MKPỌNIMI N’ASṲSṲ IGBO

Abstract

Speech sound is the minimal identifiable distinct segments of sound that occurs in speech. All the speech sounds we make when we speak are the result of muscles contracting. The muscles in the larynx produce many different modifications in the flow of air which goes through vocal tract and it obligatorily ends at the mouth and nostrils as either oral or nasal sound. Premised on this movement of air from diaphragm to oral or nasal cavities, this study investigates nasalised consonant sound in the Igbo language. It specifically examines the controversy surrounding the existence of nasalised consonant sound in Igbo and the degree of its manifestation in relation to Orlu dialect of Igbo. The data used in this study were gathered through oral interview using three native speakers of the dialect. This research, therefore, found out that nasalised sound is not in the phonological inventories of the Standard Igbo orthography. It also found out that nasalised sound is a distinctive speech sound in Orlu variety of Igbo. Nasalised sound is not associated with vowel sounds in the Orlu variety of Igbo. However, this nasalised phonological trait is evident in consonant sounds of the dialect of the study. Some of the observed consonant sounds that collocate with nasalised symbols in Orlu are: /r, d, v, z, ɦ, s/. In addition, inferences from the analyses show that some of these nasalised sounds in Orlu form minimal pairs with the Standard Igbo as shown below: /zÉ”Ì/ and /z̃ɔÌ/, /ɦaÌ/ and /ɦ̃aÌ/, /raÌ/ and /r̃aÌ/, /saÌ/ and /s̃aÌ/. This study recommends the inclusion of nasalised sound in the phonological inventories of the Standard Igbo language; it is a distinctive sound in Orlu variety of the Igbo language.