Abstract
This paper examines the influence of ethnicity on the realization of the English fricatives articulated by selected educated speakers of English from four ethnic groups of Ebira, Igala, Hausa and Okun-Yoruba residing in Lokoja, a North-Central city of Nigeria. Data for the study consist of 1080 tokens elicited from 120 informants. Guided by a synthesis of the theoretical frameworks of Honey’s (1997) Sociophonology and Azevedo’s (1981) Contrastive Phonology, perceptual and acoustic analyses of the data reveal that, although speakers have a tendency to not articulate sounds absent in their phonemic inventory with the dexterity expected of their level of education, co-habitation seems a factor that has robbed off on the speakers’ level of performance in this study: 80% overcame their linguistic challenges to correctly articulate the test items while 30% generally found it difficult to articulate the interdental fricatives /P/ and /D/ and the voiced palato-alveolar fricative /Z/; perhaps, because these sounds are absent in their respective phonemic inventories. The paper submits additionally that, phonology is still resistant to input (cf. Fajobi, 2013), level of education notwithstanding. However, positive social relations could impact positively on language use and competence in any pluralinguistic English as a second language (ESL) environment.
Highlights
In the face of multilingualism and multi-ethnicity pervading nations of the world in the21st century, the English Language has undoubtedly become a dominant world language
A synthesis of sociophonology and contrastive phonology theories are suitable for this study; especially because both theories deal with the sound systems of languages
The tokens generated altogether were 4320 (i.e. 9 fricatives uttered in 4 words each by 120 respondents/informants), we reckon with just 1080 tokens (i.e. 9 fricatives or test items uttered by 120 respondents) as presented in Appendix 2
Summary
In the face of multilingualism and multi-ethnicity pervading nations of the world in the. 21st century, the English Language has undoubtedly become a dominant world language. That variety may differ in form from the native speaker’s and may even pose intelligibility problem for the native English speakers and non-native speakers. Trudgill (2009:2) submits that the “English language has been brought to so many locations (of the world) and this has given rise to extreme diversification and the birth of countless ‘new’ varieties...” Owolabi (2012:1) observes that “the number of people, spread across the different continents that use the language for one purpose or the other, attest to the fact that English is, a global language.”. In Journal of History and Diplomatic Studies.
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