Abstract
This paper explores a pattern of phonological change known as vowel raising in the Nkpor dialect of the Igbo language. Using a corpus of conversational Nkpor speech collected from the respondents through tape-recording, we presented data from an authority analysis of the vowels and auditory data of vowel raising. The data support three main claims. First, the voiced palatal nasal /ɲ/ is elided. It claims that in a word consisting of two root verbs, the initial verb root contains any consonant and any vowel, and the second verb root contains the voiced palatal nasal /ɲ/ and a mid front vowel /e/, then, the voiced palatal nasal is elided. Second, after the elision, the mid vowel /e/ of the second verb is raised to a high front vowel /i/ or /ɪ/, agreeing with the vowel harmony rule. Third, Nkpor dialect goes beyond the raising of only vowels of the second verb. It further raises vowels of the first verb which are not high. The much more rapid loss of the voiced palatal nasal /ɲ/ and the consequent raising of the vowels are plausibly attributed to rapid speech, especially in construction and some sociolinguistic factors.
Highlights
1 Introduction Vowel raising, according to Podile (2002: 65) is a phonological process where "The tongue height is raised to a higher vowel position in an attempt to be ready for the articulation of the succeeding high vowel." Nkpor dialect, as well as most dialects of the Idemili-North LGA, exhibits the feature of vowel raising
As we have previously stated in the introduction, vowel raising, according to Podile (2002: 65) is a phonological process where "The tongue height is raised to a higher vowel position in an attempt to be ready for the articulation of the succeeding high vowel." In the 9vowel Sotho-Tswana languages, according to Dichabe (1997), a much less common process occurs, where the near-close vowels become raised to a position slightly lower than the close vowels, close to the English beat and boot than the very high Sesotho vowels /i/ and /u/) with ATR, or alternatively with both [+ATR] and [+RTR]
The last factor is an added index to the socioeconomic status in Nkpor because in recent years, mobility has made the contact and interaction of people easier in the town. By this we mean that the social network relationship of Nkpor people with their neighbours has contributed to the high degree of human interaction and mixture of different dialects of the Igbo language with Nkpor dialect
Summary
Vowel raising, according to Podile (2002: 65) is a phonological process where "The tongue height is raised to a higher vowel position in an attempt to be ready for the articulation of the succeeding high vowel." Nkpor dialect, as well as most dialects of the Idemili-North LGA, exhibits the feature of vowel raising. Hagiwara (2005) points to the fact that every language has dialect-forms of the language, characteristic of particular social groups. Some of the most important and distinctive aspects of Igbo dialects (or accents) have to do with the pronunciation of vowel sounds. In some dialects of Igbo, áká is pronounced with different vowel sounds, and in others, they sound the same. Igbo vowels, according to Laver (1994), have previously been described mostly by careful listening. It can be very difficult even for trained experts to hear very subtle differences in sound, and even harder to describe these subtleties in ways that can be meaningfully compared. The above stated point is not within the scope of this paper
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