Vowel Weakening and Unstressed Syllable Obscuration in Yoruba English

In standard spoken English, unstressing reduces otherwise strong vowels to the weak schwa sound / / or / / and also makes a syllabic consonant the peak of an unstressed syllable. This work investigated the quality and duration of vowels and syllables found in unstressed positions of words and word groups in Educated Yoruba English (EYE). It also attempted the description of the rhythm of Educated Yoruba English that has been hypothetically observed to be different from that of Standard English.The findings of the perceptual and acoustic analyses confirm a preponderance of strong vowels and a scarce use of the weak vowels / / and / / in Educated Yoruba English. The use of the strong rather than the weak forms of grammatical words in word groups is also established. The scarce use of weak vowels converts the full vowel-timing alternative description for Nigerian English to the previous popular description of syllable timing for Yoruba English, a sub-variety of Nigerian English.

Autorentext

Adenike Akinjobi holds a doctorate in Linguistics. A Nigerian English phonologist and a sociolinguist, she is an Associate Professor at the Department of English, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. A playwright with three plays to her credit, she has authored and co-authored twenty textbooks and has published many articles in reputable journals.