Statement: Don’t say ‘STAT-MENT’; apt pronunciation is ‘STEIT-MENT’
MEN tank? No way! A hawk-eyed ‘Our Kind of English’ adherent who took this photo conducted an investigation and learnt that the inscription ought to have been written “MAIN (not men) TANK”. Trust signwriters! PHOTO | HM
In our April 10 edition of this column, we expressed our disenchantment towards the tendency of some Kiswahili media colleagues, especially those in radio and television, to introduce English words as they seek to inform, educate and entertain their audiences.
Critics are less harsh to those who mess with English when they’ve the misfortune of being obliged to use this treacherous language to earn their daily ugali. Yes. These have no choice but to battle it out and come up with a story.
You’ve no business using even a word of English when you work for a Kiswahili media outlet.
As we pen this, the columnist has just heard a significant radio sports commentator say Simba (?) issued a press ‘STATMENT’. Of course, he had in mind the word ‘STATEMENT’ which should be pronounced as ‘STEIT-MENT’ (as in ‘State House’), not STAT-MENT (as in ‘start’ a football match).
Having thus lectured (bah!) let’s proceed with our key task in this space, namely, to dish out linguistic gems picked up over the past week.
On Page 3 of Bongo’s senior-most broadsheet of Monday, April 20, there’s a six column photo whose caption reads: “Zanzibar Second Vice-President Hemed Suleiman Abdullah makes a phone call WITH Zanzibar Electricity Corporation managing director, Eng Haji pressing for urgent solutions to persistent power shortages…”
Hello! We don’t make a call “with” someone out there; we make a call TO someone.”
There’s another story on Page 5, entitled ‘TAWREF housing project transforms orphans in Kilimanjaro,’ whose intro reads: “More than 650 orphans and 1,000 OTHER family members have benefited from a shelter project…”
By using the adjective “other,” the implied meaning is that the said family members are also orphans, something which isn’t true. We’ll provide a rewrite that redeems the sentence: “More than 650 orphans and other 1,000 persons from various families have benefited from a shelter project…”
And, on Page 20 of the broadsheet, there’s a story with this banner headline, ‘Simba roar past Namungo.’ In the third paragraph of this one, the scribbler has written: “While Majaliwa Stadium has long been a fortress for the southern Tanzanian outfit, Simba became ONLY the second visiting side to take maximum points from the venue…”
The only second…? Nope, for letting this pass muster would mean we could’ve had “another second” visiting side…That wouldn’t make any sense!
We aver our scribbling colleague meant to write the following: “…Simba became the only team BESIDES YANGA that has so far taken maximum points from the venue…”
And now, a look at what we obtained from Bongo’s huge and colourful broadsheet of Thursday, April 16, Page 3 of which has a story entitled, ‘Health ministry deploys key digital surveillance in 90 high-risk district,’ in which the scribbler says in her intro: “The Ministry of Health has launched a STRATEGIC initiative to train community actors across 90 high risk districts to detect and report health threats in REAL TIME.”
As conveyors of facts and truth, we need not use unnecessary qualifiers, for these should be left to interested parties only. It means, the adjective “strategic” should be left out. And why use the pretentious expression “in real time” instead of simply saying IMMEDIATELY?
Finally, we take note of a beautiful photo on the same page whose caption reads: “Itwangi CONSTITUENCY legislator Azza Hilal contributes to debate in the National Assembly in Dodoma city yesterday on the Budget estimates…”
Hang on! An area that is represented by a legislator, i.e. a Member of Parliament—be it Itwangi, Mwanga, etc—is obviously a constituency. You don’t have to state it! Just say: “Itwangi legislator Azza Hilal…”
