Phonetic Quantity Cue in the English of Educated Edo Nigerians as Reflection of Non- Native English

Abstract

Studies on Educated Edo English phonology have been on word stress and variable stress but studies on English syllabic consonants have been rare. Three hundred final-year university undergraduates were purposively sampled and two Standard English (SE) speakers served as Baselines. The aim was to examine Educated Edo English (EEE) speakers’ level of conformity to syllable weight insensitivity as established phenomenon in weak forms. Each of the participants produced 20 English prepared items into a Speech Filing System (SFS), version 1.41, subjected to auditory and instrumental analysis. Auditory analysis revealed that EEE speakers’ confirmed 250 (4.2%) instances of appropriate use out of expected result of 6000. Males’ performance was 2% and females 2.2%. Native baselines' performance established 100% as a result of their native intuition. Instrumental analysis revealed native baselines articulation at 0.017- 0.014msc; 0.009- 0.011msc with 0.031 and 0.020msc respectively and length difference of 0.158msc and 0.138msc. Educated Edo English speakers’ length difference in syllabic consonants showed weight sensitivity. Syllabic consonants which are supposed to be weakened as affirmed in SE were made more prominent, ranging between 0.502-0.899msc, with a weight difference of 0.987mscl showing preponderance use of strong forms, which is a major phonological phenomenon in SE pronunciation.