sleekshedy:
If his night is none of your business, his family should also be none of your business. Dem tell you sey na every oyibo sabi English language? Talk Less the once you see on construction sites.

Your jst so daft. Thunder fire you. Simple logic you can't understand. NL is getting full of dull pple nowadays. You can't even give a constructive argument. Talking with you is lowering my intelligence.

aribisala0:

That verbs are not transitional indicate Non-language -ness??
Sometimes when we are silent we conceal ignorance and speak to remove all doubt.
Have you ever studied language at all. What makes your language "NATIVE" ?? I weep for the black man really.
It is clear you have absolutely no knowledge of linguistics and you come here PRONOUNCING with the certainty of the ignorant. There is a world of difference between translation and transliteration and I suggest you study that. Finally all languages have their peculiarities and there are many thoughts ideas in different languages that simply cannot be translated because embedded within the language are also ideas on worldview which are often unique and this is reflected in idioms such as ; Fi owo mewa jeun(Yoruba) Transliteration = Eat with ten fingers. Asian languages serve their people e.g Chinese quite well and do not have these "INGREDIENTS" that you talk about.

Y do u treat issues from mid-way instead of starting it at one end? That's lame. Did u read the post I responded to? If you did, u'll discover why I brought that up about transitional verbs. I brought it up to elucidate my point to him that translations are not always correct because he translated "how was ur 9t" to yoruba and said it sounded somehow.. So, try to take things from the omega so you can understand hook, line and sinker. Capiché?

dmcdad:

Y do u treat issues from mid-way instead of starting it at one end? That's lame. Did u read the post I responded to? If you do, u'll discover why I brought that up about transitional verbs. I brought it up to elucidate my point to him that translations are not always correct because he translated "how was ur 9t" to yoruba and said it sounded somehow.. So, try to take things from the omega so you can understand hook, line and sinker. Capiché?

Lame??
You are not very bright are you? really?

What is wrong is wrong.It is very bad English.
The real question should be:I hope/trust you rested well?
It is simply Nigerian English coined by people who do not know any better and can not be bothered to ask.
Each time you go along with the crowd and use it,you are simply validating this wrong usage of the language.Because so many adults say it,our children now believe it is ok.
I am shocked at the number of supposedly well educated and sophisticated people who now say this.Follow ,follow mentality na im go kill us!

Youngzedd:

Seconded.

I dislike that Jamb question.
I think it should be meant for couples. whereby the other travelled.

What if the person went to bed with empty stomach and u're asking such question.

My reponse to all these question is "Normal Normal"

I second your "secondedment"

aribisala0:
Lame??
You are not very bright are you? really?

Is that what you think? Don't you think that word has several meanings aside the adjectival meaning?

Lame(leym) noun - Someone who doesn't understand what is going on.

ignis: Actually, some people take it personal when asked 'how was your nyt'. My senior colleague told me its very wrong to ask an adult 'how was your nyt'?
To be on the safer side, just ask ' Hope your nyt was gud. Or did u sleep well?
Because people are different.

It is also wrong to ask a child."I hope you slept well?"is a lot better.

CHIMSKY: What is wrong is wrong.It is very bad English.
The real question should be:I hope/trust you rested well?
It is simply Nigerian English coined by people who do not know any better and can not be bothered to ask.
Each time you go along with the crowd and use it,you are simply validating this wrong usage of the language.Because so many adults say it,our children now believe it is ok.
I am shocked at the number of supposedly well educated and sophisticated people who now say this.Follow ,follow mentality na im go kill us!

Well said my friend...

I don't think that there is anything wrong in that.

[quote author=12 inches!]
Your jst so daft. Thunder fire you. Simple logic you can't understand. NL is getting full of dull pple nowadays. You can't even give a constructive argument. Talking with you is lowering my intelligence.[/quote
"Thunder fire you" is that what you call logical and intelligent? Sorry,but you need to go back to school.

CHIMSKY: What is wrong is wrong.It is very bad English.
The real question should be:I hope/trust you rested well?
It is simply Nigerian English coined by people who do not know any better and can not be bothered to ask.
Each time you go along with the crowd and use it,you are simply validating this wrong usage of the language.Because so many adults say it,our children now believe it is ok.
I am shocked at the number of supposedly well educated and sophisticated people who now say this.Follow ,follow mentality na im go kill us!

did you do something strange last night?

actually i was sleeing, i dont knw how my night went

CHIMSKY: What is wrong is wrong.It is very bad English.
The real question should be:I hope/trust you rested well?
It is simply Nigerian English coined by people who do not know any better and can not be bothered to ask.
Each time you go along with the crowd and use it,you are simply validating this wrong usage of the language.Because so many adults say it,our children now believe it is ok.
I am shocked at the number of supposedly well educated and sophisticated people who now say this.Follow ,follow mentality na im go kill us!

Yes it is Nigerian English coined by Nigerians you are absolutely right.
Does that make it "bad English"
Do Nigerians have a right to coin expressions using English words just like
Americans,Australians,Canadians,New Zealanders etc
Is it Colo Mentality when we condemn our selves but gleefully adopt expressions
like "for crying out loud" or the moronic "that's lame" or "what's cooking" etc
By the way "what is wrong is wrong" is another Nigerianism

12 inches!:

Your jst so daft. Thunder fire you. Simple logic you can't understand. NL is getting full of dull pple nowadays. You can't even give a constructive argument. Talking with you is lowering my intelligence.

"Thunder fire you" is that what you call logical and intelligent? Sorry,but you need to go back to school. Check your "your" in place of you're.

I have always maintained this is a very annoying question to ask anyone. Why would you want to know?. Besides, none is ever going to tell the truth about "their night!" So why ask?

Well I see no big deal in it, & we shld stop readin unnecessry meanin 2 d most harmless xchang. D truth is, every uteranc can alwyz be given diff. nterpretatns irrespectiv of d person sayn it. When u'r askd such wif a meanin attachd frm d questioner, juz giv a casual reply.

I woz askd dat very questn in a chat dis mornin, all I said woz fine & hw bout urs? Got a fine in return. End of Story

aribisala0:
Yes it is Nigerian English coined by Nigerians you are absolutely right.
Does that make it "bad English"
Do Nigerians have a right to coin expressions using English words just like
Americans,Australians,Canadians,New Zealanders etc
Is it Colo Mentality when we condemn our selves but gleefully adopt expressions
like "for crying out loud" or the moronic "that's lame" or "what's cooking" etc
By the way "what is wrong is wrong" is another Nigerianism

Thank you for that... British owns english buh 2day we have British english, american english, australian english, south african english and even international english, just to mention a few. If these other countries can have their own version, what stops Nigeria? I am being taken aback when people complain about Nigeria having certain terms or phrases. Is english not our ligua-franca? Infact! The American version of english has nearly taken over britain. Central London is where one is certain he can get (the queen's english or received pronunciation)..

So, make them leave all those ones wey dm dy talk about Nigerians bringing their own version or whatever

Its an sign of concern to ask and frankly its ok. Some time people have reason to express out the stress and sometime just share the mood
ie see responses i get
1) My dear heat ooo
2) Neighbours no gree off their generator
3) Omo it was fine
4) Malaria was worrying oga
5) Was just there!!
6) Thank God ooo

There is nothing wrong in asking the question if only you are asking someone you are familiar with. If someone that we rarely sit down to talk for 5mins ask me d question, my first response within me is ' what's your business with my nite'.
Maybe d op's friend flared up cos someone she doesn't even know has asked her that same question and she was irritated already so the colleague had to bear the brunt of it all.

Seriously you don't meet someone for the first time maybe in a bus and he's asking you how was your nite? That's total nonsense jor.
Hello good М̣̣̥̇̊ό̲̣̣̣̥я̩̥̊и̣̣̣̥ȋ̝̊̅̄и̣̣̣̥G̲̣̣̣̥" or evening or simple how are you is ok

By the time dem give you answer you sef go regret say you ask

You: How was ya nite?
Mama Francis: em My nite? Hmm You sef know say for our area the transformer don blow so no light and Papa Francis no gree me rest. Me I no dey like to do if no fan.Anyway heat is too much and the noise from our other neighbour generator is too much. Our other neighbour wey just marry the kind tin I dey hear from dem window my mouth no fit talk
Because of Papa Francis wahala I say make Francis come sleep with us but small time I just wake up Francis don piss for bed. Imagine 7years old still dey piss. Our neighbour say make I carry am go see.............,,

You : Okay Mama Francis we go talk later (hurries off)

Mama Francis : Neighbour Come I never Talk wetin Papa Francis do naa.....

aribisala0: By the time dem give you answer you sef go regret say you ask

You: How was ya nite?
Mama Francis: em My nite? Hmm You sef know say for our area the transformer don blow so no light and Papa Francis no gree me rest. Me I no dey like to do if no fan.Anyway heat is too much and the noise from our other neighbour generator is too much. Because of Papa Francis wahala I say make Francis come sleep with us but small time I just wake up Francis don piss for bed. Imagine 7years old still dey piss. Our neighbour say make I carry am go see.............,,

You : Okay Mama Francis we go talk later (hurries off)

Mama Francis : Neighbour Come I never Talk wetin Papa Francis do naa.....

Lol...

Its just like someone we did not discussed anything lately sees me and ask 'how far?' in my mind is like far as maiduguri or where?And i'll simply respond 'e no far'

sleekshedy: "Thunder fire you" is that what you call logical and intelligent? Sorry,but you need to go back to school. Check your "your" in place of you're.

Forget my english. I had an A1 in WAEC u dnt understand the meaning of the word TYPO rite? Just fu.9k off.

jevic: I don't think that there is anything wrong in that.

you see, it's not about what you think, what i think or what anybody thinks!
it is about the rule that governs the use of the language; and if you must be a correct language user, then you must conform to this rule.
Just like CHIMSKY put it, "it is very bad English" and there's no amount of argument that can validate it.
Language rules can't be reasoned out: they are just like Math formulae that should be taken the way they come.
one only gets good in its use with constant practice.

for instance, it might be permissible to say, "I want to lick some ice-cream" in some of our indigenous languages but it is not in English.
They would rather say "eat" or "have" in the place of "lick". And i mean, you can't say that whether it it "lick" or "eat", it means the same thing.
every language sets its standard, it doesn't matter how economically lucrative the language is; neither does it matter whether it makes sense to non-natives or not. and that is why we make the effort to correct people when they use our language incorrectly.

but of course, since language is dynamic and seems to change with needs, we have what we call Nigerian English which is English with a heavy colouration of our native language sound system, structure and style.

TimePiece:

you see, it's not about what you think, what i think or what anybody thinks!
it is about the rule that governs the use of the language; and if you must be a correct language user, then you must conform to this rule.
Just like CHIMSKY put it, "it is very bad English" and there's no amount of argument that can validate it.
Language rules can't be reasoned out: they are just like Math formulae that should be taken the way they come.
one only gets good in its use with constant practice.

for instance, it might be permissible to say, "I want to lick some ice-cream" in some of our indigenous languages but it is not in English.
They would rather say "eat" or "have" in the place of "lick". And i mean, you can't say that whether it it "lick" or "eat", it means the same thing.
every language sets its standard, it doesn't matter how economically lucrative the language is; neither does it matter whether it makes sense to non-natives or not. and that is why we make the effort to correct people when they use our language incorrectly.

but of course, since language is dynamic and seems to change with needs, we have what we call Nigerian English which is English with a heavy colouration of our native language sound system, structure and style.

There is nothing Grammatically wrong with the expression "how was your night?" What rule exactly is it that is breached in that question?
You do not know what you are talking about!! You do not make your case by citing other examples of solecisms. WHAT EXACTLY is wrong with "HOW WAS YOUR NIGHT?"
We should distinguish social proprietariness from grammar. As far as grammar is concerned one may ask
"how was your day,morning night,week month year? etc" No harm done.

Actually Language is very distinct from Math Formualae and nobody climbed Mount Sinai and came down with any tablet prohibiting "How was your night" tell us EXACTLY which rule has been broken in this troublesome expression.

I fail to see the relevance here of your "Ice Cream " lecture .

I find the question 'How was your night' offending(i think it is too personal)and most times just answer some of my colleagues -fine for the sake of peace. Other times, when asked i repeat 'how was your night' in a manner that makes them know i do not like the question
However, i have told some of them that i do not like the question and they do not ask me such again.

aribisala0: There is nothing Grammatically wrong with the expression "how was your night?" What rule exactly is it that is breached in that question?
You do not know what you are talking about!! You do not make your case by citing other examples of solecisms. WHAT EXACTLY is wrong with "HOW WAS YOUR NIGHT?"
We should distinguish social proprietariness from grammar. As far as grammar is concerned one may ask
"how was your day,morning night,week month year? etc" No harm done.

Actually Language is very distinct from Math Formualae and nobody climbed Mount Sinai and came down with any tablet prohibiting "How was your night" tell us EXACTLY which rule has been broken in this troublesome expression.

I fail to see the relevance here of your "Ice Cream " lecture .

You see! This is my point. If one may ask questions like; how was ur day? How was the party? How was ur examination? How are your family members faring? What then is wrong with "how was your night?" (at least grammatically speaking). If this question is wrong grammatically, then the aforementioned questions must be wrong too.. I don't know why people term it as bad english. People have different perception with the way they see it but that doesn't make wrong.

There are even people who take the word "goodbye" as offensive. Them dy feel say u mean say dm no go come bk again or something like that...

dmcdad:

You see! This is my point. If one may ask questions like; how was ur day? How was the party? How was ur examination? How are your family members faring? What then is wrong with "how was your night?" (at least grammatically speaking). If this question is wrong grammatically, then the aforementioned questions must be wrong too.. I don't know why people term it as bad english. People have different perception with the way they see it and that doesn't make wrong.

Most people are not complaining about grammar but they find it too intrusive . There has to be some basis for what seems to cross a certain social boundary. If someone spends the night as your guest it may be appropriate or even among friends but at work it seems inappropriate. As far as grammar goes there it is a nonissue

aribisala0:

Most people are not complaining about grammar but they find it too intrusive . There has to be some basis for what seems to cross a certain social boundary. If someone spends the night as your guest it may be appropriate or even among friends but at work it seems inappropriate. As far as grammar goes there it is a nonissue

I understand you and I made it clear in one of my previous posts that, like slangs and jargons, it can be used informally buh should be avoided in formal settings like in corporate organisations or even unfamiliar people..

The way some people are taking it, it seems it's even a sin. Lol

aribisala0: There is nothing Grammatically wrong with the expression "how was your night?" What rule exactly is it that is breached in that question?
You do not know what you are talking about!! You do not make your case by citing other examples of solecisms. WHAT EXACTLY is wrong with "HOW WAS YOUR NIGHT?"
We should distinguish social proprietariness from grammar. As far as grammar is concerned one may ask
"how was your day,morning night,week month year? etc" No harm done.

Actually Language is very distinct from Math Formualae and nobody climbed Mount Sinai and came down with any tablet prohibiting "How was your night" tell us EXACTLY which rule has been broken in this troublesome expression.

I fail to see the relevance here of your "Ice Cream " lecture .

LOL! @ "troublesome expression"

The rule of acceptability given the context, has been broken. and that's exactly the point i made in my first response.
Grammaticality is not the only rule or standard set in any language to attain appropriateness.
if it were just a case of grammar, like you put it, then an expression like, "colourless green ideas sleep profusely" would be just fine because by any standard English grammatical structure, it is correct. But is it acceptable? no! Why? because everything is wrong with the idea given.
just like it is wrong to ask your colleague how their night went as a form of greeting in English.

my ice-cream illustration was just used to buttress the fact that it is not okay for anyone to say that a form is right, just by mere reasoning or sentiment but should be by application of what obtains in a system.

and yes, language rules can be likened to Maths formulae because every language user follows a set of rules or formulae when he speaks except that they just don't know it. Linguists will tell you that.

I am shocked that many Nigerian see the question "How was your night?" a problem. I use it a lot and I am yet to come across objections. I fell in love with that question when I heard kenny Rogers' song "She believes in me". In the song, Kenny just came back from a stay-out-late-at-night-and-play-my-song and his lady woke up "and quietly she says how was your night?". Was he expecting Kenny to say he had bad or good fun making---love with his guitar? Why do some Nigerian think rotten all the time?

may be we should stop saying good night :

because not everybody is married!
because not everybody is in good terms with their mate!
because not everybody enjoys s..e..x!
because the word night means s..e..x!
because some literate illiterates are Nigerians

Please, is it also bad ti tell someone "Have a nice night?"

Nice and good, are they synonyms ?- I mean like saying nice food or good food? any thing wrong with that?