The “Nigerian” Accent; Do We Have One?
Many times, when Nigerians are abroad, foreigners tend to identify them by how they sound. By their accent. You hear them say: “You sound Nigerian– are you Nigerian?”
And you might respond: “Yes, I’m Nigerian! But what do you mean I sound Nigerian? I had no idea we have a general accent.”
Well, it turns out that we do! Whether you’re Efik, Ibibio,
Hausa, Urhobo, Nupe, Yoruba, Kanuri, Igbo, Fulani, etc, with your distinct
tribal accent, it turns out that there’s an innate Nigerianness to our way of
speaking and, of course, our mannerisms and verbal quirks that make us stand
out as proud Naija Elites.
Is It the way we can say many things with “Hmm”?
Or how we randomly exclaim “haba!” “Eyya..” “Ewoo” “Hei”
“Chai”.
Is It how we put our hands on our heads? How do we shake our
heads? How do we clap our hands? Roll our eyes? Hiss?
My people, it’s plenty!
What other telltale quirks do you think that we, as a
people, display that is always a dead giveaway of “this person is straight
outta Naija!”?
