This discourse is not intended to malign the noble creature that provides us protein substance to the extent of badly impeding its offspring generation. A chicken is never ‘silly’, it is us mortals who are. More so when we allow dialect and regionalism to make mockery of English, not to mention our mother tongue and thereby this species too.
Therefore when, on a delightful winter evening an honourable minister paused a moment before beginning his speech with a warm smile, everyone felt cosy. ‘The weather is very “silly but in our hearts we are not ‘silly’”. The illustrious assemblage cringed and shifted in their seats. The non-locals were studiously looking at a point of immense interest on the floor. During the tea-break a friendly suggestion to the minister was ‘perhaps you are better off speaking in Bangla’. Whether the advice was heeded for the future is anyone’s guess.
And then there was this gentleman in his early fifties who was laconic as he stated his order, “I want silly chicken”. The counter personnel could have been bemused or diverted but asked the customer to repeat his order. This time the order came out as “siken chilly”. And it got this scribe thinking. If the second word comes out correct why not the first?
Given that English is a difficult language in terms of pronunciation with its hard syllables compared to Bangla’s soft ones. Given that regionalism, dialect and levels and standards of education have an impact on pronunciation. But how is it that similar syllables do come out correct but in the wrong sequence and order?
There are those who can say ‘soy e soy e sotrish’ but trip over in saying ‘cheeling’ (ceiling). And people from where this scribe hails can glibly say ‘pemily ‘ (family) but then ‘fark’ (park). The dichotomy was revealed in taking elocution classes for a group of young ladies who aspired to stardom in a multinational ‘star’ competition. It has been the basic learning where it went wrong, where the alphabet pronunciations have never been explained with reference to Bangla.
To a degree it can also be said the vernacular media has had a role to play. Phonetically wrong transcription of names and places has not helped. Jerusalem comes out as Zerujalem, Worcestershire as wuchestershire and the list goes on. It can be argued that foreigners have the same problem with our language as we with theirs. The English can be notorious in this but then they are so with their own. So a Scotsman speaking English can be hard to decipher just as someone from Leeds or Liverpool where u in ‘bus’ becomes ‘u’.
Lest anyone perceive this a bashing experience nothing can be far from the truth. Post World War II enough fun was made of German-accentuated English as was that of the French. Not enough French and German work has been made available doing the opposite for the English. And let us not forget for a moment the idiosyncrasy of English regionalism and indeed dialect. ‘Alf a mo’ is a violation of ‘half a mo (ment)’. ‘Ere’ is all about ‘here’ and those who laugh at the Feni (Heni) version of ‘Hani’ (Pani) chew on this one. ‘Water’ pronounced as ‘waw’a).
(The writer may be reached at
mahmudrahman@gmail.com)
The ‘silly’ chicken
Mahmudur Rahman | Published: September 18, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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