Further explorations of connected speech in Nigerian English

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.

Technology-enhanced approximation to Standard English stress shift

“…Their submission is based on the findings that NE has no stress distinctions between stressed and unstressed syllables and, yet, its tonality does not contribute to meaning differentiation in lexical units. Jowitt (2020) further views the differences between both varieties in terms of the developmental stage that Popular Nigerian English connected speech system is still in.…”