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Title:
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Troublesome Sounds of the Nigerian Child : Ibibio - Igbo templates
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Author:
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Ojukwu Obed
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Email:
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click here to access email
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Degree Awarded:
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University of Calabar
, PhD in Linguistics
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Degree Date:
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2003
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Linguistic Subfield(s):
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Applied Linguistics
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Subject Language(s):
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Ibibio
Igbo
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Director(s):
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Michael Ekere
Okon Essien
Paulinus Noah
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Abstract:
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The complexities associated with the various strata of the life of Nigeria, can be said to find some amplification also in its plurilinguistic orientation. It houses well over five hundred different languages. This, no doubt, is a most confound intricate situation. In Developmental Linguistics (and allied areas), therefore, the contemporary global trend is to carry out studies that, firstly, establish the norm. And, then, from these standards, it will be no much difficult task to streamline deviations. These deviations are then approximated towards the said targets isolated a priori. In our acclaimed “paradise” of languages (Nigeria), studies in this regard, are relatively non-existent whereas from my interactions with scholars in Europe, findings from research investigations are at the peak. This work is based on two Nigerian Languages, Ibibio and Igbo. It examines the speech of twenty-five children from both languages, aged between 2; 6 and 4;0. It draws from Ingram’s (1976:11) postulation of “…troublesome speech sounds”, to seek to establish such paradigm in Nigeria given Ibibio and Igbo. Speech samples of the population were elicited in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State and Ofeme-Umuahia, Abia State. These were tape-recorded and transcribed. By the application of three different statistical coefficients in quantitative analysis together with corresponding process analyses in both data, this investigation validates the hypotheses put forward. For the first time in Ibibio and Igbo linguistic and array of sound segments, sound categories and sound sequences (within the SPE framework and within the classical taxonomy) are identified as particularly troublesome to the child’s repertoire. We have been able to isolate divergences in processes and sequences between Ibibio and Igbo on the one hand, and also between Ibibio and English; and Igbo and English, on the other hand. The implication is that some of the assumptions transposed from English to Ibibio and Igbo hitherto, are really incongruous with the reality of the Ibibio-Igbo situation.
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