PHONOLOGICAL USE OF THE WEAK FORMS OF PREPOSITIONS BY THE EDUCATED IGBO SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH

Abstract

The spread and use of the English language has brought about varieties in the language which is reflective of its geographical spread and contact with the local languages. One area that is greatly affected by the contact between the English language and the local languages is pronunciation. This study examines the phonological use of the weak forms of prepositions among the educated Igbo speakers of English. The study also examines gender differences in the phonological use of the weak forms of prepositions. Sixty educated Igbo speakers of English as a second language comprising thirty males and thirty females who have no less than two years of post secondary education selected through a purposive random sampling technique participated in the study. The data were collected by getting the subjects to read a passage that contains prepositions that are supposed to be pronounced in their weak forms in connected speech into a recording device and was analysed perceptually. The study which relied on Labov’s theory of variation observed that educated Igbo speakers of English manifested variation in their production of weak forms when compared with RP. The study also observed that there is no gender differences in the manner in which educated male and female Igbo speakers produced the weak forms of the English prepositions