OUR KIND OF ENGLISH: Of ‘electorates’, ‘feeds-back’ and Pat’s ‘sirname’
BIRTHROOM to mean what we call “bafu” in Kiswahili? A-a! Well, if one chose to write “birthroom’ in the place of “maternity ward”, perhaps we’d let it be, but this one? No! It’s our bet the artist who came up with this gem here had instructions to paint “BATHROOM”. Trust signwriters! PHOTO|COURTESY OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Page 2 of the Sat Dec 28 2019 edition of the huge Nairobi tabloid that enjoys some readership in Bongo has an article entitled, ‘Tea shop owner earns extra cash from his bicycle parking lot’. It’s a story about a Nakuru tea shop operator, one Patrick Mbugua. He’s nicknamed “Governor”, and our Kenyan colleague explains why: “Mr Mbugua (is) nicknamed Governor for…sharing a SIRNAME with former Nakuru Governor Kinuthia Mbugua.”
Sirname? Obviously, no! There’s no such word in the English lexicon. But there’s SURNAME, which means the name that’s common to all members of a family as distinct from a forename or given name.
The scribbler writes further about the parking lot entrepreneur: “The father of three says he earns enough from his business to comfortably take his children through school, and always ensures school fees IS paid.” Fees is paid? Nope; schools fees ARE paid. The noun “fees” is plural for fee.
On Jan 11, the tabloid closely associated with this columnist ran a story entitled ‘Sponsorship for students taking cutting-age tech studies’. Therein, the scribbler, purporting to attribute the information he’s conveying to one Prof Luoga, writes: “He added that the Ausha-based NM-AIST…was keen TO impact its graduates with digital skills...” Keen to? Nope; we say keen ON (not to) doing something.
Come Sat, Jan 18, and from the above cited Bongo tabloid, and we also have this story on Page 3, ‘Zitto cries foul as police block rally, Bashiru starts Kigoma tour’, and this is what the scribbler says in Para 2: “He (said)…that by blocking the meeting, the police were denying ELECTORATES their basic right to get FEEDS-back from their representatives…”
Now, the word “electorate”, as we’ve had the pain of stating it in this column a zillion times, refers to, “PEOPLE IN a country or an area, who have the right to vote, thought of as a group.” (Source: Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary). If we had the powers, we’d ban the use of this word in newsrooms and advise scribblers stick to “the people” or “voters”
How about “feeds-back”? Nope; it’s FEEDBACK—one word, and it’s an uncountable noun!
Finally, a look at Page 3 of Bongo’s huge and colourful broadsheet of Wed, Jan 29. In a story entitled, ‘Govt pledges to solve Saadan National Park-investor conflict’, the scribbler writes in the intro: “The government has pledged to resolve the ongoing conflict pitting Saadan National Park AND Seasalt Limited…’ Pitting SNP and…?” No we say “pitting so-and-so AGAINST (not “and”) so-and-so.
The scribbler says further in Para 4: “APART from the toll, he ALSO mentioned the boundary dispute …every time he wanted to expand the factory’s activities, he found hurdles from Tanapa, hence he is failing to increase PRODUCE.”
We’ve problems here. Using “apart from” and “also” together is indulging in tautology, for the expressions mean the same thing. Our colleague should’ve dropped either of the two. And, “produce” as a noun refers to agricultural yields. Factories increase PRODUCTION (not produce).
Ah, this treacherous language called English!
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