I
t surprises me and of course,
the masters and purists of the
language that plenty writers
including professional and
practicing journalists and re-
porters are yet to grasp and correctly
employ the adjectives ‘ghastly’ and ‘fa-
tal’ in telling their stories and feeding
the audience with the daily occurrenc-
es and events as they break around the
world involving accidents and disas-
ters.
Well, to put it pointedly, ignorance
and mental laziness often times play
a role here not letting the journalist
and the reporter with the right frame
of mind to thoroughly examine the
various options before him or her to
choose from and unambiguously in-
form the listening and reading publics
about catastrophes that sometimes
overwhelms humanity.
The most abused and confused
statements are the two syllable words
‘ghastly’ and ‘fatal’ depicting motor
accident or other forms of unpleasant
happenings regularly churned out by
the local journalists or those whose
English is second language when they
do break. To further put it plainly and
according to the Oxford dictionary of
current English interpretation, ‘ghast-
ly’ means causing great horror or fear,
very unpleasant or deathly occurrence,
not necessarily resulting in death, em-
phasis mine. In other words, the jour-
nalist or reporter can correctly write
or report about a ghastly accident on
the high way but that no life was lost.
Ghastly accident shows that the car
or truck involved was badly damaged
but that the occupants of the vehicle
escaped unhurt or with minor injuries.
Conversely, ‘fatal’ is the opposite of
‘ghastly’ accident or occurrence. Again,
let’s fall back on what the Oxford dic-
tionary of current English tells us. ‘Fa-
tal’ conjures death, leading to failure
or disaster. ‘Fatality’ the noun form of
it is any happening or accident that re-
sults in death, in war or from disease.
‘Fatal’ accident means that the accident
left one or more persons dead or that
casualties were recorded. The reporter
or journalist would, without contradic-
tion, convincingly tell his or her audi-
ence that the fatal crashed of a mini bus
along the busy high way claimed two
lives.
Why it is necessary to put the record
straight and avoid the misuse of ‘ghast-
ly’ and ‘fatal’ any time we report about
accidents or disasters is that most writ-
ers are yet to purge themselves of the
mix up which they feel can be used as
synonyms, but that is where the get it
wrong. ‘Ghastly’ and ‘fatal’ expressions
are two different things. Even from the
dictionary meaning one can draw that
conclusion. So, from today onward,
remember to engage the two words
appropriately in order not to confuse
the listening or reading audience of the
exact situation of things when disasters
do occur.
Dwelling still on the way we wrongly
pronounce words, our lesson today will
further equip us with the correct vo-
calization of the following but difficult
words I see as banana peels that could
hurt us; ‘Black Maria’, ‘falcon,’ ‘status
quo,’ and ‘furore.’ These words comes
handy but are wrongly pronounced by
the majority of the population. I will
take them one after the other and ex-
plain them as well.
‘Black Maria’ brings to mind crim-
inality; a police vehicle for transpor-
tation of prisoners or suspects who
are regularly ferried to court to stand
trial charged for committing one of-
fence or the other. This is one of the
most abused and wrongly pronounced
phrases. The noun ‘Black Maria’ several
people say it as it is written matching it,
wrongly though, with the proper name
of ‘Maria.’ The phrase ‘Black Maria’ is
correctly mouthed ‘Black Maraya.’ So,
when next you are confronted with
the expression ‘Black Maria’ correctly
pronounce it ‘Black Maraya.’ ‘Falcon’
for lover of sports is a fast flying bird of
prey with long pointed wings, accord-
ing to the Oxford dictionary of current
English, reminds us of Nigeria’s female
national football team, the Super Fal-
cons. ‘Falcon,’ the two syllable word is
correctly pronounced fawl-k’n and not
foulk’n as many are tempted to voice it.
Sports lovers please take note and cor-
rectly pronounce the word next time.
Same treatment applies to these ex-
pressions ‘status quo’ and ‘furore.’
‘Status quo’ meaning letting an exist-
ing situation stay or remain is rightly
pronounced ‘stay-tuhsskwo’ not ‘star-
tus quo as some people would have it
voiced. Similarly, ‘furore’ is associated
with outbreak of anger or excitement
and is correctly pronounced ‘fyoo-
rori.’ Take note of these phrases and
pronounce them correctly to avoid
shooting one’s self in the foot. Don’t
make yourself an object of public ridi-
cule when addressing a gathering.
