An Investigative Study of Elisions in Igbo

Abstract

Among the phonological processes that abound in the Igbo language is elision. Four types of elision are reported in Igbo in the existing literature: consonant elision, vowel elision, syllable elision and syllabic nasal elision. This poses a question on whether these are the only types of elision in the Igbo language. This paper investigates elision in Igbo. It seeks to find out if the types of elision existing in the Igbo language are limited to these four. The data for analysis are obtained from both the primary and secondary sources. The primary data are from ?mambala main dialect of the Inland West Igbo Dialects Cluster (IWIDC), while the secondary data are from past works of scholars. A descriptive method is adopted for data analysis. From the results, more than four types of elision exist in the Igbo language. In addition to the four already existing elision types mentioned above, the study discovers a multi-syllables elision, which is found in lexicalised words in Anam speech variety. A further investigation of other dialects of Igbo can be done to find out if they also exhibit multi-syllables elision in lexicalised words.