Language is a people’s property, and the people have the freedom to use it the way they like. Which is why, those amongst us who consider themselves puritans, are have simply sit back, shut up gnash their teeth as language owners speak in “reckless manner”.
But that’s being casual, something that cannot be acceptable if you’re a professional working for, say, mainstream media. Or, if you’re a classroom teacher. When you aren’t just a man on the street, you must adhere to what’s standard.
It disappoints when a well-educated person calls me “uncle” yet he’s my mother’s brother. It’s I who should correctly call him uncle, in Kiswahili, mjomba.
He needs to call me back, “nephew”, or mpwa in Kiswahili. The sister to my father (my aunt) would be wrong to call me “aunt” (in Kiswahili shangazi) instead of “nephew”.
My sister is our aunt’s niece, but expect to hear the latter addressing the former as “aunt”. Ridiculous, but there we are! The hoi polloi’s Kiswahili has increasingly influenced our kind of English in ways it shouldn’t.
Having thus lectured (bah!), let’s now move to this column’s fundamental task, i.e. which is, dishing out linguistic gems picked up over the recent past. Here we go…
We start by looking at Page 3 of Bongo’s senior-most broadsheet (Sunday, September 29 edition). In it, there’s a story entitled, ‘Parents URGED to prioritise child safety,’ and its intro reads: “The officer commanding for Bukoba District…has appealed to parents to KEEP CLOSE SUPERVISION of their children, especially during election CAMPAIGN.”
Let’s ask: why say to “keep close supervision of…” instead of, simply, “closely supervise?” This would mean dropping the word “keep” and hence, subscribing to word economy principle, which is what journalese is all about. When one word can do, so goes our maxim don’t use two!
And, needless to say, the scribbler meant to write, “election CAMPAIGNS” (not just, campaign).
On the same page, there’s a story whose headline reads, ‘Journalists URGED to uphold integrity during election.’
Note the use of the verb “urged” twice on the same page. And, as if that wasn’t monotonous enough, the same verb reappears immediately on top of Page 3! Writes the sub: ‘Clerics URGED to promote law, peace ahead of poll.’
Connoisseurs of our English press will agree that the verb “urge” is a cliché—quite tiresome. That, when there’re many other words that are synonyms to this word. Check that out before you succumb to the “urge” lure!
Back to Page 2 where we read a story with the headline, ‘Rugambwa to be laid to rest in Bukoba tomorrow.’ In this one, the scribbler writes in Para 2: “Other prominent clerics BURIED at the same BURIAL ground include the late Laurian Cardinal Rugambwa and Bishop Nestorius Timanywa.”
How about dropping one “bury” and have this: “Other prominent clerics INTERRED (or LAID TO REST) at the same BURIAL ground include…”
And now, as our scribblers endeavour to cover the ongoing General Election campaigns, any move to ban the use of the verb “pledge” could render them speechless, we fear!
Let’s give a look at Bongo’s huge and colourful broadsheet of Monday, September 29:
• On Page 1, the intro for the lead story reads: CCM presidential candidate Samia Suluhu Hassan has PLEDGED to transform Port…;
• Page 2 has story with the headline: CCM PLEDGES to address Dar transport challenges;
• Still on Page 2, there’s this headline: Othman PLEDGES to boost education… and
• Samia PLEDGES to transform southern zone into business hub
While we won’t doubt the efficacy of the verb “pledge” in the context of our politicians’ effort to lure voters, surely more creativity and intellectual energy should be marshalled to put into our pages other words which mean more or less the same thing as the hackneyed word!
Ah, this treacherous language called English!
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