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A Sociophonetic Investigation of Standard British English Connected Speech Processes in Nigerian English
Published 2014Subjects: “…Standard British English…”
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Duration as a Determining Factor in Educated Edo English Rhythm Description
Published 2015Subjects: “…Standard British English…”
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Page will reload when a filter is selected or excluded.- Standard British English 2 results 2
- Assimilation 1 results 1
- Connected speech processes 1 results 1
- Connected speech processes (CSPs) account for sound modifications and simplifications in speech, while sociophonetics emphasises correlation between speech forms and social factors. Existing studies merely identified some CSPs that characterise Nigerian English (NE); studies that measure speakers' proximity to Standard British English (SBE) connected speech, especially in relation to social variation, are scarce. This study, therefore, investigated the incidence of assimilation, elision and liaison processes of SBE connected speech in NE with consideration for the region, gender and age of speakers. This is with a view to determining the level of NE speakers' approximation to or deviation from SBE. The study adopted generative phonology to explain NE speakers' application of or deviation from the SBE rules, and variability concept to show the correlation between CSPs and social factors. The participants, who ranged between ages 18-65, were 180 male and 180 female NE speakers with a minimum of 2-3 years post-secondary education. They were drawn, through stratified and purposive techniques, from four regions in Nigeria: north (120), west (80), east (80) and south-south (80). All participants produced semi-spontaneous speeches (SSS), containing 31 utterances and a short passage, into digital recording devices and filled 360 copies of a structured questionnaire. Two educated native speakers served as control. The recordings were transcribed and the scores analysed, using percentages, MANOVA and Bonferroni's Post-hoc test. Portions of the SSS of eight participants (representing the social variables) and one native speaker were analysed acoustically, using PRAAT speech analyser (version 5120). The overall incidence of the CSPs (assimilation, elision and liaison) of SBE for all categories of participants indicated 43.2% approximation and 56.8% deviation. However, incidence of each process varied. Three assimilation variants- regressive devoicing (99.2%), progressive devoicing (65.1%) and nasal assimilation (63.5%)- showed significant approximation to SBE, while four variants- progressive voicing (21.2%), voiceless alveolar stop assimilation (47.6%), voiced alveolar stop assimilation (3.2%) and yod coalescence (6.2%)- deviated significantly. Consonant elision, in all contexts, occurred significantly (61.5%), while the incidence of liaisonlinking /r/ (8.1%) and intrusive /r/ (2.9%)- was extremely low. The speech waveforms, formants structure and voicing bars on the participants' spectrograms, in most cases, displayed considerable deviation from SBE. In terms of social variation, the combined dependent variable (assimilation, elision and liaison) was significantly affected by gender (Pillai's Trace=0.07,F(3,342)=8.12,p<0.05,η2=0.07) and region (Pillai's Trace=0.11,F(9,1032)=4.29,p<0.05,η2=0.04), but not by age or their interactions. Gender had significant effect on elision F(1,344)=22.21;p<0.01,η2=0.06): males had higher mean performance (M=9.91;SD=2.84) than females (M=8.55;SD=2.58). Region was found to be significant in liaison F(3,344)=8.14;p<0.01,η2=0.07): Eastern participants (M=1.38;SD=1.44) had the highest mean score, followed by South-South (M=1.10;SD=1.22), Western (M=1.05;SD=1.16) and Northern participants (M=0.57;SD=0.94). The Bonferroni's Post-hoc results indicated that only Eastern and Northern participants differed significantly from each other. Nigerian English speakers' mastery of Standard British English connected speech processes, irrespective of gender and regional variation, manifested, overall, more deviation from than approximation to SBE. This suggests Nigerian English speakers' relatively low level of competence in Standard British English connected speech processes, and has implications for intelligibility 1 results 1
- Duration, the length of time used in speech production, is a significant phonetic stress-related criterion for determining rhythm, which is crucial for intelligibility in Standard British English (SBE). Some phonological studies on Yoruba, Hausa and Isoko Englishes claimed that these sub-varieties of Nigerian English (NE) tilt towards syllable-timing due to the absence of vowel reduction. Nevertheless, existing phonological studies on Educated Edo English (EEE) – a sub-variety of NE – has been on word and variable stress, while studies on its rhythm have been rare. This study, therefore, examined stressed and unstressed syllable alternation and duration of rhythm units in connected speech, to account for the description of EEE speakers as syllable-timed or stressed-timed, and the implication for NE rhythm description. Prince and Liberman‟s metrical theory, which explains the alternation of strong and weak constituents in SBE rhythm units, served as the theoretical framework. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 150 (75 males and 75 females) EEE speakers undergraduates from University of Benin and Ambrose Ali University as key informants. Two SBE speakers served as Native Baselines (NB). Speech Filing System (SFS) version 1.41 was used to record and measure informants‟ production of 35 rhythm units with anacrusis, 40 rhythm units, and 10 English words with syllabic consonants. The recordings were transcribed, subjected to perceptual analysis (frequency and percentages) and complemented with Gibbon and Gut Rhythm Ratio (RR) acoustic measures of 0-100, T-test and Mann Whitney U test at 0.05 level of significance. In rhythm units with anacrusis, perceptual analysis revealed that out of 5,250 overall expected occurrences, EEE speakers appropriately produced all the syllables with strong forms at 900 (17.1%) instances, bringing inappropriate use to 4,350 (82.9%). For rhythm units in connected speech, out of 6,000 expected occurrences, EEE speakers‟ appropriately produced 694 (11.6%), with inappropriate use at 5,306 (88.4%). Regarding the English syllabic consonants, out of 1,500 expected instances of occurrence, EEE speakers had 0.0%. From the perspective of Gibbon and Gut RR acoustic measures, out of 100RR expected absolute value, NB measured 162.97ms in rhythm units, with an overall mean of 81.5RR and a difference of 18.5RR, tilting towards stress-timing while EEE speakers‟ duration in rhythm units was 6166.25ms of 41.1RR, with a difference of 58.9RR tilting towards syllable timing. T-test revealed that there was a significant difference between EEE speakers compared to NB duration (4.571) and RR (81.5), with P-value <0.05 (0.000). Duration of males was 3057.125ms (20.4RR) while the females measured 3110.125ms (20.7RR). Mann Whitney U test showed insignificant difference for gender with P-value > 0.05, (0.482) and RR (0.293) which is greater than 0.05. The metrical analysis of EEE speakers established proliferation of Strong/Strong (S/S) juxtaposition of stressed and unstressed syllable in rhythm units, compared to the NB alternation of Weak/Strong (W/S) or Strong/Weak (S/W). Stressed and unstressed syllable alternation and duration of rhythm units in the connected speech of Educated Edo English speakers‟ do not conform to Standard British English pattern. This implies that Nigerian English rhythm tilts towards syllable-timing than stresstiming 1 results 1
- Educated Edo English 1 results 1
- Elision 1 results 1
- Nigerian English 1 results 1
- Rhythm units 1 results 1
- Stressed and unstressed syllable alternation 1 results 1
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