Hi, I’m Susan Rex from Nigeria and always being a Nigerian (Smiling). I’m thankful to Trystn Waller for giving me this alternative to a guest post about my country Nigeria and its accent (just in brief). I’m a Relationship Coach, helping to build healthy relationships. I hope you like this post and also share your thoughts with me as well.
Contact: (relationtipps@gmail.com)
My website: Link
Main Article
Nigerian spoken English is an amalgamation of British English and American English. The outcome is an imaginative clash of broken English and words that have cheerfully grown eternally distant from their original definitions.
Path to Getting the Nigerian Accent
Cutting out inner syllables
- Medicine pronounces as “med-sin“
- Happy Birthday pronounces as “api betday“
- Concern pronounces as “consign“
- Get out as “gerrat“
- Start as “stat“
- With as “wit“
- Bathroom as “baffroom” etc.
Swap your “er” for “a”
- Paper pronounces as “pay-pah“
- Father pronounces as “fathah“
- Mother as “mothah“
- Helicopter as “elucuptah” etc.
Nigerians also pronounce each of these groups of words in the same manner.
- Work and walk (pronounced as same)
- Bus and boss (pronounce as same)
- Saint and sent (pronounce the same)
- Curb and cub
- Hair and air
- Ear, hear, and here (pronounce the same way).
Having the basic conversation
🇬🇧 (Standard)
Hi
How are you?
No problem.
I’m walking please.
Please, where is the bathroom?
I don’t know.
I don’t understand.
🇳🇬 (Non-Standard)
How far.
How you dey?
No wahala.
I dey waka abeg.
Abeg where the baffroom dey?
I no no.
I no sabi.
(Add “No” if you need to say that you don’t understand something or don’t have something. Also, Nigerians refer to older people as Auntie or Uncle, pronounced as “hanty or “uncul”, to show manners and respect.)
Let me remind you that if you are not a Nigerian, it will be hard to blend in with the accent. That’s one of the unique things about being a Nigerian; no one can take that away from us, not even those that colonized us.
**I hope you enjoyed this article from Susan Rex and got some better insight into the unique accent of Nigeria! Please feel free to contact her with more questions, and read her website to get advice about healthy relationships. I appreciate you doing this guest post for us, Susan, and I look forward to seeing what others have to add about the Nigerian accent. Stay safe out there, people! Peace.
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