
Can one describe the seeming noise surrounding the word “route” as controversial, or just some mischieve makers who insist on adulterating or mixing the Queen’s English pronunciation, in this case, with the American style of vocalisation, making it look as if it is the standard firmly planted or rooted within Nigeria and indeed, the Anglophone speaking nations? Far from it, I would like to caution here. Before we draw our conclusion whether or not the American English is gradually taking over, eating deep into the British vocabulary, in spelling and verbalisation where it’s more profound, the English purists and masters say it would take a longer time, if not eternity, for British to surrender their language to be manipulated or bent at the wimps and caprices of the Americans.
Not to the Americans, who they colonised and forced the language on, just as they did to what became the Commonwealth countries, where English, by virtue of the colonial heritage, has become the lingua franca. The fact is, I don’t see it as a rivalry between America, often regarded as the police of the world, considering her size and economic power, and Britain, but that the language experts have also endorsed and recognised the American English to the extent of documenting it in almost all the reference books, such as the dictionary. But they differ in pronouncing the word. One interesting development so far as the language of broadcast is concerned, the British English holds sway.
Check out the standard or serious electronic media around the world, especially among the Anglophone media space, the Queen’s English is never compromised. It’s the accepted yardstick, although some few broadcast stations are on the side of America, in their news delivery and spelling captions. It’s a new dawn in Nigeria, for instance, some radio and television outfits are adopting the American approach, to the dismay of some veteran broadcasters who have called on the regulatory body, the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC to sanction such stations or call them to order. But, would that work, especially where freedom of speech and association are ingrained in the constitution? It is left for viewers or listeners to accept or ignore the vocabularies of such offending stations that fall short of their expectations and stick to the one they prefer.
However, the language purists and masters are worried the influence the American English would have on users of the standard English – the British or Queen’s English taught in schools, right from the early stages of Western indoctrination, from primary, secondary to tertiary levels of education. Here we are with another of such expressions, the noun “route” which has caught on and infamously employed by some of teachers, particularly in preparatory schools, the American pronunciation, “raut,” “the way travelled on a regular journey, ” as the dictionary explains, is now the familiar way to speak, especially among the younger generation of students, even scholars.
To demonstrate how far some of the American verbalisation have eaten deep into the language, even in spellings, a parent narrated to me how the young daughter of eight corrected him, arguing over what she was taught by her teacher to be the right and accepted pronunciation of “raut,” US; ignoring the father’s plea of the British standard, adopted by the media across the Commonwealth countries, including Nigeria, “route” pronounced “ru:t,” but rather, she insisted on educating her dad, ridiculing him that he belongs to the old school.
This is how bad, if you agree with me, things have gone. Some of our media houses, the broadcast stations, short of calling names, have helped, in no small measure, to popularise or promote the American English over the standard one we know, from infancy to adulthood. Now that we have American schools and higher institutions firmly on ground in Nigeria, the matter could no longer be wished away with mere condemnation of the American ascendancy, but instead, the language enthusiasts should do more of advocacy to let British customary English prevail. Enough of the mix up of the British and American vocabularies, especially in spellings and pronunciation. Let’s maintain the British Canon, and not be carried away by American styled English.