The Nigerian "now"

What this end-of-sentence positioning of ‘now’ proposes is that ‘now’ can only be an adverb with the fixated meaning of ‘at the moment or present time.’ This is egregiously a one-way-traffic assertion, though most other meanings of the word revolves around that meaning. ‘Now’ does not always function as an adverb of time.

Typically, you would hear a Nigerian ask, ‘what is wrong with you now? First, the sound they produce makes it sound as if ‘now’ is really not the ‘now’ that you have in English dictionaries. You would hear it as though it were fixed there just to add another meaning or for mere ornamental purposes.

Funny thing about adverbs is that if you remove some of them from an utterance, your meaning would still remain the same. Look at the question we have here. While it is not ungrammatical to add ‘now’ to that question, the inclusion of now does not really add any special semantic effect to the question. So let’s ask the question again: ‘What is wrong with you?’ Do we have a shift in meaning? No.

It is also funny when a Nigerian stresses the ‘now’ at the end of a sentence. The sound is often the first point of comedy. ‘Come home now.’ Mind you, the final ‘now’ is added so that the whole sentence becomes a plea and not a command and it is not close to what the native speaker would have phonemically produced.

If a native speaker were to plead with you using that same sentence, h/she has several options: ‘Please come home,’ or ‘Come home, please.’ Even when he uses ‘now’ the pronunciation would differentiate it from what a typical Nigerian would produce and mean.

The Nigerian ‘now’ is not always ‘now,’ that accounts for its fetish with the coda of sentences. ‘Now’ in Nigeria is used to plead for something as in ‘Give it to me now.’ A native English speaker would have it as ‘Give it to me, please,’ or ‘Could you please give it to me?’ or ‘Please give it to me.’ When a native speaker of English really means to use ‘Give it to me, now’ the stress could fall on now, meaning, do not give it to me at any other time than now, this very moment.

So where did Nigerians get the sense of associating ‘now’ with ‘pleading’ or English equivalent of ‘please.’? That meaning colouration emerges from the Yoruba word ‘joo’ or ‘jowo’ which means ‘please.’ So you easily hear a Yoruba speaker of English say ‘wanbi joo’(come here, please).

By the time he changes that expression to English, he would have ‘come here now,’ instead of ‘come here, please.’ By the time a Yoruba speaker of English says, ‘come here now,’ he naturally draws out the ‘now’ so that the listener knows that the speaker is pleading with the addressee.

Now, let’s make ‘now’ function away from adverbs that we traditionally know it to be. Look at this example: ‘My sister is part of the now generation.’ In this sentence, we have used ‘now’ as an adjective to qualify ‘generation.

You may also use it to qualify a lot of other nouns i.e. ‘now chairman,’ ‘now computers,’ etc. ‘Now as an adjective means ‘excitingly new,’ ‘existing,’ ‘being always aware of new things,’  ‘relating to the moment or present time,’ or  of latest fashion. E.g. Here is the now look in women’s clothing.

‘Now’ is a conjunction where it means ‘since’ or ‘in view of the fact that.’ The thing that is talked about is just happening or has just happened. The word ‘that’ often follows it in this case. Examples: ‘Now that you are married, you should not eat dinner alfresco anymore.’ ‘You are enjoying your meal now that you are no longer sick.’ ‘I will stop shouting now that she has recognized my voice.’

‘Now’ is a noun where it refers to the moment or present time. Examples:

‘For now, I am ok.’

‘We will go ahead with the product promotion from now until December.’

‘From now on, you must not enter my room without knocking at the door.’

Henceforth, when you use ‘now’ in a sentence, be sure you are using it in an appropriate circumstance.

Written by Omidire Idowu.

Omidire, Idowu Joshua is a rigorous thinker, an ardent researcher, and a fervent writer whose writings have appeared in different online magazines. He writes and edits for private individuals and publication companies. Reach him via noblelifeliver@gmail.com