No abstract

This paper presents some of the findings of a new experimental study based on Cruttenden’s model of intonation and using O’Connor and Arnold’s pedagogical materials. The study was designed to examine chiefly the form and frequency of intonation patterns among educated Nigerian speakers of English, not the communicative value of these patterns. The general conclusion is that certain patterns having a high frequency constitute a system in Nigerian usage, differing in important respects from native-speaker systems, though lacking stability.

A description of the ‘vigorous and variegated’ English-language press in Africa's largest anglophone country

No abstract

The article begins with the assertion that much research has now been done on the once‐neglected suprasegmental phonology of Nigerian English. A principal area of interest in this field is connected speech, and several Nigerian scholars have addressed many of the issues involved, not least the patterns of intonation structure. Building on these studies, and taking the British descriptive tradition developed notably by A. C. Gimson and Alan Cruttenden as its theoretical base, the article seeks to offer fresh perspectives on certain issues that have hitherto not received attention. With the aid of the interlinear method of transcription, it shows the differences between two contrasting systems, on the one hand that of native speakers, and on the other Popular Nigerian English (PNE), a concept first developed by Jowitt (1991) and denoting features characteristic of relatively younger and less educated Nigerians.