UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY Globalization and th e F u tu re o f A frican Languages E d ited by Freunds Fgbo\zhart CXtvu.t\Ak Kolawole, Ib a d an C ultural S tudies G roup pasulty of f t ts. (Jrjiuersity of Ibadap. (fî oria. UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY Copyright © 2006 by Francis O. Egbokhare and Clement O. Kolawole First Printing 2006 Papers originally presented at an international Conference of the West African Linguistics Congress, Globalization and the Future of the African Languages, held at the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria, 2004. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-066-800-4 All rights reserved. No pari of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval System or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publishers. Cover design: Wole Vaughan, Bodija-Ibadan. Compuset by: Chris /way Multi-media Communication Services, Ibadan. Ib a d an C ultural S tudies G roup (ICSG), paoulty of /trts. Upiuereity of Ibada). fti^erii www.ibadanculturalsludiesitroup.org Printed & Bound by Alafas Nigeria Company, Ibadan, Nigeria. + 234(0) 803 361 2670 UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY C O N T E N T S A ckn o w le d ge m e n ts viii N o te s on C o n t r ib u to rs x In troduction xiii I. IC T & G loba lization 1. Globalization: Colonizing the Space Flows? I 'Tunde Adegbola 2. T itre de la Com m unication : Langues Africaines I 6 e t les T IC : q u e lle e S tra te g ie m e t t r e en p lace ? Pierre Ouedraogo and Maxime Z. Some 3. The Im pact of Globalization on the 34 Socio-Linguistic Landscape of Cam eroon Tanda & Chia. UB 4. Globalization and the Ethnography of 50 Nigerian L itera ture in English Ayodeji Isaac Shittu 5. Preparing Nigerian languages fo r the global 64 com m unity: An Appraisal o f a D ictionary of the Yorübä Language Ogunkeye O. M. 6. Delineating the C o m p uter’s Language 81 W orkstation Adeleke A. Fakoya II. Soc io lingu istics 7. Learning endangered languages: 104 A linguistic fram e of reference for modelling readers fo r endangered languages Sophie Salffner V UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY 8. Cross-culturation and the Im pact of 117 Portuguese Langauge on (E)Gun Desouza Eric Sony 9. Linguistic Strategy in the Shortening of Igbo 127 Personal Names 1.1. Akinremi 10. Positioning Liberian Pidgin Relative to 139 W e s t African Pidgin Engiishes John V ictor Singler I I Cognates Teil Prehistory of O kpam heri 162 ’Demola Lewis III. A pp lied L ingu istics 12 The Small Voice in the M arket Place 187 Nkechi M. Christopher 13 C O P Y IN G T H E MASTER: 207 An Appraisal of the Linguistic Strategies Employed in Im itation Brand Nam ing Olayinka Egbokhare 14. W o m e n ’s Rites and Negotiated Rights: 216 Yoruba Traditional W edding Perform ance in Ekiti Dialect. Funmi O. Olubode Sawe 15. The Language of the Nouveau Riehe in 23 i the Igbo Video Film E.U.C. Ezejideaku 16. ‘Once Upon a T im e . . . ’ : A Ritualized Com m unication in Ega oral lite ratu re 243 Wayne Rafferty and Sophie Salffner 17. Indigenous Languages and the Postm odern 255 Turn: Rap as a Generational S ta tem en t of Dissidence Yomi Olusegun-Joseph IV. Syn ta x & P hono logy I 8. H IV /A ID S and Indigenous Languages in N igeria 269 Kolawole, Clement Olusegun Olaniran Vi UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY N C Sequences: Prenasalised Consonants 282 or Consonant Clusters in Bafut (Cam eroon). Ayu'nwi N. Neba The Moraic and Rhythmic S tructure of 304 Yorüba Children’s Poetic Singing Francis O. Oyebade and Taiwo O. Agoyi Tone and Associative Constructions in Edo 319 Harrison Adeniyi Negation Strategies in Lamnso' 334 L.C. Yuka and l.l Osime Verbal Inflectional Categories in Meta? 349 Evelyn Fogwe nee Chibaka Form and C ontent of the Functional Elements 371 A gr & T in the Hausa Basic Clause Amfani A.H. The G ram m atical Functions of Tone in the Äo 394 Dialect (Yorüba). Oye Täiwö Serial Verb Types, Particles and Event Phrases 404 Ronald P. Schaefer Tonal Complexes and a Lokaa Conspiracy 444 Akinbiyi Akinlabi and Mark Liberman Index 464 vii UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY C O P Y IN G T H E M ASTER: L ingu istic S trategies in Im ita tio n B rand N am in g . oLaij'u^iza 5gbofehßre In troduction In recent times, the need to gain a considerable share of the market has continued to motivate products manufacturers and end users to engage in aggressive and Strategie marketing drives. When a brand succeeds, it is expected tbat there will be an upsurge of brands whose names are very similar to tbat of the successful brand. In the view of Emmanuel Ekunno as expressed in Brand Faces,1 cloning is the dress word used for illegal copying of other people’s intellectual properties. This is not stränge considering the fact that brands have become the most important asset of most organizations today. With cloning, people deliberately create a look -alike of a product in Order to confuse the buyer at the point of purchase. Counterfeiting is, especially, common in developing countries. Many reasons have been suggested for the ease with which these ‘copycats' Iure unsuspecting consumers into buying imitation brands. They include the following: i) The people already have the forms of the words in their consciousness so fakers only try as much as possible to avoid visual and auditory clues that may give them away. ii) The English orthography is inconsistent unlike the local writing System. With English, a change in letters may not suggest a change in sound. Whereas in the local 1 Issues number 21 UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY Copying the m aster: Linguistic Strategie! in Imitation Brand Naming. -Olayinka Egbokharc vvriting System, a difference in letters means a difference in sound. iii) The average consumer is not sensitive to little variations because these are sounds of English. In fact. changes in the place of articulation or the manner of articulation may go unnoticed. iv) Labels, packaging, graphics, colour logo, etc., are the same for many of the imitation products, even the changes in name are slight. To make things easier for the ‘copycats,’ consumers buy by design. Tliey may not pay a close attention to details so long as it looks like the graphics of the brand they are familiär with. v) One last factor that engenders and encourages this deception is the problem of general illiteracy and, or ill literacy. Many people cannot read so they depend on the seller who would conveniently pass off SMT as SMC. Yet many of the literate consumers are lazy readers who may not read beyond the first two or so letters SM... and as such, fall victim. So w hat is b randing? Branding is the use of a name, term, symbol or design or a combination of these to identify a product. Brands provide customers with a guarantee of value and quality, making the customer’s choice easier. In a competitive market place, there is confusion and a lot of message fatigue. When products are branded, consumers are given a shortcut to consumption. They are empowered to make safe choices, knowing that they hope to derive satisfaction and value from the brand they have purchased. (Terpstra and Sarathy, 2000: 267, Perreault. Jr. and McCarthy, 2002: 264). A good brand name. for example, is characterized by the following qualities. It is; short and simple ii. easy to spell and read iii. easy to recognize and remember iv. easy to pronounce V . pronounceable in only one way. vi. pronounceable in all languages 208 UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY Globalizaton and the Future o f African Languages vii. suggestive of product benefit viii. adaptable to packaging/labeling needs ix. void of undesirable imagery x. always tiinely/does not go out of date) xi. adaptable to any advertising medium xii. legally available for use, not in use by any other firm. Having established what a brand is, let us now ask some basic questions. 1. What kind of alterations are available to ‘copycats’? 2. What linguistic strategies are employed to make tliis possiblc? 3. What position in the word is favoured? In answer to the first question, there are tvvo major kinds of alterations, namely visual and auditory. The major elements of a brand include the logo, trade names, trademarks, trade colours, product design and packaging. When the change is auditory, a sound or more is altered, making the imitation sound like the original; Chelson: Chealsea, Samsone: Samsung. For instance x may bc speit y as these examples indicate. A visual change involves a change of Symbols, colour, package or graphics. Yet, the imitation shares a very strong resemblance with the original such that the change may be imperceptible. The linguistic strategies employed to make the imitation possible occur along two major dimensions: morphological and phonological. M orphological level A. At the morphological level, the forms of the words are altered either at the initial, medial or final positions. Thus. we may have an inciusion of suffix or prefix. In the use of extensions, a meaningful grammatical unit is added to the root or stem of a trademark, for instance, Eva: Evalin. A major part of the original brand name is retained, plus an addition at the end. An initial extension is not favoured. Also, the typeface or case of the trademark may be manipulated to deceive. For instance, the imitation may retain the font and graphic of the original brand. The imitation may be varied to obscure and confuse. What we have classified as morphological is perhaps better described as graphical manipulation. It includes also coalescing the letters of a brand at some point. 209 UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY Copying the m aster: Linguistic Strategies in Imitation Brand Naming. -Olayinka Egbokhare B. P honological Level Alterations at the phonological level show changes in the sound Systems. In essence, the nature of the changes is traceable to the phoneme or the minimal unit in the sound System. The changes may be of five types: 1. Addition 2. Deletion 3. Replacement 4. Rearrangement or reshuffling 5. Graphical The deception is carried out without much ado because the name employs; 1. Similarities in the place of articulation. Some examples are a. National : Nasional (t J-) b. Phillips : Phillibs (p b) 2 . Similarities in the mannerof articulation SMC: SMT [c] voiceless palatal plosive [t] voiced alveolar plosive 3. Similar phonation Tudor - Tunor (d-voiced alveolar -n voiced alveolar nasal) Vim -Vin (m - voiced bilabial nasal-n voiced alveolar nasal) 4. Similar spelling Nike - Nikke Timberland - Timber land Murphy Richards - Morphy Richard Black Knight - Bright Night 1. Examples of brands vvhere a sound or letter has been added a. Nike Nikke b. Nautica Nautical c. Aiwa Naiwa d. Panasonic Panasoamic, Panaasonic e. Eva Evar, Evalife, Evalin f. Sony Song AC, Sunny g- Tommy Hilfiger Tommy Hilfinger 210 UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY Globalization and the Future o f African Languages 2. Examples of brands where a letter or sound has been deleted a. Panasonic Pansony Pansonic b. Calvin Klein Calvin Klin c. Samsung Samsong Examples of Replacement. a. Phillips Phillibs, Phillids. b. South Pole North Pole c. SMC SMT d. Tudor Tunor e. Nakai Makai f. National Nasional g- Sanyo Sanwo Examples of brands where a letter or sound has rearranged. Baycuten Baytucen Black Knight Briglit Night 5. Other examples [Graphical] Some other examples lack a definite pattem, for instance Gordon Dry Gin Gideems Dry Gin Chealsea London Dry Gin Cheison London Dry Gin Moulinex Mannonlex Timberland Timber land The third research question deals with the common positions of change. The changes occur in three notable positions. initial, medial and final. In the sample employed for this study, most of the changes occurred in the final position, followed by the changes in the medial Position. One possible explanation for the fewer occurrences of changes in the initial position may be because such changes are quite easy to detect. As already pointed out, most readers only concentrate on the initial syllable, the imitators may not want to reveal the deceptive naming too early. a. Examples of changes in the final position. Nautica- Nautical SONY - Sonic 211 UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY Copying the m a s te r Linguistic Strotegies in Imitation Brand Naming. -Olayinka Egbokhare Phillips Phillids. Phillibs Eva Evar. Evans Chealsea Chelson SMT SMC b. Examples of changes i the medial position. Tudor Tunor Panasonic Panasoanic, Pansonic Nike Nikke Timberland Timber land Examples of changes i the initial position Nakai Makai Aiwa Naiwa Black Knight Bright Night ST CT South Pole North Pole d. Examples of changes in two positions Media Final Moulinex Mannonlex Gordons Gideems Panasonic Pansonic So far we have examined the concept of branding, the occurrences of imitations in brand naming as well as the linguistic variables that make this imitative brand names possible. The issue of imitation of brand names will be with us for a long time as a result of the alarming cost of building brand recognition. Another reason is the prevalent difference in cultural values. For instance. in South Korea, many people do not see counterfeiting as unethical. To make the matters worse, some Consumers have no ill feelings about the imitation of brands. In fact, in some cases, some consumers claim the imitations work better than the original. To some other consumers. imitation brands are usually of inferior quality. The imitators merely try ride on the back of the successful brands. Moreover, they do not have to spend so much on the ground breaking efforts of product awareness since they would only, always imitate already established brand names. A worse scenario is the possibility that the consumer will still prefer to buy the imitation brand simply because the price of the original is outside the consumer’s budget. In essence, he may not be after full 212 UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY Globalization and the Future o f African Languages satisfaction but an average satisfaction. Tlius the attitude of consumers are. unusual though, favourably disposed them. In non-literate societies, the concept of brand as intellectual property is farfetched. One major effect of imitation on consumers is that it creates confusion and in some cases, it heightens post purchase dissonance. With the awareness on consumerism and the growing quest to get value for money, the incidents of cloning may decrease. The more consumers know about their rights and the more Observant they become about brand identities, the more difficult it will be to deceive them. Also, once a consumer has been deceived once by imitation brand naming, s/he becomes a more painstaking buyer who seeks detailed information before making a purchase. Without doubt, illiteracy is one important reason for the success of brand imitation. The second factor is culture, especially for the consumer. However. for the imitators, it is simply a matter of making profit by reducing the cost of marketing. To avoid deception, the consumers should pay more attention to visual signs that cannot easily be imitated. In pharmaceutical products, brand imitation can have disastrous consequences. It is therefore important for a lot of attention to be paid to establishing legal frameworks that make imitation difficult. We suggest that two brands must not sound alike whether or not they are speit differently. Thus. both spelling and pronunciation should be registered and the owners of such brands must communicate these to consumers. The cultural challenges can only be surmounted by education. In societies where people do not pay attention to signals and logos or brand marks. cloning will be made easy. Marketers have to do a lot to educate consumers on unique brand features so as to safeguard their intellectual properties. Cheaper alternatives or low budget options can also be made available to cater for the low-income cadre of the consumers. Competing brands should be closely monitored so that any attempt at cloning will be quickly pointed out to unsuspecting consumers who may be deceived by similarities in spelling, packaging, logo, graphics or colour. There is a very thin divide between brand imitation and product faking; in many cases, both go hand in hand. In brand imitation, the manufacturer tries to borrow from the shine of a successful product by appropriating most of the features. On the other hand, product faking is a deliberate attempt to subvert the success of the original product by passing off a substandard 213 UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY Copying t/ie m aster: Linguistic Strategics in Imitation Brand Naming. -Oiayinka Egbokhare product as original product. Below is a list of some common brands and their imitation counterparts: 1. Nike Nikke 2. Vim Vin 3. Calvin Klein Calvin Klin 4. Nautica Nautical 5. SONY Sunny, SQNY. Sony AC 6. Samsung Samsong 7. Aiwa Naiwa 8. Nakai Makai 9. Panasonic Pansonic 10. Tudor Tunor 11. Moulinex Mammonlex 12. Phillips Phillids, Phillibs 13. Morphy Richard Murphy Richard 14. SMC SMT 15. Timberland Timber land 16. Hugo Boss Hogo Boss 17. Tommy Hilfinger Tommy Hilfinge 18. South pole North Pole 19. ST CT 20. Eva Var, Evalife 21. Black Knight bright Night 22. Chealsea Chelson 23 Gordon Dry Fin Gedeem Dry Gin 24. Sanyo Sanwo 25. National Nasional 26. Baycuten Baytucen 27. Nixodern Exoderm 28. Yamaha Yahama 29 Procold Protocold 30. Bentolin Bintoline 31. Seiko Seciko 32. Addidas Abbibas 33. Tenovate Tempo vate 34. Expression Esspression 35. Ahuja Ahuya 36 Sharp Shrap 37. Deitz Dcits 38. Boss Boos 39. Gucci Cucci 40. Felvin Felgin 214 UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY Globalization and t/ie Fuiure o f African Languages 41. Maloxine Malozine 42. DKNY DKNWhy? 43. Binatone Benatone 44. Chap Chap 2 45. Scan John Seani Johni 46. PUMA PUNMA 47. FUBU FABU 4S. Reebok Redbock 49. Ralph Lauren Ralph Loven 50. Duracell Dulacell 51. NATIONAL interNATIONAL 52. KDK KDR Rcfercnccs Lamb, C.W Jr. J..F.Hair & C. McDaniel [1998] Marketing 4lh Ed. Ohio: International Thomson Publishing. Kotier, P & G Armstrog (1999) Principles of Marketing 8th Ed. New Jersery: Prentice Hall. Perreault, W. D. Jr. & E. J. McCarthy (1993) Basic Marketing: A Global managerial Approacli 1 Ith Ed. Homewood: Irwin Inc. Stranton. W. & C. Futrell (1987) Funclamentals of Marketing. New York: McGrew Hill. 215 UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY