A Phonological Study of Igbo/English Bilingual Aphasic Patients’ Speech

Abstract

This paper is a phonological study of Igbo-English bilingual aphasics. The objective of this paper is to provide the required information on the two languages in aphasics and determine if any of the languages is more affected by aphasia. The information would be useful for language therapists in their work of rehabilitating bilingual aphasics. This work adopted structuralism theory as its theoretical framework and a descriptive research design. Four Igbo-English bilingual Broca’s aphasics, aged 57, 61, 69, and 70 years, selected from the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital formed the respondents for this study. Using word repetition and naming tasks instrument prepared by the researchers and validated by three experts, the utterances of the aphasics were gathered and analyzed qualitatively. The findings of the study revealed that across the aphasics studied, the phonology of the aphasics’ L2 (English) is more affected by aphasia than the phonology of the L1 (Igbo). For instance, Igbo data revealed only the errors of substitution processes like consonant weakening, but English data revealed also assimilation and syllabic structure errors. Based on the findings of this paper, it is recommended that there is an urgent need to study aphasia as it affects other areas of language study, as well as study bilingual aphasics who speak English and any other Nigerian language. This would enable language therapists to arrive at baseline information that would help make adequate plans for aphasics’ management. Proper management of the disorder would help the patients better their language situation and make them more productive in the society.