Its exact socio-linguistic equivalent is “gyara” in Hausa (now incorporated into Nigerian Pidgin English as jaara). “It means ‘a small gift, especially one given by a merchant to a customer who makes a purchase.’ But this definition does not adequately capture the cultural meaning of the word. In my Decemcolumn titled “Neologisms and Ebonics in American English,” I wrote the following: “The word ‘lagniappe,’ for instance, is an exclusively Louisiana invention, even though it is now usual to hear many people in the South use it…. Lagniappe isn’t a Standard English word, and most Americans don’t know what it means, nor can they relate to it meaning. People who have never lived in Hausa society would probably still find the word and its meaning puzzling.Ģ.”Gyara.” The closest American linguistic and cultural approximation to “gyara” (which is rendered as “jara” in certain variants of Nigerian Pidgin English) can be found in the word “lagniappe” (pronounced LAN- YAP), which my dictionary defines as “A small gift (especially one given by a merchant to a customer who makes a purchase.).” That is precisely what “gyara” means in Hausa. I first encountered the expression in the early 1990s from my cousins in Kano, who were born and raised there. It isn’t only English that has no lexical or idiomatic equivalent to the Hausa santi many Nigerian languages also don’t. Note, though, that santi isn’t delimited by age nor is hyperactivity its marker. There is no scientific basis for the notion that children become inexorably restless when they eat sweets, but the expression exists to describe that condition. The closest equivalent to “santi” that I have found in American English is the expression “sugar high,” which is said when children become hyperactive as a result of eating sugary things. For instance, if, as a consequence of the satiation people derive from eating good food, they wax lyrical or just become uncharacteristically talkative, they are said to be trapped by or in santi. It also encapsulates a whole gamut of attitudes that gastronomic satiation inspires. “Santi.” This Hausa word deceptively looks like the lexical equivalent of the English “satiation” or, more specifically, gastronomic satiation, that is, the joy and gratification that one derives from food. ![]() See below other Nigerian expressions that can’t be idiomatically translated into English.ġ. ![]() I said the expression has no English equivalent. ![]() ![]() I made this point two weeks ago-and in previous columns- in response to requests from some readers of this column that I share with them the English rendition of barka da shan ruwa, the special Hausa greeting to acknowledge the Ramadan fast. There are words and expressions that are so culturally specific that they can’t be translated into another language. What message does that send to our secondary school students? Well, that’s not my preoccupation for now.Īs I pointed out two weeks ago, interlingual translation is not always possible in every circumstance. We wail with distress and in national self-pity every year over mass failure in English in school certificate exams, but our president’s official speeches and letters can’t pass muster with WAEC examiners in English. It would get an “F” if a WAEC examiner in English were to grade it. From indiscriminate capitalization, to incompetent use of articles, to inelegant, error-ridden phraseology, to misuse of words such as “distract” for “detract,” and basic proofreading errors, the letter was disappointingly subpar.
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