Luntu Msongel of Umtata cites some causes of confusion in the way we use the English language
‘Basefiticate!” “Besesitifate!” “Bethsetiticate!”
Confused? Actually, these are just a few variations of the word “birth certificate”. And a direct result of some still believing that “pronunciation is a matter of opinion, what matters is the meaning”.
Most people don’t bother to check their pronunciation. They say “filim” instead of “film”, “menenjer” instead of “manager”, and “grozeriez” instead of “groceries”. In fact, most people, including local TV presenters, pronounce words incorrectly.
When I asked a friend who has just collected her matric results how she had done, she told me she had passed all subjects except “Ingreesh”. No wonder. How could she have passed the language when she couldn’t even pronounce it!
I don’t think it’s acceptable to say that because English is not our mother tongue, it doesn’t matter how we speak it. Take poor Fana. He went to the Department of Social Welfare to seek financial assistance. He couldn’t understand why the white man who was interviewing him called security. Perhaps it was because when the interviewer asked Fana about his parents, Fana said: “We are both deceased.” He meant his parents were dead.
Fana was asked if he would mind a cup of tea, he said “Yes”. I can’t tell you how disappointed he was to find he was the only one without a cup of tea. After learning to say “No, I wouldn’t”, he progressed to “I prefer sugar and honey, thank you very much”. But poor Fana could not get the tea down his throat, as it was too sweet. What he should have said was he preferred sugar to honey.
Similar words are a constant source of confusion. Some say “She is very ignorant”, meaning she ignores one, or “I wrote him a letter of devotion”, meaning a letter related to divorce. An invigilator said to students writing an exam: “If you don’t understand the question just attemptation it.” He was mixing “attempt” and “temptation”.
Take the secretary who wrote a letter for her boss to the host of a function he had attended: “I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge your hostility and will be obliged to return it soon.” The word she was looking for was “hospitality”. Or an advertisement for a receptionist saying: “Must be very democratic and have a high standard of contact, must have a sense of human.” She meant to say “diplomatic”, “conduct” and “humour”. Some of us just memorise some phrases because they sound interesting.
Left-hand driven cars had stickers with the word “Caution”. As a result, many folks associated caution with the left-hand. You hear people say: “My son is caution,” meaning left-handed, or, better still, “You are not allowed to use caution,” or “Muhammad Ali had a deadly caution”.
Hearing his friends laugh at his pronunciation, Jabu asked them to share the joke, and one said: “We are laughing at your pronousiasion.” Which just goes to show that perhaps we should think twice before we laugh at one another, as we, too, may be wrong.
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– The Teacher/M&G Media, Johannesburg, June 2001.