The Communicative Implications Of Nigerian English Usage

3.4 Nigerian English Phonology

Just like other levels of language analysis discussed above, Nigerian English phonology is, to a large extent, different from the world standard variety. The peculiarity arises from the corrupt influences (interference or transference influences) of the first language of the majority of speakers. Jowitt (68) describing the scenario regrets that the pupils unconsciously relied on MT model, as indeed many of their teachers, and assuming that there was a perfect correspondence between sound and spelling they used orthography as their guide to pronunciation. Also in their perception of the interference problem, Akindele and Adegbite maintain that “phonemic interference is the transference of rules guiding the speech sound of a dominant language in a speech community to the sound system of a subordinate target language” (40) Suffice it to say that at phonemic and prosodic levels, Nigerian English varies. Atolagbe (52) identifies four major causes of phonological differences in Nigerian English. These are omission/deletion/elision, substitution, vowel harmony and insertion/intrusion. Phonemic substitution is one of the deviant features of some Nigerian English usages. This anomaly comes as a result of the nonexistence of certain English sound segments in the vernacular language of such Nigerian speakers. In an attempt to produce such sounds, certain related sounds of the native languages are used instead. The following phonemes constitute such difficulty.

Part of the phonological variation of some Nigerian English expressions is some speakers’ omission or deletion of certain phonemes during speech and subsequently in their writings. Such category of speakers do not - 51 - produce the final consonant sounds of some words. The deletion of one or more segments in a word often referred to as syncope is, indeed, one evidence of L1 interference. Some category of speakers from Yoruba ethnic origin have this difficulty. Among such speakers we notice the following Word RP NE Heat /hi:t/ /it/ Happy /hæpi/ /api/ Henry /henri/ /(h)eri/ Sing /siŋ/ /si/ Furthermore, insertion or intrusion problem arises when an extraneous phoneme is added in the course of word articulation. This arises from the fact that at syllabic level, Nigerian languages do not have consonant clusters with the result that uninformed Nigerian speakers insert vowels immediately after the production of consonant sound.

The scenario results in the pronunciation anomaly experienced in the following words

Words               RP               NE

Penalty         /penô€€€lti/       /penaliti/

Straight          /streit/            /sitireti/

Bread             /bred/             /bured/

Milk                   /milk/              /milik/

Bottle              /bDtl/                 /botulu/

Vowel harmony constitute another phonological conflict or interference error owing to its non-existence in the English language. According to Uzoezie (117), vowel harmony “usually takes the form of sequential constraints which permit only certain vowels or sets of vowels to occur in successive syllable in a word”. The Igbo language does not permit such phonological arrangement. Consequently, some Igbo speakers of English find consonant clusters a major constraint.

3.5 Nigerian English Slang

According to Jowitt (130), slang forms part of the Nigerian English lexical indexical markers. Slang words and expressions are part and parcel of language use anywhere. Nigerian English slang however draws our attention because of its communicative implications, that is due to its limited intelligibility scope. Below are some common Nigerian English slang words and expressions often found in the speeches and writings of a majority of Nigerian users of English.