Nigerian newscasters’ English as a model of standard Nigerian English?

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate whether the form of English spoken by Nigerian newscasters enjoys the status of a standard in Nigeria. The study employs a verbal guise test and a questionnaire to measure the attitudes of 137 Nigerian participants towards the variety of English used by Nigerian newscasters. The findings show that an exonormative orientation is still present in Nigeria: both British and American English accents are preferred over a Nigerian one for Nigerian newscasters, and a British accent is perceived to be more prevalent than a Nigerian one in Nigerian newscasting. However, the results of the verbal guise test demonstrate that there are very positive attitudes towards all Nigerian newscasters’ accents. The results also show that neither gender nor a stay abroad has a significant effect on Nigerians’ attitudes towards newscasters’ English, but that the age group of the participants significantly influences their evaluations: the older participants rated the newscasters’ English accents higher than the younger ones. Overall, the findings of the study suggest a limited potential of Nigerian newscasters’ English becoming a model of English in Nigeria, as British English as an exonormative norm seems to continue to play a major role.

(Socio)linguistic indices of the codification of Nigerian English

“…With regard to the features generally discussed as standard NE, the above conditions have all been met (for an extensive discussion, see Jowitt, 2019). Moreover, a number of studies (e.g., Bamgbose, 1992; Jowitt, 2019; Oyebola & Gut, 2020; Ugwuanyi, 2021) have pointed out that there are features of NE that are fairly characteristic of a standard NE variety in terms of their being used across the various regions of the country. In line with this, standard NE refers to the variety of English broadly spoken and written by educated Nigerians, particularly that which manifests in the literary, intellectual, political, and mass media circles across the country's regions (Kperogi, 2015).…”

“…A great number of other studies focussing on phonological descriptions of NE abound (see Jowitt, 2019 for an overview). Even though controversies surrounding different accents of NE persist, there is sufficient research evidence describing standard NE accent (Oyebola & Gut, 2020). Notably, Ugorji (2010), which Jowitt (2019) describes as ‘the first published book to deal exclusively with the phonology of Nigerian English, both segmental and suprasegmental’ (p. 196), is comprehensive, authoritative and agenda‐setting, and designed with pedagogy in mind.…”

“…Even in later iterations of these laws, the reference to English remains monolithic. Correspondingly, the in‐house style guides of most media houses in Nigeria also tilt towards British English, even though in reality the English language usage of Nigerian broadcasters, as well as print journalists, are said to typify NE (Oyebola & Gut, 2020).…”

“Someone has been coronated” Nigerian English lexical innovations in the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…However, to date, there is no published or official document that identifies or distinguishes the standard from the non-standard variety of Nigerian English despite its continued use and the current categorisation of Nigeria as one of the world's biggest English-speaking countries (Jowitt, 2019). Oyebola and Gut (2021) investigate the possibility of Nigerian Newscasters English occupying the standard English variety in Nigeria. However, findings reveal that NE speakers tend to favour British English, which still maintains an overarching presence in the Nigerian linguistic landscape over the English of Nigerian Newscasters.…”

Irregular verb morphology in Nigerian English

“…On the one hand, it has been described as a lexical hybrid featuring a mixture of British and American expressions (Igboanusi, 2003, p. 603; Kperogi, 2015, p. 5). On the other hand, it is still considered to be British norm‐dependent (Awonusi, 1994; Oyebola & Gut, 2020). Schneider's (2007) five‐stage evolution model of Postcolonial Englishes places NigE in the nativization phase, but Unuabonah and Gut (2018, p. 210) argue that NigE has entered the early stages of endonormative stabilization.…”