The Currency Of Words

 

The first time I consciously realized some English words were not used anyhow was in Elementary Six. It was towards the end of first term, the head teacher or headmaster (as it was known then), Mr Ntuen (but the pupils fondly tagged him Mr Pepper as the word in mother tongue which the head teacher bore refers to the same object the English word portrays) was sitting before us and dishing out pieces of advice as a responsible father to his innocent children - our lovely head teacher was aging and about to retire.

                After all he told us (do I remember any salient point?), we were about to sing from the hymnal and also it was a carol as Christmas was fast approaching. The headmaster was reading out the words to guide us how to pronounce them properly (of course, the language was this same headache-giving English Language). He came to the word ‘baby’ and an overzealous pupil screamed ‘abeibei’. That struck a thunderbolt in what all along had been a serene and jovial setting. Our head teacher stood up and demanded to know who that pupil was. The classroom was quieter than a graveyard. Nobody seemed to know who ‘abeibei’ escaped from his lips (and partially responsible for that was the undivided attention we gave to a man we viewed with awe). But certainly, the sound was that of a boy.

                When our head teacher demanded  for the recalcitrant pupil and none showed up and it seemed the entire pupils were in cahoots to protect him  (lest I forget, it was a combined session so all the pupils in Elementary Six were in one hall), Mr Ntuen went into a long sermon. The sound ‘abeibei’ was bad in his ears even though it was meant for the word ‘baby’ and he let us know it was American pop culture that popularized  such abuse of a word. Our head teacher was not comfortable with the lyrics and wayward appearances of some of the pop stars and he was grieved that as young as we were, some amongst us were already imbibing tendencies to be as corrupt as the pop icons. Clearly, it was his duty to purge this set of children in his school of such tendencies.

                Mr Ntuen picked his cane and walked up to the pupils and demanded for that recalcitrant child to come forward with a promise of fewer strokes or to be fetched out and that would mean a double portion of the initial punishment. Still, no pupil went out and the whole class was at a loss who to they should point. Our head teacher pointed to a section of the class and said they must produce the lad. Yet nothing happened and the pupils in that section became the culprits and had to pay for their collective sin.

                Over the years, I’ve silently wondered if something isn’t just right with some English words. Or is it the people using or interpreting them? I had used the word ‘okay’ with my employer once and she was mad with me and flatly told me my use of that word pointed to the sort of upbringing I had. I also know years back the word ‘delete’ was labeled as ‘archaic’ and the truth is, currently, all these words are in vogue (thanks to technology).

                Some things over time happened to affect the currency of words to such an extent that words once treated as demons could end up as angels. In my lifetime, I’ve seen words die and get buried but only years later to be resurrected.

THE END.