Liar Liar

1985 - 5/6 years old

"Were you born in America?" Raphael asked Zibby, as they played on the clean white sand of their catholic school playground. Zibby's brow furrowed. He'd heard this too many times for his liking.

"No." he curtly replied.
"Liar!" you were born in America! Raphael persisted. Zibby sighed and ran over to the slides. Perhaps he'd try to slide down while standing up this time...
"Why are you lying, now?" Raphael wasn't going to let this one go.
"I'm not lying. I wasn't born in America!" Zibby insisted.
"Then why do you speak like an American?"

Zibby shrugged his shoulders, in the same way he would for many years to come. You see, Zibby's keen ear and zeal for learning had seen him devote himself to the mastery of the English Language. The real shame of it was that he did this to the total detriment of every other language including his mother-tongue, Igbo. Not that this was all his fault, of course. After all, even when his parents argued, they argued in English! His Igbo was restricted to such basic words as bia (come), efere (plate), and mmiri (water).

By the time his parents would realize their mistake, it would be too late. On occasions, Zibby's mum would abruptly cease from speaking English and communicate with him in whole paragraphs of Igbo. He would furrow his brow in what was to become his trademark scowl and curtly say, in English, "Please stop speaking that nonsense to me." Eventually, she did.

So where did the "American" accent come from? It wasn't really American, of course. Just different. Later in life Zibby would explain it to himself this way: it was a mix of pronunciations and intonations gleaned from watching hours and hours of British and American television. This was coupled with constant direction from his parents, which Zibby was all too eager to imbibe.

"Don't say 'dis', say 'this'."
"Don't drop the 'h'. It's your 'hand', not your 'and'!"

Through it all, Zibby was vaguely aware that not everyone spoke as he was learning to speak. However, he wasn't too interested in what others were saying. He only wanted to know, "what's the 'right way' to say it?"

Over time Zibby began to speak in a curious blend of Received Pronunciation (otherwise known as 'the Queen's English' mixed with a healthy dose of American vowels and phrases and garnished with a sprinkling of Yoruba intonations. To the young children without a keen discernment for accents, he spoke like an American.

By the second year of school, Zibby's childhood conversations would proceed more like this:

"Zibby, were you born in America?"
"No"
"Liar! So why do you speak like that? You were, weren't you?"
(sigh) "Yes. Let's go to the slides."