Phonological Variation in Nigerian English

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Date
1992-06
Authors
Jibril, Muhammad Munzali
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Abstract
The study is based on tape recordings of the English of forty-five Nigerians, fifteen each from the three major ethnic groups - Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. This corpus was transcribed phonetically and analyzed both phonologically and socilinguistically. Chapter One is introductory and offers a general overview of the literature and then places the study and its methodology in this context. The next three chapters focus on the range of phonological systems used by speakers of each mother-tongue and variation within these systems at the levels of consonants, vowels and the syllable in that order. A pyramid-shaped continuum with R.P. at its top, Hausa English at its left base and Southern Nigerian English at its right base is proposed to account for the complex interaction of phonological systems in the Nigerian English continuum.In Chapter Five, an attempt is made to measure the relative proximity of various groups of speakers to R.P. and to explore the possible determinants of this proximity. In Chapter Six, the melody and intonation systems of Nigerian English - which are very different from those of R.P. - are investigated and the two systems compared. The Conclusion relates the findings of the study to the teaching of oral English in Nigeria.
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Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of Lancaster, June 1982
Keywords
Phonological,, Variation,, Nigerian,, English
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