Recently my American boss asked me “What’s with Nigerians and revert?” I was a bit confused on what she was asking. She then said, “When they want to come back to you on something, they say revert”. I was like “Yeah I do that as well”. She was like “Exactly, although I understand what you mean, it isn’t exactly the right use of the word”. Then and there I did a quick Google dictionary search and burst out in laughter when I found out the truth. She laughed as well when she saw that Indians use it as well and was like “hey, if them and us use it, a billion plus people cannot be wrong”.

Our use of revert in Nigeria is a case of using a word wrongly to mean something else but since everyone understands what you are saying, it becomes correct even though it still doesn’t change the original meaning of the word. When English is adapted and not originally the native language of a country, language evolution tends to occur which sometimes results in getting lost in translation.

The first time I realized that English was truly a foreign language was while I was applying for undergraduate studies in the United States and one of the requirements was a Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). I was like huh? I have been speaking and writing English since I was born and even when my parents or relatives speak to us in Igbo we always responded in English. I was irritated studying for TOEFL because I could have spent that time working on more problematic papers but delighted that it was an easy pass. Apart from getting close to a perfect score, I was convinced that this was just a money making scheme for them.

Hanging around social circles in Lagos or just listening to certain on air personalities on radio, you will swear that English is our native language. The different recognizable and unrecognizable accents that my fellow citizens have acquired via their various sojourns leaves the mind perplexed. Speaking clearly is always much more sustainable than feigning an accent because sooner or later, our ethnic interferences will get in the way.

For example, when certain ethnicities completely drop the ‘ h’ from their words and house becomes “ouse”, hot becomes “ot” or others mix up their ‘r’ and ‘l’ and realize becomes a tongue twister. Do you get anxious when someone wants to “axe” you a question or raise an eyebrow when disc is pronounced wrongly? There are also certain greetings that are Nigerian specific like how was your night (which I still don’t know the correct answer to since I was sleeping) How far? Happy weekend! These and more show that we have created our own nuances which if only us understands, is perfectly fine.

Sometimes people tend to use big grammar to feel smarter than they really are, without realizing the context in which it is used might not be correct; pay them no mind and ask for clarification if you don’t understand. To whoever started using revert in emails plus the ones that decided to kill it with tautology and revert back infecting the rest of us, we will be keeping it simple henceforth and instead respond to you shortly.

Chioma Nwagboso is the Co Founder of IfooAfrica, an audio based online platform bringing back the African artform of storytelling

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Mallam Yero