Slips of Tongue: The Inevitable Speaking Error

A slip of the tongue is a mistake in speaking, usually trivial, sometimes amusing.

According to a British linguist, David Crystal, studies of tongue slips have confirmed that slips of the tongue are almost inevitable in all humans. By scientific evidence, for every 1,000 words spoken, we make one or two errors. Considering that the average pace of speech is 150 words a minute, a slip is bound to occur about once every seven minutes of continuous talk. Hence, most of us potentially make somewhere between 7 and 22 verbal slips each day.

A bird view of speeches from global leaders evidently proved that there are hundreds of examples to mention. In an article by Rowena Mason, Whitehall editor in The Guardian newspaper in UK, the former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, has accidentally described the 7 May election as ‘career-defining’ when he meant ‘country-defining,’.

That error was immediately jumped on by his opponents as unintentionally revealing that he was more concerned about his own job prospects than the future of the UK.

In another article written by Marcella Bombardieri published in The Boston Globe, Mitt Romney mixed up the names of Osama bin Laden and the former US Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama. This apparent slip of the tongue occured during a campaign trail. The former Massachusetts governor was criticizing Democrats on foreign policy when he said, according to the Associated Press, ‘Actually, just look at what Osam—Barack Obama—said just yesterday. Barack Obama, calling on radicals, jihadists of all different types, to come together in Iraq.

There are several of such example to cite in instantiating the normality of slip of tongue in humans.

Political leaders in Nigeria are not exempted from such. But, the unfortunate thing is that Nigerians have become much more mischievous about it than we have it obtainable elsewhere given that oppositions rush, jump on and use it as a tool for grevious political campaigns. Peter Obi started it recently. He was confirmed to have said Nasarawa is great, is a big country, bigger than Israel whereas he meant to mention Nasarawa is a big State, bigger than Israel.. Backlashes upon backlashes.

While the tempo from that was dwindling, the spokesperson for PDP presidential candidate, Dino Maleye slipped tongue as saying ‘Vote for APC’ before the audience in Maiduguri, the fortress ground of APC VP candidate, Senator Kashim Shettima

That came and gone, then the Tinubu’s slip surfaced at the flag off ground of APC presidential campaign in Jos yesterday. He was quoted to have said God bless PD-APC. The normal abnormality has since been jumped on by the opposing camps to cast spell on the capacity of the most favorite winner of the 2023 presidential election.

In a smart move, the brilliant campaign team of APC has intelligently explored the message to the advantage of their candidate. They have come up with numerous inferences to downplay the negative effects of the slip. Unlike others who inexcusably admitted, by their actions, that it was an error that comes with huge prices.

What stands the APC campaign team out is their capacity and competency to timely convert the weaknesses of their candidate, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, into potentials. No other individuals have been able to stand shoulder to shoulder with them. In any case, many have logically argued that Tinubu is the easiest presidential candidate to market.

Tinubu is a candidate to beat.

2023 is almost a walkover for him.

February is around the corner!

Raufu, Musliyu
Writes from Ilorin, Kwara State
smartm17@gmail.com
08063221530.