‘Kiswanglish’: If you choose to entertain it, then do it correctly
The concern we express in our column is depicted in this signboard as well. Mixing English and Kiswahili unnecessarily. Las Carinyo Joint Madale PRESENT (instead of…PRESENTS). Note our final letter S, for the verb in question is related to a singular entity, the Las Carinyo Joint Madale. Now why didn’t the signwriter have it all in Kiswahili: Las Carinyo Joint Madale INAWALETEA…Trust signwriters! PHOTO | AMS
Let’s fuss again on the dismaying tendency of our electronic media colleagues, whose working language is Kiswahili, to liberally introduce English during their presentations.
This “englishisation” of Kiswahili gives the impression our national language is insufficient to deliver information to our audiences. That’s nonsense, of course.
The truth, we dare say, is that indulging in “englishisation” only succeeds in depicting neo-colonial complex amongst our people who believe that mixing your Kiswahili with an English word or expression here and there demonstrates that you’re “also educated”. That’s utter crap, for sure!
If we may say it again, the most notorious in this cultural betrayal are our colleagues who handle sports programmes. It irritates more when one uses English where they shouldn’t, then proceeds to do it wrongly. Like the kind of mispronunciation this columnist heard over the past week, courtesy of some radio presenters: For the word “inspiration,” a colleague said, “INS-PAI-RESHEN” instead of “IN-SPI-RESHEN”. For “invitation,” one presenter said “IN-VAI-TESHEN” instead of “IN-VI-TESHEN”. And, from the mouth of another, the word “combination” was pronounced as “KO-MBAI-NESHEN” instead of “KO-MBI-NESHEN”.
Now, this is our sincere advice: if you chose to do the wrong thing, do it correctly!
Having said that, we’ll now proceed to do what this column is all about, i.e. sharing out linguistic gems. Here we go…
We’ll start by taking a look at Bongo’s huge and colourful broadsheet of Friday, May 1, whose Page 3 has a photo with this caption: “Bagamoyo CONSTITUENCY Legislator Subira Mgalu and Kibaha sub-village residents and leaders pictured earlier this week…”
We’ve critiqued it before; but we should do again, until everybody, inshallah, does it right.
When you talk of a political leader elected to Parliament to represent citizens of a particular geographical area, the said area is called “constituency.” So, you don’t have to mention it.
Therefore, in this case here, the caption scribbler needed to just tell his audience that Hon Subira Mgalu is the Bagamoyo Legislator. Or, Bagamoyo MP.
The anchor story in this page is entitled, ‘Government, private sector marks milestone…’ and therein, the scribbler writes in the last paragraph: “The impact of this investment…is expected to bolster the local agricultural economy, ‘particularly MAIZE FARMERS’ in THE Karatu AREA.
Hey! Maize farmers are not “an economy” that you can bolster; local agriculture is. And, why say “…in the Karatu area’’ instead of simply saying, “…in Karatu”?
On Saturday, May 2, Bongo’s senior-most broadsheet carried a massive photo on Page 20, for which the caption writer penned: “Bao players, RH, makes her move against EE during a friendly match held as part of May Day celebrations for TRA customs officers in Dar es Salaam yesterday. The event also served as a farewell for retired STAFF and welcome new employees.”
Retired staff? Nope! The TRA bid farewell to retired MEMBERS of staff. Or, retired EMPLOYEES. Or, retired WORKERS.
Finally, a couple of linguistic goodies unearthed by an esteemed reader and emailed to us via this columnist’s email address. Guess where our reader, one Mr. GJ, a Swedish citizen living in Dar, picked up the goodies? From the tabloid closely associate with the columnist, May 1 edition. And, on which page? Hold your breath…
He picked them from Page 7, thanks to the article penned by yours faithfully, Abdi Sultani himself!
For the intro (of all places!), Abdi wrote: “We HAVE BAGFUL of gems today, which is why…” Noted Mr GS: “There is a missing ‘a’ in the sentence.”
Mr GJ further noted what was penned by AS in Para 2: “On Page of Bongo’s huge and colourful of Friday, April 24…”
In regard to this goof, he rightly posed: “What page…?
The columnist has duly responded our reader directly. We are, however, sharing GJ’s concern here so that you, dear reader, may note that we’re all vulnerable to “our kind of English.”
