's the more educated who can speak English but thinks that to sound Jamaican is still not good enough. They tend to emulate white people, going nasal and all. He! He! He! • […] • [7681] soulpatrol • yes o omoge. some just over do it to fit in. you'll hear of one emeka person (jjc) that just landed in yankee and within 1 month, he has changed his name to micky or mekhi and starts speaking yeye english like gerrout, mothafu$ka, shit men, wharabout, yels etc. pitiful. no be by force o. naija peeps to dey overmurder English • [5336] MP007 • na waoo, how You go go yankee return no go fit represent , people wan make You show say You travel ["how awful, how would you travel to America and you‟re not able to demonstrate to the people that you travelled?"] • • • • • [7440] OgaMadam Hilarious […] [7681] soulpatrol at least changing accent better sef. what about the ones that change their whole identity? like changing the name your papa gave you. you go dey hear person wey dey bear jamiu [Yoruba name] from oshogbo [city in Western Nigeria] go come yankee come change am to jamie or mutiu [Yoruba name] to mathew etc. i mean like WTF? if oyinbo can't pronounce your full name, then teach them. its part of your identity. makes me mad when people think they have to conform to the oyinbo engligh names just becasue. my name is the easiest to pronounce, yet some oyinbo people make subtle suggestions for me to change it so they can remember easily. i tell em to go shove it where the sun don't shine. if you allow me to call you ojuju calabar [Calabar mask] then i'll allow you to change my name. shio! ["isn't that so?" – Niger Delta] • [5463] chiogo • lol, iice @ that story. I understand what You sayin' but what if he was born here? just 'cause he's naija doesn't mean he can speak pidgin. Lol, am just sayin' but if he wasn't born here, then he def. forced it. Like i have cousins who are born here, even though their parents speak igbo to them, they understand but they can't speak it. And they all got igbo names, no english name and they say it with this accent, makin' their names sound funny. I just be crackin' up when they call eachother 'cause they can't really pronounce their names in d real way a naija would pronounce it. But You can't blame them, they call themselves Nigerian-americans and they are 'cause they're all grown and have only been to naija once. What am sayin' is that i find it annoyin' if You're a real JJC and then You come out and be speakin' like that. uh uh. And all these people in naija who don't even live here and speak like that inside naija. c'mon, that makes no sense. who You frontin' for? lol. But do You know whether d guy understands pidgin or not? 2.3. Redressing monolingual biases French, Pidgin, and English from a web-post in a Cameroonian discussion forum: Le Pote de Biya: Mévio, Qu'est ce que tu entends par opposant notoire? celui opposé au libéralisme communautaire? à Biya? Le délitment de l‟état camerounais? biya must go (allez dire) Dr. T. Gilbert: Hi Mevio, No mek mi a lap oohhh!!!! U di mimba ce some politik go kam hia? A put ma hand fo faya so dem no go kam. Waiti dem go kam chap ouna non? Dem go go fo lege we dem go gi pagne and mimbo. Franchement noble Mevio ce serait une tres bonne chose, mais je ne vois pas le premier courageux qui viendra se faire bruler les ailes ici. Qui sait! kmer na kmer! [Hi Mevio, don't make me laugh, will you. Do you think that any politician will ever come here? I'd put my hand into the fire to bet that they won't be coming. Wait, they'll come and eat you, no? They will go for the fools whom they will give native dress and drinks. Frankly noble Mevio, that would be a very good thing, but I don't see the first courageous one who will come to have his wings burned here. Who knows! Cameroon is Cameroon!] Stephano: MEVIO how non? how que tu bole tout le monde comme ca? :??? [Mevio, how couldn't it be? How come that you finish off everybody like this?] Mévio: How que tu ték ça au sérieux comme ça mon ami. J'ai parlé comma ça juste pour rire un peu non? Tu as vu l'effet que ça a eu sur le très puissant Stéphano non? En plus, pour ma pointe d'humour j'ai dit bêp bêp bêp. Sérieux, si par exemple derrière Le Pote de Biya il y a un haya groupe qui prépare un putsch, lache nous seulement l'info pour que nous on commence à cirer tes bottes dès tomoro (lol). [How come you are taking this so seriously? I have spoken of "us" like this just to have a little laugh, all right? You have seen the effect that this has had on the very powerful Stéphano, haven't you? What's more, for my humorous point I've said "big-mouth bigmouth." Seriously, if for example behind "Biya's mate" there is a tough group that is preparing a coup, let's just have the info so that we can start polishing your boots from tomorrow] 3. Caribbean Englishes beyond the Caribbean Localising the global: "new quotatives" in ICE-Jamaica (1) (2) I don't know what they were thinking some chicken stuff and fish and whatever it is with uhm what's that dressing vegetable dressing on the chicken and Okay well who eat that I'm like hello we are black people from the Caribbean please no white people here You know No maybe white people would eat stuff like that You know she knows nothing about these people. Me fraid you know the man a call her she run gon go go take picture So I'm like where's the picture we thought it was a instant thing. She's like no him have it me say – the local complicating factor (3) We had just bought this new house this new family house all of us come up and buy house So me say boy everybody was saying how broke we were and me say boy what if somebody should die what would happen who would pay And I said to them don't worry if all of you die I can bury you You don't have to worry