The Hustle of English At Campus

By Godfrey Ateu.
“Mai mada wac cik en ai bot aa medicyn”
Communication is undoubtedly the greatest aspect of life that if it’s done wrongly, everything would crumble and when done rightly, great things are achieved. There are various forms of communication such as signals, writing and body language.
The primary mode of communication is speech according to my former lecturer of Communication skill, thanks to Mr.Kiwanuka where one says something to the other. In the campus today there exists countless number of languages that are used for communication. Of the languages used at cultural associations, English is the most widely spoken, followed by Luganda, Shahilil, Ateso, Lou, Lunyakole, and Lusoga.
Using English as the official language is due to the fact that Uganda is a British colony.Coincedently it is as well the most widely spoken language in Nkumba University and other campuses in Uganda in general, cutting across from karamoja to west Nile into Bunyoro via Acholi and Teso regions then over Toro, Ankole, Buganda and Lango.Luganda and Luo are the most widely spoken local languages.
English being the language of choice and circumstance has evolved into numerous versions at campus. In every parliament at campus, the local language has infiltrated the language of the Queens land to make it sound different if not funny. Words are modified, mispronounced or just used wrongly.
I was in the Zambongo parliament and English is a real problem. This is mainly because this group has very strong cultural attachment that is organized into a kingdom and their official language is Luganda, yet they need English to communicate with other tribes.
Lots of words have been modified to supplement Luganda for example “Sande” to mean Sunday, “Mande” to mean Monday, and “Sente” from cents to mean money among others.
Words that end with-le are modified to end with –o,for example the word “people” is pronounced “pippo,” able is “abo,” po” for paul and “singo” for single among others.There seems to be a problem with words ending with strong presence .
Then in a lot of circumstances the letter L is used to dismiss R from a word for instance brother is changed to “blasa,” president to “pulesidenti,” and friend to “fulendi,”.If you want a cracked rib, ask a muganda to pronounce the word kitchen.
From uncles region (western), Ankole and Toro have a very strong presence of the letter “r” in their vocabulary so much that it sounds rude and aggressive while others sound obscene.
Again here the letter “I” suffers most. Hullo is pronounced “hurro,” elections change to erections, black to brack and collect to correct, to mention a few.
Another area of interest is the Luo triangle (Acholi, Lango, and Alur) here in their campus parliaments, people speak with energy and vigour.Words are just missed out or twisted in the funniest of all ways. Almost every sentence is a laughing material.
The Luo’s don’t have letters F,H,Q,J,V,X,Z.PW is then put in place of F,K,W,for Q,B for V and J for Z.Amazingly educated one’s put Z in place of J.Someone can say “Yesterday I ad aberi long Zani prom Zinza to Lugaji” yet the intended sentence was “yesterday I had a very long journey from Jinja to Lugazi,”.How about a sentence like “Mai mada wac cik en ai bot aa medicyn” instead of “My mother was sick and I bought her medicine,”
Even in University offices where English is supposed to be the language of communication, vernacular reigns to a recognizable extent for instance the accounts department.
We were lucky that the president of Uganda Mr.Yoweri Museveni finally made up his mind to visit Nkumba University last year.Mr.Museveni punctuates his speeches even to foreign scribes and dignitaries with Luganda or Kinyankole words. During the last presidential elections at least most of you reading this articles where in position to vote, the word Kisanja became a house hold name and of now we hear everywhere you go Mu-Kintu
Right now there is national program tagged “prosperity” but most government officials including newsprint journalists prefer to use its vernacular equivalent of “bonna Bagagawaale,”
A recent constitutional amendment chose Kiswahili as a second national language lucky enough Nkumba University offers it in the school of Education but (Kiswahili) is suffocating due to the dominance of English and the local languages.
As the war between English and the local dialects continues at campus, it is important to note that the world is becoming a global village and English is the dominant force in the Technology, economics, music and social scenes, so compusers still need it even more than before better still French can do.
The good note is that the young and vibrant campusers who attended good schools speak good English as well as a lot of Kiswahili and French so the linguistic future of Nkumba University is very bright.