The Impact Of Yoruba Language On The Spoken English Of Students (indigenes) Of Ilorin (township)

ABSTRACT 

 This study has set out to find the influence of Yoruba Language on the sound system of spoken English Language among the indigenous Ilorin Yoruba undergraduate students. It was to find out the features that distinguish Ilorin Yoruba accent from the Received Pronunciation. The Recorded speech of fifty selected undergraduate students from three universities within Ilorin was used. Students who were native of Ilorin and who have spent at least two academic years in higher institution were sampled. Phonological approach was used using snowball sampling technique. It was discovered that phonological features of Nigerian English such as substitution, under-differentiation, spelling pronunciation, epenthesis and simplification, of consonant cluster were the common features found in the oral English of the samples. The English of the samples has been affected by their L1.

 

Title page        i

Certification        ii

Dedication        iii

Acknowledgement       iv

Abstract        vi

Table of contents       vii

CHAPTER ONE: GENERAL INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction       1

1.1 Statement of the Research Problem    3

1.2 Purpose of the Study      3

1.3 Justification       4

1.4 Scope of the Study      4

1.5 Methodology       5

1.6  Data Description        6

1.7 Conclusion        6

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Introduction       7

2.1 Phonetics        7

2.2 Phonology        10

2.2.1 Levels of Phonology       12

2.3 Phonological Theories      13

2.3.1 Phonemic Theory       13

2.3.2 Generative Phonology       14

2.3.3 Metrical Phonology      14

2.3.4 Dependency Phonology      15

2.3.5 Autosegmental        16

2.3.6 Optimality Theory       17

2.4 English Phonemes      17

2.4.4 Pure Vowel Sounds      18

2.4 Diphthong Sounds      20

2.4 Consonant Sounds      21

2.5 Yoruba Pohonemes      24

2.5.1 Vowel Sounds       24

2.5.2 Consonant Sounds       25

2.6 Diffrences Between English And Yoruba Phonenes   27

2.6.1 Consonant Sounds       27

2.6.2 Vowel Sounds       28

2.7 Status of the Language Under Study    28

2.7.1  English Language      28

2.7.2 Yoruba Language        29

2.8 Nigerian English       29

2.9 Features of the Phonology of Nigerian English  33

2.9.1 Segmental Features      33

2.9.2 Suprasegmental Features      36

2.10 Interference         39

 CHAPTER THREE

3.0 Introduction        42

3.1 Data Analysis       43

3.1.1 Substitution       43

3.1.2: Under – Differentiation       52

3.1.3 Spelling Pronunciation       57

3.1.4. Epenthesis        59

3.1.5: Simplification of Consonant Cluster    63

3.2: Discussion        66

3.3 Summary of the Chapter       69

 CHAPTER FOUR

4.1 Summary         70

4.2 Findings         71

4.3.  Conclusion         72

4.4 Recommendation        72

Bibliography       73

 Appendix 1        78

To correct the wrong pronunciation of English words in many Nigerian students, particularly among the Ilorin indigenous Yoruba students demands extra effort and great attention. This is because, it is observed that this problem is  the result of the features found in their indigenous languages which are transferred to the sound system of the English language. Their English phonetics reflects the structure of the sound system of their mother tongue (Osisanwo, 2009).  With respect to this, we shall discuss the term phonology. 

Phonology is the study of the sound system of a Language. It is the study of the properties of the sound system of a given language. It is the systematic study of how the speech sounds function and are organized in human languages. Hyman (1975, P1) cited by Osisanwo (2009,P3) says that, the goal of phonology is to study the properties of the sound system which speakers must learn and internalize in order to use their language for the purpose of communication. To Oyebade (1998, p2) ‘phonology is the scientific study of the arbitrary vocal symbol used in human speech and the pattern into which these symbols produce intelligent, meaningful utterances’. To summit up, Akmajian et al (2008, p109) said: ‘phonology is the subfield of linguistics that studies the structure and patterning of sound in human language’.

 Speakers of Nigerian English are still facing a lot of pronunciation problems as a result of their L1 influence on their spoken English (Alabi, 2007). So many works have been done on the segmental features of the phonology of Nigerian English such as Utin (2009) based on the Anang accent of English language. Jowith (1991) studied the phonology of Nigeria English used Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba languages but this work will pay attention to Ilorin Yoruba accent of English.