Phonology is the scientific study of the sound of a particular language with reference to the functions of the sounds in the generation of meaning. Phonology is concerned with the study of speech sounds and it consists of two related discipline, which are phonetics and phonology.
Basically, there are four recognizable phonological units in English, language. There are tone group, the foot, syllable and the phoneme. As non - native speakers, Nigerians have problems with their English at all levels of phonology as well as with Supra segments. The reason for those problems shall be explained after identifying most of the major problems with examples from three major ethnic groups ---- ibo, Yoruba and Hausa.
1.Tone Group:
This occupies the highest position in the phonological units of English language usually it is made up of one or more feet. Christopherson P (2008) defines tone group as a speech consisting of a Single tone. It is the focus of information in the phonological units. Let us use this example from Christopherson (2006) all they do is to sit back and listen. These utterance could: be one tone group with a high head staring on "all" and a fall on "listen" in a rather slower speech performance we may have a division after "do" turning the utterance into two tone groups.
2. THE FOOT: the foot is made up of one or more syllables. The foot is a totally strange level in most Nigerian language, because it depends on the feature stress. Many of our language have the feature prominence and hot stress such that in most of our language. Each syllable is made prominent, Unlike in English where certain syllables of certain words are prominent in speech because of the degree of stress which they bear e.g. our content words. So many Nigeria speakers transfer this feature of their mother tongue into their English speech, thereby giving syllable which should normally not be prominent or loudly heard in speech it can be illustrate with the following examples: "The lecture ordered; walk out of my class" this sentence above could be two tone groups /The lecturer ordered / walk our of my class/ the first tone group /The lecturer ordered/. Has a primary stress on both `lecturer' and ordered". The first foot is "the lecturer". It contains four syllables, the second is "the lecturer" it contains four syllables, the second is ordered.
3. SYLLABLE: this serves as the basic structure for the organization of segmental unit into combinable patterns, Nigerians have problem at this level because most of our mother tongues have the open - syllable - structure. I.e. they always have a vowel following consonant, such that there are consonant clusters in many languages. Therefore the averages Nigerian, especially the Yoruba, tries to break down English consonant cluster to obey the open syllable structure rule in his mother tongue e.g. instead of , Bread we have Buredi, Milk we have Miliki .Then the Hausa instead of; People we have Fifle
The Ibo's on their part and probably the Hausa's often harmonize the vowels in their English word because Ibo Language for instance has a lot of vowels harmony ( as a phonological process) exhibits in the language.
Basically, there are four recognizable phonological units in English, language. There are tone group, the foot, syllable and the phoneme. As non - native speakers, Nigerians have problems with their English at all levels of phonology as well as with Supra segments. The reason for those problems shall be explained after identifying most of the major problems with examples from three major ethnic groups ---- ibo, Yoruba and Hausa.
1.Tone Group:
This occupies the highest position in the phonological units of English language usually it is made up of one or more feet. Christopherson P (2008) defines tone group as a speech consisting of a Single tone. It is the focus of information in the phonological units. Let us use this example from Christopherson (2006) all they do is to sit back and listen. These utterance could: be one tone group with a high head staring on "all" and a fall on "listen" in a rather slower speech performance we may have a division after "do" turning the utterance into two tone groups.
2. THE FOOT: the foot is made up of one or more syllables. The foot is a totally strange level in most Nigerian language, because it depends on the feature stress. Many of our language have the feature prominence and hot stress such that in most of our language. Each syllable is made prominent, Unlike in English where certain syllables of certain words are prominent in speech because of the degree of stress which they bear e.g. our content words. So many Nigeria speakers transfer this feature of their mother tongue into their English speech, thereby giving syllable which should normally not be prominent or loudly heard in speech it can be illustrate with the following examples: "The lecture ordered; walk out of my class" this sentence above could be two tone groups /The lecturer ordered / walk our of my class/ the first tone group /The lecturer ordered/. Has a primary stress on both `lecturer' and ordered". The first foot is "the lecturer". It contains four syllables, the second is "the lecturer" it contains four syllables, the second is ordered.
3. SYLLABLE: this serves as the basic structure for the organization of segmental unit into combinable patterns, Nigerians have problem at this level because most of our mother tongues have the open - syllable - structure. I.e. they always have a vowel following consonant, such that there are consonant clusters in many languages. Therefore the averages Nigerian, especially the Yoruba, tries to break down English consonant cluster to obey the open syllable structure rule in his mother tongue e.g. instead of , Bread we have Buredi, Milk we have Miliki .Then the Hausa instead of; People we have Fifle
The Ibo's on their part and probably the Hausa's often harmonize the vowels in their English word because Ibo Language for instance has a lot of vowels harmony ( as a phonological process) exhibits in the language.
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